Cowabunga and so forth. It’s been a while between drinks, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back in their first big screen animated adventure since 2007! That’s right, amphibious action fans: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem sneaks into cinemas, ninja-style, on September 7.
This iteration—and it’s extremely cool that every generation seems to get their own Turtles take—comes to us courtesy of producer Seth Rogen (you know him) and director Jeff Rowe (The Mitchells vs. the Machines).
The story should be familiar to anyone who is or has been a child, so without going over well-turned earth, this time out our turtle brothers, Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Donatello (Micah Abbey), and Raphael (Brady Noon) are trying to fit in as normal teenagers, only to smack up against a mysterious crime boss who is assembling an army of vicious mutants. Cue martial arts mayhem. And pizza, probably.
This is the first time in the franchise’s long history that the four turtles have been voiced by actual teens, and they’ve got some serious talent in support: Jackie Chan, Ayo Edebiri, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne, Ice Cube, Post Malone, Paul Rudd, Maya Rudolph, Natasia Demetriou, and Giancarlo Esposito are all lending their larynxes. Ayo Edebiri is April O’Neil! Jackie’s voicing Splinter! How cool is that?
The whole enterprise feels like a real labour of love. We’re digging the scratchy, sketchy animation style, which owes a little to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse pushing the envelope a few years ago and harkens back to the art featured in the original comics created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. We’re digging the playful, goofy humour. We’re digging the vibe. All other considerations aside, it couldn’t possibly be worse than the last two live action efforts, right?
Right?
