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Animated ninja turtles, seventh time over

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film: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Director: Jeff Rowe

Cast: (Voice): Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr, Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Ayo Edebiri, Maya Rudolph, John Cena, Seth Rogen

Johnson Thomas

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It’s the seventh film for the ninja turtles’ gang in the long-running media franchise created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, and we are back to another origin story — albeit an animated one with a fresher, younger spin. Rowe and co-writers Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg open with a scientist named Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) creating the infamous ooze that turns ordinary creatures into mutants. Needless to ask, the ooze spreads into the sewers and our quartet of turtles become fast-talking humanoid creatures named Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), and Raphael (Brady Noon).

Splinter (Jackie Chan), a rat who was also transformed and taught the mutant turtles ninja skills to protect themselves, orders them to stay away from humans. There’s a brief backstory to that. The turtles sneak out only to get supplies and wish they could have a normal teenage life beyond the sewers. Then, there’s Superfly (Ice Cube), who has assembled a group of mutants that include Genghis Frog (Hannibal Buress), Leatherhead (Rose Byrne), Rocksteady (John Cena), Wingnut (Natasia Demetriou), Ray Fillet (Post Malone), Bebop (Seth Rogen) and Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd). Maya Rudolph is a mysterious figure trying to find the turtles and Ayo Edebiri, as April, is the human being who befriends the turtles.

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Superfly’s vengeance-directed entry into the scheme of things lends more buoyancy to the mayhem. Strong visuals and creative voice work add to the interest. Thematically, there isn’t much going on here. That anarchic vibe of yore continues to permeate the action. The pace is fast, but there’s nothing deep or thought-provoking lurking in its dank depths. A coming-of-age exercise, the lead turtles are presented as endearingly immature and understandably hormonal — typically teenage, you might call it. The film’s visual aesthetic representing New York in a 1920s’ impression, is pretty much dark and forbidding. It’s the ebullience of the teenage turtles that sustains us throughout though.

There’s humour to be had but it’s not always playful and engaging. The constant jabbering grates at times and the humour could get a tad exhausting to boot. The animation is impressively done, with an aesthetic that recalls the ‘spider-verse’ experience as the characters flit back and forth from simple animation to stop-motion and then back again. It keeps the audience visually enraptured as technique overtakes the storytelling craft. This sort of reinvigorated narrative is likely to attract a younger audience and those adults who are still high on nostalgia.

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