That title was a bait-and-switch, I couldn't care less about The Oscars, so let's talk about something more important, more entertaining, and all-around healthier:
Right up top: the overall plot is predictable. You know this story, you know this structure, and it doesn't take any interesting detours along the way - I'm unbothered by this because what IS surprising is, for the first time in fucking ever, the TEENAGE part of a TMNT movie is actually given some consideration.
The way these kids talk over each other and act fucking annoying is pretty great, charming even. Mutant Mayhem is a testament to verisimilitude; through dialog that's both written and improvised on a single mic (as opposed to each voice actor having their own booth) the teen actors imbue Mikey, Raph, Donnie, and Leo with so much history and character (especially Donnie because he still has a pre-teen squeak). They're lame where it counts but also fucking cool when the challenge arises (with a fucking stellar score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross). The same goes for Splinter, April, Superfly, and the Mutants - everyone is given a chance to shine (Jackie Chan, Ayo Edebiri, and Ice Cube fucking nail it [Cube hasn't been this funny since 22 Jump Street]).
Hell, I haven't cared about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since I was a kid but I saw this movie three times in the theater and showed it to two different sets of friends at home. When I first saw it, during the sing-along to What's Going On by Four Non-Blondes, I realized my face hurt from smiling so much. And to make matters worse/better: when Mondo Gecko is launched out of the window and earnestly asks "What's going on?!" on cue and in pitched-down slo-mo...I lost my entire shit. Didn't expect this to be the funniest movie of 2023 but what a surprise it turned out to be, on so many fronts.
Even the way their physicality is animated makes them feel authentic; the way they hang on each other and navigate their spatial awareness (and lack thereof) in their action scenes as well as the hangout moments. More than that, the textures of the entire world are so rich. Taking a cue from the Spider-Verse aesthetic, Mutant Mayhem details its animation with action lines, sketch marks, and other 'imperfections.' Like artists who broke out of hyper-realism in favor of abstract expressionism, animated movies are in transition. Hopefully the super synthetic and rubbery polish of Pixar and Illumination will die out completely because what Mutant Mayhem, the Spider-Verse movies, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and The Mitchells Vs. The Machines have given us instead have so much more personality and nuance.
Mutant Mayhem is, more than any of its contemporaries, kinda gross and ugly - thankfully. The whole movie looks like teenage scribbles on the margins of math homework - the kind of doodles born out of procrastination. Even the light rays from street lamps are sloppily sketched in instead of having a 'natural' glow, which isn't something I ever thought I'd praise but, in our ongoing AI plague, it's refreshing to see such deliberate human touch.
The climax is, again, so fucking great that it dodges any criticisms I'd normally lob against the familiar predictability of it all. The characters and their arcs are so well-written, well-acted, and well-animated in an inexorably funny movie that it makes for one of the most thoroughly enjoyable experiences I've had this decade. When April was throwing up or the boys were doing their Oldboy-style match-cut fight sequence set to No Diggity, or Superfly talking about forced "Big Booty Boy Races" he has planned for human slaves - plot was the furthest thing from my mind.
I'm not gonna yuck my own yum.
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