Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) – A nostalgic, amazing retelling of the TMNT story made for the fans by the fans!

Animated August has been an absolute blast for us potatoes! We’ve been loving watching so many animated movies and taking our minds off the scorching sun and craziness of the world with a little escapism. Back in 2023, a movie was released on Paramount+ that we just couldn’t pass up. After watching it, we immediately said that one of us is going to have to write this one up. Well, almost two years later… and we’re doing it!

That’s right, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)! When the weight of the world gets a little too heavy, sometimes the only cure is pizza, your most treasured loved ones, and a radical reminder that friendship really can change everything!

A gentle heads up, this film contains themes of loss, rejection, parental trauma, systemic racism, and coded prejudice. There are also brief depictions of violence, emotional manipulation, and controlling family dynamics. While the movie is a wild, fun ride, these topics may hit hard for some viewers, they definitely did for us potatoes. As always, take care of yourself.

We will try to avoid too many spoilers in this review, but there are likely to be some, so please read cautiously.

Let’s get started!

It’s a dark night in New York. A van roars through the streets, loaded with Techno Cosmic Research Institute (TCRI) soldiers dressed and armored like a SWAT team. Inside: sweat, nerves, and guns that can “neutralize mutants.” Their commander, a ponytailed bruiser named Spider (Derek Wilson), briefs them, they’re going after Dr. Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Eesposito), a rogue geneticist who stole company research and created an actual mutant. Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph), the mysterious leader of TCRI watches from her monitors, cold and clinical, and she demands success. “This mission is of the utmost importance. Failure will be…frowned upon.”

We potatoes didn’t actually recognize Maya Rudolph’s voice immediately when watching the film, but as soon as it dawned on us, we couldn’t unhear it! She does such a great job with the character, being both creepy and funny all at once.

We then cut to Baxter’s lab: dingy pipes, puddles, and the chaotic warmth of a mad scientist’s basement home. Stockman has done the impossible. He’s perfected green mutagenic ooze. And he’s not alone. Buzzing around in their crib is his beloved “Little One,” a mutated Fly-Baby, happily watching Stockman work.

 To Stockman, his creations aren’t weapons. They’re family. On the walls are sketches for more mutants, a warthog, a stingray, and several other baby creatures, along with some that are already suspended in vials of green liquid. For a lonely man who never belonged, this is paradise. “I’ve always felt more connected to animals than people,” he says, and in that one line, we see his ache and his hope.

Then, bang! TCRI soldiers smash down the door. Spider orders him to hand over the mutant. Chaos erupts. The Fly-Baby attacks, ripping through soldiers like a tiny, buzzing nightmare. Stockman begs them not to fire, warning the chemicals are volatile. But gunfire rings out, and in an instant, the lab explodes. Stockman throws himself over his child, but it’s too late. When the smoke clears, he’s fatally wounded, the Fly-Baby vanished, and the precious ooze vial rolls into a sewer grate, slipping into destiny.

We then get some of the most banger and nostalgic TMNT style music along with the title card: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Fifteen years later, we meet four teenage mutant ninja turtles sprinting and jumping across rooftops like true ninjas. Their mission? Go-Gurt, Doritos, toilet paper. A bodega run. And this is where the film starts to show its brilliance: our heroes aren’t brooding vigilantes yet!

They’re awkward teens, bickering over who gets the junk food and daydreaming about Beyoncé, Drake, and Guy Fieri. Sure, Splinter drilled into them that “humans are the demon scum of the earth,” but secretly? They think humans seem... kinda cool.

We get a hilarious montage of each turtle mischievously but sneakily raiding corner stores, sneaking protein powder from a shipping container, even riding a moving semi-truck for the Doritos inside. All the while, the city above reels from a crime wave: high tech heists linked to a mysterious figure called Superfly.

But the turtles aren’t too concerned about crime. They’re much more concerned with wanting freedom. After “shopping”, they sneak off to an outdoor movie night, hiding themselves on a building’s roof to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which flickers on a far wall, cast by a projector. For a moment, they’re lost in the dream, watching as all the other teens laugh together below, and couples cuddling, envying the belonging they see. “Maybe one day, everyone will love us like they love Ferris Bueller,” Raphael says, wistful. But they know better. Humans will never accept them. They slink back underground with longing written across their faces.

Back home, they tiptoe in, only to find Splinter (Jackie Chan) waiting in the dark. He flicks on the light. “Boys! Where have you been? I’ve been freaking out!” The boys try to play it off, but Leonardo, unable to contain his guilt, blurts out where they really went. They watched a movie on their way home. Or at least part of it.  The other turtles groan. “You ratted us out!” Mikey says. “Hey! Don’t use that word that way.” Splinter says chastising.

The dialogue and the interactions that the characters have together are SO good! Everything flows very much like a real conversation. The boys fumbling over one another as they all try to explain. Splinter wagging his finger and chastising them. It all feels so genuine.

Anyway! Splinter is furious. “You forgot huh? You don’t remember why humans are disgusting monsters? Why they’re dangerous? Why they’re gonna milk us for our blood?”

The “milking” jokes come up several more times and it’s hilarious every damn time! - So, he does what every parent does when kids forget the rules: tells them the story. The dreaded, embarrassing, overlong backstory they’ve heard a thousand times.

Splinter recalls his early days: just a lonely sewer rat in a world that despised him. Even other animals wanted nothing to do with him. Then came the ooze, and four tiny turtles he couldn’t leave behind. Splinter puts it in his own awkward way: “You was the first things I met that didn’t want to kill me or eat me.” The ooze mutated all of them They became family. But when he dared bring them into the human world, Times Square turned on him with ridicule and violence. He barely escaped, clutching his babies. From that night forward, he vowed to protect them at all costs. He learned ninjutsu from YouTube and old martial arts tapes, raising the turtles into the fighters they are today. His lesson is simple: humans will never accept you. Family is all you need. Stay hidden. Stay safe.

But as Splinter finishes, his sons sit with restless eyes. Because they don’t just want safety. They want the world above. And that tension, that hunger, is what propels Mutant Mayhem forward.

We’re going to wrap it up from here! Ninja Turtles movies always begin in the shadows. Ooze in the sewer, a rat for a dad, and four kids who just happen to be turtles. But what makes Mutant Mayhem so refreshing is how quickly it steps out of that shadow, not by changing the lore, but by shining a blacklight on it.

That’s not to say the film takes itself too seriously! Quite the opposite! It leans hard into the absurdity of the premise, giant mutant turtles in masks who love pizza and ninjutsu, while constantly poking fun at itself. The turtles riff on pop culture, roast their own dramatic introductions, and undercut clichés with teenage sarcasm. There’s a joy in how the film winks at the audience without ever breaking its own heart. It knows it’s ridiculous, and it loves that about itself. We potatoes couldn’t get enough!

But beneath all the jokes is something tender. The turtles are desperate for one thing: acceptance. They long to go to high school, join clubs, sit in cafeterias, and just be part of the world. That hit us right in the feels. We can remember that hunger for “normal.” One of us potatoes was homeschooled for a time. That excitement at the thought of high school, not for the classes, but for the belonging. For community. To finally be seen. We potatoes resonated deeply with that. The turtles’ yearning is funny, sweet, and achingly real.

And that’s where Mutant Mayhem gets surprisingly heavy. Because this isn’t just a movie about mutant acceptance, it’s about racism, prejudice, and systemic “-isms” in general. April O’Neil being reimagined as a Black teen reporter is not just a surface-level choice. It adds a sharp edge of social commentary. April faces her own rejection, ostracized, mocked, labeled unfairly. She knows what it feels like to be treated as “less than.” Her friendship with the turtles is a mutual recognition of difference, and of strength.

The movie digs deeper with its villain. Superfly isn’t evil for the sake of it. He’s a product of rejection. A mutant who, like the turtles, wanted to belong, but when society spat in his face, he spit back. His criminal empire grows not from some cartoonish desire for power, but from pain. Prejudice turned him into a monster. And here’s the scathing commentary: society then points to him and says, See? We were right to fear him. It’s a cycle we potatoes know all too well. White supremacy and systemic racism push people into corners, then blame them for lashing out. Superfly is terrifying not just because of his muscle, but because of how recognizable his origin is.

The movie even sneaks in critiques of how racism is perpetuated, not always with slurs, but with academic or scholarly language. Smooth, polite, coded. The kind of speech that says “intonation” when dismissing a foreign language, or “standards” when gatekeeping opportunity. That veneer of civility that hides cruelty. It’s there in the world of Mutant Mayhem, too: the way humans rationalize their fear of mutants with science, corporations, and “security.” Its systemic prejudice dressed in a suit.

The commentary goes further still. Superfly’s treatment of his own mutant siblings carries the vibe of “I raised you, so you owe me,” not love, but control. A twisted mirror of Splinter’s fatherhood. Splinter may be overprotective and embarrassing, but his bond is love. Superfly uses trauma as a leash. He’s what happens when pain curdles into domination instead of care. Again, the movie never spells this out, but it’s baked into the DNA of the story.

And through all of this, the movie never forgets to be fun! The soundtrack is so good, with thumping beats that make chase scenes feel like underground dance parties. The turtles pepper their dialogue with references galore, from Avengers: Endgame to Hey Arnold! To Beyoncé. It’s a love letter to the media the creators grew up on, and it makes the movie feel alive in the present moment, not frozen in 1987 nostalgia.

This film is alive. The animation is phenomenal! It’s scribbly, messy, neon slick, like doodles in the margins of a high school notebook suddenly sprang to life. It has the same bold confidence as Spider-Verse, but with a funkier, grimier texture. Nothing feels clean, and that’s the point. Teenage life isn’t polished, it’s chaotic. Acne, hormones, mistakes, laughter, secrets, all jagged lines, and weird proportions. The movie embraces that truth, visually and emotionally! We love it!

And then there’s the casting! Whoever decided to actually hire real teenage voice actors deserves so many props. Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Donatello (Micah Abbey), Raphael (Brady Noon), and Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) don’t just sound young, they are young. They trip over their words, talk over each other, laugh mid-line, and carry that crackling awkward energy you can’t fake. It’s brilliant. So often in animation we get twenty-five-year-olds trying to sound fifteen. Here, you can hear the difference. It grounds the absurdity, makes it more relatable, and keeps the whole movie bubbling with authenticity.

That passion is what shines brightest! You can feel it, in every frame, that the filmmakers love these characters. You can tell that they grew up with them like we potatoes did. Maybe they doodled them in notebooks, played with the toys, and quoted the cartoons. We potatoes don’t know for sure! But we do know, that this film did not feel at all like a cash grab, it felt like a fan’s mixtape. A TMNT movie made by the fans, for the fans, with all the weirdness, irreverence, and heart that implies.

In the end, Mutant Mayhem is about more than turtles. It’s about belonging. It’s about the pain of rejection, the dangers of prejudice, and the messy joy of community. It’s about how the stories we tell ourselves, about who we are, who “they” are, who belongs and who doesn’t, shape the world we live in. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for the much, much worse.

And that is why we potatoes loved it! It made us laugh, it made us think, and it made us hungry for pizza. It reminded us that being different is not a curse, but a superpower. That family can be messy but still full of love. That control, and trauma bonds can masquerade as love and connection, but honestly is not. And that acceptance, true, radical, unconditional acceptance, may be one of the single most powerful actions an individual or a society can take.

So! If you’re looking for something wildly creative, laugh-out-loud funny, surprisingly heartfelt, and bursting with mutant mayhem and animated brilliance, this is your sign to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem! Grab your favorite pizza (extra cheese, please!), turn up that killer soundtrack, and let yourself get swept up in the ooze, the chaos, and the radical joy of it all!

Cheers to Leo, Donnie, Mikey, and Raph for dreaming bigger, fighting harder, and staying weird together! Cheers to Splinter, for trying, failing, and trying again and for loving his boys with everything he’s got. Cheers to April, for standing up, speaking out, and finding her voice. And most importantly… cheers to you! May we all keep growing, keep questioning, and keep believing that being different is something to celebrate not hide!

Now go forth, crank the tunes, order that extra-large pizza, and remember to stay safe and try not to get milked!

We give TMNT Mutant Mayhem 5 out of 5 Green Ooze Cocktails!

The TMNT Mutant Mayhem Drinking Game 

Take a sip anytime:

1.     Anyone says "Rat"

2.     Anyone says "Mutant"

3.     Anyone says "Ooze"

4.     Anyone says "Turtles"

5.     Anyone says “Super Fly”

6.     Anyone says “Human”

7.     Anyone mentions milking/being milked

8.     Anytime Raph is a hothead

9.     Anytime Mikey is a goofball

10.  Anytime Donnie is a delightful dork

11.  Anytime Leo hesitates or is awkward

12.  Anytime the turtles heckle each other, bicker, or their voices overlap as they speak.

13.  Anytime the turtles ninja

14.  April pukes or anyone says puke

15.  Pizza is on screen

What did you think? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it? What movies should we watch? Any and all thoughts are welcome! Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly!

What do you think? Do you like this drinking game? Are there rules missing? Is the game too intense? Are there movies that you think we should make a drinking game for? Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly! (Drinks can be water, soda, anything nonalcoholic, etc. Please be safe, have fun and take care of you!)