Western Animation / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Heroes aren't born. They're mutated.

Mikey: If we weren't monsters shunned by society, what would you guys do?
Raph: Go to high school…
Leo: Maybe… get a girlfriend?
Mikey: Can you imagine that?
Donnie: Not likely.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a 2023 animated science-fiction action comedy film based upon the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, the second theatrical animated film to be based on it since 2007’s TMNT^note The fifth animated film overall. The last three animated films, Turtles Forever, Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, were a Made-for-TV Movie, a direct to video release and a Netflix exclusive, respectively, and the seventh overall theatrical film in the franchise^note the tenth film in the franchise, period. It is directed by Jeff Rowe (Gravity Falls, The Mitchells vs. the Machines), written by Rowe, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and Dan Hernadez and Benji Samit (Pokémon Detective Pikachu), and produced by Rogen and Goldberg.

In a first for the franchise, the four turtles are voiced by actual teenagers; Nicolas Cantu voices Leonardo, Micah Abbey voices Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. voices Michelangelo, and Brady Noon voices Raphael. Also cast are Rogen as Bebop, John Cena as Rocksteady, Ayo Edebiri as April O'Neil, Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Ice Cube as Superfly, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut, Post Malone as Ray Fillet, Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom, and Jackie Chan as Splinter. Animation duties for the film were provided by Cinesite (The Star, several Marvel Cinematic Universe films) and Mikros Image (The Secret of the Magic Potion, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie). Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the film's score.

Once again set in a new continuity, the film sees the brothers set out on a quest to find acceptance from the people of New York, only to become entangled in an epic battle against an army of mutants. Produced by Nickelodeon Movies, Point Grey Pictures, and an uncredited Paramount Animation^note Who if you check their website, they did have involvement.The film was released in theaters on August 2, 2023, with sneak peek screenings on July 29 and 31. A first look at the film was revealed at the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award ceremony on March 4, 2023, ahead of the full trailer.

One week before the film’s release, Paramount announced that a sequel was in development with Rowe returning to direct. The as-of-yet titled sequel will release October 9, 2026. Additionally, a two-season animated series titled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was in development for Paramount+ with Christopher Yost showrunning and Cantu, Abby, Brown Jr., and Noon returning as the Turtles. The series will premiere summer 2024.

Previews: Teaser Trailer, Trailer 1

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Can I kick these tropes? Yes, you can!

A-C

• Actor Allusion:
  • Seth Rogen voices Bebop, a mutant warthog. He'd previously voiced Pumbaa in The Lion King (2019) and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022).
  • Wingnut, a bat-humanoid, is voiced by Natasia Demetriou, who's best known for playing a vampire in What We Do in the Shadows (2019). For bonus points, both characters reside on Staten Island.
  • When Splinter comes to TCRI to save his turtle sons from being milked for their ooze-infused blood, the ensuing fight scene against the henchmen looks straight out of a fight sequence from Jackie Chan's films, Improv Fu and all.
• Adaptational Heroism: In most other adaptations, Bebop and Rocksteady are hired thugs that regularly fight the Turtles. Here, like the rest of Superfly's mutant gang, they are simply mutated animals who want to be safe and accepted, and after they help the Turtles defeat Superfly, they both go to live with them in the sewer in the epilogue.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Previous versions of Splinter who started out as rats usually had a human who cared for them prior to their mutation. This version of Splinter never did, which is part of the reason why he hates humans.
  • Downplayed with April — Past versions seemed to live normal, happy lives before encountering the turtles (although, she does get nearly murdered by Mousers or gang members right before she encounters the Turtles). This version of April lives with the shame of an embarrassing incident where she puked while trying to read her school's morning announcement, making her a target for mockery by her fellow students.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Bebop and Rocksteady are typically gang members who were mutated into anthropomorphic rhinoceros and warthog by Shredder to serve as muscle against the turtles. They show up here as mutated rhino and warthog with no connection to Shredder.
• Adaptational Modesty: Leatherhead now wears a shirt under the vest, presumably as part of her Gender Flip. A topless woman, even a topless alligator woman who does not have Non-Mammal Mammaries, is different from a topless man. Apparently.
• Adaptational Ugliness:
  • Baxter Stockman appears more haggard and unkempt in this series.
  • Michelangelo's head shape usually looks similar enough to his brothers'. His head is wider-looking, akin to a watermelon. He even lampshades this when holding a watermelon with his face painted on it at one point, with Donnie saying he looks like if "Stewie and Arnold had a baby".
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • The Turtles and Splinter are self-taught their ninja fighting skills in this version, mainly as a last resort should they be discovered on a supply run, and accordingly none of them have even been in a fight with humans period before the film starts. The Turtles' first combat against the chop shop goons swiftly turns into a chaotic messy brawl that they win at partially due to muscle memory kicking in and make several mistakes. Their subsequent fights against the rest of the crime ring show a marked improvement as they accumulate combat experience from fighting as a team in varied locations. Splinter shows greater hand-to-hand skills and weapon handling when fighting against the TCRI goons, but noticeably struggles at several points and his advanced age is presented as being detrimental to his fighting abilities compared to his younger and more energetic sons.
  • The Turtles' ages also impact their hand-to-hand showing in a fight, as opposed to prior incarnations being naturally more muscular from their mutations. The Turtles demonstrate a subtle showing of Charles Atlas Superpower when fighting against the crime ring (at one point in the montage all of them are shown doing a charging tackle that lifts several goons off their feet at once) implying their mutant status makes then stronger than a 15-year old teenager would otherwise be, but that advantage gets cancelled out when faced up against an "adult" mutant like Superfly, whose greater strength in comparison allows him to casually beat them down like an actual adult would against four teenagers in hand-to-hand combat. Splinter winds up going in the opposite direction, as his advanced age compared to the other mutants makes him past his prime and physically weaker than the other adults, resulting in him being overpowered when grappled by a TCRI goon and needing to improvise a way out of the hold.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Superfly's gang includes mutants like Genghis Frog, Mondo Gecko and Leatherhead, who are usually heroic characters in other adaptations. Subverted in the third act, where it's revealed that all the gang members — including the traditionally villainous characters like Bebop and Rocksteady — don't actually want to go ahead with Superfly's plot to destroy humanity, and they all help the Turtles to stop him in the climax.
  • T.C.R.I. again became antagonists, but are actually good guys in the original comic.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In this continuity, Leo develops a strong crush on April.
  • Splinter and Scumbug typically have no relationship to speak of in previous incarnations. In this film, Splinter develops an attraction to her and they become an Official Couple at the end of the movie.
• Adapted Out: No mention is made of Hamato Yoshi, Spinter’s human owner/alter-ego.
  • Genghis Frog is one of Superfly's mutant gang members, but no other Punk Frog appears or is mentioned.
• Advanced Tech 2000: The machine in the TCRI facility that "milks" the mutagen-infused blood of the turtles is dubbed the "Mega Milker 2000".
• Advertised Extra:
  • All of the members in Superfly's mutant army are billed in the trailers as well as in the cast announcement, and all get posters of their own, despite half of them not having much dialogue (maybe as far as three lines), most notably Leatherhead (Rose Byrne) and Wingnut (Natasia Demetriou).
  • Giancarlo Esposito (Baxter Stockman) is also billed and has a poster despite only appearing in the opening scene.
• Advertising by Association: An interesting example — later TV spots market the film as from the people behind Superbad and Neighbors — both of which are Hard-R films inappropriate for this PG film's audience.
• Afro Asskicker: In flashbacks showing how he trained the turtles to be ninjas, Splinter had a big '80s afro-like perm and mustache, though both of these are gone by the time of the main story.
• Age Lift: Done spiritually rather than literally, most TMNT stories have the turtles start out at 15-years-old but their overall personalities are more like immature young adults and are experienced combatants, and although their height is Depending on the Artist, they are usually heavily muscled. The turtles in this film are portrayed a lot more like real teenagers with short attention spans, obsessed with their phones, pop culture, and social media, overcome with hormones, and feel a lot smaller and shorter than the adult characters.
• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • The turtles talk a lot about all the things they could do if they "weren’t monsters shunned by society", like go to high school and get girlfriends. When they go after Superfly, it is in hopes that this will get New York to accept them. Likewise, Superfly and his band of mutants are stated to be hated by humanity, thus they plan to take over.
  • Even April seeks acceptance after an attempt to read morning announcements lead to her vomiting on camera.
• And Starring: The cast roll here ends "with Jackie Chan and Ice Cube introducing Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko".
• Animal Is the New Man: Superfly is trying to bring this scenario about by wiping out most of humanity and turning all animals into mutants.
• Artistic License – Geography: While there is no Rosebank Zoo, there is a Staten Island Zoo in a similar area. The Staten Island boat graveyard is not next to the zoo and instead is on the opposite side of Staten Island, facing New Jersey.
• Art Shift: The Turtles' plan to become heroes and be welcome by humans is illustrated in hand-drawn animation designed to look like children's crayon drawings.
• Ascended Meme: One of the guys the Turtles first fight say they look like "little Shreks", which was a common comparison when the Turtles in the Michael Bay films were first revealed, Mikey in particular.
• As You Know: Splinter and the turtles' origins are implied by the opening prologue but elaborated on shortly after in a lecture by Splinter about why they shouldn't try to integrate with humanity. The turtles collectively groan when he gets started, as he's clearly done this multiple times before, and he's telling the longer version to drive it in.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The Turtles are stealing party supplies when a convenient jumbotron with a typical pundit comments on the crime wave perpetrated by that public menace... Superfly.
  • The flashback to the puke story cuts back to present day just as April is about to bust up... only because the Turtles interrupted her. Then we cut back and see it in all its glory.
• Being Evil Sucks: It turns out Superfly's gang doesn't really want to overthrow humanity. They just went along with his plan because they felt they had no other option.
• Big Applesauce: As usual for the turtles, the film is set in New York. The film even opens on a shot of a manhole cover reading “NYC Sewers”.
• Big Bad: Superfly happens to be the big threat of the film — the leader of a gang of mutant thugs set on having mutantkind rise up and conquer humanity.
• Big Beautiful Woman: April O'Neil. Most versions of her are svelte and conventionally pretty, while the version in the trailer is noticeably chubbier but still attractive enough to garner Leo's affection nonetheless.
• Black Comedy Cannibalism: Back when he was a regular rat, Splinter's only friend was a cockroach. When they got squished by a random passersby, he hesistantly ate the remains.
• Blatant Lies: While being interviewed by April, Donnie states that their father "is definitely not a giant rat". April responds that the way he said that make her think he is.
• Bloodless Carnage: There's no blood in the movie, even when Donnie accidentally gets stabbed in the leg by one of Raph's sais (as mentioned below under Bowdlerise).
• Body of Bodies: In the third act, Superfly becomes a huge collection of mutated animal bodies.
• Bowdlerise: Downplayed. The Nickelodeon YouTube channel release of the teaser trailer somewhat chops up the scene's framing where Donatello gets a sai lodged into his leg. Thus, the sai is still implied to have landed where it did, the insertion and results are just not seen.
• Brick Joke: When Splinter catches the Turtles out longer than needed, he warns them that if the humans catch them, they'll be "milked" of their blood. They protest that it is impossible since they at least lack nipples. Later, when they are captured by TCRI forces, Cynthia Utrom orders them to be drained of their mutagen-infused blood. Mikey and Raph are the first to go, painfully but still alive, before Splinter rescues them thanks to April and, upon discovering the "milking" contraption they were strapped in, he makes a point that he was right all along.
• Broken Pedestal: The mutants lost their respect for Superfly once Splinter offers them a home and they realize they only went along with his plan because they didn’t know there was an alternative to their situation.
• Brutal Honesty: After becoming friends with April, the Turtles ask if the rest of humanity are just as easy to accept them. She gives an affirmative "No" since they are still mutants at first glance.
• Bullying a Dragon: While relating his backstory to the Turtles, Superfly notes that one of a crowd of humans who rejected him and his crew just kept chasing them... until Superfly decided to fight back.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • This version of Splinter (Jackie Chan) learned all of his ninjitsu from studying classic kung fu movies... some of which feature Jackie Chan.
  • The Turtles at one point compare their situation to that of the Hulk in Avengers: Endgame. Paul Rudd (Mondo Gecko) played Ant-Man / Scott Lang in Endgame, Hannibal Buress (Genghis Frog) played one of the teachers at Peter Parker's school, and Chris Evans, who played Captain America, previously voiced Casey Jones in TMNT.
  • For that matter, the early mention of Batman also counts since John Cena (Rocksteady) also played DCEU Peacemaker.
  • During the Turtles' first fight with the human thugs, they accidentally turn on a radio playing the "Ninja Rap". It just so happens to play during the chorus where there are no mentions of turtles and is conveniently cut off before Vanilla Ice can sing about the turtles.
  • Master Splinter has cardboard cutouts of Chris Pratt, Chris Pine and Chris Evans. Evans has played the turtles' ally Casey Jones in the 2007 CGI movie TMNT.
• Chase Scene: After launching Mondo Gecko, Rocksteady, and Wingnut out of the car, and escape with the final piece of Superfly's weapon, the mutants chased after them. Some of them tried to warn them to give up the device to them, and Superfly wouldn’t harm them. Unfortunately, he caught up to them, and they fell off a driveway.
• Chekhov's Skill: Splinter mentions having a cockroach friend named Kevin, before his mutation. He is later shown to communicate with Scumbug, the mutated cockroach with no trouble.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Raphael, historically an impulsive, often immature character, is shown to be missing a tooth. He's also missing it in all the flashbacks to childhood, suggesting he never actually had that tooth at all.
• Company Cross References: Thanks to the franchise being owned by Nickelodeon and Paramount:
  • A man in a counterfeit SpongeBob costume can be seen in Times Square.
  • The Turtles delay their trip home to see an outdoor screening of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
  • The shape of Mikey’s head is at one point compared to that of Arnold.
  • One of the cardboard cutouts Splinter has is of Chris Pine as Captain Kirk.
  • After being hit by Kaiju Superfly’s counterattack, Michelangelo experiences a Shell-Shock Silence moment out of Saving Private Ryan.
• Commonality Connection:
  • When they first meet Superfly's crew, Raphael clicks with the brutish Bebop and Rocksteady, while Michelangelo quickly bonds with the similarly lighthearted Mondo Gecko.
  • After the Turtles enrol in high school, Raph makes friends on the wrestling team, Donnie bonds with his fellow nerds, and Mikey joins the Improv club.
• Contrived Coincidence: Somewhat. The chop shop that stole April's moped and the Turtles busted up to get it back turn out to be part of a crime ring that does business with Superfly, acting as the human goons for his heists to help keep his status as a mutant under the radar for as long as possible, as evidence by April finding a sketch of the stolen Radioactive storage unit in the shop. This allows the April to identify the heads of the crime ring for the Turtles to confront to find further leads on Superfly. However, April did mention that she was originally in the seedy neighbourhood in the first place trying to find leads on Superfly precisely because it was his Modus Operandi to used goons like that, and said crime ring is quite large, making it more likely they'd have had contact with Superfly, or those who had.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Splinter regularly tells the turtles of why the human world is so dangerous, and whenever the turtles disobey him by being late back to the lair, he punishes them by forcing them to listen to "the long version" of their backstory.
• Creator Cameo: Kevin Eastman, the co-creator of the Turtles franchise as a whole, voices a citizen who helps Splinter during the climax. According to Jeff Rowe, this is a homage to Stan Lee's many cameos in Marvel Comics adaptations.
• Credits Gag: Paul Rudd gets an "and Introducing" credit.

D-O

• Dartboard of Hate: Raph's target for his ninja star throw is a melon made to resemble Mikey's head. He even gets Mikey to hold it.
• Decomposite Character: Originally, Baxter Stockman was a Mad Scientist who mutated himself into a half-man half-fly creature. Here, the fly mutant (named Superfly) is a separate character, created by Baxter.
• Divergent Character Evolution: For the fourth animated incarnation in a row, the turtles are diversified in terms of physiques. In addition to their weapons, color-coded masks and letter insignias on their gear straps, Leonardo has a medium build and resembles the most like the standard Ninja Turtle, Raphael is The Big Guy with his mask a do-rag and missing a tooth, Michaelangelo is the shortest with braces and a wide head comparable to Stewie or Arnold, and Donatello is the skinniest with Nerd Glasses who carries a bunch of electronics on his person.
• The End... Or Is It?: The Turtles stop Superfly's plan and are accepted as heroes for doing so, they even enroll in high school with April, while the other mutants have found a home with the Turtles and Splinter, but they don’t know TCRI is still continuing their hunt for the turtles and have sought the assistance from the Shredder.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Zigzagged. The TCRI goons use high-powered futuristic guns loaded with an anti-mutagen serum, enabling them to reverse the anthropomorphisation of any mutant they score a hit on as a One-Hit KO, as their primary means of defence when trying to capture Stockman in the prologue and when capturing the Turtles to drain their blood. However, as they're intentionally trying to retain their mutant status until they've successfully extracted enough trace mutagen from them to reverse-engineer Baxter's perfected formula, they only use it as a last resort, such as against Splinter when he rescues the kids. This is otherwise Averted with the other low-level street thugs and criminals the Turtles fight, as one of them tries to shoot Raph with a shotgun in the chop shop, and a flashback to a successful robbery prominently displays them subduing guard armed with machine guns.
• Fan Disservice: When the other mutants are introduced, one of the first things we see is a close-up of Bebop's pierced nipples.
• Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: April makes it a point to always wear a helmet whenever she's riding her scooter around, which keeps her safe first when Raph's shuriken hits her right in it, and secondly when a pile of falling rubble lands on her during Superfly's rampage. She even lampshades it by going "Man, this helmet was a really good investment!" as she climbs out of the rubble pile.
• Fantastic Racism: A core part of the narrative is the divide between humans and mutants. Splinter explicitly instilled onto the turtles that they should never interact with humans, as they "lust to murder that which is different from them." Leo recognizes that this is "objectively prejudiced", and the turtles' desire to integrate with human society has them opposed to the resistance army of mutants against mutants.
• Faux Affably Evil: Superfly is initially friendly to the turtles, feeling a strong sense of mutant solidarity. However, as the film progresses, we see that he has subtly bullied and coerced all the other mutants into obeying him. Once he realizes the turtles are not on his side, his friendliness disappears.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Before confronting the biker thugs who stole April's scooter, Mikey suggests that they could appeal to their better nature instead of fighting them, though his brothers dismiss the idea. Later on, appealing to their better nature is exactly how the Turtles are able to win over Superfly's gang.
  • Superfly recites an incident to the Turtles when both mutant groups are bonding over discovering each other, explaining that he and his crew likewise tried to give integrating into human society a shot after watching TV commercials and were similarly rejected harshly like Spliter and the baby Turtles' own expedition. Unlike them, one particular civilian kept chasing after the mutant crew as they fled, long past the point where the rest of the crowd was following, eventually forcing Superfly to turn on him and beat him to a pulp to stop his pursuit, convincing him that Mutant-human integration was a pipe dream and that the only way to keep his family "safe" was through violence. This turns out to foreshadow Superfly's own actions in the climax, as whilst the rest of the Mutants decide not to go through with firing the mutation ray, he stubbornly sticks to his plan and even resorts to fighting them to see it through, resulting in him being tossed into the machine to stop it and getting exposed to a massive quantity of mutagen that turns him into the Kaiju-like SuperDuperFly. In this immensely powerful form, he attempts to destroy the city directly, forcing the mutant to eventually de-mutate him — possibly costing him his mutated sapience — in order to save lives, as he just won't quit trying to hurt those he sees as "monsters".
• Gender Flip: Leatherhead, traditionally depicted as male, is now a female character voiced by Rose Byrne. Wingnut and Scumbug, also traditionally male, are also gender-flipper, though in the latter case, you’re barely able to tell.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Most of Superfly's Gang's backstory is shown in a flashback, but when Superfly himself describes how he had to "mollywhop" that one persistent human who was pursuing them, it cuts back to him illustrating this by smashing a ketchup bottle with his fist and splattering its contents all over the Turtles. We can only assume the aftermath wasn't pretty.
• Heel–Face Turn: All the mutants in Superfly's gang, except for Superfly himself, turn good.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": After Mike signs up for comedy club as Michael Angelo, the others joke that, by that logic, Leo's last name would be Nardo.
• Heroic Bystander: In the climactic battle against the kaiju-sized Super Duper Fly, a number of New Yorkers — prompted by April's honest reporting on the situation — step up to help the turtles.
• Homage: During the montage of the Turtles going after Superfly's gangs, there's an extended fight sequence taking place in a hallway in a direct nod to the famous Oner from Oldboy (2003).
• Hot Guy, Ugly Wife: Very much downplayed but Splinter is not especially ugly for a humanoid rat and can even look fairly distinguished in some scenes. Contrast this with his eventual love interest Scumbug who, even by mutant standards, is absolutely hideous (though Splinter doesn't seem to think so).
• Humanity Ensues: Mutations in this iteration of the franchise are basically anthropomorphized versions of base animals (e.g. a Rat becomes a Rat man, a Warthog becomes a Warthog Man).
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Donnie credits his driving skills to playing lots of Forza Horizon. Splinter learned martial arts by watching kung fu movies.
• Insistent Terminology: After Superfly refers to the mutagen as "sludge", the brothers say they prefer to call it "ooze", because it rolls off the tongue.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Despite being a ninja master, Splinter is voiced by a Chinese actor and a lot of the ninjutsu training revolves around watching Chinese kung fu movies. Justified, since this version of Splinter is supposed to be from New York, and his whole Japanese backstory with Hamato Yoshi has been Adapted Out, and his entire connection to Asian martial arts is self-taught.
• Ironic Echo: "There's only one way you'll be safe and happy, and that's if you listen to me!" Splinter says this after he saves the turtles from a TCRI lab, and he's mad at them for putting themselves in danger. Superfly saying the same thing to his former coworkers is what triggers Splinter's realization.
• Jerkass Realization: While Splinter has spent the Turtles' lives telling them that he is encouraging them to stay in hiding for their own safety because humans would threaten them, hearing Superfly basically express the same anti-human sentiments prompts Splinter to realise that his attitude was too extreme.
• Kaiju: For the climax of the film, Superfly is accidentally mutated and combined with multiple large animals, including a whale, for the final battle.
• Karma Houdini: The Turtles had been forced to steal all of their food for a very long time. After they're accepted by society as New Yorkers, this is never brought up.
• Kid Hero: The turtles become convinced that by stopping Superfly’s crime ring and having April film it, they can earn humanity’s love for their heroism and get into high school. While they do accomplish this in the end, they learn that it takes a lot more effort.
• The Kindness of Strangers: The climax of the movie has several random humans, spurred on by April's broadcasts, help out by delivering the anti-mutagen to the Turtles so they can defeat Superduperfly.
• Knight Templar Parent: Splinter is portrayed as a very overprotective dad who thinks Humans Are Bastards. His arc revolves around letting go of these tendencies.
• Licking the Blade: Raphael is shown licking one of his sai in the first look footage.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: The first look footage is essentially a brief sequence of the turtles readying their weapons before heading out into the city.
• Logo Joke:
  • The Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies logos are rendered in a sketchy green form in the teaser. The Nickelodeon logo is in its classic splat shape and has the font from the '90s version of the logo.
  • For the film proper, the Paramount logo at first plays as normal before shifting into the film’s sketchy look while the Nickelodeon Movies logo is colored green.
• Lovable Lizard: Mondo Gecko is by far the friendliest of Superfly's gang, forming an instant rapport with the turtles.
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: Superfly wants to spread ooze into the atmosphere and turn every animal on Earth into a mutant.
• Meta Twist:
  • Unlike most TMNT media, the Turtles don't go back into hiding after the climax of the story. They're now accepted by the people of New York and are even attending a school.
  • After the climax, the turtles and Splinter form a Family of Choice with the members of Superfly's gang, including their traditional rivals Bebop and Rocksteady. Splinter and Scumbug even form a relationship.
• Moody Trailer Cover Song: The teaser opens with a somber orchestral cover of the 1987 theme song.
• Mythology Gag: Has its own page.
• Nerd Glasses: Donatello, historically The Smart Guy of the team, wears enormous square glasses and is a huge anime and manga fan.
• No Full Name Given: April shows the Turtles around her school of Eastman High. Seeing a sign-up for improv comedy courses, Mikey is all for signing up...until he realizes that he doesn't know their family's last name. Cue the rest of the brothers realising they don't know it either.
  Leo: I've never thought about that actually, I don't..
  Raph: Do we not have last names?
  Donny: Woah. Who are we?
  • They eventually decide to cleave up their first names, leading to an argument over whether Leo should be Leon Ardo or Leo Nardo.
• No One Sees the Boss: April states that nobody has ever seen the face of mutant gang leader Superfly… because he is said to kill anyone who does. This, of course, foreshadows that he is another mutant.
• No-Sell: The Anti-mutagen canisters are said to be a One-Hit KO on any of the mutants, capable of theoretically turning them back into normal animals should a shot connect. In the climatic fight against SuperDuperFly, the united mutants' plan is simply to use one of the guns April wound up scavenging from TCRI when stealing a replacement bike to shoot the Kaiju mutant from afar before he notices them. Whilst Raph successfully connects a shot to his leg, the fact that his uber-mutant form is a Body of Bodies means that the anti-mutagen only undoes the transformation on one of the multiple horses that form SuperDuperFly's leg. To completely undo his transformation, the heroes instead need to insert their remaining canister into the blowhole on his whale body to ensure the serum completely circulates through his bloodstream and undoes the mutation on all the animals at once.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Early in the movie, it's established that Superfly uses human gangs as proxies to steal parts for his plan and pays them for their services, but how he has the money to pay them is never made clear.
• One-Winged Angel: All the mutagen from Superfly's ooze superweapon falls on him and double-mutates him, fusing him with various sea life (including a whale) and then all the animals at a zoo, turning him into a gargantuan monstrosity of fused animals. Despite his new grotesque appearance, he actually thinks the transformation is amazing, since it makes him far more powerful, and thanks the turtles.

P-Z

• Painted CGI: The film has a crude, deliberately sketchy style, inspired by notebook doodling.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Played for laughs. The Turtles get massively turned off by Splinter's love interest — a genuinely hideous mutant cockroach.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse:
  • This movie heavily emphasizes the "teenage" element of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the turtles are a lot smaller than the adult human characters — which doesn't stop them from kicking a lot of butt. This contrasts some past iterations where they could be as tall as the adults.
  • Superfly as a baby is fast and strong enough to take out multiple armed and trained TCRI agents.
• Political Overcorrectness: Played for Laughs. When the turtles get in trouble at the beginning of the film, Mikey complains that Leo "ratted [them] out". Splinter (who is a rat himself) reprimands him for using "that word", and the other brothers agree that it was inappropriate.
  Leo: I mean, it's 2023, Mikey.
• Proportional Aging: Zig-zagged; Every mutant is mutated around roughly the same time but their apparent ages vary, seemingly coupled with the different age rates of their species. Splinter explicitly says that because he was an adult rat and the turtles were babies, that was how they ended up when they mutated. Superfly was a mutated from an adult fly instead of a maggot, but turned out a baby, and appears fully grown in the present yet still younger than Splinter. The mutant gang also seems much more physically mature than the teenaged turtles, not sharing their pubescent traits, particularly in the voices.
• Pubescent Braces: Mikey, the physically smallest and most childlike of the turtles, has braces if you look closely.
• Race Lift: April is depicted as an African-American again, like in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and (if Eastman is to be believed) the Mirage comics.
• Repurposed Pop Song: "Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest is the main theme for the first teaser trailer, and plays at the end of the movie.
• Rhino Rampage: Rocksteady the rhino, a gigantic bruiser with admitted rage issues.
• Riddle for the Ages:
  • It's unknown how the four baby Turtles wound up in the sewer to be exposed to Stockman's mutagen in the first place, as Splinter came across them whilst searching for food and they'd already been covered in the green goo.
  • Why Splinter settled on learning martial arts as the best means of defending his family members and himself from humans is unclear, as he was a normal rat before he mutated and thus has no connection or inclination towards Japanese Ninjutu, not even being a pet rat of Hamato Yoshi's in this continuity. Likewise, where the heck he managed to get his hands on the Turtles' traditional weaponry like swords and sai in the middle of New York is unknown.
  • Given that this version of Splinter has such Fantastic Racism towards humans, to the point of being disgusted by the idea of the Turtles watching a human movie, why and how he gave them the names of Italian Renaissance masters is never addressed. Mikey even notes that their names are Italian based when cleaving up his full name in order to make a second name.
• Roger Rabbit Effect:
  • The boys watch the live-action Ferris Bueller's Day Off at a cinema and the martial arts videos Splinter trains them with are live-action.
  • When Splinter throws a party for the turtles, he decorated the sewer with live-action cardboard cutouts of various celebrities.
• Rousing Speech: The turtles deliver one to Superfly's gang to convince them they don't have to go along with his plan to find acceptance. It works.
• Self-Deprecation: Seth Rogen is credited in trailers as a "Permanent Teenager".
• Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: The Big Bad Ensemble of the film are two Canon Foreigner characters, Superfly and Cynthia Utrom (although Superfly is a Decomposite Character of Baxter Stockman and Cynthia's last name references a race of aliens which are a mainstay in the franchise). The Stinger is a Sequel Hook which shows the Shredder.
• Sequel Hook: Now that the Turtles are part of New York society, they are now free to go to high school and interact with other people. April documents an opportunity to investigate TCRI, after they disappeared, and its motives for their mutant project. Meanwhile, despite the Turtles now becoming public knowledge, Cynthia Utrom of the TCRI believes this will make capturing them for her plans difficult. She then makes preparations to bring someone who might be capable of tracking them down: The Shredder.
• Shout-Out:
  • Early in the film, the Turtles catch part of an outdoor screening of another Paramount film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
  • When Spinter leaves the sewers for Times Square, one man mistakes him to someone in a bad Mickey Mouse costume, who then freaks out upon realizing that his ears are real.
  • Splinter's ninjutsu training regimen involves watching a lot of old Martial Arts Movies, including Snake in Eagle's Shadow (which creates a Celebrity Paradox, since Splinter is voiced by that movie's star, Jackie Chan) and what appears to be The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
  • When the turtles bust into a criminal operation, one of the thugs refers to them as "Little Shreks".
  • April assumes that the Turtles are human vigilantes in costume, and mentions how "all the good animals are taken." Insert any Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats of your choice.
  • April compares Superfly's criminal acts to Gru and Megamind.
  • During the chase scene, Superfly quotes Ice-T's classic, 6 'n the Mornin'.
  • Superfly having one oversized claw arm nods to the fate of the doctor in the original version of The Fly (1958) (the inspiration for the original Baxter Stockman).
  • At April’s school, Donnie notices a drawing of Attack on Titan on one of the lockers which becomes a Chekhov's Gun for the final battle against Super Duper Fly. There is also a drawing of Izuku Midoriya next to a sign up sheet for an anime club.
  • Donnie tells Mikey his head "looks like Stewie had a baby with Hey Arnold!"
  • Donnie, being the resident anime nerd of the group, has a couple associated with his design. His bo-staff has Gojo's cutesy "I'll murder you" frolicking pose as a sticker. He's later seen sporting a purple hoodie with a lawyer-friendly JoJo's Bizarre Adventure logo font, after the Turtles are officially welcomed to Eastman High.
  • One of the TCRI agents calls Splinter "Ratatouille", which hits his Berserk Button.
  • While contemplating trying to get people to like them by acting as heroes, Michaelangelo in particular compares the idea to the Incredible Hulk in Avengers: Endgame; by that point, people were used to the Hulk and trusted him even though he was large, green, and intimidating.
  • Donatello learned how to drive from Forza Horizon.
  • Super Duper Fly is compared to Godzilla several times, including at least once by himself.
    • Super Duper Fly's name is one to the Missy Elliott album of the same name, spelling differences aside.
  • When the human reporters mistakenly believe the good mutants to be working with Superfly and have the story all wrong, one journalist refers to them as a "rash of monsters."
  • After all the worry about whether people will accept the Turtles as they are, it turns out that New Yorkers really will take their side. Like they always do with Spider-Man.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • April's infamous puke scene is set to Natasha Bedingfield’s "Unwritten".
  • An extended fight sequence between the Turtles and several human gangs is set to the relatively mellow "No Diggity".
  • An otherwise intense chase sequence is set to 4 Non Blondes's "What's Up" — specifically, the version from the viral video "Fabulous Secret Powers"/"He Man Sings" by Slackcircus.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Utrom refers to Shredder as "The Shredder" in The Stinger.
• The Stinger: In a mid-credits scene we get a catch-up of what the Turtles are doing now as part of society and in a Sequel Hook Utrom considers hiring The Shredder to hunt down the Turtles.
• Superhero Movie Villains Die: Baxter Stockman, a regular reoccurring foe for the heroes, apparently dies in the opening scene, long before the turtles are even mutated. Averted with Superfly, who survives the film, though he is partially unmutated and in TCRI custody.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When being interviewed by April, Donatello abruptly blurts out that their dad, Splinter, is "definitely not a giant rat." It only makes April more suspicious.
• Taught by Television: As this incarnation of Splinter wasn't Hamato Yoshi's pet or mutated from him, both the rat and the Turtles gained their martial arts knowledge from training videos, taped demonstrations and kung-fu movies.
• Thought-Aversion Failure: When the turtles are hooked up to Utrom's "milking" machine, Mikey is the first to get milked and discovers the process is very painful. The other brothers try and comfort him by telling him to think happy thoughts to distract from the "milking", like thinking of pizza. It doesn't help because pizza is made of cheese, cheese is made of milk, and Mikey is being "milked".
• Title Drop: In the climax, the term "Mutant Mayhem" is used on Channel 6's news broadcasts in regards to the massive fight between The Turtles and their friends against SuperDuperFly in NYC.
• Trailers Always Lie:
  • In the official second trailer, Leo confesses to Splinter that the reason why the brothers came home late is because some of them wanted to eat pizza. In the film, he instead says they wanted to watch a movie.
  • In the first trailer, April is corrected on the calling the stuff that mutated the turtles "Ooze". In the actual movie, April uses the proper term, while it is Superfly that the turtles tell to call it ooze.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The advertising for the film showed almost the entire plot of the movie, including the turtles being captured by the TCRI, Superfly being further mutated into a hulking monstrosity, and the other mutants pulling a Heel–Face Turn and fighting alongside the turtles and Splinter.
• Training Montage: The turtles train alongside Kung-Fu movies and training videos while the popular song "Push It to the Limit" plays in the background.
• Truer to the Text: The turtles are portrayed as short creatures, like the original comics.
• The Unmasqued World: At the end of film the turtles and the other mutants are exposed to the world, but the turtles are accepted as heroes after they save the city from Superfly.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Downplayed, as April is still freaked out at first that the ones who helped get her scooter back from thugs are not four guys in turtle costumes, but actual mutated reptiles. She gets over it, but later admits that if not for that heroic first impression, her reaction would have been a lot worse.
• Visual Pun: When the Turtles start shaking down all of Superfly's human contacts, the one guy who does spill it is a hairy guy with prominent ears and buck teeth. So he's practically a rat.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: A Double Subverted example. When April explains how she got stuck with the "Puke Girl" insult at school, a flashback is cut before she starts vomiting due to stage fright while doing morning announcements. Then cuts back to show her vomiting profusely on camera. Later, she hijacks the Channel 6 news broadcast during the climax to convince New York the turtles are good guys. She throws up a lot less before continuing, showing that she is slowly overcoming her fright.
• Wham Line: Bring me...the Shredder.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: A mid-credits scene shows the four turtles acclimating to high school: Donnie has found friendship with other geeks, Raph has joined the wrestling team, Mikey has joined the Improv Club, and Leo is working with April on the school paper to track down Cynthia Utrom and the rest of TCRI.
• Wilhelm Scream: Heard during the On Patrol Montage when Raph knocks away all the thugs attempting to dogpile on him.
• Would Hurt a Child: Cynthia Utrom is fully okay with strapping the turtles to a giant milking machine to drain them of their blood to use for her own mutant soldiers. And if the turtles would speak up, they will be electrified.
• Wrecked Weapon: During the Turtles' attempt to keep the final machine component out of Superfly's hands by hijacking the van containing it, the fly mutant's muscle car eventually catches up to them and allows him to burst into the back of the van, underscoring how outmatched the Turtles are in a fight with him by causally clipping one of Mikey's Nunchuku in half with his claw arm. For the rest of the film, Mikey is stuck using only the remaining Nunchuck in a fight.
• X-Ray Sparks: The turtles get one in the milking machine during the Electric Torture scene at the TCRI lab. Splinter also gets one when the TCRI guard shocks Splinter with the baton at the lab during the rescue.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The turtles deliver this to Superfly's mutant army to convince them to help them destroy the weapon. It works.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Superfly kills the thieves he hired to steal for him after they bring him the goods. It's implied he was planning to do the same to whoever in Bad Bernie's crew was supposed to hand him the assimilator, possibly including Bernie himself, when one takes into account that he kills any human who sees his face and he personally appears at the arranged deal for it.
• You Know I'm Black, Right?: Mikey chides Leo for "ratting" the gang out for why they were out late. Master Splinter (the rat) tells him not to "use that word that way".

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