Inside the Vibrant and Exciting Conclusion of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Surpassing Mark Ruffalo| Vanity Fair

Written by Katey Rich

“Not in need of a petite horse”, is what one may genuinely express.

This hilarious punchline that was improvised by Ice Cube at the end of TMNT: Mutant Mayhem according to Seth Rogen, who suggested Cube to contemplate words from the perspective of a massive mutant creature built of various animals rampaging around Manhattan. Originally in the film’s development, the mutant creature was expected only to bellow, however that idea changed at some point with Rogen throwing the possibility of the monster still having Ice Cube's voice.

Such chances shape the plot of Mutant Mayhem, and are essential when conversing with Rogen and the director, Jeff Rowe. Their input made it possible for it to turn into one enjoyable surprise from 2023. With emphasis on the “teenage” theme, the movie mirrors the warmth and awkwardness from Superbad by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, which gets mentioned frequently in their conversations about Mutant Mayhem. Yet, it's also a light-heartedly humorous action film that finale culminates with a 'kaiju' battle in the streets of New York City. Participating all four turtles and their friend April O’Neill, and some New Yorkers in what Rogen describes as their “Spider-Man 2 moment”. They share their practices on how they made it possible.

Mutant Mayhem portrays our adolescent heroes Leo, Donnie, Raph, and Mikey seeking human society acceptance. Their belief is that defeating the threatening Superfly (Ice Cube) and his mutant family would potentially convince humans to regard them. However, the plot takes a turn when their strategies give rise to a stronger and intimidating render of Superfly, leading to chaos in New York City. As the action climax of the movie unfolds, the turtles come into Manhattan with the hope of gaining acceptance from humans. Meanwhile, Splinter their adoptive father (played by Jackie Chan) understands that there's no stopping his children from towards ruin yet struggles himself to overcome his fear for humans. Yet, they all have lessons to be learned.

“The aim is to create an atmosphere where the audience feels they have found the solution, but in reality, the answer is always incomplete”, says Rogen. He praises the success of this method, as it gives the audience an exhilarating experience of disclosing superior solutions right beside the characters. In his view, “The expectations from animated movies are high these days,” and confirms their conscious efforts to maintain the emotional catharsis for the movie’s third part. He appreciates guiding the audience through this emotional journey.

As with many other animated movies, Mutant Mayhem underwent considerable story alterations during its production stages. Initially, the threat was caused by Shredder, the renowned Turtles villain, however, he is only briefly referenced during the ending scenes of the film. Despite the discordance in the initial story, the animation procedure had already begun. According to Rowe, “There was a substantial investment both in terms of time, money, and resources on the animation that would have been used… Then, Seth came up with the idea that Superfly transforms into the monstrous creature rather than creating one.'

Resultantly, Rowe mentions an urgent 2-day timeframe to modify the premeditated monster—a mix of different animals combined in a vaguely Godzilla-like shape—into Superfly. According to Rowe, “We ended up adding fly wings and eyes onto this gigantic whale-like creature.” With that, the story fell into place. However, Rowe also admits that the initial investment in time and energy in creating the asset led to this conclusion of the film.

The movie credits five writers including Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit besides Rogen, Goldberg, and Rowe. Rogen, who began scripting with Goldberg at the age of 13 and has spent the last few years guiding TV series like The Boys and Preacher believes a big team like this is an asset. Speaking about the writing process involving all five, Rogen states, “We collectively assessed the situation and explored all the possibilities, which is the benefit of animation, you put it out there, watch it and then determine if it works.”

After the turtles have tried and failed once to take down Superfly, they regroup and give each other a pep talk, with each turtle reminded of his unique strengths. The distinction among the turtles was essential for the toy-buying fans of the early ’90s—Leonard is the leader, Michelangelo’s a party dude—but for Rogen and Rowe, the team dynamic was much more important to the story they wanted to tell. That was one thing, actually, they didn’t want to steal from Superbad. “We very much didn’t want the story to be about the conflict that they had as characters amongst themselves—mostly because that’s just a thing we’ve done a lot,” Rogen says, “They have conflict, but together they’re a unit and they love each other, and they’re all they’ve ever had.”

Rowe contrasts it to his work on 2021’s Mitchells vs. the Machines, which he cowrote with director Michael Rianda; the film centers on a family of four, but the father and daughter carry the key emotional beats. “Any time we tried to do that with this film, it didn’t feel right,” Rowe says. “The other characters felt underserved.” Eventually he learned that the performances from the teenage voice actors (Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon) would allow each character to be distinct even while being united in their goals. “When we started recording them all together and the way they would all riff with each other,” Rowe says, “They just felt equal.”

Which brings us to Mark Ruffalo. When the boys are doubting themselves the most, Leo reminds his brother Mikey of what he does “better than anyone—even Mark Ruffalo.” The answer is “improvise,” a callback to an earlier throwaway joke in the film about a supposedly improvised scene in Avengers: Endgame, and it’s the moment that gives Mikey the boost he needs to move forward. Except, according to Rogen, “I actually have no idea if it was improvised or not.” And they haven’t heard from Ruffalo. “But I hope if he sees it, he’s happy about it.”

After the turtles regroup, they resume their fight against Superfly, but they’re quickly outmatched. As the monster squeezes them in his fist (a giant lobster claw, of course), Splinter is knocked to the ground and cowers as a group of humans approach him—only to offer to help take him to the hospital, or a veterinarian. Thus begins the Spider-Man 2–esque sequence of humans banding together to help save the day, which both non-New Yorkers Rogen and Rowe swear matches their experience in the city. “I was there a few months ago when there was that insane rainstorm and the whole city was flooding, and I just sat in a furniture store with 50 people for an hour,” says Rogen. “And it was lovely. It was a sense of community that New York has.”

Given that the turtles and Splinter had spent the entire movie to this point ostracized by society, Rowe says, “It felt important to give humanity a win if we wanted to end in a place with the turtles being accepted by them.” As the sequence moves forward, it ends with the four turtles tossing the Superfly-destroying weapon back and forth to each other in a fluid bit of action that, Rowe says, wasn’t nearly as good until their director of cinematography Kent Seki stepped in. “He was like, ‘I think this needs to be better. I’m going to try something,’” Rowe remembers, “And everyone was like, ‘Kent, we don’t have time. We cannot try anything…. It’s just not going to work.’ And then when we saw it, we’re like, we can’t unsee this. He was basically going to hold everyone hostage with quality work, which is the best situation.”