Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ninja Mayhem

As a reboot from 2016’s live action-oriented Out of the Shadows—a box office winner, if not a critical darling (like the Transformers series), Paramount is clearly shifting gears with Ninja Mayhem in response to current trends in animation. Specifically, the film adopts an art style arguably popularized by Into the Spiderverse, with its low-frame rate, faux-claymation aesthetic. Coupled with a snippet of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?”, it’s clear from the outset that this iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is meant to lean on aural and visual charisma, drawing in younger and even its more 80s-vintage fanbase in alike.

The 90s films captivated the original generation of turtles fans, and the 2010s films acted as a sort of reboot; it’s clear now that Ninja Mayhem is looking to appeal to both of these demographics, as the franchise is well into its fourth decade. Of course, musically speaking, this means that we get the original animated television Turtles theme at 0:16, played on a plaintive piano. Notice how the pentatonic (five-note) theme ends on the relative minor, adding a sense of wistfulness. This comes in contrast to 0:29 when “Can I Kick It?”, teased at the beginning of the trailer, comes back. It’s a classic 1990 anthem that both sounds relatively modern while being very much also of the Turtles’ vintage.

For a solid minute, the focus isn’t on exposition, but on the laid back instrumental track. We’re introduced to this iteration of the Ninja Turtles not as the relatively imposing—even scary—anthropomorphic turtles steeped in realism, but rather as their namesake teenage personas. The music cuts out at 0:50 we reach something of a punchline—a bit of physical comedy as the ninja star sets off a car alarm offscreen.

The music reenters with the date title card at 0:58, now with vocals—a simple but effective way to ramp up the arrangement. With this, we get more action-oriented scenes, with the turtles’ weapons roughly synchronizing with the beat. Notice at 1:11 how we get the first bit of percussion that was not in the original song, in tandem with a closeup. At 1:14 the rhythmic variations continue, in a way reminiscent of a remix rather than a rearrangement in itself. At 1:18 we get another pause in the music with some slapstick humour, with a blade in a turtle’s leg treated as a humorously bombastic episode. In these scenes, producer Seth Rogen’s comedic sensibility is clearly felt.

An entirely different part of “Can I Kick It?” leads us out with the main title card, and the trailer finishes with a brief scene introducing April as she’s seen in this iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Possibly more interesting than the music used for this trailer is what wasn’t used: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (known perhaps best as members of Nine Inch Nails, but their film score pedigree is quickly catching up) are said to be on tap to deliver the music for this Turtles outing. As it seems to be fairly outside their usual vernacular, it should be fascinating to hear what they’ve dreamt up. Was their music saved for the film as an artistic preference? Was it to keep the surprise? Or, was it purely a marketing decision? One can only speculate.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ninja Mayhem is due in theatres August 4, 2023.

— Curtis Perry