1. Character Design and Aesthetic Downgrade
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: the character design in Mutant Mayhem is divisive at best, and downright ugly at worst. While the hand-drawn, graffiti-inspired animation is being praised for its “unique” look, it sacrifices clarity, polish, and even basic anatomical consistency. The Turtles look like walking blobs of green clay with awkward features, and the overall visual direction feels chaotic. It's clear the art style was chosen to appeal to a Spider-Verse-influenced crowd, but it lacks the finesse, storytelling integration, and coherence of that film. TMNT fans have come to expect a balance between grit and style—not this jarring, hyper-stylized mess.
2. Immature, Forced Humor
TMNT has always balanced action, heart, and humor, but Mutant Mayhem goes all-in on the worst kind of adolescent cringe. The movie is packed with TikTok slang, outdated memes, and joke delivery that feels like it was AI-generated by a marketing team trying to sound “hip.” It’s not witty; it’s obnoxious. These aren’t the wise-cracking but battle-hardened Turtles of past series—they’re awkward, screechy caricatures. What used to be lighthearted charm now comes across as grating, immature noise. It’s exhausting rather than entertaining, especially for long-time fans who remember when the humor actually had layers.
3. Shallow Storytelling and Weak Worldbuilding
The plot of Mutant Mayhem is almost insultingly shallow. There’s no real emotional arc, no stakes that matter, and absolutely no sense of the gritty, shadowy world that once made TMNT stand out. Instead, we get a cliché “let’s be accepted by the world!” story that’s been done a thousand times with more nuance elsewhere. The Foot Clan? Not here. Shredder? Barely a whisper. Instead, it leans into one-off villains and pop-culture references that age like milk. The turtles’ dynamic is also reduced to surface-level bickering and bonding, with none of the complex brotherhood that fans cherish.
4. April O’Neil’s Rebooted Role
April in this version feels like an entirely different character with the same name. Instead of the capable, assertive, and balanced April from earlier series, we get a clumsy, awkward teenager whose arc is more about puking on camera than meaningful character growth. Her race isn't the issue—her lack of depth and the writers’ refusal to let her be anything but comic relief is. April used to be the human bridge to the Turtles’ world—someone with her own agency and competence. In Mutant Mayhem, she’s just there to awkwardly tag along.
5. Tales of the TMNT Doubles Down on the Same Mistakes
Instead of learning from Mutant Mayhem’s polarizing reception, Tales of the TMNT doubles down on its worst traits. The animation remains erratic and inconsistent, and the storytelling leans even further into shallow “slice-of-life” moments rather than developing a compelling overarching narrative. It’s full of padding, weak villains, and juvenile antics. The Turtles themselves feel more like background noise than central protagonists with real agency. It’s clear the show is designed to keep younger kids distracted rather than to honor the franchise’s deeper themes of family, duty, and sacrifice.
6. TMNT Deserves Better
The real tragedy here is that TMNT is a franchise full of potential. It can be fun, funny, and still pack an emotional punch. Past iterations like the 2003 series or even the 2012 Nickelodeon show proved that you can modernize the Turtles without flattening their personalities or dumbing down the world. Mutant Mayhem and Tales of the TMNT represent a missed opportunity to blend the gritty origins of the Mirage comics with modern sensibilities. Instead, they pander to fleeting trends and short attention spans. TMNT deserves a revival that respects both its roots and its fans—not this watered-down, hyperactive parody of itself.
When I tell you this took almost an hour to write..
