This article contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
When I think about the movies that feel most like what being a teenager felt like, I’m usually thinking about films that hit at how lonely that time of your life can be. It isn’t a loneliness that’s caused by actually being alone — I was around more people more often in high school and college than I probably ever will be again. No, it’s a loneliness that’s caused by feeling like no one can understand you or ever will. It’s the loneliness of feeling truly alone, not actually being alone.
I was surprised to find thatTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem— a movie that contains the phrase “little Shreks” in its trailer — evoked that feeling better than any new movie I’ve seen in years.
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The first act of the Mutant Mayhem is focused on showing just how lonely Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael are. To borrow a term from the Hero’s Journey, complete isolation from humanity is their “normal world.” Aside from Master Splinter, they have no community of mutants that can fill the need for connection.
With no culture of their own, they try to partake in human culture. They eat Go-Gurt, Pizza Hut pizza, and Cool Ranch Doritos. Throughout the movie, the Turtles allude to human pop culture, with references to BTS,Batman, and Family Guy. Some of this feels like brand synergy, but the movie goes beyond that, using pop culture touchstones as a way to communicate the extent of the turtles' alienation, and setting up a conclusion where they find a sense of belonging.
When Mikey, Donnie, and Raph convince Leo to swing by a movie in the park before heading home, their experience watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off from the seclusion of a nearby roof feels similar to Ariel watching Prince Eric from afar. It was the most emotional moment of the film for me, as Leo looks down at the couples and families and friends enjoying the movie together. Though Mutant Mayhem’s stars (and The Little Mermaid’s, for that matter) aren’t human, the movie is tapping into a universal human experience — feeling like everyone is loved and understood and part of something, except you.
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It also shows that cinema can be a double-edged katana. Movies can bring people together and provide joy. But they can also show us a world that feels, and is, unattainable. The turtles are obsessed with human high school, but their idea of what high school is like is entirely based on the movies they’ve watched. When high school and friendship in the movies looks so fun and fulfilling, it can make you wonder why your life, as a high school kid, doesn’t feel better. Why isn’t life like a montage in a John Hughes film?
I remember feeling that sense of alienation intensely in high school, and generally all through adolescence. When I was an older kid, I started to have a good time at summer camp, but I went for years before that clicked. In those early years, I frequently felt completely alone and unable to make friends. In high school, I had plenty of friends but went through an intense period of depression where I felt like no one could understand what I was going through. A year or two after the worst of it, I read The Catcher in the Rye and felt like a piece of art had fully seen me for the first time.
I don’t know if this generation of kids will have that experience with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Unlike The Catcher in the Rye, its climax centers around a kaiju fight, which may distract from that palpable sadness. The turtles get a happy ending, too. Still, I think kids looking for something that reflects their experience may find it here. Even though the movie does star little Shreks.
