Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

In Jeff Rowe’s film, co-directed by Kyler Spears, the four turtles are voiced by teenage actors for the first time in the series. Hundreds of tapes came in, Rowe watched all of them and cut the list to ten, and a chemistry table read settled the final four. Against usual practice in animation the cast recorded in groups rather than alone, up to seven actors in a session, with wide room for improvisation. Seth Rogen said he brought the arrangement over from recording The Lion King in 2019. The look started from sketches Rowe made in school notebooks as a teenager, and production designer Yashar Kassai told the artists to keep their imperfections and draw like teenagers. Colour and light came from Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express. Jackie Chan voices Splinter, whose build came from Danny DeVito and whose clothes came from the Dude in The Big Lebowski. For the fighting the team studied Chan in films such as Police Story and Rumble in the Bronx. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross wrote the score. The Annie Awards brought 6 nominations, for feature, directing, writing, music, production design and editorial, and no wins. A good fit if you want animation that keeps looking like drawing, and voices that talk over each other. Not for anyone after the tone of the earlier films.