TMNT: MUTANT MAYHEM Director Explains Why They Changed The Origin Story From The Source Material
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now in theaters and it seems like fans are really enjoying the story that it delivers. It’s just a super fun feel good coming-of-age movie for a family of teenage ninja turtles. I thought the movie perfectly captured the spirit of these characters in a way we’ve never seen before, and I appreciate that.
The movie also made a major change to the origin story of the Ninja Turtles, and that change helped audiences relate to Splinter and his adopted sons a little bit more. I didn’t have a problem with the origin story being changed from the source material because it worked for this new vision of these classic characters.
I’m sure that some fans might be a little irked by the change, and director Jeff Rowe wanted to explain why the creative team opted to do something different. While talking to Uproxx, he said:
“Backstory stuff. Sometimes a lot of our early conversations were like, ‘How do we make this world make sense?’ Because there was a logic in the comic and then it shifted a little bit in the TV series and then it was completely different in the live-action movie.”
The original origin story saw people who come into contact with the mysterious ooze turned into whatever animal they last touched. This was an idea that was ditched for Mutant Mayhem, and the filmmaker went on to say:
“The logic is so twisted and weird. And there were things like that we’re like, Okay, we have to just make this make sense and make it feel like these characters exist in the real world that has something believable within physics that we know or movie logic that we’re familiar with. Hopefully to create a foundation that would let audiences relate to the characters and connect with them.”
In Mutant Mayhem, Splinter is a normal rat who has gone through some rough times, and after years of abuse, he came to hate humans. He then comes across the ooze-drenched turtles and forms a fatherly connection with them. After turning into a mutant, Splinter learns martial arts from movies and YouTube to teach his turtle sons so they can protect themselves from the evil humans.
What did you think of the change in the origin story? Were you ok with it, or did you not like that they veered away from the source material?
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, after years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.
The movie was directed by Jeff Rowe and the voice cast of the film includes Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, Brady Noon as Raphael, Jackie Chan as Splinter, John Cena as Rocksteady, Seth Rogen as Bebop, Ice Cube as Superfly, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut, Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Post Malone as Ray Fillet, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, and Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom.