Mutant Mayhem Gives The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Origin Story A Major Refresh
Heavy spoilers for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" to follow.
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is a bold reimagining of the franchise that serves to both introduce a whole new generation to the Turtles while also recapturing a sense of nostalgia for older viewers who are not necessarily watching every single animated TV show. The movie features a unique visual style that builds on an exciting trend from recent years and pushes the animation medium forward, with a story that reinvents many of the classic characters with new backstories and motivations that still capture their essence while breathing new life into them. The result is a movie that puts the teenage back in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," with a fantastic main cast that added a lot of improvisation to the characters.
One of the characters to get a major retconning is none other than Splinter, the martial arts teacher and father figure to the Turtles. When he was first introduced in the "TMNT" comic by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, Splinter was the pet rat of a ninja, who learned to mimic his mater's movements to teach himself martial arts. After his master was killed by Shredder, Splinter comes across the Turtles and decides to raise them, teaching them martial arts to avenge his master — which they do by killing Shredder in the first issue of the original comic. Other interpretations make him the actual human ninja, who is mutated into a rat.
"Mutant Mayhem" does something different. The film highlights the mutant part of "TMNT" by focusing on the turtles' sense of longing for acceptance in a world that hates everything it doesn't understand. It is here that Splinter's new backstory lies, and one of the film's best gags.
Rat dad and turtle tots
In "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," Splinter is portrayed as less of a wise, old martial arts master and more like a single dad raising four kid, a guy who is just perpetually anxious about the outside world harming his boys. And he has a good reason to think that.
During a flashback scene, we learn that this version of Splinter is literally just a regular rat whose best friend was a cockroach that got stepped on by a human (and then Splinter ate his friend's remains, because he was still just a regular rat). He found some baby turtles covered in ooze in the sewer, and because they're the only things he's met that didn't immediately hate him, he decided to raise them as his own. Now mutated himself after touching the ooze on the turtles, Splinter eventually introduces the boys to the human world. But the humans screamed in fear and disgust and threw garbage at them. This makes Splinter decide humans are true monsters, not to be trusted.
Learning the ways of the ninja
It is this incident that prompts Splinter to teach himself, and his boys, martial arts. But because he is no longer associated in any way with ninjitsu, this version of Splinter has to rely on scavenged VHS tapes of live-action martial arts training videos.
What really sells this new origin for Splinter is that he is not voiced by just a famous comedian, but he is played by ever-evolving martial arts legend Jackie Chan. The film then subverts expectations about his casting, underplaying his background in martial arts but still letting the actor use his comedic chops. One of his movies is even referenced in a series of clips used to teach the boys martial arts.
Splinter is one of the biggest mentor characters in fiction, a character integral to "TMNT." Now, "Mutant Mayhem" changes his characterization in a way that makes him different and more grounded. And yet, this is still Splinter, and it is a tremendous joy to see him kick ass as a ninja in the third act.