Writing Lessons From… TMNT Mutant Mayhem

First of all, let me say that the animation of this film is beautiful. Beautiful doesn’t even cover it. The animators deserve pay raises and awards.

As always, we’re in New York with four teenage mutant turtles and their father Splinter, a mutant rat. They’re living in the sewers and were transformed into the wonders they are by ooze (yes, that’s the technical term, ask any TMNT fan).

As with most turtle stories, the boys want to go up to the surface, but Splinter is adamant that it’s too dangerous. They decide that if only they can prove to the surface world that they’re good guys, then it’ll be safe and they can be normal teenagers – go to school, have friends, maybe get girlfriends.
That is the driving force behind their actions. They must prove that they’re not scary monsters so that they’ll be accepted. But how?

Enter April O’Neil, who in this iteration is a Black teenage girl and she is incredible! In fact, I think she was my favourite part of the whole film and I have never said that about a turtle film before. April wants to be a reporter when she grows up, but she’s got a bit of a fear about being in front of the camera. That’s not stopping her from searching for the hottest scoop, and scoops don’t get much hotter than mutant turtles.

The turtles and Splinter weren’t the only creatures to come into contact with the ooze. There’s a collection of other characters gathered from forty years of turtle lore, including the infamous Bebop and Rocksteady, all led by Superfly (a mutant fly, voiced by Ice Cube). Superfly has been shunned by humans who are terrified of him, and he has decided that the only payback is to turn every animal into a mutant, to give them dominance over humans.
Fair enough.

If the turtles can stop him, and if April can catch it on film, then this could be the answer to them getting into high school (who’s going to tell them what a nightmare high school is?!).

Those forty years of character development

Okay, I’ve skirted the issue long enough. You now know what we’re dealing with, so let’s do the biggest lesson any writer can learn from this film.

You’ve got a massive fandom to please, new fans to attract and forty years worth of character development to play with.
What do you do?

Would you stick to the known and loved characters? Would you attempt a start from scratch?

Given that there are 40 years of character development here, it’s probably easier to go back to basics and 1986, to the first cartoon’s classic theme tune.

Ready?

Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines
Raphael is cool but crude
Michelangelo is a party dude

Obviously there’s more to them than that, but that’s the foundation for each one. In every iteration. Since the beginning.
And it starts off well.

Leo is indeed our leader. Almost. It wouldn’t be Leo if he didn’t have some trouble leading at the beginning. It’s Leo’s character arc in each and every iteration.
What was lovely is that they made Leo the turtle who fancied April, with the added depth of him being the brother who most wanted a girlfriend. It adds a little more heart to the otherwise logical, strategic Leo.

Donnie does machines, but in other iterations he’s also a scientist. In the 1990 and 1991 movies, he has the interest and passion but fails to hack into computers and follows a scientist around hanging off his every word (because he’s 15!). By the time we reach the 2012 cartoon, Donatello can do almost everything himself.
Until Mutant Mayhem. Yes, he can drive. But only because he plays video games (what are the others doing in the sewers all day?). Yes, he has a smartphone attached to his arm and some other gadgets, but he doesn’t use them much.
In Mutant Mayhem, Donnie doesn’t really do machines. Or much else other than suggest that he’s a nerd who could do these things but for some reason doesn’t.

Good, lovely, angry Raph. In the animated film TMNT it’s explored how he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s got attitude and rage, and a deep desire to do what’s right although with more violence than Leo would like.
In Mutant Mayhem, his attitude and anger is shown through him shouting a little at the beginning and then Leo giving him permission to shout during a fight scene.
That was it.

On to the party dude. Did Mikey eat pizza in Mutant Mayhem? Yes. Was he fun? Erm, I guess. He had some flair, but none that made him stand out much.

To be honest, all of the turtles with the possible exception of Leo were a little 2D. They were a tad flat. Possibly, dare I say it, undeveloped. Which feels impossible given that the writers had four decades of material to work with.

When I mentioned this to someone, they suggested the possibility of the writers wishing to start afresh, targeting a new, younger audience. Which is fine, it’s certainly a creative decision that can be made.
Personally, I don’t understand why a screenwriter or production company would choose to alienate a generation of fans with disposable income, though.

More importantly, if they did make that creative decision, what did they envision the turtles were doing in the sewers for 15 years? Sure, many of those early years would have been spent learning to talk, being educated by Splinter, and then taught ninjutsu and practising so hard that they become heroes in a half shell by the tender age of 15 – turtle power!
But what about the downtime?

Historically, the turtles’ lair has been filled with games and pizza boxes, TVs, weights, a drum kit, guitars, a dojo, more computer screens than one Donatello could possibly need, maybe even a science lab.
It’s more than plausible to think that four teenage brothers would have niche and unique personalities carved from being bored out of their minds, entertaining themselves and each other, and only socialising with one another in the sewers for over a decade.

There’s so much fun that can be had with that when character building. Why didn’t the writers of Mutant Mayhem jump all over it?

I do have another theory: that the writers didn’t give the turtles the attention they deserved because of the 40 years of character development. We know who they are, so they put their focus on April, Splinter and Superfly instead.

Because the writers did prove that they could create good, well-developed characters. April, as I’ve already mentioned, was brilliantly written. Splinter felt different in the best way, and his story merged beautifully with Superfly’s.

Which brings me to plot lessons…

The origin story was changed a little for Mutant Mayhem and my favourite changes were the reason Splinter feared the surface world, which also fed into Superfly’s experiences and therefore the overall plot, which is a writing device we should all be aware of – there should be connections, mentioned at the beginning that come into play towards the end.

My other favourite part of the altered origin story was that Splinter and the turtles learned ninjutsu from YouTube. Honestly, I would have preferred the 1990s origin story of Splinter learning the martial art from his old master, but what a way to modernise a franchise that started in the ‘80s!

When I was chatting to another TMNT fan about Mutant Mayhem, they asked me if the plot was the same old story – April or Splinter get into trouble and the boys have to save them.
And I stopped.

I’d been so focused on the 2D-ness of the brothers that the plot as a whole hadn’t occurred to me.
No. Mutant Mayhem is not the usual ninja turtle story. The turtles don’t save April or Splinter.
Instead, the writers turned this turtle trope on its head: April and Splinter work together to save the brothers.
And that is genius.

It works with the idea that we’re reverting back to these 15-year-olds being actual 15-year-olds. They’re kids. So of course their dad is going to save their shells. Mutant Mayhem is about the brothers growing up and wanting to be accepted, but they’re at the beginning of that journey. They’re going to screw up.
And in doing so, Splinter – who is often overlooked – is given a proper character arc for once and given a chance to grow. This is hugely important!

The ending is also brilliantly done. Instead of choosing to stay in the shadows of the sewers as the turtles usually do, the boys get their wish and they’re accepted into high school as heroes of New York. They even get to go to prom.

It’s a nice twist on what the fandom would have expected, and the joy with twists when using a story and characters that are so well known is that we’re going in a whole new direction, which means anything could happen.

TLDR (not to be confused with TMNT):

Your characters make a story. I was so bothered by how little I sentimentally fell in love with these specific four turtles that I completely missed the subtle plot twists.

Perhaps not much would have changed had the boys been given more depth, other than a quickening of the heart rate and the desire to buy Mutant Mayhem on DVD and add it to our vast TMNT collection.
Plus, you know, some better dialogue and better use of Donatello’s skills. As well as more conflict between Raph and Leo. The usual.
But maybe that’s why they didn’t do that. Because it’s the usual.

The thing is, after 40 years of character development, the four mutant turtles work. We know who they are, what they want, what drives them, why they argue and what will bring them back together. Sure, you can tweak parts of it. That’s where the fun lies.

But you shouldn’t try and fix what isn’t broken. Instead, you should focus on the joy that already exists.

Will I be adding Mutant Mayhem to my collection? Nope.
Confucius says, forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza.