Summary
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem makes a departure from the comic canon by presenting a new origin story for the iconic turtle brothers and their master Splinter.
- By introducing a new origin story and leaving out the turtles' last name, Mutant Mayhem sets the stage for future films to explore a more humble and endearing family backstory for the franchise.
In a step away from comic canon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem got one big thing wrong about the iconic turtles. Directed by Jeff Rowe and produced in part by comedy actor Seth Rogan, Mutant Mayhem updated the major media franchise starring the famous anthropomorphic turtle brothers with an installment that features imaginative animation, a star-studded cast, and some changes to the original story. Despite becoming a fresh and impressive addition to the franchise, the movie made adjustments to the TMNT source material with the intention of encouraging viewers to have a stronger connection with the young turtles and their guardian, Splinter.
This meant that audiences were provided with a brand new TMNT origin story that separates from previous iterations of the TMNT narrative where Splinter is a martial arts-trained rat who educates mutant turtles in combat with his own, sometimes nefarious, objectives in mind. Instead, Mutant Mayhem opted to provide an original backstory for how the turtles and their master came to be - in fact, in an interview with Uproxx, Rowe dives deeper into his decision to split from the source material:
"The logic is so twisted and weird... 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 lieu of older, fantastical origins that saw Splinter take advantage of ooze-mutated turtles, Mutant Mayhem depicts Splinter as a regular rat living in NYC who discovers abandoned ooze-covered turtles whom he decides to adopt as sons.
The Turtles Actually Do Have A Last Name
Mutant Mayhem's adoption narrative effectively wipes out the fact that the turtle brothers had a last name in previous TMNT installments. After Splinter decides to take the turtles in and the ooze turns the family unit into mutants, they are forced into hiding for fear of human intervention and thus train in martial arts via YouTube to protect themselves. But the turtles are young and curious about the human world, and in a hilarious film scene where the turtles are out exploring a school, they come across a sheet for improv class that interests them but also befuddles them with a prompt to sign up with their full names.
While Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem implies they have no last name, previous installments established Hamato as their given surname. Splinter's real name is Hamato Yoshi in the comics, a name which was ed to Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael as Splinter's henchman or pets. Mutant Mayhem highlights a lighter, much more relatable father/son dynamic between Splinter and the four turtles, and their last names are noticeably left out as they are less integral to the overall narrative.
Mutant Mayhem's Turtles Origin Chain Might Make Their Name Non-Canon
Alternatively, Mutant Mayhem focuses on the relationship dynamic between Splinter and his sons and replaces the original origin story for something new. Mutant Mayhem avoided delving into the Hamato Yoshi aspect of Splinter from the previous TMNT installments altogether and found greater use for him as an ordinary street rat with no combat training. The break from TMNT's initial origins suggests the turtles' names in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem are not canon, but it also provides the perfect basis for setting up more humble and exceedingly sweet family origins for the future of the franchise to jump off from.
Source: Uproxx
