Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Footage Reaction: This Looks Killer, Dudes [CinemaCon 2023]

/Film is still on the ground at CinemaCon 2023 in Las Vegas this week, where Ben Pearson is reporting back on exclusive first looks at some of the biggest and best movies on the horizon. Among them? A new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot with none other than comedy duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg behind the scenes. The "Superbad" and "This is the End" writers are on board "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" as producers, and the new film looks a lot different than its half-shelled predecessors. For one thing, it stars actual teenagers in a coming-of-age story; for another, it's set to bring a pretty unique animation style to a familiar set of characters.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" hits theaters in August, and the Paramount and Nickelodeon film is bringing in a whole new cast to play fun-loving turtle heroes Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael. Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr, Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon star as the teens, while Rogen, his frequent collaborator Rose Byrne, "The Bear" breakout Ayo Edebiri, "Breaking Bad" star Giancarlo Esposito, and "What We Do in the Shadows" star Natasia Demetriou will play supporting roles, along with a slate of comedians, actors, and musicians including Ice Cube, Post Malone, Jackie Chan, Maya Rudolph, Paul Rudd, Hannibal Buress, and John Cena.

Audiences at CinemaCon got a sneak peek at footage from the new movie today, and our own Ben Pearson gave us a rundown of what was shown. 

We started off with Seth Rogen taking the stage in a dark green suit. "It seems unfair to ask studio executives to fill a stage designed for the most charismatic humans on the planet. They built this for Adele!" Rogen quipped. "There was something very appropriate about seeing a studio executive rising out of the sewer," he also joked in reference to the fact that one of Paramount's executives came out of a sewer on stage with an orange mask on and a pizza in his hand.

"We finally made a movie where, if you show this to your children, you're not a terrible parent," Rogen said knowing a lot of his movies have been the opposite of family-friendly. He also emphasized that this movie will lean into the teenage element. "What if we cast actual teenagers and let them record together...and capture their insane teenage energy and put that in the movie," he said before adding, "They said so many disgusting things we couldn't put in the movie." He also mentioned that the turtles will talk, bicker, and act like actual teens in this film. Now, let's talk about the footage.

The footage opened with April interviewing the turtles, and Mikey is asking if there are more people like her. Will people accept them? April says, "No, there's no way," which plays as a funny moment. They just want to be accepted, and they think that if they take down bad guys with April, they can prove themselves. The heroes in a half-shell are on the trail of a villain named Superfly. In a darkroom, a wall has an investigation collage complete with yarn and whatnot, including  the question, "Who is Superfly?"

It then cuts to a scene that shows the brothers mocking Leonardo for saying, "Let's go," like he's a leader. They use baby voices, like, "Let's go, ooooh!" Bebop and Rocksteady appear and they're straight-up jacked, as we've seen in the trailer. The footage makes it seem like Superfly is the main villain, with Bebop and Rocksteady as his underlings. There are other bad guys though, including Wingnut, Ray Fillet, Leatherhead, Genghis Frog, Scumbug (who only speaks vermin), and Mondo Gecko, who speaks with an Australian accent. Mikey and Mondo appear to get along with one of them saying, "I'm digging your vibe."

A montage shows the turtles jumping across rooftops and off the back of cars. Raphael asks April if she filmed them doing that. April says, "Am I supposed to film everything you do? Because a lot of it is dumb." 

Leonardo tattles on his bros to Splinter when they get home about almost going to the movies with a human. They're all pissed, "Leo, you ratted us out." Splinter says: "Hey! Don't use that word that way." 

Ben mentions that there are a lot of Zack Snyder-esque slow-motion moments, not unlike the opening of "Watchmen," where they're fighting bad guys, looking like comic panels brought to life. Overall, it looks spectacular and killer, and the animation style is exactly what you'd expect from the trailer. And that's all!

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" hits theaters August 4, 2023.