Film

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Mutant Mayhem trades the shiny, uncanny CG of past Turtles films for a scribbly, textured look that actually feels drawn by teenagers, matched by a cast of real teens voicing the brothers with genuine adolescent chaos. It's fast, funny, a little scruffy, and more interested in being a coming-of-age hangout comedy than a straight-faced action movie. Great for families, animation nerds, and anyone nostalgic for the sewer.

TMDb rating7.2

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse2018

Also reinvents a beloved property through wildly inventive animation and genuine teenage awkwardness — if you loved the scrappy visual energy of Mutant Mayhem, this proved comic-book cartoons could look like nothing else.

But The multiverse plotting is denser and more emotionally weighty than Mutant Mayhem's breezier hangout vibe.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse poster

The Mitchells vs. the Machines2021

Same studio, same chaotic sketchbook energy, and the same love of misfit families saving the world from mutated technology, with jokes that land at kid and adult level alike.

But It's more about a human family's dynamics than street-level action, so expect fewer fights and more heart-to-hearts.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines poster

Turning Red2022

Another coming-of-age story about hiding a monstrous secret from the world while just wanting to be a normal teenager, wrapped in equally bold, expressive animation and boy-band-level enthusiasm.

But It's Pixar-soft and emotionally direct where Mutant Mayhem is scrappy and joke-dense; the vibe shift is real.

Turning Red poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Attack the Block2011

Both are about teenagers using intimate knowledge of their own turf to fight off a monster invasion nobody believes they can handle — one just trades pizza and sewers for hoodies and stairwells.

British teenagers defend their south London tower block from an alien invasion using nothing but street smarts, bikes, and swagger — the exact same scrappy-underdogs-vs-monsters engine as Mutant Mayhem, just grittier and R-rated.

But Thick regional slang and a much darker, more violent register than the turtles' PG romp might throw off younger viewers.

Attack the Block poster
More like this (8)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles1990no page yet

The original live-action cult classic that started it all, with practical suits, a grimier NYC, and a slower, sincerer take on the brothers' bond that still holds up as pure nostalgia.

But The animatronics and pacing are very much of their era, and the humor is far tamer than the new film's rapid-fire gags.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World2010

Edgar Wright's hyperactive visual style and video-game logic make for a kindred spirit — scrappy young underdogs battling absurd threats while just trying to figure out who they are.

But It's live-action with an older cast and a romance-plot backbone that has nothing to do with turtles or ninjas.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World poster

Big Mouth2017

If the turtles' raunchy teenage banter was your favorite part, this animated series turns that dial all the way up, with the same unfiltered voice-cast energy about the horrors of being a teenager.

But It's aggressively adult and sexually explicit — nothing here is remotely for the family movie-night crowd.

Big Mouth poster

Superbad2007

Seth Rogen, who co-wrote and produced Mutant Mayhem, brought that same foul-mouthed, big-hearted teenage-friendship energy to this raunchy comedy about outsiders trying to survive one wild night.

But No mutants, no action — just two awkward teenagers, alcohol, and terrible decisions.

Superbad poster

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse2023

The visual ambition somehow one-ups its predecessor, and its themes of destiny versus choice echo the turtles' own struggle to decide who they get to be beyond their origin story.

But It ends on a cliffhanger and demands you've seen the first film, a bigger commitment than a stand-alone night.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse poster

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze1991no page yet

More campy 90s sequel fun, doubling down on the goofy mutant villains and pizza-fueled brotherhood that first made these characters lovable, for anyone chasing pure throwback comfort viewing.

But It's thin on plot and heavy on cheese, with effects that have aged considerably rougher than the story.

West Side Story1961

Same city, same core question of teenage outsiders forming a found family against a hostile adult world — Mutant Mayhem just swapped the choreography for nunchucks.

Decades before turtles walked the sewers, this musical told the same New York story — teenage gangs, turf, and the ache of wanting to belong to a family and a city that keeps rejecting you.

But It's a sung-through musical from 1961 with dated gender politics, tonally about as far from a mutant comedy as you can get.

West Side Story poster

Marvel's Daredevil2015

Both are about outcasts hiding in New York's underbelly who put on a mask to protect a city that doesn't know they exist — one just plays it for blood instead of jokes.

A masked vigilante fights crime from the rooftops and alleys of Hell's Kitchen in this brutally serious, R-rated take on the secret-identity-superhero-in-New-York story — the tonal opposite number to the turtles' sewer.

But It's genuinely dark and violent with a multi-season commitment, a long way from a light family comedy.

Marvel's Daredevil poster

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