DVD Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutagen Mayhem

DVD Reviews, Reviews

The hype has begun for Michael Bay’s version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meet Megan Fox. While this will be a return for the turtles to the big screen, they’re still beloved on the small screen. There’s plenty of action and pizza between the turtles as they battle with other mutants. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutagen Mayhem deals with dozens of lost canisters of mutagen all over Manhattan. This means more villains cropping up from Central Park to Soho. The six episodes in the collection are “The Mutation Situation,” “Follow the Leader,” “Invasion of the Squirrelanoids,” “Mutagen Man Unleashed,” “Mikey Gets Shellacne” and “Target: April O’Neil.” The Squirrelanoids are nearly as scary as a reptile with acne. The episodes are much better than the trailer for Michael Bay’s film. Here’s my daughter’s take on the DVD:

The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The transfers look fine since the show was made in the computer. The audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. You can hear Squirrelanoids all over the room. The episodes are Closed Captioned.

Mutation of a Scene (33:16) gives the breakdown of how scenes from all six episodes went from storyboards to the final CGI animation. A great demonstration for those curious about what it takes to Mutate the turtles.

Channel 6 News Special Report: Creatures of the Night (3:10) is a faux newscast from April O’Neil.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutagen Mayhem keeps up the mutated fun in Manhattan.

Nickelodeon and Paramount present Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutagen Mayhem. Starring: Sean Astin, Jason Biggs, Clancy Brown, Kelly Hu, and Phil LaMarr. Boxset Contents: 6 episodes on 1 DVD. Released: March 11, 2014.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.