This article is presented by Paramount Pictures.
Almost everyone has a memory of theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This is true for the filmmakers ofTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
It was the first thing that I ever loved in life, Rowe tells us about his fandom.
We just could not find them, Rowe recalls.
Were holding them up and cheering, We found them!
Thats just like, one of the best days of my life.
He studied kyokushin karate for 10 years because of the Turtles influence.
My dad bought me a pair of nunchucks, Rogen remembers, laughing about it in his signature way.
I could not have been more their target audience.
Like Rowe, Rogen obsessed overNinja Turtlestoys.
They opened up my imagination in a lot of ways, he says.
The Turtles also venture outside and meet people for the first time, like aspiring journalist April ONeil.
The film brings to the table new and radical ideas for the franchise.
That freshness about what it is to be a teenager is something that made us excited.
Rogen adds, We wanted to make a coming-of-ageNinja Turtlesmovie that focused on the teenage elements.
That, to me, was always kind of the last word in theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
When youre young, you dont get that they dont act like teenagers.
To make a movie that served that purpose was really appealing.
That was the motivation forSuperbad.
Then I startedFreaks and Geeks.
Given their background, Rogen felt uniquely qualified to give the Turtles their overdue teen movie.
Its a genre that was formative to me, creatively, he says.
Being a teenager is one of the most difficult times in a humans life, says Rowe.
Your body changes, all these differences in your chemistry that lead you to have insane feelings.
Youre passionate; youre afraid, angsty, and nervous.
You feel the most alone as a teenager.
He adds the best teen movies engage with the preposterous drama and seriousness of those years.
Acceptance is a keyword forMutant Mayhem.
That was a very early part of the pitch from Seth and Evan, Rowe says.
It was something they thought was funny.
Splinters a six-foot tall rat.
Thats something Ive never seenNinja Turtlesdo before.
It acknowledges these fantastical things in a way that grounds them in the real world.
Funny as it is to picture chasing giant rats, the filmmakers found a deeper emotional story.
Thats a great reason for Splinter to keep the family in the shadows, says Rowe.
Hes a flawed dad who over-indexes on safety, and the Turtles are suffering because of that.
It gives the Turtles something to long for because theyve been denied it their entire lives.
Pretty much everyone feels like a mutant between ages 13 and 19.
Its a universal feeling of angst and anguish, Rogen says.
From my experience, all teenagers feel a desire to be normal.
That was the great marriage of plot and story.
In a strange way, one might seeMutant Mayhemas a complementary double feature withSuperbad.
Superbadis about the same thing, Rogen points out.
Its a timeless feeling.
Why are we weird?
Why arent we doing things that everyone else seems to be doing?
Why arent we invited?
All those ideas are so relatable and worked with the weird plotMutant Mayhemhas.
The Way of the Notebook Doodle
At first blush,Mutant Mayhemis unlike anything seen inTMNThistory.
The New York boroughs it takes place in arent characterized by clean lines and ultra-realistic fidelity.
Instead, the movie wholly embraces the franchises roots in independent comics.
It also references urban photography and the chaotic doodles that pack a high schoolers notebook.
But Rowe says thatMutant Mayhemis striving for something different.
Mutant Mayhems north star lay in something different than whattheSpider-Versefranchiseaims for.
We looked at the drawings you make when youre a teenager, says Rowe.
Youre drawing nostrils and acne.
You render with care and focus, which is betrayed by the fact you have no formal training.
Rowe, whose filmThe Mitchells vs. Its sketchy; its lumpy; its deconstructed.
Its a humanist style that emphasizes imperfection, while CG animation spent 30 years trying to make things photorealistic.
This is steering the ship 180 degrees towards something impressionistic and not conventional.
He adds: Its rebellious, its relevant.
Its like grunge music.
Let us not forget those belovedNinja Turtlestoys the filmmakers prized as kids.
Of all the iconic franchises that pack a toy box, be itTransformersorPower Rangers,TMNTis marinated in gooeyness.
In the early 90s, gross was an aesthetic, says Rowe.
TheNinja Turtlesespecially were like molded plastic fever dreams.
They were so inventive… Like Michelangelo in a scuba suit had a starfish stuck to his butt.
It inspired me to tell stories and have a sense of humor.
This appreciation dripped into the teams approach toMutant Mayhem.
Seth Rogen says the filmmakers strove to keep what was drafted in the concept art.
That did not happen here, he reveals.
It was asymmetrical and imperfect.
I remember the first time seeing it dimensionalized, and it blew my mind.
That was something we talked about.
How do we make it feel fun and silly?
This reckless weirdness that almost every kid playing with their toys has?
Casting was arduous, according to Rogen.
A recurring frustration I have is that you never perform with the other actors, he says.
That energy was important to capture.
So we went through painstaking lengths to double-check that as much as possible, they all recorded together.
Theyre very much [acting like] themselves, Rowe says.
So much of the dialogue is just things they said to each other.
We wanted these characters to be complex and feel like people you knew.
I remember seeing them between takes, eating snacks in the lunch room.
They were yelling at each other, talking over each other and making fun of each other.
It cant be scripted.
It cant feel overly written.
It was important to have them together and guide their improv in a way we knew would be usable.
And then theres legendary martial artist and action starJackie Chanas the voice of Master Splinter.
Im the biggest Jackie Chan fan, Rogen raves.
Hes so funny and so good in the movie.
I love his contributions to cinema, says Rowe.
Getting to direct him was a gift to me.
Hes everything you hope for.
He doesnt shy away, and he works so hard.
Wed wake up groggy like, What are we doing?
And then we leave the recording sessions dancing on the Moon, screaming, That was amazing!
Its better than coffee, directing Jackie Chan.
They can go another 40, easy.
Theres an emotional center, that is, what does it mean to be a teenager?
Thats why we focused on it, says Weaver.
We knew we could really connect with the audience.
Theres a quick read to it.
There are high stakes and high emotions when youre a teenager.
Everything feels absolute, even though it ultimately is a period of time.
Says Rogen, We tried to do these characters justice.
This was made by people who have a genuine love for these characters.
The Turtles are funny.
Theyre not stuffy superheroes who fight for ideas you cant understand, like justice.
They feel like human beings, friends you want to hang out with.
A teen slant to theNinja Turtlesechoes Rowes own adolescence.
That felt thrilling and exhilarating.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhemis out in theaters on August 2.
