There are some good gags and clever innovations in the animated but there is one brilliant idea: casting Ice Cube as the voice of the movie91裸聊视频檚 mutant insect supervillain Super Fly.

It might have once been hard to foresee the value of having the emcee who rapped of 91裸聊视频渄ropping bombs on your moms91裸聊视频� as the MVP of a PG-rated kids movie. But we91裸聊视频檙e now up to the seventh 91裸聊视频淭eenage Mutant Ninja Turtles91裸聊视频� film, not counting all the series and videogames. That91裸聊视频檚 a lot of movies for a bit of IP that91裸聊视频檚 clung more firmly to lunch boxes than it has to pop culture. For the turtles, it was getting to be time to either, as Ice Cube would say, 91裸聊视频渃hickity-check yo91裸聊视频� self91裸聊视频� or try something new.

91裸聊视频淢utant Mayhem,91裸聊视频� which opens in theaters Wednesday, can91裸聊视频檛 entirely get over the feeling of trodding over well-covered turtle ground. But if we must go once more into the ooze, the film by director Jeff Rowe (co-director of ) and co-written by co-producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, is probably the best of a not-so-stellar franchise. It91裸聊视频檚 certainly the one most invested with that 91裸聊视频渢eenage91裸聊视频� part of the turtles91裸聊视频� name. Plus, it91裸聊视频檚 got Ice Cube as a fly who quotes from the O91裸聊视频橨ays.

The animation is vividly textured, the beat is persistently hip-hop (Lauryn Hill, De La Soul, Ol91裸聊视频� Dirty Bastard and others pack the electronic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and the New York of the film is impressively detailed. But the most important twist to this 91裸聊视频淭eenage Mutant Ninja Turtles91裸聊视频� iteration may be diving into the teenage-ness of its 15-year-old turtles.

If 91裸聊视频淏arbie91裸聊视频� was balanced between 91裸聊视频淢utant Mayhem91裸聊视频� gives itself over more fully to the mindset of adolescence. That91裸聊视频檚 in the gross-out humor and the comic book-like feel of the animation. But these are also recognizable teenagers who watch movies (91裸聊视频淔erris Bueller91裸聊视频檚 Day Off91裸聊视频�), pine for concert tickets and make goofy phone videos of themselves slicing watermelons.

What Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu) and Raphael (Brady Noon) really want is to fit in and go to high school like other teens. They have been relegated to the sewer ever since Splinter, a rat voiced by Jackie Chan, happened upon them after they were exposed as hatchlings to the same ooze that spawned Super Fly 91裸聊视频� who himself was the product of experiments by scientist Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito, fated to dubious laboratories).

Splinter has much the same opinion of the majority of the rats in 91裸聊视频淩atatouille91裸聊视频�: Humans can91裸聊视频檛 be trusted. (Splinter91裸聊视频檚 particular fear is that they will 91裸聊视频渕ilk91裸聊视频� him.91裸聊视频�) So the turtles have grown up underground, a little like the homeschooled family of while yearning for the wider world.

They find a hint of it with a high-school journalist named April O91裸聊视频橬eil (Ayo Edebiri), who wants to document, and thus prove to humankind, their decency. At the same, the turtles meet the charismatic Super Fly (voiced with bombastic aplomb by Ice Cube) and his band of mutants. At first, they91裸聊视频檙e fast-friends 91裸聊视频� 91裸聊视频渃ousins,91裸聊视频� Super Fly says 91裸聊视频� but the turtles then start hearing of Super Fly91裸聊视频檚 plans to turn all animals into mutants and eradicate the world of humans.

91裸聊视频淧eoples, they got to go,91裸聊视频� chimes one mutant.

Some of the thunder of 91裸聊视频淢utant Mayhem91裸聊视频� has been stolen by 91裸聊视频淚nto the Spider-Verse91裸聊视频� and 91裸聊视频� films that likewise upend the typical look of studio animation and do it with a pulsing soundtrack; but they did it more eclectically.

Yet this 91裸聊视频淭eenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,91裸聊视频� while a half shell of those films, has its own low-key charms. It91裸聊视频檚 goofier, grosser and mostly fun. The four turtles are never more than a hard-to-differentiate bale of overlapping dialogue of doubt and anxiety. But that first word in their name finally feels genuine. Seven films in, it91裸聊视频檚 only right that Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael should get a renaissance.

91裸聊视频淭eenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,91裸聊视频� a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for sequences of violence and action, language and impolite material. Running time: 99 minutes. Three stars out of four.

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