Seth Rogen Promises TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Has Zero ‘Boring’ Moments

Seth Rogen is building some more hype for the upcoming film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. A fresh reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the film is produced by Seth Rogen alongside Evan Goldberg and James Weaver. Rogen also co-wrote the screenplay with Goldberg, Jeff Rowe, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit. Jeff Rowe directed.

In a new conversation with Empire, Rogen spoke about how much effort had been put into making the film entertaining in every way. Of course, that includes the unique approach to the animation, bearing a Spider-Verse-like pencil-drawn style that lets fans watch the Turtles in a new and exciting way. Rogen teases that pushing the boundaries with the animation also inspired the writers to work that much harder as well, and the result is a film that’s captivating from start to finish, from the “teenage energy” to the compelling story.

“The film itself is permeated with this teenage energy – where you don’t stay in the lines, and you’re pushing harder on the stuff that you like, and you’re impressionably scribbling in the background,” as Rogen explains. “We started to write to the animation style. It needed to capture that – we can never have boring scenes, because the movie itself just seems to be crackling with energy.”

Related: The Best Villains from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Franchise, Ranked

The Energy Is High in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Something else Rogen and Goldberg brought with them to the table was a lifelong love for the source material. The creative partners share how they have old memories of taking karate classes together, partly because they so much loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“Part of the reason I did karate was because of the Ninja Turtles,” Rogen says. “Me and Evan both did karate together. My dad got me nunchucks that I cracked my head open with, because I was obsessed with the Ninja Turtles, and Michelangelo specifically.”

Goldberg added, “Seth had just got these nunchucks. He was like, ‘Yo, check this out, I want to show you this awesome move!’, and just immediately shattered a huge chandelier from his parents’ house into a billion pieces. It took us, like five hours to clean.”

Rogen has a voice role in the animated film as well, as he provides the voice of the villain Bebop alongside John Cena’s Rocksteady. Leading the cast as the titular Heroes in a Half-Shell are Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, and Brady Noon as Raphael. The cast also cinludes Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil, Ice Cube as Superfly, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Post Malone as Ray Fillet, Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom, Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut, and Jackie Chan as Splinter.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem will be released in movie theaters on Aug. 2, 2023. You can watch the official trailer for the animated film below.