Trivia / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

• All-Star Cast: The voice cast for the film is utterly stacked. We have Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, Micah Abbey as Donatello, Brady Noon as Raphael, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Ayo Edebiri as April O'Neil, Jackie Chan as Splinter, Producer Seth Rogen and John Cena as Bebop and Rocksteady, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, Post Malone as Ray Fillet, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut, Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom, and Ice Cube as Superfly.
• Banned in China: The film was pulled from release in the Middle East a few weeks before its release date, possibly due to the pride flags in the background of the school scene.
• Casting Gag:
  • Rocksteady is voiced by John Cena, making him the second time that he was played by a wrestler; the first being Sheamus from 2016's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.
  • Giancarlo Esposito voices Baxter Stockman. A tailor-made casting to have the resident mad scientist voiced by the same actor who played Gus Fring.
  • Being the producer of the movie, Seth Rogen could presumably cast himself as literally anyone he'd want. Which character does he choose? He plays the warthog once again.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In the French dub, actor Gérard Darmon as Splinter and actor/comedian Audrey Lamy as Cynthia Utrom.
  • In the Japanese dub, Leonardo is voiced by the singer Ryubi Miyase, April by Kyoko Saito, from Hinatazaka46, and Ray Fillet by rock singer Kaonashi Hasegawa from the band CreepHyp.
• Children Voicing Children: For the first time in the franchise, the turtles are all voiced by actual teenagers, something requested by Seth Rogen for authenticity.
• Content Leak:
  • Finalized renders of the Turtles' character designs were leaked in December 2022, three months before the teaser trailer would properly introduce their new look.
  • In February 2023, toyline picture leaks revealed the looks and names of the Turtles, Splinter, and some of the mutants featured in the film. It predates the formal cast and teaser trailer depicting them on March 4 and 6, 2023.
  • Storyboards of an entire scene also leaked online around this time. The storyboards were an early version of the high school scene different from the one in the final movie, and reveals that the Rat King was originally the film's main antagonist before being cut and replaced with Superfly.
  • Tony Hawk accidentally let slip that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were composing the score for the film.
• Creator Cameo:
  • Co-creator Kevin Eastman appears as a bystander who comes to Splinter’s aid in the climax.
  • Director Jeff Rowe plays a "Man Who Loves Being Young and Free to Go Places."
• Creator's Oddball:
  • For Rogen and Goldberg's Point Grey Pictures. While Rogen has acted in family-friendly films before, the works he writes and/or produces almost all tend to be raunchy and hard-R, including the production company's last animated film, Sausage Party. This is the first project by Rogen and Goldberg geared toward family audiences.
  • Mutant Mayhem is also compared to Point Grey's previous superhero productions, The Boys and Invincible, which were both made for adult audiences.
  • And finally, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails aren't well known for composing animated family-friendly films, with this being their second foray in that field after Soul.
• Crossdressing Voices: Scumbug is female in this continuity but is voiced by Alex Hirsch... not that it matters, given she’s completely incomprehensible anyway.
• Dawson Casting: Unlike the Turtles, April (who is a teenager again in this adaptation) is voiced by Ayo Edebiri, who was in her late twenties when the movie was released.
• Descended Creator: Producer and co-writer Seth Rogen voices Bebop.
• Directed by Cast Member: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Luis Leonardo Suárez is an additional voice as well as the ADR director and co-writer.
• Early Draft Tie-In: In an interview with Collider, director Jeff Rowe explained that Playmates Toys' Superfly figure was based on an earlier draft of the character. The toy features Superfly with Baxter Stockman's tattered clothing, which Rowe clarified was an early attempt to make the two identities the same as usual.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: A lot of The Turtles' dialogue was improvised by their voice actors after Seth Rogen overheard them having a conversation.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Micah Abbey is the youngest actor among the turtle actors. He voices Donnie, who according to the tie-in materials is older than Mikey.^note This also happened in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) where only Donnie was voiced by an actual teenager, meaning he was the youngest cast member amongst the Turtle actors.
• The Other Darrin: The Japanese dub is a meta-example, actor-wise: Splinter is voiced by Kenyuu Horiuchi, rather than Hiroya Ishimaru, despite the latter being the regular dub voice of Jackie Chan in basically almost all his movies.
• Milestone Celebration: The movie was released on the 20th anniversary of the second cartoon.
• Pop-Star Composer: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails composed the score.
• Production Posse:
  • From the movie Neighbors, Rogen is reunited with co-stars Rose Byrne, and Hannibal Buress.
  • Rogen also reunites with Giancarlo Esposito. Esposito previously appeared on The Boys, which Rogen executive produces. The same goes for both John Cena, as he starred in Blockers, and Brady Noon, thanks to Good Boys.
  • Paul Rudd once again reunites with Rogen in another animated feature produced by him since Sausage Party.
  • Director Jeff Rowe reunites with actress Maya Rudolph from The Mitchells vs. the Machines, which he co-wrote and co-directed. Rowe also re-teams with Alex Hirsch and Michael Rianda from both Gravity Falls and Mitchells.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Comes with no surprise, but the film's director, Jeff Rowe, co-producer/co-writer Evan Goldberg, and co-producer/co-writer/Bebop voice actor Seth Rogen are all longtime fans of the franchise. Both Rogen and Rowe have a massive love of the original Ninja Turtles toy line, which helps implement the inclusion of mutants outside of the Turtles.
  • Superfly voice actor Ice Cube and his family are casual Turtles fans. Ice Cube recalls taking his children to see the original 1990s trilogy in theaters.
• Role Reprise: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Arturo Mercado returns as Splinter after dubbing him in the Warner Bros. dub of TMNT, though in this case, it may simply be a coincidence, as he is also the regular dub voice of Jackie Chan.
• Those Two Actors: Rogen once again appears alongside frequent collaborators Rose Byrne and Paul Rudd. It's also his first film with Jackie Chan outside of the Kung Fu Panda films.
• Throw It In!: According to Jeff Rowe, the He-Man cover of "What's Up" by 4 Non-Blondes that was played during the chase scene was suggested by Seth Rogen himself, as he suggested to the team that they use "a crazy version" of "What's Up".
• Voices in One Room: Rogen states that most of the cast would record together to allow for improvisation.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Earlier drafts included the Shredder as a major antagonist, though he was ultimately removed to focus more on the mutant conflict of the story. He is briefly teased at the very end of The Stinger, indicating that he is being Saved for the Sequel.
  • A leaked storyboard showed an early version of the high school scene, where April's board was tracking sightings of the Rat King, indicating that he was originally the Big Bad before the creators went with Superfly instead.
  • Early concept art shows that Rat King's design was repurposed for Bad Bernie.
  • Scale Tail was intended to be part of Superfly's crew and has concept art, but was replaced with another character after the animation team expressed difficulty rigging snakes, as stated in an interview with director Jeff Rowe. His model shows up as one of the holograms Cynthia Utrom shows the Turtles.
  • Early concept art indicated the Technodrome would have played a part in the film.
  • In an interview with Collider, director Jeff Rowe explained they initially had Baxter Stockman as a teacher at Eastman High, where the film originally put the Turtles in high school by Act One. Stockman would have turned into Superfly.
  • Concept art for Leonardo and Michelangelo showed that the turtles' initial design would've been based more on their 1990 film trilogy appearances.
• Word of God: Seth Rogen and company explained that they actively encouraged the Turtles' actors to feel free to include contemporary slang and pop culture references in their improv, as they wanted them to sound as authentically teenage as possible. This in turn made the film a time capsule of The New '10s and The New '20s.

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