Superhero movies all require some level of spectacle to draw people to the movie theatre. In the last several years dominated by the MCU and DCU, this spectacle comes in the form of parallel realities, multiverses, time travel, and other plot-confounding wonkiness. Done well, like in this summer's new installment of the Spider-Man animated trilogy, this brings a nice energy and complexity to a story; done poorly, as in any number of other outings, it muddles and distracts from the human elements of a great hero story. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (possibly the longest blockbuster release title in recent memory, clocking in at over 40 characters) bravely ditches this cheap new storytelling tactic and just tells a good, straightforward, coming-of-age heroic journey. Sure, the protagonists are talking turtles, and there's plenty of toxic ooze and techno-empowered anthropomorphic animal supervillainy, but the film is really grounded in a great way.

Despite choosing turtles as my favorite animal as a child, I never got into TMNT, so Mutant Mayhem was a fun primer and impressively accessible. At the movie's opening, a mad scientist is creating a new breed of animals as a "family" for him, a weirdo who was never socially accepted. He's raided and killed by a mercenary group working for the sinister Techno Cosmic Research Institute (TCRI) and its director, evil-accented Cynthia Utrom (voiced by an unrecognizable Maya Rudolph). The animals escape in a flurry of light and violence, and a canister of toxic sludge breaks, seeping through the sewers. 

This sludge makes its way to a rat (it's New York, after all!) and, less intuitively, four baby turtles. The rat becomes humanlike, gaining a name (Splinter) and a voice (Jackie Chan's, whose out-of-touch dad-isms are endearing throughout), as do the turtles. They're raised together as a family under the fear of humanity, although as they become more rebellious and teenaged, our turtle protagonists get more and more jealous of the perks of personhood, such as going to high school and getting a girlfriend. Their joys and frustrations are voiced excellently by four actual teens, whose crosstalk, bickering, and bantering strongly establish their characters' brotherly bonds.

The turtles have an accidental run-in with a human, April O'Neil (the literally everywhere Ayo Edebiri, who's a little annoying in the nerd-redux version of the role but intermittently funny), who they befriend and partner with on a mission to uncover the mastermind plan of Superfly, a mysterious villain. But when the turtles meet Superfly, voiced with perfect menace and bravado by Ice Cube, his plan is revealed to be more pragmatic than purely evil, merely searching for the same social acceptance that his father, brothers, or cousins have sought all their lives. His animal troupe has a deep voice acting roster, with Paul Rudd's eager gecko Mondo coming away as the most memorable, but other funny lines from a singing manta ray (Post Malone) and Genghis Frog (Hannibal Buress).

The humanity at the heart of the movie is palpable; everyone is just looking to fit in, whether they're a hardened villain gang member or stage-fright-afflicted news anchor hopeful. Narrative moments shine when characters work together and embody the spirit of teamwork and inclusivity. Match that message with the beautiful animation — a half-graffiti, half-childhood-scribble style that adds alternatively a gritty urban flair and a kinetic youthful one, and occasionally makes its characters look funnily claymation-ified — and you have a real summer movie for all ages. 

Mutant Mayhem isn't without shortcomings, but they are relatively small. Action scenes are few and far between, so when they work (as in the gangster interrogation montage), it's exciting but leaves you wanting more; when they don't work (like with Splinter's rescue, where it feels like baddies are waiting their turn to attack), it feels like you've been cheated. 

Pop culture references, too, are hit or miss. A couple are funny (like a merc calling Splinter "Ratatouille" or Ice Cube saying, "Six in the morning, police at my door"), some are okay (I love Ferris Bueller but the live-action scene feels shoehorned in), but many are just grating. Calling the turtles "little Shreks," namedropping Beyonce or Tom Brady, or buying cutouts of Chris Pine or Chris Evans verge on cheap cinematic navel-gazing.

Those shrugs aside, for lifelong TMNT fans (including an adult man next to me and a young kid behind me) and new turtleheads alike, this was a great outing that's one of the best superhero releases of recent memory.