Paramount Pictures screened Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem for the first time last night at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and the movie received rave reviews from those in attendance.
Though it was a rough cut with several unfinished sequences, the animated reboot was given a six-minute standing ovation that prompted director Jeff Rowe to return to the stage to soak in the praise.
“Being in the room and feeling all the reactions and hearing all the laughter was amazing, but what really stood out to me was to see our movie received and appreciated in that way by a lot of people who really love and care about animation,” Rowe said (via The Wrap).
“The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem screening was exactly what we look for and expect in terms of energy and fun,” added Marcel Jean, Artistic Director of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. “We very much wanted to bring this film to the Festival, and what we realized tonight is that the Annecy audience who saw ‘TMNT’ rediscovered these characters tonight and witnessed something totally new in the history of this franchise. So it was a great moment, I would say, in my history of being with the festival.”
You can check out some of the Twitter reactions below.
“After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.”
Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu and Brady Noon will voice the roles of Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael, respectively. The cast also includes Jackie Chan as Splinter, Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, Ice Cube as Superfly, Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut, Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Post Malone as Ray Fillet, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, and Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom.
Jeff Rowe (The Mitchells vs. the Machines) directed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which is produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.