Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Team Unpacks Its JoJo Crossover

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now in theaters, giving fans of the sewer-dwelling siblings a brand new take on the Heroes in a Half-Shell. While the Turtles will be facing some old and new villains in Super Fly and his band of rowdy mutants, the film's run time is also fit to bursting with quite a few anime references, with one being so big that it even plays a pivotal role in the final fight. Now, the creators responsible for the movie have revealed how one reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure hit the screen.

Without diving too deep into spoiler territory, Mutant Mayhem sees Donatello reveling in his love of all things anime. On top of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, the film features references to the likes of Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, and Jujutsu Kaisen to name a few. As the movie focuses on making the Turtle brothers seem far more like teenagers of the modern era this time around, it's clear that anime is continuing to gain traction the world over.

JoJo Mutant Ninja Turtles

In one specific scene during Mutant Mayhem, the Turtles find themselves wearing attire to blend in with the human world. Once again conveying his love of anime, Donatello wears a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure hoodie. In a new social media post, Andrew Jousta, the Script/Recording Coordinator on the film, explains how the anime logo made it into the movie. 

Early on during a recording session we had some anime references in the script. Jeff asked the boys to name some current ones they liked and Micah mentioned Jojo – thus Donnie became a Jojo fan! https://t.co/lmgUiQEV1K

— Andrew Joustra (@AJoustra) August 1, 2023

In our recent review of the animated movie, we broke down how Mutant Mayhem's adherence to this time period can often be a strength and a weakness, "The movie's humor can be hit or miss, such as having a "milking" joke that is brought up dozens of times during the film's run time. Mutant Mayhem is a product of its time, making references and nods to recent pop culture tidbits that might seem out of place even a year into the future. This feels like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that was specifically made for "Gen Z," which again, has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. The soundtrack has some choice picks, but can sometimes be a tad too overwhelming and might not fit in as well as more unique tracks might have."

What do you think of the Joestars continuing to make their way into North American culture? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and turtles.