Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 4K Ultra HD

In "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," 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. (Gary Reber)

Special features include four featurettes: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (HD 06:14), "The Mutant Uprising" (HD 08:34), "New York, New York: The Visual World Of Mutant Mayhem" (HD 05:57) and "Learn To Draw Leo" (HD 21:12) and a digital copy.

The 2.39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 4K Ultra Dolby Vision/HD HDR10 picture, reviewed on a VIZIO Quantum X P85QX-JI UHD/HDR display, was animated digitally and sourced from a 4K Digital Intermediate. The picture exhibits strikingly unique animation that exhibits a kind of textured art. The animation is brilliant with extremely fast action. The color palette is strongly saturated with superb primaries and nuanced color shadings exhibited in the wide color gamut. Colors are bold and rich and warm in intensity, and greens, blues, purples, reds, and oranges often pop on screen. Textural composition and color depth are superb. The sense of dimensional depth is impressive. HDR contrast is wide with deep blacks, excellent shadow depth and brilliant white levels. Resolution is superb with fine textural detail exhibited throughout on the fascinating characters, such as Turtle skin and shells and fine lines on their masks. The detail in every frame is incredible. This is a compelling innovative animated feature that can be appreciated for its artistic treatment as a reference picture. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is dynamic sounding throughout with exciting soundfield envelopment. Surround energy is intense. Atmospherics and sound effects are quite active with effective directionalization across the soundstage and throughout the soundfield. Spatial awareness is excellent in the complicated sound environments. No matter the level of mayhem intensity, the sonics are clear and precisely articulated throughout. Everything sounds exceptionally natural, from atmospherics to sound effects, to the dialogue track. Foley sound effects are busy throughout, as well as all sorts of natural sound effects, both nuanced and loud. Imaging between channels is precise, with superb localization. Deep bass extends to sub-25 Hz in the .1 LFE channel and enhances the transient action movements without exaggerated boom. Explosions are powerful. The orchestral score is quite active with a wide and deep soundstage that aggressively extends to the surrounds. ADR dialogue and animation match well with directionallity and satisfying spatial integration.

The Immersive Sound element is comprised of sporadic din atmospherics and sound effects, which are very few. This height layer element fails to achieve the rich picture imagery possibilities for spherical sonics, which would have immensely enhanced the spatial dimensonality. Not even the music was extended to the height layer.

Otherwise, this is a uniquely creative and mesmerizing ear-level holosonic® soundtrack that is impressively lively and exciting, and an excellent home theatre reference showcase. (Gary Reber)