TMNT: Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe made sure the CGI animators were not overworked on the film

The reception for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has been very positive and is proving that the brand continues to have a timeless relevance. While sporting an emphasis this time around on the fact that they are teenagers and are coming to terms with their unique existence during adolescence, there is also a fresh take on the look of the animation. The director Jeff Rowe gave credit to the animated Spider-Man films, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse for inspiring him with their unique style and intentions with their animation.

It has been a recently revealed issue that CGI artists on big-budget films work intense conditions with long hours and very few opportunities for rest. During the production of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Rowe paid special attention to how the animators were treated, making sure they were not overworked and exhausted. Rowe told Insider, “That was the thing that was really important to us on this film, and I learned it from Seth and Evan because in getting to know Seth, I’m like, ‘He has a really good work-life balance and everyone at Point Gray does.'”

Rowe continued, “And I asked him about that and he is like, ‘Well, we’re like when you’re doing live action, sometimes you’re on a set for 40 days in a row and it is exhausting and tiring. And we want to make sure that our people have time away from that and that it doesn’t become their entire lives.'” He added, “I really took that to heart and wanted to make sure that when we made this film, we did it ethically.”

“We’d be like, ‘Great, let’s figure that out, and let’s accommodate that because that’s your process and that’s what leads you to make your best art. And we would often do that with most of the team and just try to make sure everyone always felt supported. I never want the team to be suffering more than I am,” Rowe stated.

After the stories of the horrid conditions CGI artists would work under, it’s recently been reported that the animators at Marvel Studios, whose movies involve an endless list of special effects work, have voted to unionize in order to protect themselves.