After the release of “TMNT: Mutant Mayhem” earlier this week, I spoke with Jeff Rowe about a myriad of details, digging into some of the finer points of his stellar take on “TMNT.” That included this gigantic final form of Superfly, which sees the mutated fly first fused with a bunch of aquatic animals, and then transformed even further when his body smashes on top of a zoo. The result is the terrifying creature you see above, but it’s when you see the character in close-up shots that the true horror of his creation becomes clear.
On Superfly’s massive face alone, you can see elephant and giraffe heads fused together, with the latter’s body oddly wrapping around the villain’s head. Meanwhile, octopus tentacles double as Superfly’s hair. The rest of his body is equally as horrifying, with a bunch of horses smushed together on his legs. Plus, one of his arms has fingers made of the heads of narwhals, with their horns protruding as dangerous claws. If you stop to think about it, that’s pretty gnarly, so Rowe would encourage you not to worry about it too much:
“I think at a couple points, people were like, ‘Wait, is he composed of animals writhing in pain?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, no, no, it’s fine. You won’t see it. It’ll be dark. Don’t worry about that.’ And it does walk the fine line of don’t stop and think about it. Don’t stop and think about that the horses have feelings in his legs. It’s a hive mind thing. Just don’t think about it, do yourself a favor.”
Honestly, it’s kind of a brilliant escalation for the villain, whose predecessor is a mutated version of the character Baxter Stockman, which took inspiration from David Cronenberg’s “The Fly.” In fact, Rowe said that “more Cronenberg-like” was a note that he kept giving throughout the making of the movie.