Teen Titans Go! To the Movies review

TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES:

JUST AS LOW-BROW AND GOOFY AS THE SHOW IT’S BASED ON BUT MIXED WITH A SURPRISINGLY CLEVER SATIRE ON SUPERHERO MOVIES AND THE FILM INDUSTRY ITSELF!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4 (I’m both happy and sad that I’m giving it that score!)

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Starfire, Beast Boy, Robin, Cyborg, and Raven are about to make the superhero movie to end all superhero movies…hopefully in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

            Alright haters, get your keyboards ready, prepare those “Angry” reactions on Facebook, roast me on a fire for what I’m about to say, this is going to be a (mostly) positive review of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, based on the Teen Titans Go! TV series on Cartoon Network. This marks the first movie based on a DC cartoon show to get a wide theatrical release since 1993’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm as well as the second wide-released movie based on a Cartoon Network show since The Powerpuff Girls Movie in 2002, unless you want to count Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters in 2007.

            Let’s talk about the show for a moment, when I first watched Teen Titans Go! I thought it was the worst, most atrocious thing ever animated. I grew up in the mid-late 90s and early 2000s, so I watched the original Teen Titans show as a kid, which was more action and drama-oriented but also blended with some humor.

            Teen Titans Go! Felt like a serious downgrade and a desperate answer from Cartoon Network to Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Squarepants. But after a while I gave the show another chance and it’s not the worst thing out there, yes, it is a step backwards from the original show, yes it can be obnoxious and not all the jokes land, but there are some legitimately good episodes in there as well as some cute references to other DC and Warner Bros. properties, and admittedly I will get a laugh out of the absurdity of an episode from time to time.

            So, not a fan of the show personally but it has its moments, and it’s clearly doing something right as a lot of kids seem to enjoy it, Cartoon Network runs it often (Perhaps too often in my opinion), and even spawned a crossover episode with the 2016 Powerpuff Girls reboot. I’m not one of those angry man-children who live in their parents’ basement and complain about how Teen Titans Go! “Destroyed my childhood”, if you actually complain about stuff like that then your childhood isn’t worth defending and you should just crawl back into that corner.

            Teen Titans Go! Is far from being among the original Teen Titans, The Powerpuff Girls, Steven Universe, Ed, Edd n Eddy, or Adventure Time as one of Cartoon Network’s best shows. But it’s much better than the shows from that awful Dark Age of Cartoon Network like Out of Jimmy’s Head, BrainRush, or Destroy, Build, Destroy, I’ll take Cyborg shouting Meat Party Time and abusing the Night Begins to Shine song over any of the cringe-worthy humor and execution of Out of Jimmy’s Head.

            However, when the movie was announced, and the trailer came out for it, I was ready to hate it. The highlight of the first trailer was a fart joke and I was like “Oh My God, this movie’s gonna blow” and I didn’t understand the purpose of bringing Teen Titans Go! To the big-screen, nothing about it screamed cinema so what was the point? I was asking myself.

            Nevertheless, I tried to keep an open mind, who knows? It could actually be good, after all the trailers for Trolls and the 2016 Ghostbusters movie got negative responses but ended up being decent films so I guess anything was possible. Well, after sitting through Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Incredibles 2, and Ant-Man and the Wasp, I can gladly say that Teen Titans Go! To the Movies might actually be one of the smartest, funniest, and most original superhero movies I’ve seen in a long time…and this is coming from a guy who did not like the show initially.

            The film follows the superhero team, the Teen Titans, consisting of leader and former Boy Wonder, Robin (voiced by Scott Menville-A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Ben 10, Gravity Falls), space princess, Starfire (voiced by Hynden Walch-Justice League, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Adventure Time), robotized humanoid, Cyborg (voiced by Khary Payton-General Hospital, Ben 10, The Walking Dead), half-human, half-demon sorceress, Raven (voiced by Tara Strong-Batman: The Animated Series, The Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), and shapeshifting comic relief, Beast Boy (voiced by Greg Cipes-Ben 10, The Legend of Korra, Star VS the Forces of Evil) learning that Hollywood is making movies based on every superhero from Batman and Superman to Wonder Woman and Green Lantern (But they don’t talk about that one). Enthusiastic about the possibility of a Teen Titans movie, Robin and the rest of the Titans head to the Warner Bros. studio to make it happen.

            There’s just one problem, the world sees the Teen Titans as a joke and not as real heroes, and Robin thinks that getting a movie is the only way people can see them as heroes. After being rejected by film director, Jade Wilson (voiced by Kristen Bell-Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Astro Boy, Frozen) and Robin being laughed out at the premiere of the new Batman movie, thinking that they’re going to make a movie about him, the Titans decide they need an arch-nemesis to make this work.

            In comes diabolical supervillain, Deadpool, I mean, Deathstroke, I MEAN, SLADE! (voiced by Will Arnett-Arrested Development, Blades of Glory, The Lego Movie/The Lego Batman Movie) with the power of “Mind Manipulation”, who has stolen a mysterious crystal and plans to use it to put everyone on the planet under his control. The Titans may have found their arch-nemesis and must stop his evil plan and save the world…and of course get their movie deal.

            The film also features the voices of talk-show host, Jimmy Kimmel as Batman, Nicolas Cage (Face/Off, Matchstick Men, National Treasure) as Superman, who was originally set to portray Superman in a Tim Burton directed film which never saw the light of day called Superman Lives, James Corden (Into the Woods, Peter Rabbit, Ocean’s 8) as Balloon Man, singer, Halsey as Wonder Woman, rapper, Lil Yachty as Green Lantern, Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stand by Me, The Big Bang Theory) as the Flash, Patton Oswalt (The King of Queens, Ratatouille, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as Atom, and Eric Bauza (Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Ben 10 (2016)) as Aquaman.

            Overall, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is a silly but clever detour from the explosion-filled, effects-driven superhero movie fare that dominates most of the American box-office. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this is a legitimately good movie with a good blend of dumb, goofy humor from the show and jokes that satirize superhero movie tropes, how the film industry works, a compilation of fake trailers for “upcoming” DC movies that had me laughing on the floor, and a phenomenally hilarious scene where the Titans go back in time to undo all the superhero origin stories, Back to the Future style.

            Sure, not every joke works, there are some misfires, but the majority of them hit bullseye and I think I laughed harder at this movie than any episode of the series. Seriously, if the show focused more on the pop-culture and superhero satires rather than the low-brow childish humor, this could actually be a great superhero spoof series on par with The Tick.

            I doubt this movie would encourage me to become a fan of the show, but I’m glad I saw it and might even get it on Blu-Ray when it comes out. Sometimes after all the Dark Knights and Batman v. Supermen, we need a break from the dark and edgy PG-13 superhero films and go for something silly and wacky, I don’t think it’s on par with The Lego Batman Movie in terms of a superhero movie satire but given the negative reputation of the Teen Titans Go! Show, just saying it’s a good movie at all is like praising it like a masterpiece.

            For a movie that should have been dead on arrival, I’m relieved that the Teen Titans Go! Team managed to prove me wrong. This is my “Go to” family superhero movie of the year…after Incredibles 2, well played Titans.

AND NOW A STATEMENT FOR THE ORIGINAL TEEN TITANS FANS: The creators of the original series stated that if Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is a success at the box-office then they will get to work on season 6 of Teen Titans. Guess what, the Teen Titans Go! Haters are now required to see it, which I’ll admit is a brilliant marketing plan. YOU WANT THAT TEEN TITANS SEASON 6? THIS IS HOW YOU GET IT! And who knows, you might end up having a fun time with this movie as well.