TEEN TITANS GO! VS TEEN TITANS:
TITANS CROSSOVER EMBRACES THE PROS AND CONS OF BOTH SHOWS AND DELIVERS A FUNNY, ACTION-PACKED, AND CLEVER SUPERHERO SATIRE!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
WARNER BROS. ANIMATION
Beast Boy, Beast Boy, Starfire, Starfire, Raven, Raven, Robin, Robin, Cyborg, and Cyborg settling one of the most anger inducing debates of all time in Teen Titans Go! VS Teen Titans
The Teen Titans (and Teen Titans Go!) come together to face off in a showdown more heated than Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War combined in Teen Titans Go! VS Teen Titans, a direct-to-video animated film based on the Teen Titans superhero team from DC Comics and a crossover of the 2003 Teen Titansanimated series and the 2013 comedy-oriented Teen Titans Go! spin-off series, both of which were aired on Cartoon Network. This is the second feature film to involve the 2003 Teen Titans following Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo in 2006 and the second film with the Teen Titans Go! characters after the theatrically released Teen Titans Go! To the Movies in 2018.
If you read my Teen Titans Go! To the Movies review last year then you know that I grew up on the original Teen Titans show and was absolutely revolted when I heard about Teen Titans Go!...at first. Like many people, I was right along with them ripping the show apart and declaring it the worst thing ever put to television, but then I gave it a second look roughly around the time the Teen Titans Go! movie was coming out.
After giving it a second chance, I can admit…yes, the original show remains the superior series there is no denying that, but Teen Titans Go! does have some very funny and at times clever spoofs on superhero tropes and other iconic comic book characters like the Wonder Twins and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Okay, not all the jokes work and there are many misfires but when they hit the jokes hit bullseye. Beast Boy and Cyborg trying to go the longest by only saying “Waffles” isn’t funny, but the Teen Titans fighting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is absolutely hilarious. Unlike Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies or the later Superman movies, Teen Titans Go! can still be campy and silly but also honor the source material in its own unique way.
My second revisiting of Go! eventually culminated with the release of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies which I had low expectations for when it was first announced. But then the film earned very positive reviews and I decided to give it a chance and yeah, it was a very smart, funny, and thoroughly entertaining satire on both the superhero movie genre as well as the film industry itself ending with a mid-credits sequence featuring the original Titans stating “I think we found a way back”.
That’s where Teen Titans Go! VS Teen Titans comes in and unlike Teen Titans Go! To the Movies the film was not released in theaters, so I apologize for getting to this movie a little late. Nevertheless, much like the last TTG movie, Teen Titans Go! VS Teen Titans continues in its tradition of mocking superhero tropes, most notably the recent multiverse and expanded universes trends from superhero films like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Avengers: Endgame, in fact the final battle in this movie is eerily similar to the one in Endgame except even more ridiculous.
The film honors both versions of Titans and gives fans (whether you like your Titans edgy or bouncy) a fun, action-packed, and absolutely hilarious satire of the Titans lore in comics, television, and film. No need to worry about this crossover tainting the legacy of the original Teen Titans show, the film brilliantly and lovingly satirizes both versions of the Teen Titans and addresses the pros and cons of each show in a very smart and fun way rather than an insult like what most people thought when Teen Titans Go! first came on TV.
After a battle with the Gentleman Ghost (voiced by “Weird Al” Yankovic) leaves Raven’s gem cracked, the Teen Titans consisting of Robin (voiced by Scott Menville-A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, ParaNorman), Starfire (voiced by Hynden Walch-Chalkzone, Adventure Time, Kid Icarus: Uprising), Raven (voiced by Tara Strong-Batman: The Animated Series, The Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Cyborg (voiced by Khary Payton-General Hospital, The Walking Dead, Young Justice), and Beast Boy (voiced by Greg Cipes-MDs, Ben 10, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 series)) from the Go! dimension are suddenly abducted by a mysterious spacecraft and become part of a fighting tournament by the Master of Games (voiced by Rhys Darby-Yes Man, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), a being who travels the multiverse with an artifact known as the Worlogog to find the best versions of particular heroes and have them fight each other…you can tell exactly where this is going.
The Go! Titans are pitted up against taller, edgier, and handsomer versions of each other, the 2003 Teen Titans. However, during the fight both Titans groups realize that something feels very suspicious about this tournament and discover that Raven’s demonic father Trigon (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson-Family Guy, Loonatics Unleashed, Uncle Grandpa) from both dimensions have joined forces and plan to shatter Raven’s gem so they can absorb the demon living inside her body and its powers so they can take over the multiverse.
The Teen Titans must put aside their differences whether baby hands, waffle-based dialogue, tragic backstories, or edgy comic book style brooding ironically more believable than Ben Affleck’s Daredevil and team up to save their worlds and all the other worlds beyond theirs.
The film also features the voices of Robert Morse (How to Succeed Without Really Trying, That’s Life, Mad Men) as Santa Claus, Grey Griffin (The Fairly OddParents, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Avatar: The Last Airbender) as Mrs. Claus, and Sean Maher (Firefly, Serenity, DC Animated Universe) as Nightwing.
Overall, Teen Titans Go! VS Teen Titans is just a fun, laugh-out-loud superhero spoof whether you like your Titans darker or lighter, both versions are showcased, and lead to wonderful comedic moments. Some of the funniest parts of the movie simply come from the original Titans’ reactions to the Go! Titans and seeing them interact with one another, the Titans from the 2003 show and Go! sitting on the couch making jokes about their shows is ironically more entertaining and fun than most of the DCEU, good luck Birds of Prey.
Similar to Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and The Lego Batman Movie, the film is filled with several DCreferences that are sure to please fans especially during the final act where the Titans pretty much do their version of the Avengers: Endgame final battle. Teen Titans Go! VS Teen Titans is a love letter to the Titans’ history and is funny and smart enough to appeal to both veterans of the 2003 series and comics and the younger Teen Titans Go! crowd that faithfully captures the tones and spirits of their respected shows and offers something fun for all, what more can I say but TITANS, GO!
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