DC: Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

Dc comics ✨✨✨✨
Great and fun to watch

The Teen Titans cartoon had a rocky start with the fandom, as it was criticized for having an animesque visual style, dumbed-down storylines and relying too much on humor as opposed to the rest of the then-current DCAU, but later amassed a huge fandom who still appreciated the show for what it was, to the point where these particular versions of these characters became iconic. Fast forward a few years later and history seems to repeat itself. “Teen Titans GO!” is the series that replaced the previous show and suffered from the same criticisms yet also has garnered a huge fandom.Full disclaimer: I haven’t really watched the show this movie is based on. I watched an episode or two and was turned off by the excess of silly humor and lack of actual heroics. And you know what? That’s fine, not all superhero shows have to be the same, but I figured it wasn’t for me, so I let it pass. But then the movie came out. While I had absolutely no interest in it, they actually did something that made me buy it. Years ago I promised myself that if Nicolas Cage was ever cast as Superman, I’d pay to see it, and what do you know? This movie did just that.I confess I was a little wary as I popped this disc into my console and started to play it, but a few minutes passed, and I was all in. This movie is silly, yes, the animation is, for the most part, simple, and the basic story is generic, but it’s actually quite entertaining and humorous. While not all the jokes land, at certain points it is actually pants-wettingly hilarious. And, while obviously the level of entertainment kids will get out of this is different from what adults will, there’s a lot of humor directed exclusively to the latter that kids will be entirely unable to pick up.What’s interesting is that this movie takes the major complaints about the show (too much goofiness, not enough heroics) and makes solving them its central plot. The nature of those issues coupled with the middle-credits revelation really makes it look like, rather than being a product of listening to complaints, this had been their plan all along. Looks like the writers have been playing the long game, in a majorly risky way, and it certainly seems to have paid off.As an aside, this movie is a boon for any DC fan. There’s quite a lot of obscure jokes and references to the larger DC universe, and I even caught a reference to a popular webcomic that makes a lot of Batman jokes. While it’d be the cynical response to think this movie is a cash grab based on a fad, I think it’s pretty clear the writers have done their jobs and are looking to entertain.So, I really liked the movie and I’m looking forward to the twice-teased sequel. It’s a recommendation from me.

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is exactly what you would expect if you gave the regular crew of the show an hour an twenty minutes and access to a Hollywood Rolodex of B, C, and D-List actors. It’s incredibly stupid (in a good way, I guess?) with multiple fart/poop jokes and an incredibly simple story that takes too long to come together. If you’ve ever seen Family Guy, you are familiar with how they spend 7-10 minutes of their 23 minute run time to get to what the episode is actually about. They begin with farting around with scenes that have nothing to do with the episode and setting up three of four plot threads that they aren’t going to follow before we get to whatever lunacy the episode is actually about. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies spends too much time establishing the plot, which is meager in itself, so we don’t really get to spend enough time with it. What saves the movie, is how goofy and free it is too play around and make fun of the genre. I disagree with some of the casting choices, as it seems that for most of them, they just wanted another recognizable name on the marquee. Since nobody in the entire Teen Titans Go! universe is like their real comic book counter-parts, Nicolas Cage as Superman was fun, but why the heck is Lil Yachty John Stewart (and why is John Stewart the only human Green Lantern? Where is Hal?) and what moron thought Halsey should voice Wonder Woman? Wil Wheaton has never had a good performance in any medium and you get Tom Kenny on the payroll and you give him a random robot to voice? But I guess it works within the “wild and wacky” world of Teen Titans Go!. I loved all the small references to DC properties and most of the big ones were fairly clever. For what it is, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, is a surprisingly funny, occasionally clever, and consistently entertaining film. It’s certainly not going to be held up favorably against any live-action super hero film, but that’s not really what it’s trying to be. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies isn’t really a super hero movie; it’s a solid goofy kids animated movie who’s characters are super heroes. I wish they had spent the money they used on stunt casting to make either a longer movie or at least a more focused one, but it’s not a bad way to spend eighty-something minutes. The Blu Ray release has some special features, but it’s not really what I was looking for. I don’t want to see a Lil Yachty music video or sing-longs, I want more deleted scenes or maybe a featurette where they explain their ridiculous casting.