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'Teen Titans Go! To the Movies': Hilarious antidote to gloom
In its own right, it is a ridiculous, frequently hilarious film.
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Teen Titans: The mischievous Teen Titans are made up of (from left) Starfire, Beast Boy, Robin, Raven and Cyborg. (Warner Bros. Pictures/File)
T
em>Teen Titans was an animated TV show on Cartoon Network that aired from 2003 to 2006. It was later adapted into a new TV show, Teen Titans Go!, a more cartoonish, comedic take on the same characters. Its blood is comedy — an irreverent one at that, too.
Acclaimed in perpetuity, the original Teen Titans show was often branded as a somber, serious show. It would fit right in with films recently released in its universe, the DC Universe (the characters of Teen Titans are based on the original DC Comics), such as Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice or Justice League.
And now, the film adaption, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, features Michael Bolton in one of its many musical montages.
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is more than just an antidote to the gloom that the DC Universe is often teased for. In its own right, it is a ridiculous, frequently hilarious film. And its targets of satire are none other than the DC superheroes who get their own movie adaptations.
It concerns Robin (voiced by Scott Menville) who’s disgruntled at the fact that even Aquaman, a DC comic book superhero, is getting his own movie. So along with his fellow titans, the shape-shifting Beast Boy (voiced by Greg Cipes), the beam-shooting Starfire (voiced by Hynden Walch), the empath Raven (voiced by Tara Strong) and the humanoid Cyborg (voiced by Khary Payton), Robin goes to many lengths to break into Hollywood.
Then Robin gets turned away by filmmaker Jade Wilson (Kristen Bell), because come on, who makes movies about sidekicks? Robin’s dream is to make the titans appear on the silver screen, and his fellow titans play along, almost too supportively.
Anyway, in order to prove Jade wrong, the titans need to take down their arch-nemesis Slade (voiced by Will Arnett) to make themselves known. In their own way, of course, which is full of juvenile shenanigans.
The movie — directed by Peter Rida Michail and Aaron Horvath with a script by Michael Jelenic and Horvath — is aware of the titans’ shortcomings and has a little fun with that.
The titans go back in time to prevent the established superheroes from eventually discovering their powers. How do they stop Superman? By going back in time and fixing the destruction of the planet Krypton through the power of electronic music. What about Batman? Of course by not letting Martha and Thomas go into the alley that they were killed in.
The montage featuring Michael Bolton starts with Cyborg playing a song called “upbeat inspirational story about life”. Bolton ends up getting hit by a car. Then once they’re in the studio, Stan Lee makes an appearance, despite the fact that “Stan Lee making cameos in movies” is Marvel’s thing. Jokes about taking a dump in a fake toilet abound; Shia LaBeouf gets beaten the crap out of.
Meta humor has its own kind of resonance. Films like Teen Titans Go! To the Movies do this thing where the characters laugh with you at the sheer ridiculousness or even existence of the things that they satirize. The satire doesn’t stop at DC superheroes, too: it takes a few jabs at other cinematic universes.
Aside from the satire, there’s plenty about the titans that is expertly done, too. The relationship between the titans — how far they can go to support one another — is a nice anchor in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.
There have been plenty of movies doing a similar thing to Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (The Lego Batman Movie springs to mind). But by having self-awareness and dousing it in helium, it becomes something else entirely.
