If there is one cartoon that has really polarized audiences from the day it came out, it was Cartoon Network's "Teen Titans Go!" The show is a reboot in a way of the original "Teen Titans" show but is done in a more comical and silly way. Some people like this new take on it and find it funny, others hate it and consider it a betrayal to its superior original. Personally, I have mixed feelings about it. It has its moments, but sometimes it can be really unfunny and just painful to watch. When a movie of the show was announced back in October of last year, I was really skeptical of it. To be honest, I couldn't exactly see how in the world this show would be able to translate to the big screen. Nevertheless, I still sat down and watched it. To my shock, I was surprised to see that I really did like "Teen Titans Go to The Movies". It's very silly without a doubt, but it's actually really hilarious. I really found this a great film which I really did not expect.
While the other big DC superheroes including the Justice League have been able to get their own feature-length movie, the Teen Titans which include Robin (Scott Menville), Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), Cyborg (Khary Payton), Raven (Tara Strong), and Starfire (Hynden Walch) still haven't. In fact, they're seen as jokes by everyone else as well as too immature and silly. Even superhero director Jade Wilson (Kristen Bell) sees them that way, although she seems to have no problem making a movie based on Alfred or even the Batmobile. Feeling they need to get attention, the Titans decide to do everything they can to make it onto the big screen, which includes trying to get an arch villain in the form of Blade (Will Arnett) and other crazy things so insane that I dare not spoil them here. I'll just leave my plot synopsis there because this movie needs to be seen to be believed.
I was shocked by how funny this film was. I really didn't expect to laugh this hard at this movie, but I did. It really took the silliness and humor of "The Lego Batman Movie" and "Captain Underpants" and turned it up to 11. One of the memorable jokes in the film included Slade telling the guards that the Justice League wouldn't be available since they have their mobile devices turned off then turns to the audience and says something along the lines off "At least they're better behaved than some of you!" That was the joke that really made me knew this would be great. I had a terrible theater experience this year with Hotel Transylvania 3 where two teenagers sat in front of me and went on SnapChat throughout some of it. But I digress. The jokes ranged from even poking fun of Marvel, Lion King, to even a small Fantasia homage and it just cracked me up! The story really knew how to be funny and take twists and turns that I wasn't expecting. Not only that, I was surprised how much the emotional moments even worked. They were surprisingly effective and I did legitimately feel for the characters who also are pretty funny. The Titans definitely are goofy and funny as you'd expect and their voice actors do a brilliant job at playing them. Though I did get laughs from the Justice League and Slade in particular. Batman mostly being silent was hilarious and even having Nicholas Cage play Superman was brilliant if you know the history behind that, but I think the real scene stealer is Slade. Will Arnett knew how to make this character great and it really did make up for his questionable appearance in "Show Dogs" this year. Just be sure not to call his character Deadpool though. As for the animation, I'm impressed. Man, it felt great to see some traditional animation again. There's always something about it that really connects with me and I'm happy that the animation was really stepped up from the TV show in every single regard. I loved it. With that said though, there are two things that I didn't like. The first one was that the film, like "Captain Underpants", did get a little too immature at times to the point where I was starting to roll my eyes at certain scenes. The second problem I had was bigger and that involved Slade's plan. I'm not gonna spoil it, but let's just say it did remind me a little too much of "Incredibles 2". It was probably pure coincidence, but it was still pretty distracting.
Nevertheless, I still had a lot of fun with "Teen Titans Go to the Movies". The story was really funny and some great emotional moments, the animation was fun and bright, and the characters were also funny and had the charm to them. I can easily say this is yet another animated movie that I wasn't expecting to like but ended up loving. We really need more animated movies like that because I do love surprises. Oh, and be sure to look out for a brilliant cameo. I think you'll get a laugh.
