I saw Teen Titans Go! To the Movies...

When Cartoon Network's "Teen Titans" and its sequel series, "Teen Titans Go!" premiered some years back, I enjoyed their colorful concepts, but their screeching-mouth, Playschool anime often made me cringe. For the sake of DC teen superheroes, I prefer “Young Justice” and "Justice League vs Teen Titans", where the designs and stagings are much more orthodox. 

Still, I'm loyal to DC and therefore, Teen Titans on the whole, so despite my suffocating schedule, I felt obliged to squeeze in a theatrical view of "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies".

The film, directed by Aaron Horvath and Peter Rida Michail, and written by Horvath and Michael Jelenic, resembles the cartoon programs upon which it's based, but it’s leagues sillier, often to the point of crass self-parody. Now, don’t misunderstand: This film isn’t some sanctimonious, hate-the-hero "Lego Batman" claptrap. It (like its television foundations) at least respects its characters' backgrounds, even if the ball of wax is splashed with a ton of garish gall, which includes a tad of time travel and lots of song and dance.

The story deals with Robin, the Boy Wonder (I've always presumed Dick Grayson in these cutesy cliques, but take your pick), Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy hoping to mimic their mentors by starring in a big-budget, Hollywood production. They find the chance for cinematic prominence through the mind-manipulating Slade Wilson/Deathstroke and his shifty "sister" (shades of "Incredibles 2"), though it's hard to swallow why the teens fail to see the obvious charade? (Perhaps in this lies the tale's message and warning: If something looks to good to be true...)

To spice up the teens' ambitions, seasoned superheroes arbitrate. Among them, the stand-out cameo comes from Superman, voiced by Nicolas Cage: a versatile actor and comic-book connoisseur once chosen to portray the Man of Steel in a Tim Burton, live-action endeavor. (Thanks to this Teen Titans movie, how can one now say that Cage never officially played Kal-El in a full-fledged film?)  Unfortunately, Cage's vocal casting isn't enough to place the movie on a super-special, satirical plane.

The incredulous premise still gushes enough conflict to make it roll, albeit it slowly (unless one considers continuous gags a fast-paced catalyst), but this yet prompts the question: Why an all-out, feature-length lampoon? Wasn't the sequel series goofy enough? Was either Teen Titan show ever this zany in its tongue-in-cheek brio?

I can only assume that the filmmakers intended the package a means to enroll young viewers into the DC scene, but there are so many DC (and Marvel) in-jokes that it's doubtful most under-twenties will appreciate the effort. (Mind you, kids don’t attend superhero movies like they once did; I didn’t see one adolescent in the packed theaters of "Batman v Superman", "Captain America: Civil War" or the "Deadpool" set. (Granted, Deadpool's cinematic designation is R-rated, but dear mercy, in my teen years, my friends and I would have made it a priority to sneak into something so forbidden.) Also, for the record, I saw "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies" at a four o’clock, Thursday pre-premiere, and even then there wasn't one youngster present. The half dozen people in attendance were either middle age or senior.

I can’t speak for those other adults (sorry, I was too darn drained from my work day to interview 'em once the credits rolled), but for me, the movie's climate was way too juvenile (even when compared to its television counterparts), with even more screeching and bug-eyed silliness than I could bear. At a padded ninety minutes, I found myself choking back the yawns during more than a few portions. Really, this “Teen Titans Go!” would have worked better in an hour format, and even then it may have been too long. There's only so far that sustained gaudiness can go, even when the intentions are good.

I think it’s great that DC/Warner Brothers would give one of its animated features a full-blown (more than a one-night stand), theatrical release. However, that kind of experimental dedication should have fallen upon "Killing Joke", "Gotham by Gaslight" and "Batman Ninja", not a superfluous, Teen Titans farce.

I got through this one well enough, but it’s not something I'm likely to watch again, and I don’t think there's much chance it'll win over the masses or add more fans (young or old) to DC/WB's Justice League plans. That makes "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies" a miscalculation. Too bad. If it had only been stacked in a more serious way, it may have done some good, as opposed to being just another destined footnote in the companies' hit-and-miss mergers.