Teen Titans Go to the Movies - Your New Favourite Movie - What could Possibly Go Wrong? (2018)

[Ryannumber1gamer]

When there's trouble you know who to call...and it is most certainly not these guys. 

For those who don't know or for those who were lucky among us to be living under a rock to avoid this plague of a show, Teen Titans Go is the current "favourited" show on Cartoon Network, and isn't exactly the most well received show out there. A lot of characters have their personalities altered to make them pretty much unlikeable and a lot of the humour is the same mean-spirited stuff that rarely hits, fart jokes, random jokes, or comic references. As someone who personally loves the 2003 series and hates Go after watching a sizable amount of episodes, I'm probably not the best one to speak about this or else it'll just go into a rant regarding the series.

Anyway, with the show's success, we were "lucky" enough to be graced with a movie adaption of the show and the official teaser finally released today and....oh boy it doesn't look very good. The animation looks barely above that of the TV show itself, which is already pretty lazy flash animation, the jokes are pretty terrible - a fart joke that lasts for far too long and a few comic reference jokes and that's pretty much it. Not to mention the tagline that's seemingly a variation of the infamous and hated "YOUR NEW FAVOURITE SHOW" tagline. 

Either way, I waited for this trailer to see if it might surprise me, and it didn't. Honestly, probably a bit worse than what I was expecting.

[Dee Dude]

I don’t care if it’s for kids.

I don’t care if it’s successful and popular.

I don’t care if it grabs ratings.

This shit does not deserve a movie in anyway possible, how does a cheap flash cartoon that soley revolves around crude comedy and badly told morals even warrant a fucking full length film? Let alone the big screen?

The fart joke could’ve been bait, but I don’t expect them to do anything clever.

What conflict could they possibly do? Where would be the depth that movies require? Right now from the looks of it, it basically might be a one hour long regular episode.

They didn’t even bother to upgrade the animation for this occasion like they did with the MLP movie, if there was one thing I could’ve appreciated, it was that.

It’ll definitely do well financially no doubt with the children and it’s popularity, but I hope critics destroy this movie.

I could wait and see if it suprises me...but considering this show’s record, I expect nothing out of this.

[Jango]

The farts jokes are already ON THE TRAILER! Movie of the year!

[Polkadi~☆]

50:50 like/dislike ratio.

 

OFF TO A GOOD START

you ruined my marathon of steven universe, now you're desecrating my theatres. and the show really isn't that good.

[Strickerx5]

I'll admit, I laughed at the Wonder Woman and Aquaman jokes. At least they're aware of how shitty DC's movie predicament is.

Still though, self-aware humor isn't really going to save this. There are... so many other shows CN has that deserve a movie way more than this does. Hell, Adventure Time is still in talks for a movie and that downright saved the channel years ago. I get that TTG is their most popular show (though I'm starting to take that fact with a bit of salt seeing as it's the only show they seem to air nowadays) but damn if this isn't just spitting in the face of literally all their other content and fans. And this is coming from someone who doesn't even fully hate the damn thing like most rightfully do (it does have a few great episodes every now and then).

What makes matters worse is that the animation doesn't even seem to have been given any noticeable bump in quality. I don't even think they updated the flash puppets. How is this any different from one of their many specials?

I can't even appreciate it being a 2D movie ffs.

[KHCast]

Can’t say I agree with this popular comment at all. It’s not even hand drawn animation. Looks like the standard flash we’ve seen in Go. Not to mention the fart joke made this trailer ultimately fall apart with how drawn out it was. 

Meh, kind of stinks the regular show movie didn’t get a theatrical release but this did. And yeah, AT and SU I’d have recommended far before this 

[Balding Spider]

Is this show even popular? Ignoring fans of the original Teen Titans all I've ever heard was constant complaints about endless re-runs, and scheduling nightmares.

[PC the Hedgehog]

4 hours ago, Balding Spider said:

Is this show even popular? Ignoring fans of the original Teen Titans all I've ever heard was constant complaints about endless re-runs, and scheduling nightmares.

Probably 99.9  percent of complaints come from people WAY out of the show's target audience.

This show is targeted at kids. They love it. And they'll flock to this movie in droves.

[Dark Qiviut]

3 hours ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

Probably 99.9  percent of complaints come from people WAY out of the show's target audience.

This show is targeted at kids. They love it. And they'll flock to this movie in droves.

1. Being "for kids" doesn't absolve it from criticism, even scathing criticism. TTG talks down to kids, doesn't have a damn clue why people trash it, and insults both TT and present TTG fans. Return of Slade epitomizes TTG's terrible quality in a nutshell.
2. "Targeted at kids" is a major marketing misnomer, because kids aren't the ones who'll buy the tickets, toys, or record the shows. Their guardians are the true target audience for all child-friendly products.
3. Good "kids' shows" are family-friendly and inclusive to both adults and children alike (i.e., Darkwing Duck, Gargoyles, FIM, Gravity Falls). TTG segregates the demographics by leaving adults out of the fun.

[MetalSkulkBane]

You know, I don't like this show. At all. (Except for episode "40%, 40%, 20%", often known as "only good TT GO episode" and I highly recommend checking it.)

With that said I'm kinda impressed their distance to themselves. They know many people hate them, but they OWN that hate. It's kinda impressive.

In one episode they crossovered with new PowerPuffGirls (another terrible reboot) and I checked it out of pure curiosity. Titans were shown as dumber, less skilled, less heroic and faaaaar less sympathetic (they was even a contest that they lost in most over the top way possible) and they were PROUD out of it. Again, it doesn't' make the show good, but I can't help to kinda admire this attitude. It's like a villain with crazy motivation, but impressing you with the dedication he goes about things.

[Tara]

As a fan of Teen Titans 2003, I was initially just apathetic to Go.  There was word of a revival of sorts for the series around 2010-2012ish that initially had me interested, but they revealed rather quickly that it wasn't going to be the main Teen Titans series.  So I guess I wasn't disappointed when the show first came out because my expectations were already pretty low.  Plus, the first few episodes, while not by any means comic masterpieces, had some interesting comedic elements.  Making Trigon (the literal ruler of the underworld and demon supreme) a stereotypical 90's sitcom father was actually a pretty funny concept, and I kind of liked the idea of a slice of life show based around absurd premises like Robin crashing the Batmobile and getting his license revoked.  It was clear the writers and the actors were having fun, even if it wasn't what fans wanted.  It was never what I would call "good" but it was decent background noise.

But if you can possibly fathom it, the show has only gotten worse over the past few years.  The one-dimensional characterization, grotesque bathroom humor, and a whole host of other annoyances serve as only the icing atop what has become a fundamentally weak structure of an already weak series.  But it's such a very specific type of bad that it's hard to really explain it in words, so please forgive me if this doesn't make any sense at all.  From the structure of the episodes, it's become abundantly clear that the writers have run out of ideas, and the staggering lack of creativity has become kind of obvious.  Not only that, but the format of the episodes is like... it goes beyond the age-old principle that if you have to explain the joke, it isn't funny.  It's like, they'll go into a strangely verbose explanation about the concept of a thing and the humor will be based solely on that concept.

As an example, there's an episode that tries to parody Oregon Trail.  Knowing that this game might be just a little bit before the target audience's time, it seems like a strange concept for the show to parody.  But a subtle parody of something that parents grew up with can make it interesting for older viewers, right?  I mean, in theory, yes.  But the parody isn't subtle.  They want you to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that this is a parody of Oregon Trail, and the entire episode is centered around the idea of explaining the mechanics of Oregon Trail and then riffing on it, as opposed to... you know... just riffing on it.  Every episode lately is like this.  Instead of relying on their own jokes to carry the episode, they sort of have to "educate" the viewer on it.  And they'll base entire episodes off of singular jokes.  It's like, imagine you're telling a knock-knock joke but before you do, you have to explain beforehand that the joke will be an exchange where the other person says "Who's there?" and the end result will typically be something unexpected, often making use of wordplay.  And then base a 10-minute episode entirely around not actual knock-knock jokes, but the idea of a knock-knock joke.  Not the joke itself, but the very idea that there exists a flavor of humor wherein every punchline is preceded by a brief exchange starting with "knock, knock."  Dear god, I hope this makes sense because it bugs me to tears.

I usually hate when people make arguments like "just because it's for kids doesn't mean blah, blah, blah."  It's not that I disagree per se, but it's usually a case of "right for the wrong reasons" for me.  I agree that kids deserve better, but I feel like most people's definition of "better" is "for adults."  Or, in different wording, having elements that adults can appreciate.  And while I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, it's not the standard to which I hold a show for kids.  Kids are a unique demographic, and it's okay to embrace childishness every so often.  That's why I still watch CN, to begin with.  Because I like having the occasional escape from adult life.  That's why I'm on a Sonic board, I mean.  If I'm in the mood, I'll watch something more adult like a drama or read a romance novel or something, and those are fun, too.  But sometimes having something escapist like a kid's cartoon is just what the soul needs to not collapse under the pressures of adult life.

But god, TTG is not just a bad kid's show, I'd argue it's bad for kids.  Now I'm not a child psychologist, so I'm not saying "This show is causing kids to shoot up malls" or whatever, but the morals are deplorable, the atmosphere is mean-spirited, the outlook is overtly-cynical (sometimes on targets that you wouldn't even expect, which can be both a strength and a weakness depending on how it's done).  Times have changed and, despite 90's kids like me claiming otherwise, shows can get away with a lot more than they used to.  I mean, I watch an episode of Gumball and sometimes find a joke that would have made Ren and Stimpy uncomfortable with how raunchy it was.  But TTG just basques in this to the point where I'd certainly be understanding if parents were skeptical about letting their kids watch it.

So at some point, it would be easy to just say "If you don't like the show, don't watch it."  And while I don't think that absolves the show of criticism as much as the writers evidently wish it did, I think it's a fair point.  Why watch a show you don't like?  In fact, I don't even consider "it's the only thing CN airs anymore" to be a valid argument, either.  I can't speak for everyone, but I do have other things that help me unwind aside from TV.  I have music, I have games, I have books.  I have plenty of outlets to choose from, and so I'll gladly turn off the TV and pick up a good novel if Teen Titans Go is on.

But there's a small problem with that.  TTG's popularity has infected other shows as well.  Justice League Action is one of the best shows to come out of DC in recent years, but their portrayal of Cyborg (despite the dissonance in his design) is ripped straight out of Teen Titans Go.  It's not just reusing the same VA, but having Cyborg shout "BOO-YAH!" at the least necessary parts, and constantly having his voice raised to an obnoxious inflection as well.  DC Superhero Girls makes use of both Starfire and Beast Boy, and again despite their designs being different, they are voiced and written exactly as they would be in TTG.  There's at least one Lego DC Superheroes movie which makes use of the TTG cast in a similar manner, despite not being a movie about them. (Even weirder, because that movie stars Tim Drake's Robin, when Teen Titans 2003 and TTG both feature only Dick Grayson's Robin, but the movie doesn't even acknowledge this discrepancy.  But it's for kids who probably haven't been reading comics for 20-something years and thus can't tell the difference, so whatever!)

It's like, fine.  If I don't like the show.  I don't have to watch it, but it's not even that simple because it's being inserted into other shows.  It's maddening.  And I feel like this movie is just a culmination of that.  Not just a bad show getting a predictably bad movie.  A bad show spiraling into barely comprehensible writing as the writers shove out episode after episode just to say they've made an episode, rather than because it's actually good.  It's strayed so far from its already weak foundation that I no longer even get the impression that the writers are even having fun anymore.  Like Sonic Forces, it's a product designed to sell, not to entertain.  Written by marketers, not writers.  And the movie promises to be no different.

I've tried to be fair on TTG, because it's really not the worst thing I have ever seen (though it certainly likes to push that boundary at some points), and I do think it's deplorable that the writers and actors have been harassed and even given death threats over a cartoon for children.  But even I can't help but be bewildered at how far this show has spiraled out control to the point where literally any other show, even Uncle Grandpa, would make better movie material, but instead we're stuck with this.  I'm not buying tickets for it or anything, so I tend to shrug it off most of the time, but by god, I sure do I miss being able to turn on the TV and get my mind off of things for two seconds without being assaulted by grotesque visuals and audio.

[Salamander]

I've never seen an episode of Teen Titans Go, but everything I hear about it seems to suggest that it's not only bad, it's actually self-consciously bad and revels in its own lack of quality and the hatred it inspires.  I watched the trailer... and it entirely supports this premise.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I swear, this show makes me question if Twilight is a much better alternative to watch sometimes.

Also makes me wonder if any parents would actually bring their kids to watch this, but that’s me getting ahead of my thoughts.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

16 hours ago, Polkadi said:

50:50 like/dislike ratio

It's now 2k likes vs 3k dislikes,  and growing. Ayup.

[SupahBerry]

11 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:

1. Being "for kids" doesn't absolve it from criticism, even scathing criticism. TTG talks down to kids, doesn't have a damn clue why people trash it

The more I keep looking at this movie and points like this, the more I realize this mindset is no different from the one that drove this film to be made.

 My biggest concern with modern kids show is that their educational value is going downhill.

[Chili Dawg]

Now, I recognize the show is popular with the demographic, but is it movie popular? Stuff like Spongebob, Simpsons, Rugrats, were able to pull off a theatrical release because they were on the level of being cultural phenomenons. Stuff like Powerpuff Girls and Hey Arnold were in the successful show category but they ultimately didn't too much at the box office because jumping to the big screen is a far bigger investment than being watched on TV a lot. Granted, I may be out of touch, but I never got the vibe that Teen Titans in general, let alone Teen Titans Go, has the cultural touchstone qualifications to warrant a theatrical motion picture. Now of course, you can adapt a work that's not a massive phenomena and get it to new people in movie format, but it seems they're going for a "you like our show, come see our movie" kinda deal so don't see that happening.

As for the teaser itself, pretty meh. I admit the Wonder Woman setup was kinda funny, but it has the can't leave a joke alone problem. Gotta keep hammering away at it till it's just annoying. And the fart thing was boring, run of the mill stuff from the show (which has a few moments here and there from what I've seen, but not when it's this). So not interested in a ninety minute version of this thing.

[Kevin]

Of course of all shows, this would be the one to get a movie! It’s not like CN has been playing the shit out of it on their channel!

[Razule]

9 hours ago, Conquering Slay-bell Storm said:

I swear, this show makes me question if Twilight is a much better alternative to watch sometimes.

Also makes me wonder if any parents would actually bring their kids to watch this, but that’s me getting ahead of my thoughts.

Don't most parents just.. take their kids to the movies the kids want to see? I mean, surely most parents would rather be doing other things than going to see cartoons for an hour or two either way, what's another cartoon with bright colors?

I take heed in the fact that this movie will most likely do even worse than the MLP movie. I've seen some box offices recently that really make me doubt the "kids will eat it up" thing. Kids aren't enough.

[Nix]

4 hours ago, Razule said:

I take heed in the fact that this movie will most likely do even worse than the MLP movie. I've seen some box offices recently that really make me doubt the "kids will eat it up" thing. Kids aren't enough.

I honestly can't see it.  The MLP movie had little marketing, was shown in relatively few theaters, and didn't have a major network backing it.  I think TTG could take it pretty easily.

[KHCast]

I can’t believe this got a film before Johnny Test

[Tara]

3 hours ago, Nix said:

I honestly can't see it.  The MLP movie had little marketing, was shown in relatively few theaters, and didn't have a major network backing it.  I think TTG could take it pretty easily.

In addition to this, despite the existence of the brony fanbase, the brand is still considered largely a show for young girls, which kind of limits its audience further.  TTG is largely unisex in terms of audience, so with proper marketing, the movie could do pretty well in terms of ticket sales.  We'll just have to see how CN handles it.

[Strickerx5]

Yeah, I can sadly definitely see this outperforming the MLP movie. As much as I hate to see a world where one of my favorite shows lose to something like this, it's not hard to see why. Outside of two trailers, promotions on the shows actual channel, and a few commercial airings on NBC, Hasbro put the absolute minimum effort into promoting the film. Only the show's actual watchers really knew about it, let alone when it was in theaters. Plus, the actual film was only released in a limited number of theaters which severely hurt it as well. Hell, even a major city like Philly only had two real places that were showing it. Add in that the movie itself wasn't that great of a starting point for newcomers, failed in a few areas, and just wasn't the show's best foot forward like it should've been (so it couldn't even count on reviews and positive word of mouth) and the movie just wasn't able to go the extra mile.

Not only does TTG have it's immense popularity with the full child demographic (apparently), but it also has DC and WB backing it up. If CN plays their cards right and actually promote it outside the channel, it's going to do well. I mean it even has the wind from Lego Batman backing it up somewhat as I imagine people none the wiser will see this and think "hey, that looks somewhat like that other cartoony dc movie I liked!"

Though, there is the slim chance that they do a limited release and promotion on this as well in order to save facemoney.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

On 1/11/2018 at 6:03 PM, Razule said:

Don't most parents just.. take their kids to the movies the kids want to see? I mean, surely most parents would rather be doing other things than going to see cartoons for an hour or two either way, what's another cartoon with bright colors?

I take heed in the fact that this movie will most likely do even worse than the MLP movie. I've seen some box offices recently that really make me doubt the "kids will eat it up" thing. Kids aren't enough.

I’d say it depends on the parents. And I made that statment because a lot of today’s parents are around 25+ and old enough to remember the original Teen Titans and might not be fond of Go to the point of drawing the line in going into that with their children.

But like I said, that might just be me getting ahead with my thoughts because they might not be that bothered as I would think.

[Tara]

Parents today are a little different and are somewhat more involved in the media that their children consume than they were a decade or two ago, but I imagine that most parents will see a show of this caliber and either shrug it off because it's for kids or dismiss it as simply not their generation.  Going further, mainstream critics (if the articles listed on Wikipedia are to be believed) aren't nearly as lamentful of the show's existence as diehard animation enthusiasts are.  In other words, what might be a generous 1/10 to us is a 4/10 to mainstream audiences.  So unless the parents find something in the show that really upsets them on a moral basis (not something TTG is known for, despite its  sometimes questionable morals) or the parents happen to be diehard fans of TT2003 (a show that, as much as I may like it, mostly just has a "cult" following), I don't think too many kids will be denied the chance to see the movie on the basis of quality.

[Swing]

This movie sadly shows me how much disrespectful people treat animation nowadays. I'm not even a Teen Titans Go Hater. I never grew up with the Original Teen Titans, there for I have no real grudge against TTG, even thought I can see why fans of the old show will have such big hatred against TTG. I'm not here to mock the show. But what I want to tell you that this movie right here just shows me, what animation has become over the years.

Animation is a medium with no limits, an art form with endless possibilities. You can tell so many different types of stories with animation, create so many different art forms and styles. Perfect examples are movies like Your Name, Paprika, Song of the Sea and Kubo and the Two Strings. Those films expand animation and experimented with it to create something new. Same also with shows old and new. Steven Universe, Avatar, Regular Show, Animaniacs etc. all of them created shows with their own style and art.

TTG sadly is nothing like them. It is not art, it has no style and it is just... stupid. And it doesn't mean that stupid or silly shows can't exist. Darkwing Duck is kind alike TTG. A silly show about a silly superhero. It can work. But TTG feels really just like a soulless product of it's time. Sure it's now very popular, but kids will grow out of it and will forget about it very quickly. Maybe in five years, no one will talk about it. That even happens to good shows like Kim Possible or the Angry Beavers.

So why put so much work into a movie about TTG? Why? Just why? Animation really has such a hard time to be a respectful film medium, because so many people see it as a genre for kids. Even the most mature shows and movies like Animals of Farthing Wood, Animal Farm or Waltz with Bashir will be considered by most viewers as kids stuff, because animation is for them nothing more than that. Dump shows or films to distracted your kids. And films like TTG to the movie will not help to get rid of this stereotype. It will damage the reputation of art in animation even more.    

The bad thing is, because TTG is so successful most people will think that this is the standard for animated shows and movies. It's not only TTG. Stuff like Fanboy and ChumChum, The Emoji Movie and also Minions will have Influence on animation as a whole and everyone will just try to copy them instead of creating their own movies.