Rated: PG
Directed by: Peter Rida Michail and Aaron Horvath
Screenplay by: Michael Jelenic & Aaron Horvath
Based on characters from: DC Comics
Produced by: Michael Jelenic, Aaron Horvath, Peter Rida Michail and Peggy Regan
Starring: Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton, Tara Strong and Hynden Walch with Will Arnett and Kristen Bell.
Teen Titans Go! To The Movies is filled with satire and exclamations in large-as-life bold capitalised statements of… Things!
Based on the characters from the animated TV series we have Robin (Scott Menville), forever the side-kick (of Batman) and his team of super-powered friends: Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), Cyborg (Khary Payton), Raven (Tara Strong) and Starfire (Hynden Walch).
But forever the joke of the super-hero community, their fart-jokes and constant breaking into song means they’ll never get a movie made about them – not like the Justice League:
‘Superman’s a national treasure!’
Even Alfred’s getting a film Coming Broom.
And the Bat-mobile.
And Batman’s utility belt.
So, the Titans embark on a mission to travel back in time to wipe out all the super-hero origins so they’ll be the only ones left to make a movie about.
There’s the importance of friends and loyalty and team, overcoming pride and ego to self-acceptance… bla, bla, bla…
But just when I thought the film was going to get cheesy and turn into a kid-musical, the teddy singing the super up-beat song about life, gets run over!
It’s not easy reviewing kid-animation; this is not my usual film to watch. And I have to say first impressions of stari-eyed Starfire with her constant mangled sentences like, ‘that is more like the it’ and the classic-style animation got me yawning at times.
But what I also found was that I had a grin and was smirking with some laugh-out-loud moments – that catch phrase from Robin is hilarious: ‘Crack an egg on it: Ka Kaar!’
Dripping with sarcasm there were jokes for kids but also jokes for adults, ‘Kids, don’t forget to ask your parents where babies are made!’.
So, although I wasn’t blown away by the animation, I was amused at the jokes (some too mature for really young kids who had more fun laughing at fart jokes and the Titans imitating Lois Lane over the phone to superman) – and the plot came full circle as well.
It’s all about making fun of the super-hero genre – a welcome change while being surprisingly clever.