Teen Titans Go! To The Movies

This review may contain spoilers!

This has the hilarious 'fourth wall-breaking' humour of Deadpool with the light-hearted charm of an animated feature. I would give Teen Titans Go! To The Movies a 7.5/10.

I loved watching the original Teen Titans cartoon series when I was younger and never picked up Teen Titans Go! back when it came out. However, when I heard that a Teen Titans film was coming out I figured that my young cousins would have a superhero film similar to what I used to enjoy; never once did I expect to be the one laughing the most in the entire theatre. Teen Titans Go! is packed with an inspired sense of humour as it weaves the tale of Robin trying his hardest to get his very own superhero movie, the 'defining sign' of a true superhero. This is an experience packed with funny gags at the expense of DC Entertainment, Marvel, the Deadpool films, Michael Bolton and even the Titans characters themselves. The fourth wall breaking gags lead to some hilarious scenes; the Lion King parody, Michael Bolton song and superhero origin story scenes standing out. The animation style is bright and colourful to watch, effectively transporting you to a classic cartoon style. This film is probably one of the funniest this year when it comes to the soundtrack (outside of maybe Pitch Perfect 3), the use of a Teen Titans theme song, Michael Bolton song and techno remix strongly lend themselves to exceptionally funny scenes.

 Greg Cipes, who voiced Beast Boy, is very comedic as the radical and laidback member of the team; Cipes really knows where to find the line when it comes to how over the top he can take Beast Boy. Khary Payton, who voiced Cyborg, is the party animal of the group, Payton lends himself strongly to the musical scenes and the comedic moments alike. Tara Strong, who voiced Raven, has perfected that almost monotonous voice of Raven's and lends an incredible amount of range to the character; when Raven has a more emotional or comedic moment it's all the stronger for how Strong delivers those scenes. Hynden Walch, who voiced Starfire, is the very bubbly optimistic member of the team; Walch is so good at portraying a character who seems very much the conscience and heart of the Titans. Will Arnett, who voiced Slade, is quite brilliant as a more comedic antagonist; Arnett certainly knows how to do 'over the top sinister' but his more quirky ways of tricking the protagonists make for funny scenes. Michael Bolton, who voiced the Tiger, lends himself to a very comedically timed upbeat song; yet Bolton gets to have his own fun with his character being one of the few casualties of the feature. Greg Davies, who voiced Balloon Man, does a great job of bringing forth a more over the top cartoon villain; Davies is certainly menacing but his way of interacting with the protagonists makes for quite a bit of fun. Stan Lee, who voiced himself, really has a great time mocking his way of popping up in superhero films; this is a great parody and suits how the film riffs on the superhero movie genre. Dave Stone, who voiced the Challengers Of The Unknown, has a very fun dry delivery; Stone's stoic superhero depiction makes for one of the funniest superhero teams in the film.

However, the best performance came from Scott Menville, who voiced Robin. This role is a highly ambitious one, who is driven by this extreme desire to have his own superhero film. The fact that Menville shows Robin to be a bit over the top in his superheroics makes fora very funny juxtaposition to how capable the character is in the fight scenes. Robin is an insecure hero, still very much aware that he's seen as a sidekick but desperate to prove that he's something more. Menville really knows how to play Robin with such a serious edge that a lot of the comedy just comes from him naturally due to the situations he's in. The arc we see Robin go through is brilliant; he starts as a somewhat selfish character driven by his need for a film but he moves past that and embraces his friends as being more important. It's hard not to like Robin, and he's certainly a favourite coming out of this film.

This film's strength is certainly the comedic elements but there's such a push to be funny all the time that there are several moments where it just degrades into toilet humour, this just lowers the quality of the film after what we'd seen up until this point. The film takes a long time to get to the main points in the narrative, the first two acts are mainly gags and don't really have much substance beyond setting up the premise. It's disappointing that Teen Titans Go! crams so much into its final act because you do feel like the back end is quite heavily loaded with content that could've been dispersed throughout.

Kristen Bell, who voiced Jade Wilson, is peppy but doesn't really put a lot of herself into this role; it's a shame because Bell has done some great voice-over roles in the past, but this certainly isn't one of them. Nicolas Cage, who voiced Superman, really doesn't have the voice to match this iconic role; Cage is hushed and restrained which doesn't really suit the optimistic and bright role. Halsey, Patton Oswalt and Lil Yachty, who voiced Wonder Woman, Atom and Green Lantern respectively, each give rather bland performances for such significant superheroes; these are quite casual figures with voices that don't hold a lot of presence in their scenes.