Teen Titans GO! To the Movies
This animated feature, based on the ongoing Teen Titans GO! series on Cartoon Network, is a waste of time and energy, both on the part of the viewer and those involved with making it. I was unpleanstly surprised to be sorely disappointed by it, even with moderately low expectations after watching some of the TV series.
TTG! To the Movies is a zany parody of the hero’s journey that is so overly concerned with demonstrating how self-aware it is that it never gets around to creating a story or emotional through-line worth caring about. It's a perfect example of how cynicism and irony can ruin a film when left to their own devices without a meaningful anchor or thoughtful message. It indulges as many clichés as it mocks and finds itself far more predictable and mundane in its plotting than any of the superhero films it seems to speak down to. Well, besides Batman V. Superman.
It's not a horrible film. It's not incoherent or notably messy. It's well-put-together. It just isn't interesting or clever. It's a waste of a movie.
It's sure to appeal to children below the age of 10 simply because of the bright colors and juvenile humor, which, admittedly, were enough to make me chuckle a handful of times. But more often than not, the film decides to double down on running gags that were never funny the first time, let alone every ten seconds throughout the entirety of the movie. Yes, that's right; there are repeated gags in this movie that are played multiple times in the same sentence, multiple times in the movie. I can see maybe the most naive senses of humor finding joy in that, but for a film so interested in mocking convention, its jokes are incredibly tired and unoriginal.
Sadly enough, the animation quality is no better than the TV show (which just doesn't make sense), and the show itself already has a very simplistic, low-production-value quality to it as is. You'd think the relatively minimal art style might allow for a lot of dynamic storyboarding and set pieces, but no; the filmmakers felt no pressure to do anything visually out of the ordinary. It might be the least visually compelling wide-release animated feature of this century. And in a period where animation has made such leaps and bounds, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Returning to the point about the film being a parody of the hero’s journey: the parody of the hero's journey, at this point, is basically just as overdone as the actual hero's journey. You want a cleverly written, not-too-serious take on the concept? Watch The Spongebob SquarePants Movie. It's funny, beautifully drawn, tantalizingly bizarre, and surprisingly heartfelt. And, believe it or not, TTG rips off 80 percent of its plot beats, and even some of its gags. If I were Nickelodeon, I'd be pissed. Hell—I am pissed.
TTG also seems to want to be a sort-of Deadpool for kids, employing pop culture references as leverage for most of their jokes. The key to intertextual humor, however, is that there needs to be some element of wit to it. It can't just be a reference to something.(Deadpool 2 fell into this trap, to some degree.) This film pretends to be a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the bloated superhero genre, but instead just piggybacks on its success to maintain some sort of timely relevance.
I've long disagreed with Mr. Rogers’ supposition that cartoons are nothing more than base stimulation that rots children's brains. Many cartoons since the dawn of animation have made fantastic use of the medium’s communicative flexibility to display themes of philosophy, politics, and social commentary, among other valuable insights that kids may not pick up on immediately, but may well be subliminally informed by as they develop. Many cartoons stretch the limits of the medium, pioneering new forms of visual communication and storytelling. Others use the medium to create figures and ideas that all ages and lifestyles can relate to, without the barrier of physical or cultural likeness that often comes with a real-life actor. In all, I think many, many cartoons have done great things for our global culture.
Teen Titans GO! To the Movies is not one of these cartoons. It's one of the cartoons Mr. Rogers was talking about.