Teen Titans Go! To the Movies Movie Review

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018)

Watch the trailer
Written by: Michael Jelenic & Aaron Horvath (written by), Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (Superman created by), Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Arnold Drake (based on characters created by), Bob Kane and Bill Finger (Batman and Robin created by), William Moulton Marston (Wonder Woman created by)
Directed by: Aaron Horvath, Peter Rida Michail
Starring:  Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton, Tara Strong Will Arnett, Kristen Bell, Michael Bolton, Nicolas Cage, John DiMaggio, Wil Wheaton, Jimmy Kimmel
Rated: PG

Plot
A villain's maniacal plan for world domination radically misdirects five teenage superheroes, the Teen Titans, who dream of shedding their sidekick label with a Hollywood movie of their own.

Verdict
This is an irreverent, fun movie for both kids and adults. It's not afraid to make fun of itself or anything else, skewering DC super hero movies & hero origin stories, while including Michael Bolton and a few flatulence jokes. The writers know super hero movies and have a lot of fun with those tropes. I had a blast. There is plenty of comedy for kids and adults.
Watch it.

Review
Robin and the Teen Titans, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg and Raven, want to be legit super heroes, and thus need a movie. They come to this conclusion after launching into a rap song during a villain fight. This causes the Justice League to arrive and help. They chide the Teen Titans.

 

The Teen Titans decide they need a movie to prove they are real super heroes. They pick Slade as their nemesis because the Titans like to say the name Slade dramatically. They at first think Slade is Deadpool, asking him to look at the screen and say something inappropriate. The funny thing is, Deadpool is a Marvel property created as a parody of Slade.

To ensure their movie the Teen Titans end up going back in time, a Back to the Future riff complete with the Huey Lewis music and Robin stating they must go "back to the future" before he corrects himself. They time travel on power wheels and eliminate the origin stories of all the other super heroes so that they can be the only heroes and thus get their movie. This plan backfires as they return to an apocalypse. They return to undo what they did. In many movies this would be the plot, in Teen Titans, it's an easy fix.

This is packed full of jokes and parody. Batman and Superman are filming a movie. In a tense fight. Batman asks Superman his mother's name and becomes less aggressive when he learns their mothers have the same name. When Batman thinks to ask Superman's father's name, the tension skyrockets. This is a direct jab at Batman v. Superman. Teen Titans manages to be a good DC movie by skewering a lot of what the franchise has gotten wrong. Stan Lee has a cameo, Shia LaBeouf appears. Michael Bolton plays a Tiger that sings an inspirational song. I heard the voice and thought it was Bolton. It definitely is. This also has lots of flatulence humor .

There's a meta joke about why there are so many super hero movies being made. If you think there's a link between Slade and movie producer Jade Wilson... just watch. There is a recurring joke about Robin's baby hands, this is not a Trump joke. Robin's baby hands pre-date Trump.

This does have a moral about teamwork and friends. At the end, Robin attempts to expound on the moral which the other characters immediately cut him off and demand the credits begin. Robin jumps onto the screen and quickly urges kids to ask their parents where babies come from.