The “Teen Titans Go!” animated TV show brings an incredible amount of silly ridiculousness to the DC universe of superheroes, to the point it makes “The Lego Batman” movie look like “12 Angry Men.”
It’s always good if you’re in the mood for a juvenile laugh and meta-superhero-related comedy. My kids and I get a kick out of it.
Of course, when the show made the leap to the big screen with “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies,” the first question that springs to mind is, “Is this really necessary?” And the answer is, “Probably not.”
It’s essentially just a decent episode of the show spread out over 90 minutes and not much is added by the cinematic expansion.
For those of you without Cartoon Network and fourth-graders, “Teen Titans Go!” features the hijinks of teenaged superheroes. Batman’s sidekick Robin (Scott Menville) is joined by half-man, half-machine Cyborg (Khary Payton), alien princess Starfire (Hynden Walch), animal shape-shifter Beast Boy (Greg Cipes) and underworld sorceress Raven (Tara Strong).
They occasionally fight crime around well-timed fart jokes and clever pop-culture references. In the movie, the Titans realize they’ll never be taken seriously as superheroes until they get their own movie.
Since there is no shortage of superhero movies to lampoon, they get quite a bit of mileage from this premise. There is some added star-power for the movie, such as Will Arnett, who voices supervillain Slade, and Kristen Bell, who voices superhero movie director Jade Wilson. And there’s the self-referential casting of Nicholas Cage as Superman, which big-time movie nerds like myself will get a kick out of since Cage was set to star in an infamous Superman reboot in the ’90s that never saw the light of day.
Yeah, it’s that kind of movie.
Look, if you enjoy the TV show, you’ll enjoy “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.” If you don’t know anything about it, take some time to introduce yourself to the show before taking it in at the theater because, if this type of humor is not your cup of tea, that’s 90 minutes of your life you’re never getting back.
“Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” is rated PG for action and rude humor.
