I noticed there hadn't been a thread devoted to Teen Titans Go! yet, so I thought I'd start one and see where it goes.
I've only seen two episodes, which, to be frank, is all I need to know that this series isn't all that funny. It is, as Cyborg put it in "You're Fired", lamey-lamey-lame. It's a 180 degree turn from the 2003 series, which was mostly straight action-adventure with an Americanized Anime look.
Let's start with Beast Boy. He wasn't exactly the smartest kid in the room in the earlier series, but here, he's just plain oblivious. It's as if Glen Murakami and his staff didn't do their research on him at all.
The romantic dynamic between Starfire & Robin, which was developed slowly (and rightfully so) in the earlier series, is gone, and they're back to square one, which suggests that if there was any continuity to this show at all, and I haven't seen any evidence of that yet, this would be a prequel to the '03 show.
Let me talk about "You're Fired", which I just viewed On Demand. It illustrates the point I made about BB to a tee, and it shows how the producers have dumbed him down lower than the rest of the team. The auditions were a satire on "American Idol", with Cyborg in the Simon Cowell role. Now, that, buddy, is lamey-lamey-lame.
The Wonder Twins enter the picture (with Khary Payton & Tara Strong as Zan & Jayna), but you know in advance this will not last, as this is mostly fanservice for those haters on the internet who've dismissed the Twins derisively in recent years. Much as I love Jayna, and I had envisioned a hookup with BB in the books back in the day, she was royally dissed here. Honey, a better writer would've helped you out.
It would've also helped if this was a full-length episode instead of running 10-11 minutes.
Anyone want to jump in?
Quote from: hobbyfan on July 21, 2013, 05:00:11 PM
I noticed there hadn't been a thread devoted to Teen Titans Go! yet, so I thought I'd start one and see where it goes.
I've only seen two episodes, which, to be frank, is all I need to know that this series isn't all that funny. It is, as Cyborg put it in "You're Fired", lamey-lamey-lame. It's a 180 degree turn from the 2003 series, which was mostly straight action-adventure with an Americanized Anime look.
...It is supposed to be a comedy series. That's the point.
QuoteLet's start with Beast Boy. He wasn't exactly the smartest kid in the room in the earlier series, but here, he's just plain oblivious. It's as if Glen Murakami and his staff didn't do their research on him at all.
Murakami has nothing to do with
Teen Titans Go!, dude.
QuoteThe romantic dynamic between Starfire & Robin, which was developed slowly (and rightfully so) in the earlier series, is gone, and they're back to square one, which suggests that if there was any continuity to this show at all, and I haven't seen any evidence of that yet, this would be a prequel to the '03 show.
It's supposed to be an alternate and sillier take on the characters. That's why everything is back to square one and the characters are brought down to their most basic qualities and exaggerated.
QuoteThe Wonder Twins enter the picture (with Khary Payton & Tara Strong as Zan & Jayna), but you know in advance this will not last, as this is mostly fanservice for those haters on the internet who've dismissed the Twins derisively in recent years. Much as I love Jayna, and I had envisioned a hookup with BB in the books back in the day, she was royally dissed here. Honey, a better writer would've helped you out.
The Wonder Twins have always been the butt of a number of superhero jokes, so I don't know why you say "recent years". But in any case, it's a lowbrow comedy show. If you wanted a nice, nuanced look at these characters, then you wouldn't get it here.
QuoteIt would've also helped if this was a full-length episode instead of running 10-11 minutes.
I personally feel that a comedy of this type wouldn't do well with 22 minute episodes. It's too fast-paced and frantic for that.
Quote from: hobbyfan on July 21, 2013, 05:00:11 PMIt's a 180 degree turn from the 2003 series, which was mostly straight action-adventure with an Americanized Anime look.
Not really. In fact,
Teen Titans was the most lighthearted DC series for its time, and this show pretty much sparked the trend for later series that wanted to get away from the "srs business" tone that other DC shows were doing at the time.
Quote from: RacattackForce on July 21, 2013, 05:14:34 PM
...It is supposed to be a comedy series. That's the point.
Dude, there's no disputing that point. I'm saying it isn't funny, and I don't think the kids who are the target demo for this show will get a lot of the bad jokes here, either.
Quote from: hobbyfan on July 21, 2013, 05:39:28 PM
Quote from: RacattackForce on July 21, 2013, 05:14:34 PM
...It is supposed to be a comedy series. That's the point.
Dude, there's no disputing that point. I'm saying it isn't funny, and I don't think the kids who are the target demo for this show will get a lot of the bad jokes here, either.
*shrug* Well, I like it.
Really, the only things I don't like about Teen Titans GO! are how the stories tend to get unnecessarily dark, the "we can ruin, injure, mutate or kill the Titans any way we dang well please and not bother trying to fix things at the end since we're just gonna hit the reset button and everything will be back to normal again by the next episode" endings and how on this show Raven has the power of deus ex machina, allowing her to be as powerful as a gag or a script calls for her to be. Other than those nitpicks, I think it's an OK show, not a great show, but how often do you see a great show?
The stories and events of TTGO! don't fit in with the previous show's continuity, but it's not supposed to. TTGO! isn't supposed to be a continuation of the previous series; the best way to view it is as a goofy, Looney Tunes-esque knockoff series inspired by the previous series.
And hobbyfan, I too get tired of the Wonder Twins always being regarded as jokes, especially Zan. In fact, I blogged about how the Twins and Aquaman get no respect here (http://twinsanitypop.blogspot.com/2013/07/hydro-heroes-unite.html), but I wasn't expecting a serious or respectful take on the characters here. Just not that kind of show.
And RacattackForce is right: 22-minute stories just wouldn't work on TTGO! The plots are too simplistic and the pacing is too fast. It would be like trying to stretch a Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry short or an episode of Homestar Runner to a full half-hour. TTGO! would just feel padded and get boring at that length.
Teen Titans GO! isn't Teen Titans, season 6. That's the first thing to keep in mind when watching this show. It's not a continuation of the previous TT series, nor are any of the events of the previous series ever referenced on TTGO! Case in point: in the episode "Dog Hand" (I don't know if that's one of the 2 eps that you saw, hobbyfan), the Titans don't know that Trigon the Terrible is Raven's father until she tells them at the beginning of the story, and also, they act as though they're meeting Trigon for the 1st time, even though they've already done battle with him in season 4 of TT.
TTGO! should be viewed as a separate series that's not connected to TT:TAS or any of the previous DC animated series. It's basically TT meets Looney Tunes. There are no story arcs or heavy action scenes, because the series is meant to focus on what the characters do on their down time when they're not saving the world, which is an idea that I actually like. Unlike some fans, I'm cool with TTGO! being a non-canon strictly-for-laughs deal rather than picking up where TT:TAS left off. Having said that, there are some aspects of TTGO! that don't sit right with me:
I don't like how so many of the endings are non canonical. How there will be a conflict or an irregularity and said conflict won't be resolved by the end of the episode, or how the Titans will be killed, mutilated or whatever and that's how the short ends, because the writers just hit the reset button and everything will be restored to normal by the next episode. I get that TTGO! is a zany comedy, but still, how about some feeling of consistency? "Ghost Boy" in particular didn't work for me; the Titans are flippin' super heroes, and yet Robin can die from just falling from a cliff and Cyborg's robot body can withstand the force of a laser, yet an attack from one ordinary wolf can kill him? Seriously? Even for a comedy, that's a little hard to swallow.
I don't like how Robin now gets tongue-tied and stupid around Starfire, while Star is blissfully unaware that Robin is hot for her. It's too out of character for both of them. Starfire is the over emotional one, while Robin is the rock of the team. This role reversal just seems to be another attempt to make Robin look stupid.
I don't like how Robin was made look like the loser of the team in the short "Super Robin". Robin's lack of super powers has never been a weakness for him before. What makes Robin cool is that (like his mentor Batman), he's able to hold his own and run with the Big Dogs despite his not having powers. Yet in "Super Robin", Robin is made to look like a scrub how can't even bring down a B-list villain like Mammoth without help. Plus, the ending of that short was just plain stupid.
I don't like how here Raven has the power of Deus Es Machina; her magic can do whatever is necessary for that particular story or scene. Raven is now so powerful that she can give Robin a bunch of super powers? So basically, Raven is God on this show? I know that none of this is canon, but allowing Raven to do or make anything and everything with her magic just smacks of lazy writing.
The original Teen Titans show was an adequate superhero show. But as for Go!, I won't call it a bad show. It's just not for me.
Quote from: Silverstar on July 21, 2013, 08:56:27 PM
Really, the only things I don't like about Teen Titans GO! are how the stories tend to get unnecessarily dark, the "we can ruin, injure, mutate or kill the Titans any way we dang well please and not bother trying to fix things at the end since we're just gonna hit the reset button and everything will be back to normal again by the next episode" endings and how on this show Raven has the power of deus ex machina, allowing her to be as powerful as a gag or a script calls for her to be. Other than those nitpicks, I think it's an OK show, not a great show, but how often do you see a great show?
The stories and events of TTGO! don't fit in with the previous show's continuity, but it's not supposed to. TTGO! isn't supposed to be a continuation of the previous series; the best way to view it is as a goofy, Looney Tunes-esque knockoff series inspired by the previous series.
And hobbyfan, I too get tired of the Wonder Twins always being regarded as jokes, especially Zan. In fact, I blogged about how the Twins and Aquaman get no respect here (http://twinsanitypop.blogspot.com/2013/07/hydro-heroes-unite.html), but I wasn't expecting a serious or respectful take on the characters here. Just not that kind of show.
And RacattackForce is right: 22-minute stories just wouldn't work on TTGO! The plots are too simplistic and the pacing is too fast. It would be like trying to stretch a Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry short or an episode of Homestar Runner to a full half-hour. TTGO! would just feel padded and get boring at that length.
I read your blog piece when it first came out a couple of weeks back. The producers are making a joke out of the Titans and other heroes just to get a rise out of folks like us. FWIW, the only other short I've seen was the abysmal "Pie Bros", the first week.
As you note, Starfire & Robin are out of character, even in correlation to the previous series. Shoot, Beast Boy was out of character in the previous series as well, but that's another story altogether.
As far as comedy is concerned, and you can relate to this, Silverstar, I wouldn't even equate this with Looney Tunes at all. That would be an insult to both franchises. They're trying to write the Titans as humanoid LT's, and it ain't working.
You know, I've been watching some of TTG! as it airs before Steven Universe, and it isn't all that bad. It can be pretty obnoxious, but at the same time, I think the humor might be a little stronger here than in the original Titans.
They definitely do play with the characters to the extreme, though. The one thing I notice in particular is how Starfire adds "the" to basically every other nouns. Examples include "I will give him the hugs", "Oh no, I hope you don't feel the sad", "The bank saves money, and they are using me, and I am the fool". I don't remember her doing that very often in the old series.
Yeah, TTG! isn't really a bad show. While it can be grating at times, I do think it has some good moments here and there, and it gets some good laughs out of me time to time as well. The characters are very exaggerated versions of old selves, but personally I don't mind. For instance, Robin is considerably different than how he used to be, but at the same time he manages to be the funniest character in the show, so hey, it works for me.
Do you know what surprises me the most? Beast Boy is the most tamed character on the show. He's still goofy, but exactly how goofy as he was in the original.
That balances out Robin's creepy one-sided feelings towards Starfire (which I'm not a fan of, personally), Cyborg's constant yelling, and Starfire's dumbing down.
Well, I'd say Beast Boy is much dumber than he was in the original. But yeah, he's definitely the closest to his original characterization among the group.
I don't like Robin's one-sided feelings towards Starfire either. I'm not sure why they even did that, since the feelings were mutual in the original. Though, I never much cared for Robin/Starfire relationship episodes in the original, so I guess not having to deal with much of those in this series is a plus.
I remember the slumber party episode, where Robin was laying how badly he wanted to kiss Starfire SO thick. That's not even funny, just creepy.
I do like it when Robin's the butt of other jokes, however. He reminds me of Numbah One from the KND pilot, when the other kids didn't take him seriously. I always kind of wish that they stuck with that in the show.
Teen Titans Go is okay, its just very hit-and-miss. Usually, the best episodes are the ones that directly lift stuff off the original show like Trigon being a sitcom dad (my personal favorite thing from this show), Blackfire showing up and getting Star locked in prison, and when Star and Raven went spelunking with Jinx. I just hope in future seasons it'll be more consistently funny.
(https://33.media.tumblr.com/f4ce756115ec619743de2230bdb526b3/tumblr_nc4cwrG7fI1ta72c5o1_500.jpg)
Huh, I missed this from tonight's episode.
So it's getting a movie next summer (http://www.cbr.com/teen-titans-go-feature-film-release-date/amp/).
Greg Cipes and Tara Strong posted about it, so this is looking to be true. What a short turnaround, then.
*sighs* only the mega popular cartoons get movies and it had to be this one.
I wonder what they'll do to extend a runtime appropriate for a theater.
It's more popular than its other incarnation on CN, so I'm not that surprised. Happy for fans of the show. I won't seek it out in theaters, but I'll give it a watch when it inevitably airs on CN.
Really sucks the original never got this much hype though. Stuff like this is a bit sad though, because it justifies them isolating the action shows.
Checking the ratings for Teen Titans Go, the ratings aren't anywhere near enough to suggest a theatrical release would be profitable. Unless they get so cheap that they just staple 8 episodes together and call that a movie.
Considering how cheap the show's animation is, I don't see it needing a big budget. I wouldn't be surprised if it only cost like $10-20 mill before advertising.
I do wonder if it's going to be a soft reboot like the Ninjago movie apparently is, though.
The ratings have been dropping on this for a while. I'm surprised they're not trying to slowly fade it out like everything else.
I still believe that some CN exec has a weird obsession over TTG!, and that's why they keep marathoning the show when theoretically, they make less money from its commercials than they would other cartoons because it's not a Cartoon Network original. That's why they shafted previous DC shows, and why they cancelled the original TT in favor of making Ben 10 so they could profit from that series.
I'll admit that I don't check the ratings as often, but from what I can tell, TTG is still CN's biggest hit, and the main reason it's having a ratings slump is because the channel in general is. Nick's been on decline for years, but they didn't phase out SpongeBob because of it.
Even during TTG's prime, the ratings difference between other shows was only a couple hundred thousand instead of over a million viewers.
Let's not forget that right now we're using TV ratings, which are becoming a lot more dated in the wake of cord cutting. I don't know what the online stats are for Teen Titans Go are for CN's app/website, but judging by how hard Cartoon Network has been pushing both I'm starting to think unlike other cable networks, they're among the few that have seen the writing on the wall for cable and are adjusting to Internet viewings accordingly.
You can't gauge the success of a television show based on ratings alone anymore. Like Peanutbutter said, streaming stats are more important these days, not to mention there are toy sales and advertising interests to factor in. Regardless, I don't expect the TTG! movie to do well for the same reasons Ninjago didn't - kids don't have much incentive to see the movie in theaters when they can watch the show at home and wait for it to stream, and parents will have no interest in seeing the movie themselves.
QuoteLike Peanutbutter said, streaming stats are more important these days, not to mention there are toy sales and advertising interests to factor in.
That's the thing. I have seen no evidence of TTG having enough of an internet footprint to justify a movie doing well. Sure, you can say streaming stats are important, but that's like if Disney saw the value in those Spider-Man/Elsa videos that get tens of millions of views and thought that was an incentive to make a Frozen MCU film. Besides, there's a difference between letting your kid fiddle with your iPad and watch cartoons and actually paying $20 (not including popcorn) to let them watch the same thing in theaters. That's what that one CEO failed to consider when he thought the Oogieloves film would do as well as the Teletubbies show.
A Frozen/Spider-Man movie would sell like crazy/
I'd honestly be more concerned about the upcoming MLP movie. I feel like that's a couple of years too late.
But again, I can't really see the budget for either movies to be too high to be worried about.
I don't think the Teen Titans Go movie will be a huge hit. I do think it has a chance at breaking even and being a modest hit depending on what competition it has. As for MLP, it might be a case of not striking when the rod was hot but I don't know. The show seems like its still as popular with young girls, and some bronies may have since left it, but most of them are still around.
MLP has an over seven year run, good word of mouth, and is one of Hasbro's big sellers. It's encroaching on 200 episodes and its merch sells really well. It getting a movie was guaranteed. TTG is nowhere near that important to CN and would be replaced at the drop of a hat.
There's also still an adult fanbase for the show who would pay tickets, while I haven't seen many adult TTG fans, let alone ones who would happily pay money to watch the show.
I said I don't think it will be a huge hit, only a modest one at best so I'm not sure who else is in here arguing otherwise. :??:
Are bronies still a thing, though? Or have I been successfully able to avoid them? I kind of assumed that most of them moved onto Gravity Falls or Rick and Morty, like how most AT fans moved onto Steven Universe.
Quote from: Avaitor on October 02, 2017, 09:12:52 PMAre bronies still a thing, though? Or have I been successfully able to avoid them? I kind of assumed that most of them moved onto Gravity Falls or Rick and Morty, like how most AT fans moved onto Steven Universe.
Bronies are still around; they're just not as prevalent as they used to be when the show was at its peak. The dissolution of The Hub also probably helped with that.
They aren't as out-and-about as they once were no, but I think they stopped hyping themselves a bit before The Hub went under.
Bronies still exist. They just aren't as loud and obnoxious as certain other fanbases that have arrived since the show's popularity peak.
(https://i.imgur.com/wG7tXZv.jpg)
:happytime:
And people say CN is screwing Steven Universe over. It's gonna be the second most aired show that week. :sly:
Only two airings of SU in the midst of that massive TT Go! marathon? Someone at CN has got to be trolling at this point.
Oh well, show gets the most ratings so it gets the most airings.
Here's the plot (https://www.cbr.com/teen-titans-go-to-the-movies-plot/), and the teaser trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itxC6aoIfFQ).
It looks no different from the show. This is probably so cheap for them to make that there's no way it won't make money back.
The Teen Titans Go! movie is about the Teen Titans trying to get a movie...
I love how in the teaser trailer, everyone was dressed up as Wonder Woman. Way to acknowledge the fact that Wonder Woman is currently your best Superhero film.
Butch Hartman reacts to the trailer. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKEwZ4BrDb4)
Speaking of which, I liked the crack at Aquaman.
Greg Cipes has been diagnosed with skin cancer. (https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf_-s1NgNGJ)
(https://i.imgur.com/uHGPjfu.jpg)
Yet another crossover. (https://youtu.be/HrYDJMjxAqY)
Man, has the current season of YJ been well worth the wait.
Loving this season having a militant stance against human trafficking too.