VIDEO - Teen Titans Go! "The Return of Slade" review

[lordultimus]

So, Teen Titans Go has been playing on Cartoon Network for quite awhile now. I don't know HOW well it's doing - I've heard conflicting reports from different sources - but considering that its been cleared for season after season, and has no sign of stopping soon, I'm going to assume it's doing quite well for itself.

Personally, I don't care for it - it moved from "tolerable" to "overly obnoxious" some time ago for me. But as I said, many people seem to like it, including its target audience, so I'm happy to change the channel to something else until We Bare Bears starts.

However, I noticed the title of this episode, and being a fan of the original I decided to take a peek. What I got was...

Sigh.

Behind the cut is a review of the above episode, done by the Mysterious Mr. Enter, who covers basically what my personal problem is with the show that actually offends me.

"Animated Atrocities #94: "The Return of Slade" [TTG]" (Watch on YouTube)

So... yeah.

Look, I get that this show is aimed at a new audience. I get that apparently the cast likes working on this show better than the original (or maybe it's just Tara Strong, but the others at least like it.)

But what gets me is that, with the above said, why would you not only hire these same voice actors, asign them not only these roles, but specifically model everything from character models, characters original to the previous show, character personalities (exaggerated though they might be), plots, and character relationships from the original, and then get confused as to why fans of the original compare your show to it? And not only that, but to create a title, an opening, and a blurb to put on TV guide that SPECIFICALLY calls attention to a character from the original that was greatly enjoyed, only for him to never show up, and the story focuses on a message that is DIRECTLY aimed at fans of the original that basically says "grow up, your show wasn't that good, and if we have it your way it'll be inappropriate for children." (This people who in one episode had a running gag focused on Blackfire checking out Dick Grayson's ass, to the point where the episode is titled "Mr. Butt.")

Also, if you're going to constantly make brony jokes, at least watch G4 and not base it on your memories of previous iterations?

Comments

[theflames]

It's a parody.

Parodies only really work well if they actually bother to reference what what they're parodying... so that's why its similar to the original in a lot of ways. But very clearly, very different. It's an exaggeration of the comedy aspect of the old show.

"grow up, your show wasn't that good, and if we have it your way it'll be inappropriate for children."

I have no idea where you're getting that sentiment from.

This is for a younger audience, but people who enjoyed the old show, who don't take things as... seriously... can enjoy it as a parody of their old favourite.

If this didn't exist someone on tumblr would have made some Teen Titans fanfiction AU with these same sensibilities anyway, and you all would've ate it up.

Anyway this review is grossly superficial (he's really complaining that they made a joke referencing police???), and i couldn't watch it all because i feel like he's watched 100 episodes of this and still hates it... which is so baffling. Like... why do that.

[lordultimus]

An "exaggeration of the comedy aspect of the show" isn't really what a parody is. A parody is making light of something, and you can't make light of what was already lighthearted, unless you're parodying something that fails at humor. But if what you meant was toning down the serious aspects of the original, then those "New Teen Titans" shorts on the DC Nation block did it much less obnoxiously and without mean-spiritedness, in my opinion.

"I have no idea where you're getting that sentiment from." Umm, because they literally say that in this episode? I mean if you didn't finish the review, maybe you missed it.

"This is for a younger audience, but people who enjoyed the old show, who don't take things as... seriously... can enjoy it as a parody of their old favourite. " And I openly respect that. If that was the only problem with the show I would simply ignore it. The problem I have with it is that it specifically baits fans of the original only to spitefully spit in the faces of the people who prefer the original.

"If this didn't exist someone on tumblr would have made some Teen Titans fanfiction AU with these same sensibilities anyway, and you all would've ate it up." Probably not me personally, as I was more or less too young for the original fandom when it first came out. In any case, something lighthearted? Yeah I probably would have. Something as mean-spirited as Modern Spongebob? I don't think so.

"Anyway this review is grossly superficial (he's really complaining that they made a joke referencing police???), and i couldn't watch it all because i feel like he's watched 100 episodes of this and still hates it... which is so baffling. Like... why do that." I don't think he's complaining about that so much as making a joke about it (his response to that is "man are you high!" and a joke about the necessary uselessnes of cops in superhero shows). I honestly don't know why you think he's watched every single episode, though he has reviewed other episodes previously. (And honestly, part of the reason I uploaded this review specifically is that this is his most evenly measured and backed up with logic review he's done with the show.) I don't expect you to watch the review in full, though, he's pretty polarizing.

In any case, my beef with the show is not that it apes the original, that the whole cast is obnoxious usually without a straight man to balance things out, or even how meanspirited it tends to be. My beef is with how the creators of the show seem to hold the fans of the original who dislike this show in comptempt and seem to think that our only complaint is "it's not my childhood."


"We're gonna do an episode -- I'm pitching this episode, it's not been written -- but it's going to be about how people look at comic characters. They grow up with comic characters and they're like 40-years-old and they still want to [be marketed to with] these comic characters that were meant for them as children, because they don't move on to other things. Which is fine, I don't mind that, but then they degrade children-based [things] -- so we're going to do that, but we're going to do that with clowns instead. So the Teen Titans -- Cyborg and Beast Boy -- remember they really like clowns. They're going to say, "Let's go get a clown for our birthday." And they have a clown, but it's not the clown they remember.

Horvath: They hate this clown. It's a different clown, and they're going to boo him.

-Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=55257

[onceaskrull]

If this didn't exist someone on tumblr would have made some Teen Titans fanfiction AU with these same sensibilities anyway, and you all would've ate it up.

This is a really poor way to hold an argument, by presuming to know what the OP would or would not have "eaten up." Beyond which, an official show and something that some random person makes up on their tumblr are completely different in terms of significance and reach so I fail to see how that is a compelling argument point.

[deh_tommy]

I like Teen Titans Go!, though I see the show's flaws and understand why ithers wouldn't feel the same way I do (namely, through occasionally obnoxious gags, a strange fixation on buttocks, general mean spiritedness, etc.).

Personally, I like the show in the same way I like Power Rangers, or Once Upon a Time, or Doctor Who (I'm not saying the series compares to those listed in terms of quality) - namely, when an episode is good, said episode is really good. When an episode isn't good, however, said episode is stupid and generally unpleasant to watch.

[deh_tommy]

Also, I like to think the episode's 'moral' regarding cartoons wasn't about "cartoons should only be for kids, and can't be anything else except mindless entertainment", but rather a warning of nostalgia. Say, the Clown represents something like The Transformers, or perhaps even early comic books from the Golden Age and Silver Age; Cyborg and Beast Boy realise they aren't as good as they originally thought, and so set out to make him 'dark, gritty and edgy' and show Clowns aren't just for kids (like comics in the 1990s-early 2000s, or even the Titans in 'Let's Get Serious'). Eventually, they realise while they may have outgrown Clowns, that doesn't mean no one else is allowed to enjoy them, and good (if not 'better') things have come from them that can be enoyed by all ages, after they themselves became Clowns (like Raven with Pretty, Pretty Pegasus).

Or this could have been a stupid episode with a warped message that doesn't make sense.

[lordultimus]

The funny thing is that I can sometimes see when they are parodying typical moral lessons a la "the Wheel of Morality." In the Boys vs Girls episode it does bring attention to how many of these plots aren't about gender equality, but by trying to avoid being sexist towards women just end up showing how much better girls are to boys. In the "Let's Get Serious" (which is problematic from what I hear from YJ fans, though I never watched that show), I do agree with the general point that they made that making everything grim and gritty doesn't necessarily make a product "good."

The problem is that their stupid style comedy (and I'm not making an insult there, they more or less describe it like that in the interview I posted above) garbles these messages so much that it's honestly hard to tell whether they meant it that way. (Though Let's Get Serious was clearly a take that to fans of the original and YJ)

[deh_tommy]

To be fair, Young Justice admitted that the Titans were being TOO serious. In any case, thanks for your post, for even if I don't share your opinion I do agree with your assessment ("[Teen Tiatns Go!]'s stupid style comedy [...] garbles these messages so much that it's honestly hard to tell whether they meant it that way.").

[baihu]

I honestly find the sentient toilet episode way worse. If only because I have a very hard time figuring out the demographic for it. It almost seems like it's aiming for the Tiny Toons age-group, what with the literal potty humor; but I get the impression they were still aiming a little older than that. Which then gives the episode a very odd, almost fetishist quality which is frankly kinda disturbing.

[sadoeuphemist]

I can't believe you're being trolled so hard by this. I mean, yes, they're trolling the hell out of the fans of the original show, that's the joke, that's why it's funny.

[sagrada]

That's the worst excuse for bad writing I have ever seen. Even worse than retroactive claims of satire. At least satire is misused enough that it can be plausible.

[sadoeuphemist]

That's not an excuse, that's literally what happened. They called it "The Return of Slade" and started off by making a big deal about what a fearsome nemesis Slade was, and then they skipped over the battle and made the rest of the show about some clown. That's the joke.

[sagrada]

I know, that's the same joke they've been doing for about 5-13 years. It's no less clumsy or simple-minded now than it was then, and "it's a joke" doesn't actually count for or mean anything other than something was trying to be funny. Which, same as in the old Titans show, was never their strong suit.

On 23 August 2015 at 15:32, sadoeuphemist - DW Comment < dw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:

[sadoeuphemist]

What? Teen Titans Go has only been on the air since 2013 so I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't think the original Teen Titans cartoon made jokes like that, and I think the new cartoon is a lot funnier than the old one.

[sagrada]

I mean this is the same kind of thing as back in the first show, where the primary joke (besides the really stock ones like Cyborg and Beast Bomb's arguments) was "things look to be serious and actually it's just Garth with a toupee!". Like when Killer Moth showed up, seemed to be a real threat, and then the episode was about Robin and Starfire dealing with his terrible daughter.

On 23 August 2015 at 16:07, sadoeuphemist - DW Comment < dw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:

[sadoeuphemist]

That's not even the same kind of joke. Killer Moth was legitimately threatening with his army of mutant moths. The joke was that he used his power to force the Titans to do petty things like dating his daughter. The Titans still had to defeat him at the end.

"Something should be serious, but instead turns out to be funny" is not a specific type of joke. That is like, a broad description of humor in general.

[reveen]

I do find it very strange how they're purporting to be a kids show yet devoting episodes to spoofing things that their target audience might not be very familiar with.

[sadoeuphemist]

This is literally every kid's show. Did you never watch, like, Monsterpiece Theatre starring Alistair Cookie?

[miramira]

But that kind of parody provides a joke the adults will enjoy while still entertaining the kids. It doesn't confuse the primary audience and tick off the people who will actually get the reference.

[sadoeuphemist]

It's no more confusing to kids than Cookie Monster wearing a smoking jacket and calling himself Alistair is confusing to kids. And I get the reference, and I think it's funny. If it actually pisses you off, you are taking the Teen Titans cartoons way too seriously.

[icon_uk]

Many cartoons and kids shows do that so that the parents watching with their children have something to laugh at too... and the older audience just watching it.

Shows like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, or Mystery Incorporate are rife with such things. Even BTAS threw in little in jokes like cameos making fun or Bat-Mite.

[ruhig_knight]

Oh Teen Titans Go...

I watched the show since it started, enjoying its weirdness, until it got over weighed with problematic humor and obvious it was more interested in giving reasons why Gar/Raven was such a NoTP of mine. Really questionable handling of the ships in this series that aren't CyBB is a huge, HUGE problem and BB/R is the worst, given the producers are aware how obnoxiously popular it is and milk it. They even made that annoying headcanon "Raven was really jealous of Tara bc she oved BB!!!" canon here for the shippers. And poor Terra..

But I do check in at time as some eps still sound fun and have been wanting to see this episode, it sounds like this, like the YJ one, is them trying to be meta with some of the (unfair) hate the show gets. I can't really blame them there as really even when the show was just concept sketches with an innocent sounding description fans attacked it for the "not my childhood!" and "Why can't it be dark like YJ???" type hate and got downright snotty and nasty about it with some, even harassing the crew and anyone who was optimistic about it. This isn't even exclusive to TTG. Shows like Batman: The Brave and The Bold had fans complaining about it not being BTAS as well as having a lighter version of Batman, which the show addressed with Bat-Mite talking to a "not MY Batman" fanboy. And of course there was hate towards the recent, short-lived Beware the Batman for not being BTAS and will go on for any new Bats cartoon. I'll note there's some irony here with the Toon Titans fandom as really, when the cartoon first aired you'd run into cranky comics fan complaining about how horrible the show was for "anime-fying" and "dumbing down" their favorite characters. It's not so much trying to insult the old show or fans just these mindsets that have been going on everywhere.

Even outside superhero cartoons people try to go by how good something is by how "dark" and "mature" the content is while anything lighter and sillier is automatically seen as lesser and it's a really faulty (and annoying) way to judge something. ESPECIALLY if they're trying to judge cartoons aimed at kids and seeing how it appeals to adults like themselves. Like, yeah I loved YJ but it was too wrapped up in its super-serious-complicated plot that it made characterization second and bit off more it can chew with all those guest stars and time-skip. As well, as some questionable handling of characters yet people seem less likely to be critical about that show.

[qalchemist]

I still got skeeved out when I saw the episode where Dr Light takes Raven and Starfire to a diner for lunch and a chat, and then offers them a 'nefarious dessert' and...

I'm probably just projecting based on it being Dr Light, but it gave me the heebie jeebies since these characters act/look/are treated like they're 12 or so.

[icon_uk]

Isn't there an episode where the girls basically reform Dr Light and have him decide to devote his life to helping others and then the boys come in and beat the living tar out of him to the extent that he decides to stay evil or something?

[qalchemist]

Same ep.

[rolzup]

This much I can say: My kids, aged seven and eleven, LOVE TTG. Love it. Laughing out loud loving it, watching certain bits over and over again loving it. And I love watching it with them; it's genuinely funny more often than not, and TTG's Batman is one of my favorite things ever.

They also watch the original Teen Titans, when that's on. They -- and I, who watched it when it first aired! -- enjoy that too, if not quite as much. They're young, they like silliness. The eleven year old, in particular, has a fine sense of the absurd.

(For the record, they didn't care at all for Young Justice, which I quite liked, and thought that the Green Lantern animated series was super cool. There, again, we deeply disagreed.)

As to why TTG draws so heavily on the original TT? I think that it's another level for the parents watching the show with their kids to appreciate...as indeed I do. The existence of TTG takes nothing away from the original show, which can certainly still be watched and enjoyed on its own merits. Same with Tiny Titans and the original Titans comics, or Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated and Scooby-Doo, Where are You!

(And yes, they loved Tiny Titans too. Still do; it was one of the first things that my youngest read on his own.)

[tigerkaya]

I was always neutral to the show when it first aired. Couple of episodes made me laugh here and their than as the series progressed I found its jokes and characterization old and repetitive. Than when I watched this video review a while back I grew tired of the Teen Titans Go rating grabs with Slade and its message of "Its just a kids show!" I hate that excuse its just a blatant reason for lacking of quality writing. Overall for those that enjoy the show I'm glad you like it but as for me much like the current Marvel cartoons taking a hiatus away from the DC cartoons until something better comes along.

[silverzeo]

I've stop caring for it when all the characters just seem like jerks who never learn anything and just died... alot. One episode had Cyborg goe crazy and cut all the titans' heads off and put them on appliances... and they enjoyed it. How is THAT for kids?!?!

[beoweasel]

Wait, didn't Teen Titans Go! already have an episode about how making things 'serious' was bad? Wasn't that the entire plot of episode 84's "Let's Get Serious"?

So, was this episode just another go of beating a dead horse?

[silverzeo]

No, this time they shifted the blame to their audience and critics rather than themselves and how stupids thing would be if they were taken too seriously...

[sarahnewlin]

I like that its essentially a self-parody. People are just mad because they can't have their precious anime-style drama series back like it was.

[yap]

I completely agree with YJ's Greg Weisman that you shouldn't svoid TTG just because you miss (insert name of DC shows you miss). I gave it a shot but it became painful. Yes, I know I'm not the target market. Yes, I know Beware the Batman way overreached with a hero who equated marital infidelity with stealing from the cash register. But it's a bummer this is the only DC cartoon on tv right now.

[wizardru]

The interesting thing to me is listening to how each series earns it's criticisms over the years...and then some fans totally forget that the criticism even existed.

When the first Teen TItans show appeared, it drew wide criticism from some comics fans for it's anime stylings, large doses of humor and choice of characters. When Young Justice appeared, it drew criticism for its cast and it's version of the characters. The Green Lantern series, Brave and the Bold and Beware the Batman all received harsh criticism when first announced, but the first two, at least, were very fondly remembered when they ended (not sure about BTB). When TTG appeared, it drew criticism for not being like the previous series. And so on.

I'm not saying these criticisms are or are not valid, just that I find it interesting to see how shows age over time. In an age where we get stuff like the DC Direct videos and the Flash TV show, I'm not feeling that bad about TTG not representing the comics accurately. My kids grew up with the original series but find the new series hysterical. I appreciate it for what it is, even if I miss the old series somewhat.

[silverzeo]

I still can't believe this show has been on for a hundred episodes...

I still can't believe my TV browser ruined the that joke they had in the title... its one thing to make something so flat, but they had to try to trick people who criticized them by baiting them with a character they kinda "wanted" to see, though by this show's use of jokes and comedy it was easy to see it wouldn't be great, only to "trapped" them to show how wrong they were... while failing everything to do so...