It’s no secret that this year’s cinematic landscape has been littered with superhero movies. Between “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Deadpool 2,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “Incredibles 2,” we’ve about reached the breaking point when it comes to costumed heroes. It’s into this overstuffed marketplace that “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” flies head straight into. Based on an inventive, minimally animated cartoon series (the first film since “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” to be based on an animated WB series), it arrives with little of the fanfare that most of this year’s truly massive superhero movies came bundled with, instead sneaking into the fray with little more than its charm, wit, and winning design work. It’s this stealthy aspect that makes it even more of a surprise. Hidden within this unsuspecting package is the wiliest, subversive superhero movie of the year (sorry, “Deadpool 2“).
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If you’ve seen the series, you know what you’re going to get. The Teen Titans is a super-group based around younger characters, made up of boy wonder Robin (Scott Menville), transformative Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), robotic Cyborg (Khary Payton), mystical Raven (Tara Strong) and otherworldly Starfire (Hynden Walch). Early in the film, their hijinks result in Balloon Man (Greg Davies) getting away, with the more serious superheroes (led by Nicolas Cage as Superman!) telling them that they aren’t true heroes – especially since none of them have their own movies. After sneaking into a premiere, they’re dismayed to learn that virtually every other character, including the Batmobile, has their own movie.
The Titans, led by a very insecure Robin, set about to prove themselves worthy of cinematic immortality, mostly by kissing up to Jade Wilson (Kristen Bell), the filmmaker responsible for all of the superhero movies, all the while contending with their very own super-villainous foe – Slade (Will Arnett).
And honestly, it takes a minute to untangle how messy the DC Extended Universe has become, what with Cyborg actually appearing in the big budget “Justice League” movie, along with a post-credits appearance by Slade aka Deathstroke. It’s even weird to hear Arnett voice a super-villain a little more than a year after he was the title character in “The Lego Batman Movie.” Making things even more complicated is the debut this week for a live action “Titans” series comprised of the exact same characters, only this time they kill people and telling criminals to go fuck their mentors. But none of that is the fault of the filmmakers behind “Teen Titans Go! To The Movies,” with blame placed squarely at the feet of the DC/WB corporate overlords and their “throw wet spaghetti on the wall” strategy to putting these things together.
Casting Cage in the role of Superman, a part that he very nearly played for Tim Burton back in 1997, is definitely a clue to how irreverent and knowing the movie is. And for most of its running time, it’s a series of escalating, incredibly cartoony (in a good way) gags — there are rap-rock musical numbers, sight gags and pop culture references aplenty (Beast Boy can turn into any animal and for a split second he transforms into Animal, better known as the Muppet drummer for Electric Mayhem) and a memorable, prolonged sequence in which the Titans travel back in time to stop the heroes from every showing up on earth which, of course, leads to untold disaster. The movie’s swift, 88-minute runtime ensures that no gag or narrative detour lasts too long or slows down the plot too much. And it helps that the design of the movie, purposefully low budget and owing more to the simplistic style of, say, Hanna-Barbara than modern juggernauts like Pixar, is so winningly colorful and snappy. (This movie is, first and foremost, a joy to watch.)
But towards the last act of the movie, “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” reveals itself to be more slyly subversive than originally thought. Much thought and energy is given to the idea of superhero movies: what they mean to audiences who have grown so dependent on simulated heroism that they don’t know what to do with the real thing, and what the glut of superhero movies would mean to people who are weaned exclusively on them. It also comes with a nifty secondary villain plot involving mind control that serves as a wonderful companion to a similar thread in “Incredibles 2.” It’s interesting to see Warner Bros. and DC so willing to lampoon their own, corporately prioritized product (early ads poked fun at “Justice League” and there’s a great jab at everyone’s favorite punching bag “Green Lantern“) and to expand that ribbing to rivals Marvel (there’s a great, recurring joke about how the Titans think Slade is Deadpool, especially comic fans will note that Deadpool was introduced as a spoof on Deathstroke) and the superhero world as a whole. It doesn’t just bite the hand that feeds; it damn near severs the whole arm.
Which isn’t to say that this is a movie that can purely be enjoyed for the sarcasm, because this movie does have a lot of heart. Robin’s quest for his own superhero movie ends up splitting him up from the group, leading him to learn the value of friendship over notoriety. And each member of the team is given some nice, emotional beats that manage to register through the nonstop assault of gags (It should also be noted this movie is really funny). It’s this delicate mixture of humor and sentimentality that makes it something more than just a biting jab at the current superhero culture, considering those movies are rarely (if ever) this sweet (your enjoyment, too, will be amplified if you can get over the aforementioned synergistic knottiness). “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” is one of the biggest surprises at the movies this summer. In fact, it’s downright super. [A-]
