Things Only Adults Notice In Teen Titans Go!

While Teen Titans Go! To the Movies focuses on the titular team, it's a delight for any DC fan. This might come as a surprise, given the cartoon's reputation for an absurdist approach few DC properties employ. It's largely earned — Batman: The Animated Series this is not — but that doesn't mean a diehard fan won't be delighted by all the references, in-jokes, and tributes Teen Titans Go! To the Movies crams into its runtime. One of the most charming is also the fulfillment of one particularly dedicated DC fan's long-held desire. Yeah, we're talking about Nicolas Cage's role as Superman.

Now, Cage isn't your garden-variety superhero fan. He paid $2.16 million for a pristine copy of Action Comics #1, in which Superman debuted. He named his son after Superman, and he didn't opt for Clark but Kal-El. He's about as devoted as any fan can be, which made the collapse of Superman Lives, the Tim Burton-directed film in which he was set to play the big blue boy scout, all the more devastating. But years later, he finally got to play the role in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, a union of fan and icon all adults in the audience could appreciate. It might not be Superman Lives, but it sure is better than nothing.

For a cartoon aimed at grade-schoolers, Teen Titans Go! spends quite a bit of time on romance. Generally speaking, it keeps things fairly tame, but entire episodes are devoted to Robin wanting to see Starfire in a bikini, Beast Boy drooling over Raven's exposed legs, and a whole lot Looney Toons-style wolf-whistling. Adult eyebrows might raise at these PG-13-ish moments, but really, that sort of borderline-risque content has a long history in kids cartoons. After all, Shrek has multiple jokes only adults notice, and Red Hot Riding Hood is a bona fide classic.

But every so often, Teen Titans Go! steps over the line. Witness the scene from the episode "Real Magic," in which Beast Boy waits on Raven's bed, clad only in his underwear, having set the mood with candles and a scatter of rose petals. She's not interested, but the implications of the moment are clear — and pretty adult. Kids might not grasp the full meaning of the scene, but in the minds of many adults, it's better not to test that theory. In fact, UK fans have reported the shot cut from their broadcast.

Teen Titans Go! made its mission clear from the very first episode: silliness to the extreme, with a generous dollop of outright bad taste. Butt jokes, bad puns, extensive mocking of Batman — it's all fair game. Many viewers, especially kids, love it for exactly those reasons, but there have always been those who can't stand its goofy approach to one of DC's most beloved superteams. Fans of the 2003 series have especially made their displeasure known, but while younger viewers might not realize this, Teen Titans Go! has addressed those critics directly in what have informally become known as the "hater episodes."

These episodes, starring ultra-nerd Control Freak as an aggrieved 2003 fan, essentially thumb their noses at those most vocally displeased with Teen Titans Go!'s approach. In "The Fourth Wall," Control Freak even plays clips from the 2003 cartoon to compare the current team unfavorably against, only to have his fandom roundly rebuffed. But he's undaunted, appearing again and again to taunt the Titans with deleted scenes, 1960s Filmation-style sequences, and an endless supply of complaints, nitpicks, and rants. He is, in short, the sort of commentator who's dogged the series from day one ... and the show misses no opportunity to make it clear, through him, how they feel about that segment of Titans fandom.

Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans is, as expected, a treat for fans of the 2003 series. Animation styles are compared, catchphrases are shared, and 2003's Robin struggles to figure out whether or not his three-heads-tall counterpart is the "baby Robin," the "jerk Robin," or the "bobblehead Robin." In the end, all that matters is that they're each and every one a hero and a member of the Teen Titans of whatever Earth they occupy. 

And oh boy, are there a lot of Titans on a whole lot of Earths. In bringing a multiverse into play, Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans unloads every single bit of Titans-related trivia, reference, and in-joke it can think of, much to the enjoyment of grown-up fans everywhere. Among the Titans glimpsed are the Titans of the 2017 Teen Titans: The Judas Contract film, the 1967 Filmation era, Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani's Tiny Titans comics, and, most charmingly of all, the Titans of Marv Wolfman and George Perez's 1980s New Teen Titans series, which created the Titans as fans have come to love them today. That last group is the only one to remain bound to the comics from which the team sprang, communicating in speech bubbles and moving in jerky, page-turning bursts. It's a joy for anyone to watch but especially a fan who's stuck with the team through years, mediums, and age ranges.

The episode "40%, 40%, 20%" unleashed an awesome force upon the Teen Titans Go! universe. That's right, we're talking about Cyborg's ultimate pump-up jam, "The Night Begins to Shine." A smooth, synthy ode to, uh, whatever "the night beginning to shine" means, its effect upon Cyborg is so potent as to have become a bit of a crutch. But who could blame him? When exposed to its power, the Titans transform into radical versions of themselves, with gravity-defying hair, artfully ripped costumes, and motorbikes. Transported to a neon desert, they cruise, lost in the sweet riffs that Cyborg's treasured cassette tape brings them. So powerful is this sequence that it spawned a four-episode arc entitled "The Day the Night Stopped Beginning to Shine and Became Dark Even Though It Was the Day." It's exactly as righteous as you're imagining.

To a kid, this is all extremely cool. But an adult will immediately adore Teen Titans Go!'s spot-on parody of 1980s sci-fi, down to the minutest detail. The Titans' 80s transformations are straight out of Mad Max, their world like a fever dream from the pages of Heavy Metal, all of it sprinkled with glitter straight out of Jem and the Holograms. In "The Night Begins to Shine," Teen Titans Go! doesn't just poke fun at the decade that so enraptures Cyborg. It celebrates it by bringing its best ideas to the fore and wrapping them up in an absolute banger of a song.

Teen Titans Go! might be a TV cartoon, but that doesn't mean it doesn't comment on DC's cinematic ventures. In fact, there might be no greater source of DC movie-teasing than Teen Titans Go!, especially since its own theatrical feature, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies premiered, much to the enjoyment of adult viewers, aware of the DC movies' missteps.

To begin with, there's the premise of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies itself. In the age of the omnipresent superhero movie, Robin wants one to call his own. After all, as a scene set at the premiere for the latest Batman film reveals, even utility belts, cars, and genteel butlers (behold Alfred, world's greatest grime-fighter) have movies, so why can't he? Superman has had so many (and "more to come," he notes winkingly). Wonder Woman admits hers took a while, but it's been made. Green Lantern joins in, as he's had one .... only to admit that "we don't talk about that one." Parodies of cinematic Batman branding over the years fill the screen, from the bright yellow of the Tim Burton era to the brushed-steel aesthetic of the Dark Knight trilogy. But nothing comes close to topping the Batman v Superman joke that sees Batman and Superman growling at each other about their "mommy's name." Teen Titans Go! might love the DC universe, but that doesn't mean it won't roast its movies.