Full disclosure, I have been a vocal critic of Teen Titans Go in the past, but that's primarily because of the nonsense surrounding the show and the call out the critics episodes (Return of Slade, Lets Get Serious, Classic Titans, etc.). I used to watch the series regularly (because that's all CN would air at the time), and didn't stop until The Return of Slade where they said "adults shouldn't like cartoons, cartoons are for children" (ignoring the fact that most of the non-toilet humor was based on references only older fans would get). At the advice of many critics whom I trust, I went into this movie with as much an open mind as I could. I also kept a tally of how many times I laughed out loud and how many times I cringed. Here are my thoughts.
There's nothing original in this movie. The story is pretty much the same old tired "I want more out of life, I achieve it, only to find out what I really needed were the friends I already have." Pretty much all the good jokes were spoiled in the trailers; and it's not just "the trailers spoiled the movie," I'd estimate about 1/10 of the movie was just trailer fodder and set-up for the trailer fodder. I'd say a good half of the jokes are recycled jokes; not just the "you're going to kill martha" and "I'm a comic book movie character that breaks the 4th wall," I mean they actually took jokes from the series and said them again pretty much word for word ("Robin has baby hands" was the big one I remember). While not EXACTLY the same, the set-up and punch lines were the same. The animation quality isn't all that much better from the TV show either. I think there's some more inbetween frames and maybe some more elaborate backgrounds and dynamic camera, but it looks very similar to the TV show (though that is kind of expected when adapting a TV show for a movie, South Park and Simpsons did the same thing).
Then there's the wasted potential. The biggest example is probably Nick Cage as Superman. If you know DC movie history, Nick Cage was supposed to play Superman in the canceled movie Superman Lives (The Death of Superman Lives is a good documentary on it). Nick Cage as superman is a joke in itself, and there are some jokes about Nick Cage being Nick Cage in the movie (that are actually pretty good), but the thing is Superman does not sound like Nick Cage. You can't look at Superman and say "that's Nick Cage," for you to get any of those jokes you need to know Nick Cage plays superman before going in, otherwise the jokes fall flat. All that could have been avoided, if Nick Cage was just directed to deliver the lines in his normal voice. That in and of itself would have been absolutely hilarious (Nick Cage kind of has a "defeated" tone to his voice now, that would have been hilarious coming out of super strong Superman's mouth), and all the Nick Cage jokes would have made sense to more people. But no, Superman has a voice that actually sounds strong. There are a lot of instances of "if you did that just a LITTLE differently it would have made that not only funny but super hilarious, but you didn't and it fell flat."
Why is this a 4/10 and not 1/10 you may be asking? Because I did laugh, there was some good stuff. While my cringe counter was at 41 instances, my lol counter was at 36, and it's theatrically released 2D animation. My advice, just wait for Cartoon Network to play this once a month as part of a TTG marathon, because there's no way cartoon network isn't going to milk this movie like they are with the show.
There's nothing original in this movie. The story is pretty much the same old tired "I want more out of life, I achieve it, only to find out what I really needed were the friends I already have." Pretty much all the good jokes were spoiled in the trailers; and it's not just "the trailers spoiled the movie," I'd estimate about 1/10 of the movie was just trailer fodder and set-up for the trailer fodder. I'd say a good half of the jokes are recycled jokes; not just the "you're going to kill martha" and "I'm a comic book movie character that breaks the 4th wall," I mean they actually took jokes from the series and said them again pretty much word for word ("Robin has baby hands" was the big one I remember). While not EXACTLY the same, the set-up and punch lines were the same. The animation quality isn't all that much better from the TV show either. I think there's some more inbetween frames and maybe some more elaborate backgrounds and dynamic camera, but it looks very similar to the TV show (though that is kind of expected when adapting a TV show for a movie, South Park and Simpsons did the same thing).
Then there's the wasted potential. The biggest example is probably Nick Cage as Superman. If you know DC movie history, Nick Cage was supposed to play Superman in the canceled movie Superman Lives (The Death of Superman Lives is a good documentary on it). Nick Cage as superman is a joke in itself, and there are some jokes about Nick Cage being Nick Cage in the movie (that are actually pretty good), but the thing is Superman does not sound like Nick Cage. You can't look at Superman and say "that's Nick Cage," for you to get any of those jokes you need to know Nick Cage plays superman before going in, otherwise the jokes fall flat. All that could have been avoided, if Nick Cage was just directed to deliver the lines in his normal voice. That in and of itself would have been absolutely hilarious (Nick Cage kind of has a "defeated" tone to his voice now, that would have been hilarious coming out of super strong Superman's mouth), and all the Nick Cage jokes would have made sense to more people. But no, Superman has a voice that actually sounds strong. There are a lot of instances of "if you did that just a LITTLE differently it would have made that not only funny but super hilarious, but you didn't and it fell flat."
Why is this a 4/10 and not 1/10 you may be asking? Because I did laugh, there was some good stuff. While my cringe counter was at 41 instances, my lol counter was at 36, and it's theatrically released 2D animation. My advice, just wait for Cartoon Network to play this once a month as part of a TTG marathon, because there's no way cartoon network isn't going to milk this movie like they are with the show.