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Taking place during the events of the fifth season of the series, the film follows the Teen Titans, who attempt to have a movie made about them in Hollywood while dealing with supervillain Slade, who was responsible for making blockbuster movies about superheroes undercover as a Hollywood director.
The film is the second theatrical release to be based on a Cartoon Network series, after The Powerpuff Girls Movie in 2002. Warner Bros. first announced the film in September 2017, with the show's original voice cast set to reprise their roles. Arnett and Bell were added to the cast in leading roles a month later.
In Jump City, the Teen Titans arrive to stop Balloon Man but jump into a rap song to introduce themselves and become distracted, forcing the Justice League to intervene. They criticize the Titans for their inability to take their positions as superheroes seriously, raising the fact that they do not have a feature-length film to prove their legitimacy.
At the premiere of Batman Again, the Titans' leader, Robin, is mocked by the audience after he assumes that there is a film about him. When a supervillain named Slade breaks into S.T.A.R. Labs to steal a crystal, the Titans try to stop him, but he defeats and insults them.
Beast Boy, Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven create a film about Robin to cheer him up but he gets upset, turns it off before watching the ending, and declares that they will go to Hollywood for a film. Upon arriving at Warner Bros. Studios, they encounter director Jade Wilson, who is responsible for all the superhero films. The Titans retrieve the crystal from Slade at Wayne Tech, however, Slade escapes, resolving Robin to split from his teammates.
The next day, Jade announces that she will make a movie about the Titans due to their successful fight with Slade. Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg discover a device labeled "DOOMSDAY" and try to destroy it. Jade explains that D.O.O.M.S.D.A.Y. is simply an acronym for a new streaming service. Upset with the Titans' shenanigans, she drops them from the film and decides to make it solely about Robin. He accepts and decides that the Titans should break up, believing that they are holding each other back. As he films his movie, he begins to regret his decision and miss his friends.
Jade is revealed to be Slade in disguise. He steals the crystal back from the Titans Tower and reveals that the superhero films he made were to keep all the heroes distracted with filming while he stole technology from their cities to build D.O.O.M.S.D.A.Y., with which he will control minds and conquer the world. He purposely caused a rift between Robin and his friends to defeat them. Slade destroys the Titans Tower, but Robin escapes. He calls his friends and apologizes; they return and reconcile with him.
At the premiere of Robin: The Movie, the Titans unmask Slade's Jade disguise, but he unleashes the crystal's power to mind-control the Justice League and send them after the Titans. However, Slade uses the power device to hypnotize Robin and tells him to attack his friends. They show a movie to remind him that he is the hero of the Titans, causing Robin to turn back to normal. The team uses their rap song to defeat Slade and destroy the crystal, snapping the other heroes and the rest of the world out of their trance. The Justice League finally acknowledge the Titans as real heroes and Robin says he has realized he can be a hero and be himself without a movie.
Scott Menville as Robin, Batman's sidekick and the de facto leader of the Teen Titans who uses gymnastic skills, martial arts and various weapons to fight crime.
Jacob Jeffries as Robin's singing voice for the song "My Superhero Movie".
Hynden Walch as Starfire, a beautiful Tamaranian princess who has the ability to fire bright green-colored bolts of ultraviolet energy and green laser beams as well as possessing immense physical strength and supersonic flight. She is also shown to have a villainous older sister known as Blackfire.
Khary Payton as Cyborg, a cybernetic enhanced human cyborg who was once a former athlete and football player. He has the power of using a variety of weapons from his mechanical body as well as possessing enhanced strength. He is also the oldest of the Teen Titans, Beast Boy's best friend and even a member of the Justice League.
Tara Strong as Raven, a human sorceress who is secretly half-demon and has the ability to fly, use telekinesis, teleportation and magic as well as open portals to other dimensions. She is also the daughter of an inter-dimensional satanic-like demon named Trigon and a human named Arella and was originally born on Azarath, her former birthplace and home realm.
Strong provides the vocal effects of Silkie, Starfire's pet mutated caterpillar who was formerly owned by Killer Moth.
Greg Cipes as Beast Boy, a green-skinned humanoid, a member of the Teen Titans and Cyborg's best friend who is the youngest and comic relief of the group and has the power to shapeshift into various animals of all shapes and sizes.
Lil Yachty as Green Lantern, a member of the Justice League and Green Lantern Corps who made a reference to the 2011 film Green Lantern[7] (commenting "We don't like to talk about it").
Nicolas Cage's son Kal-El Cage voices a younger Bruce Wayne.[12] While Jimmy Kimmel was initially announced to be voicing an adult Bruce Wayne as Batman, voicing the character in an extended cut of the trailer, Batman was ultimately rendered a silent character in the final film, keeping Kimmel's cameo to a deleted scene.[13]
In March 2018, it was announced that musicians Lil Yachty and Halsey were part of the cast, as Green Lantern and Wonder Woman, respectively, with Nicolas Cage revealed as Superman the same day. Cage himself was originally slated to portray Superman in Tim Burton's canceled Superman film, Superman Lives, in the 1990s.[7]Jimmy Kimmel was announced to voice Batman in the film through an extended cut of the trailer; his lines were ultimately cut from the film, rendering Batman a silent character.[13]
Music
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The Teen Titans Go! To the Movies soundtrack was released on July 20, 2018. The soundtrack consists of songs that the cast sing throughout the movie that serve mostly as musical pop culture references and parodies, and the musical score composed by Jared Faber.
The film was released in theaters in the United States on July 27, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures and became generally available on November 23, 2018, followed by a United Kingdom bow a week later. It was released in Australian theaters on September 13, 2018. An early screening was held on June 22 at Vidcon 2018, for both badge members and YouTubers. The film was also shown at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 20, 2018. The film had its worldwide premiere as the opening film of the BFI Southbank special screening event. [18]DC Comics announced that Teen Titans Go! To the Movies held a watch event on November 22, 2018[19] and released Teen Titans Go! To the Movies for general availability on the next day. The film's theatrical release was preceded by #TheLateBatsby, a short film based on Lauren Faust's forthcoming DC Super Hero Girls television series.[20]Teen Titans Go! To the Movies was generally available for download from MSDN and Technet on November 7 and for retail purchase from November 23, 2018. The film was set to make its network television premiere on TBS on September 12, 2020, but was removed from the schedule and replaced by an airing of Sherlock Gnomes for unknown reasons.[21] The film made its official network television premiere on Cartoon Network on November 25, 2020.
Home media
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies was released on digital copy on October 9, 2018, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 30, 2018.[22]
Reception
Box office
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies has grossed $29.6 million in North America, and $22.3 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $52 million, against a production budget of $10 million.[3]
In the United States, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies was released alongside Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and was initially projected to gross around $14 million from 3,188 theaters in its opening weekend, with a chance to go as high as $19 million.[23][24] However, after making $4.6 million on its first day (including $1 million from Thursday night previews), estimates were lowered to $10 million, and it ended up debuting to $10.5 million, finishing 5th at the box office.[25]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 91% based on 133 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies distills the enduring appeal of its colorful characters into a charmingly light-hearted adventure whose wacky humor fuels its infectious fun – and belies a surprising level of intelligence."[26] Several critics have called the film, "Deadpool for kids". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 69 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics.[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[25]
Laura Prudom of IGN gave the film a score of eight out of ten, calling it a "gleefully unhinged deconstruction of superhero tropes that isn't afraid to take aim at the rest of DC's cinematic roster".[28]Owen Glieberman of Variety said "Teen Titans GO! is fun in a defiantly super way, and that's a recommendation."[29] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "Considering the somberness that afflicts so many DC universe releases, the tongue-in-cheek, albeit admittedly juvenile humor of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies should come as a welcome relief to fans."[30]
David Betancourt of The Washington Post opined, "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is a laugh-a-minute ride that hits you with the jokes from the very first frame. From the cute shots at Marvel Studios to the self-deprecating tone on the state of DC movies, you’ll leave the theater with a new set of superhero abs from laughing so hard."[31]
Brandon Katz of The New York Observer said that the film is "a fun parody of sorts that gently skewers our superhero obsessed culture, and while there may be one too many gags thrown in there which can get a bit tiresome after awhile, it's an enjoyable movie for both kids and adults".[32] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com rated the film at three out of four, saying "It's not a film designed to break ground or even offer too much social commentary on the role of superheroes in modern culture. It's built with the primary goal of making you laugh and forget your problems for just under 90 minutes, and it does exactly that."[33]
GameSpot's Chris Hayner, while finding fault with what he deemed excessive toilet humor and some dragging in the film, said that "In a superhero movie landscape where the world is constantly being destroyed by massive CGI abominations, this is a refreshing change... it doesn't forget how funny and exciting these types of movies can be".[34]
Accolades
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An episode of Teen Titans Go! premiered about a month after the film's release. The episode, titled "Tower Renovation", was about the Titans attempting to rebuild Titans Tower after Slade destroyed it in the events of the film.
^Tallerico, Brian (July 23, 2018). "Teen Titans Go! To The Movies". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Archived from the original on July 23, 2018. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
