Teen Titans News

Here you'll find all my Teen Titan News podcasts for #saveteentitans

Teen Titans is Back on Cartoon Network

Teen Titans Go Final Episode Fan Idea

How I think Teen Titans got back on Cartoon Network

Teen Titans All Next Week

WATCH OG TEEN TITANS ON CARTOON NETWORK

We Got More Teen Titans

Dexter's Lab was the First Bad Reboot

Teen Titans Go Classic?

Some Updates with #saveteentitans

Classic Titans, Teen Titans Go Review

Where are the Action Cartoons Cartoon Network?

If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic "Hi."

So if you don't know already, I'm a fan of cartoons and Cartoon Network. Animation is a great medium because you can do things in it that just look bad in live action (see Scott Pilgrim for an example of such failure, text review and rant podcast). So where do I go for my cartoon needs? Nickelodeon? No it's all Schider's Bakery right now, and SpongeBob. Disney Channel? LOL nope. DisneyXD? Well I don't get that channel unfortunately. Nicktoons? Getting closer but still no. It's Cartoon Network, the network for cartoons (except for those dark times). For years they had the mix of action and comedy, and in Courage's case, light horror. If you wanted action, there was Toonami. If you wanted comedy, there was cartoon cartoon Friday's. It was fun times.

In recent years we've fallen on some rough times. It's not just that Cartoon Network is giving all it's air time to a terrible cartoon that actively tries to be terrible, or that Cartoon Network is rebooting all it's popular action cartoons as comedies (Teen Titans Go, PowerPuff Girls 2016, and Ben 10 reboot), or that they have given up on anime and let the most popular anime franchise in North America go to their competitors (after 10 years of airing Pokémon, Cartoon Network didn't acquire the license to the Sun and Moon series and now it airs on DisneyXD); all of are symptomatic of a larger problem, Cartoon Network has given up on action.

Don't believe me? Lets look at what they did with their reboots. Lets look at the cartoons they rebooted for a new audience; Teen Titans, Powerpuff Girls, and Ben 10, all originally action cartoons. The reboots? All comedies. What about their original shows? Gumball, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, We Bear Bears, Clarence, and Adventure Time are all comedy based cartoons. The most action of them is probably Steven Universe, but even SU puts more focus on Steven just living his life, and not Steven trying to save the world. Where're the Samurai Jacks, or Megas XLR, or Transformers, or Symbiontic Titans? Boys like action.

"But action doesn't sell" you say. Really now? What are the highest grossing movies in recent years? Marvel super heroes and star wars. Who likes super heroes and star wars? Boys. What shows have successful toy lines? Action cartoons. No 7 year old wants to have Grizz, Ice Bear, and Panda toy sets where it's them going to the super market or going on dates; they want ninja turtle and foot clan action figures that they can make fight. They don't want to be normal gumball who is a normal kid in a weird world for Halloween, they want to be Optimums Prime. Boys have a natural attraction to gross and violent, so as Denis Leary said in Small Soldiers "don't call it violence, call it action, kids love action."

"Well action cartoons are just too expensive to produce, and just don't deliver the return on investment now adays." If you're basing your judgement on WB cartoons like Teen Titans, Young Justice, and Batman the Animated Series in comparison to Teen Titans Go, you have a point because the WB cartoons definitely had a larger budget. But lets look at the other reboots. Powerpuff Girls classic had fairly limited animation. They reused the same cycles and did a lot of moving "still frames" (no different drawing, just sliding stills apart to show emphasis). It was probably made on a similar budget as PPG 2016. I've seen internet critics make PPG 2016 "fight" scenes truer to the source by speeding up the video and adding in sound effects. Like, someone with a $100 budget was able to turn the comedy series of PPG 2016 into an action series just by making some small edits. It really isn't that hard. Ben 10 Reboot looks to have the same level of speed and detail as the original, but it just focuses on being funny instead of being super powerful. Plus, look what Nickelodeon and Disney did with their action cartoons. Nickelodeon made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with what looks like a rather limited TV budget still full of action when they need it to be. They just show the heavy fighting off screen and have the light fighting happen on screen. Star VS The Forces of Evil looks like it costs about as Teen Titans Go, but we still get all the delicious action of Star and Marco battling the monster of the week.

"But, we need to have a successful toy line for an action cartoon to be considered a success, and kids just don't want toys anymore." And how do you measure the success of a comedy cartoon that doesn't have a toy line? Looks to me like you gauge their success by ratings and ad revenue and episode sales. There is nothing stopping you from doing that with action cartoons.

"Uhhhh, parents are more adverse to letting their kids watch action than they are to comedy, so we want to make a cartoon that's the accessible." There is some merit to your argument. I remember my parents were rather strict with what I watched as a kid, and I do remember that there were more action cartoons on their "no list" than comedies, and more comedies on their "fine list" than action; but I think you're being a tad to cocky with that statement considering what you air. TTG is TV-PG, for parental guidance suggested, definitely not something I would be allowed to watch as a youngin. We Bear Bears would probably be considered too mature for me as it deals with teen issues and adult issues. Gumball would likely be considered too visually stimulating, and therefore not be appropriate. TMNT though would probably be fine because it's about good prevailing over evil.

Look, I know I'm not the target demographic for Cartoon Network. Turner networks would rather have me watch Adult Swim. I'm just saying that they need some variety, specifically in the action category. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Teen Titans Go Caped (AKA OG Teen Titans Abridged)

As an added bonus, here is what I was originally going to do for my review of TTG Caped

If it's not a good

If you don't already know, I don't like Teen Titans Go. Click here to catch up. I thought teen titans go sank to it's lowest with the "we actively avoid all things smart" interview and "we're making a kids show so we don't even have to try" attitude. But this, THIS! Teen Titans Go Caped. This is a new low.

Save the last minute, the ENTIRE episode is edited, redubbed clips from the original Teen Titans, that is in the same style as all the "youtube abridged" shows. They took clips, added "funny" dialogue that matches the clips, and made an 11 minute episode about Cyborg not wanting to wear a cape.

I...I...I don't know what to say. This is a "professionally" produced show. They have a budget. This isn't some "I loved the series many years ago, I have movie maker/imovie, some comedic wit, and lots of free time, so I'm going to make a youtube series" thing. This is airing on national television, and will be sold on video. They have the audacity to make youtube crap and say "this is a professional TV episode." (Please note that I use "youtube crap" lightly, because I know how hard it is to find the right clips to make a narrative, but this is a fan made passion project done on no budget, and I expect to get a product that reflects "fan made passion project done on no budget." I'm just saying "this is not professional content.")

But this, THIS! Is where it hits absolute rock bottom (at least I hope this is finally rock bottom). After the "OG Teen Titans Abridged" episode ends, we see the Go titans watching it on TV, and talking about how great it is and how "it's better than they remember." What? WHAT!? What is wrong with you. You are saying. That a "youtube abridged" series of the original. Is great. All this episode does, is remind us that the original series. Is better than your piece of crap. When your titans said "this is great." I can't help but think. That you're saying. "A crappy youtube series is better than us." It's. It's. I can't believe they did this. The writers and creators of this show have the largest brass pair in the world. Is this some sorry attempt at bringing in old fans? Is this some weird way to sell merch for the old show? Is this trying to bring back the original? I don't know. It's just SOOOOOO bad.

Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Pokematic Reviews Teen Titans Go Lets Get Serious

So I just finished watching the Teen Titans Go episode, Lets Get Serious. I watched this a while ago back when it first aired (and I was still a fan of TTG), but had forgotten it. As a response to critics, I felt I had to watch it again. All I have to say, “how can you idiots get so close to understanding the problems with Go, but then completely miss the point?”

If you’ve been living under a rock, and missed my pastvideos on TTG, let me give you a little backstory. In the mid-2000s, there was an animated superhero show called Teen Titans. It followed the adventures of this 5 teen superhero team. It had action, comedy, 3 dimensional complex characters, and was great. It tackled complex issues like sacrificing oneself for your friends, feeling alienated from your close friends, the basics of humanity, and much more. It also had sillier episodes involving how to spend a day off and other fun with heavy use of chiibi reaction faces. It knew when to be light hearted, and when to do some serious character development. After 4 seasons it ran its course.

Fast forward 10 or so years and a new series called Young Justice comes along. This one also follows the adventures of a team of teenage superheroes, but this time it’s about the sidekicks to the justice league. This series was also a bit more serious than Teen Titans, lacking the chiibi reactions and “how to spend a day off” story plots. It had its moments of whimsy, but it wanted to tell the stories of these super teens trying to make a name for themselves outside of the shadows of their respective heroes.  It was great, and loved by fans and critics, but only ran 2 seasons due to poor toy sales with no hope of crowd funding saviors.

A couple months after it’s cancellation, another super hero show was born; but this time, a comedic teen titans that was chiibi all the time. They brought back all the voice actors from original teen titans, and it had promise to be a good comedy series about a pre-established franchise similar to Rock Lee Spin-off. Unfortunately it fell flat on that front and you can watch why here [not for fans but it is] and here [this show is stupid]. Naturally it drew some serious criticism, some valid and some not. The most prominent was “this show is too silly, the original show was more serious, young justice was more serious, and this show should be more serious.” Well, that’s how the creators interpreted it. Personally, I think the criticism was more along the lines of “the writing is terrible, it needs to be better,” which I explain here [this show is stupid], it did involve many instances of “to silly, more serious,” and that is where “Lets Get Serious” comes in.

This episode opens with The Titans fighting The Hive, and The Titans are failing because they keep making fart noises. Then Young Justice comes in and stops the Hive. Well, Aqualad, Superboy, and Miss Martian do since Robin and Beast Boy are titans. Aqualad says that their problem is that they are too silly, don’t know how to be serious, and their constant goofing off gives superheroes everywhere a bad name. While I would say that the problem is that we have episodes that do nothing but talk about the wonders of the bathroom and say girls are better than boys, there’s still good critique to be had about how they do nothing but try to be silly, to the point where it actively hurts their abilities to be super heroes.

Then we get what is probably the most valid criticism of all. After the Young Justice encounter, the Titans are resting back at the tower being extra goofy, and Robin is brooding and trying to be more serious and 3 dimensional. Then Robin brings up how Cyborg is half man half machine, and how that should be a major character point for him. And then there’s how Starfire is an alien of this planet and doesn’t understand Earth customs. There’s also a thing about Raven having to deal with being half demon in there somewhere, but I can’t remember if that’s now or later. This is where the criticism is most valid. These characters have great backstories and in all other versions have multi-dimensional characters, whereas Go is just 1 dimensional jokes and tropes. Teen Titans Go would benefit significantly from taking the character backgrounds and histories much more seriously. I’m not saying making the series more serious, but the writers taking the characters more seriously. Rock Lee Spin-off took the characters of Rock Lee, Ten Ten, Negi, Naruto, Tsunade, Orochi Maru, etc. seriously and made a hilarious series that was faithful to the original characters. Even in the whimsical zany world of Rock Lee Spinoff, the characters were still multi-dimensional. I’m sure the kids who love Teen Titans Go and buy the toys would love to see those aspects explored in the series, and you would probably stop most of the criticism and get some older fans to buy your merch as well as watch the show.

But then you fail, HARD! With all the characters now serious, they try to be a serious “dark knight” series. It worked a little when they fought the Hive, and the whole “we need to fight at night, because night is the most serious time to fight, even though I can’t see anything” joke made me chuckle, they failed on so many levels after that. In the tower they did contrived “I’m a deep character with emotional backstory forced on you through exposition,” and Beast Boy and Cyborg trying to solve the silly problem of “he drank my juice” with their new serious tone. Then there was Raven suddenly having trouble controlling her demon half and the team breaking up...because contrived serious Teen Titans tropes.

NOOOOOO!!! NO! NO! NO! That’s not what “make it more serious” is about, at least to make it good. Being serious with the fight scenes works because fighting is serious. It’s fighting for crying out loud. It can be silly like Rock Lee, but it works with serious. However, no one wants a conflict like “who drank my juice” to be handled in a serious manner. They want it to be handled in a way that is true to characters pre-established motives and personality and develops them individually and as a group, but they want it to be silly, like it was in Original Teen Titans. If Beast Boy drank Cyborgs juice in the original series, Cyborg would have reacted a little comically, Beast Boy would have had to deal with explaining why, and in the end their friendship would have been stronger after a slightly goofy episode. That’s what they want. Also, the multi-level character thing is done organically through character development, not forced exposition. We got great character development with the sillier episodes of Teen Titans, and in Rock Lee Spinoff, all while having silly. That’s why people love original Teen Titans and Young Justice, the great development of the characters. Then there’s the Raven demon powers and breaking-up of the titans, which I think was just a giant slap in the face since both of those were real problems in the original series that made the story really complex and grew the characters in amazing ways; and then Go just makes fun of them as “run of the mill serious show trope.” No, bad writers; go sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done.

See, this is why people don’t like Teen Titans Go. It’s not good, and it realizes it’s not good, but instead of making itself better, it just wants to say “screw you critics, we have stupid kids who love us.” It could be a REALLY great satire of super heroes and the Teen Titans just like Rock Lee Spin-off that’s funny on itself but funnier if you know the original. However, they went with “we’re stupid, we won’t even try to be witty with genius writing because who wants a show that works on multiple levels, is appealing to kids, teens, and adults with deep characters that are both serious and fun? No, low brow humor that alienates older fans is where it’s at.” Stop. Just. Stop. Go off the air already. You’re keeping every other series on the network from spreading it’s wings since you’re the only thing on anymore. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.