The Complete Teen Titans Scorecard

a p r i l  1 2 ,  2 0 1 7:

…the reboot is slightly better than the original because I don't find anything terrible about the show yet, but the original as a whole has flanderization that took things way too far.

-Intrancity, The Complete Powerpuff Girls Scorecard

a p r i l  6 ,  2 0 1 8:

Despite having 2 atrocious superhero cartoons that don't shine very bright and rather stay dark like the animation and tone itself, I surprisingly began to like the franchise when the overhated ones came by.

-Intrancity, The Complete Ben 10 Scorecard

Over the past two years, I made two scorecards sharing a similar connection to one another that I began to realize; they’re both rebooted Cartoon Network action originals and the newer installment(s) is/are better than the original. This has really gotten into my lid by asking myself; is Cartoon Network actually good at reviving old properties in its modern ages?

I have taken a look at other revived installments that came and try to cash in the original’s popularity only to amaze me enough from the strongly character-driven Legend of Korra, the surprisingly akin Adult Party Cartoon, and the cute and light-hearted Rugrats: Pre-School Daze. Not all revivals tend to impress me, though, as there are some that have proved otherwise that not all reboots live up to or become better than the original from the wacky but boring Inspector Gadget (2015), the generic transformation of the main characters into adolescents with All Grown Up!, and even a few of Cartoon Network’s modern reboots aren’t anything worth special with Samurai Jack’s attempted comeback only to be tedious and pretty vexatious like the original.

But then you’ve got the one "reboot" (even though it's really a spin-off) a lot of people in the cartoon community know, Cartoon Network’s modern poster boy of lucrativeness, and one of the most well-known and infamous reincarnations in this community, Teen Titans Go!. How wouldn’t I forget about reviewing a reincarnation whose hatebase is even stronger than all the other reboots I previously reviewed combined? But by comparing the kids version of Teen Titans to the more tense and serious original, how can Cartoon Network in the 2010’s prove that one of their first successful reincarnations can be better than the 2003 version if it could possibly display a bad image to children by pandering a lot to them like people claim?

Well, negatives aside, I believe that Cartoon Network can do something different and fun with its reboots by adding an entertaining twist to their older properties that I ended up finding a good amount of charm from them, so maybe Teen Titans Go! may continue what I consider a trilogy, based off the fact that for three consecutive Aprils from 2017-2019, I review a critically acclaimed Cartoon Network show about action that got a reboot in which many people detested, but I ended up appreciating the newer one’s efforts better than the older one's.

So, with a little sugar, spice, and everything nice alongside some hero time whenever there’s trouble, do you know who to call? Will this be the fitting finale of the Cartoon Network overhated reincarnation trilogy? Which one do I personally consider THE Teen Titans? I bet you know after figuring out the pattern.

I can tell you all that my experience with the Titans before I critiqued its masses is something. I remember watching both shows during my childhood and I liked them while tasting their piece of quality. Since my knowledge of these two shows are apparently different from one another, they’ll be split into two sections:

Teen Titans (2003): I know this show from the Noods era of Cartoon Network, which is an era I remember watching often back then, perhaps more than Nickelodeon. Given that it’s been nearly a decade since I’ve last seen an episode of the series, I did remember plenty of aspects from the show from its serious voice acting to especially the exaggerated anime-like expressions.

Teen Titans Go!: Due to the series being more pandering to the juvenile demographic, this was the series I was more hooked in. Since it has almost been 5 years since I’ve seen an episode of the series before I reviewed them, I remember watching a pretty big amount of episodes from Seasons 1-2. Because that my father cancelled our family DirectTV subscription, I only remember watching early episodes from the second season.

However, what got me to remembering more of Season 2 is a funny moments compilation from KBABZ, in which I would watch all of them, reaching towards somewhere around the episode “Beast Man”. I didn’t necessarily laugh at all of the jokes displayed during the video but there were a few I find humorous enough for my tastes.

In 2016, during my trip to Seattle, I decided to not only watch a few Teen Titans Go! episodes but also review them, considering that I was new to the world of critiquing. The episodes I remember reviewing in 2016 were “TTG v PPG” and “Accept the Next Proposition You Hear”. The ratings for these episodes were much lower back when I first saw them.

The next year, I continued to watch a few episodes from the series, curious about the backlash and praise of some episodes. Episodes I remember checking out were “Serious Business”, “Hey You, Don’t Forget About Me in Your Memory”, and “40%, 40%, 20%”. Speaking of the latter, if you’ve followed me along long enough, then you remember me doing a ControChoice on that episode way before I published this scorecard, which makes it the first ControChoice where I reviewed an episode from a show I haven’t reviewed as a whole yet.

And that’s all regarding my backstory of me watching both series…wait a minute. I think I forgot another series that have the Teen Titans in there. Do you know that web exclusive Titans (2018)? Yeah, well I didn’t include it in this scorecard because I don’t think it’s related to the animated Titans. Think about it, that show doesn’t have Cyborg and it also have completely different villains that don’t even appear in both cartoons. As for the DC Nation shorts, eh. I consider them to be mostly part of said series even if they are related to both shows.

Ho boy is the pie chart and ratings really interesting. There’s actually a lot to talk about that I even betted before releasing this scorecard to the public that it’ll drive many people into viewing this scorecard (and perhaps my review). So, I will tear apart the interesting aspects one by one:

Kicking off my review of the pie chart, dang is that a lot of blessed episodes and they (alongside the GREAT rating) don’t appear in the original series at all! In total, there are 117 blessed episodes, which not only makes it the first time where a scorecard contained at least 100 blessed episodes, but also that it’s considerably ironic that the total amount of blessed episodes in this scorecard are more than the total amount of Teen Titans episodes.

Also, let’s not forget about the fact that the elite rating has been approached within 24 EPISODES!? That’s right, did you miss the top-tier-ness of the high card missing throughout much of Season 3? Well, this is what the elite rating look like now, alongside its button indicating the total amount of episodes containing said rating where it looks really different from the other buttons where it’s shaped like a gemstone, fitting how valuable these elites are.

Of these elite episodes, one of them attempted to be an Off the Scale! episode. Am I dreaming after seeing that perfect episode smacked down in the middle of the scorecard? That’s right, this extremely rare rating has made its appearance again and made yet another notable thing that makes this pie chart so significant. The last time it made its appearance was on my Regular Show scorecard but sadly, that Off the Scale! episode lost its ranking but it’s still a fantastic episode. If you remember, this rating used to be rainbow colored, sharing similar traits with that of the elite episode back in the first two seasons, but starting this season, the rating now resembles that of luster and cleanliness, representing perfection, placed over the episode’s title textured with a golden texture.

But aside from the amount of blessed episodes and the return of the elite rating, is there anything else that’s worth talking about regarding what’s in the pie chart? Actually, yes. There is only one damned episode and it turns out it’s from the original series. Not everything from the original series is bad though since there are still 8 GOOD episodes to be seen and 15 episodes I recommend, which is enough to make a top 10.

Turning the tables towards the continuation’s side, there are 16 episodes at most meh, well, before Bumblebee officially joined. Digging deeper, there were surprisingly 3 BAD episodes. How come this show was able to avoid making a lot of BAD babies? You’ll know why soon. It turns out that almost all of these episodes are actually episodes that people liked from the series, so I guess you could say that my thoughts on each Teen Titans Go! episode is nearly the reverse of everyone else’s.

From a show that has been critically acclaimed, I actually expect a lot from this show while at the same time plenty of downers as well. Well, as a show that people claim it’s one of the greatest shows to air on Cartoon Network, is it really that good?

Leading the Teen Titans to protect Earth is Robin, formerly Batman's sidekick. He has no special powers, just a utility belt and his mind to help solve problems. His team members, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy, live together in Titans Tower, situated in the West Coast haven Jump City. Each of them possesses unique abilities to help fight a new generation of villains ranging from super-powered hooligans to would-be world conquerors.

-sourced from a Google search

One of the positives I expected out of Teen Titans (2003) is the characters, who from the serious tone of the series might have a dose of great character development. But how about their superpowers? This also includes the villains, but the one that seems to interest me the most would be Robin since he doesn’t really have superpowers of his own. The rest, however, are rather uninteresting to me since I’ve seen more creative powers than theirs, not to say that their powers are bad though.

As for the rest, I don’t really know what’ll turn out from this show, honestly. All I expected from this show is great action sequences, an engaging atmosphere that can also tackle dark subjects, and more. However, I’m pretty worried about the animation because since these type of styles don’t impress me, it looks like the quality of Teen Titans won’t flip my lid. Also, what I remember from the series is that it borrows influence from anime. Well, since I’m not a fan of anime, I’m pretty sure that the exaggerated faces will kind of annoy me.

So yeah, I think this is going to be an okay superhero cartoon. Not that superhero cartoons aren’t my thing, it’s just that I’m not in for the idea, thinking that this show will turn out alright.

*yawns* Excuse me. I was a bit sleepy after going through the show’s writing. Mind if I explain?

You probably heard me after I yawned. If so, then judging from what I just said, I find this show pretty boring. Then again, superhero cartoons aren’t necessarily my thing as they’re overrated, including this one. Maybe I couldn’t get into how awesome the writing is as people claimed it to be.

I mean, yes, I did recognize some of the show’s strong points, including its morals. They could become so good to the point where it’s something I haven’t heard often or seen before, which adds originality to the writing. Much of them strike the audience in a positive way with messages about being an outcast, strength, etc., which toss in some charm within the writing.

And I must say this; some of the emotion I’ve seen in the series can be strong, mainly due to the unpredictability of some situations. They can be strong enough to keep me engaged throughout episodes and story arcs, which tunes me in for more regarding what’s going to happen next. However, if the emotion is predictable, then it won’t strike much for me.

And speaking of predictable, this is where the writing’s problems come to fruition; a bunch of the show’s episodes are bland, clichéd, and predictable that makes it a reason for me to not care about a lot of the weak episodes. Furthermore, the ideas for the episodes are what I’d expect the characters would behave in and even the plot twists at first don’t convince me since it’s something I’ve seen multiple times already. This show would get better with its writing later on where the stories it tries to convey become more interesting as time goes by, but there are still some dull episodes to be seen here (especially the non-story arc episodes).

One factor of the predictability that is the most notable to me is its over-usage of one plotline. One story that annoys me due to it being conveyed too many times, and that is the villains manipulating the protagonist plot. Okay, you may see this type of storyline commonly in superhero cartoons like this, but I just get tired of that plot already because I know what the ending and development of the episode would be like, making the latter worthless for emotion or care. This plot can especially be seen in much of the show’s two-parters, which is the reason why you see the first three two-parters gradually decrease in quality, and after a while of using this storyline a lot the writers made up their mind to make a two-parter different from those. Reacting to this, really? Is this the best they could think of? There’s another plot point that is also pretty repetitive, and that is a member being neglected by the team but it’s not as common as the manipulation plotline.

Another factor of the series’ boredom is the fight scenes, the heart of a superhero cartoon. In the early seasons, they were so slow and repetitive, thanks to the pretty sluggish pacing, the predictability affecting the action, a bunch of the moves are overused, and the episodes experimenting too much with the animation which I will get to. There is even one time when the pacing is slow enough to make the action overstay its welcome, spreading throughout a third of the episode, tiring me even more. This also includes plenty of the conversations as well where the dialogue seems pretty spaced out from one another.

Not all of the action are boring though because I’m just referring to the early seasons. On the other hand of the action scenes, there are some that behave in a creative manner, which brings in some of my enjoyment in for what’s going on. Plus, it appears that the series has fixed the issues with these action scenes where they’re faster, less predictable and repetitive, and has a solid balance with writing and animation.

But if the writing tastes brittle with its pacing and stuff, why not a montage? No, they don’t help at all. They just come off as boring and unfunny even if they try to feel light-hearted.

Oh yes, if you haven’t heard of what’s inside this show and just view from what the main aspects indicate, then of course this show has its light-hearted moments, which makes way for the humor. I hear many people state that this show’s humor is much better than its successor, but to me, how do I find this type of humor funny? It’s simply lacking in variety, often relying on anime-related humor from creative transitions describing a situation and very often, exaggerated expressions. The latter often utilizes shocked reactions for the sake of humor and how they execute is just soft, repetitive, dull, and even clichéd.

Don't get wrong though, I think the influence from anime is pretty unique, but I just don’t like the execution of these jokes not just because of how limp and unvaried they are but also due to the timing. What I’m referring to timing is that some of the expressions would pop-up in-battle (and sometimes during the important parts of the episode where I'm trying to understand the situation better) when the characters are still fighting the antagonist or dramatic sequences with characters arguing and what else to lighten up the experience but with expressions. It’s pretty bad that I was hooked into a serious and engaging scene only to be distracted so much by the timing of the anime-related humor.

Verdict: The best way to describe most of the writing is that it’s dull and unimpressive. Despite teaching great morals and having a bit of emotion, it cannot compete against the fact that the writing is tedious from predictability, slow action scenes, and mediocre humor that lacks substance with its dull reliance on anime humor and can sometimes be badly timed enough to distract me. I can say that it did try to improve later on but some aspects are rather left untouched.

Previous section, I mentioned the quality being experimental. We will get to that after I explain the major aspects in the animation.

As I mentioned earlier, superhero cartoons aren’t really my things, so it’s no surprise that the animation style didn’t provoke much of an interest in me. I mean, this has the typical things a superhero cartoon’s animation style needs; dark colors, a simple setting, serious character designs, etc. The settings on Earth and coloring are so down-to-earth that the environment of the animation bores me.

What I can say that the style did try in order for it to feel unique is its influence from anime. What I can note from this influence are the exaggerated expressions and choppy animation, which is probably intentional but at times awkward when static, especially whenever a character has a confused expression. Meh, considering that the humor doesn’t help whatsoever, it’s not very impressive in my opinion. Not to mention that the transitions back to the show’s normal animation style can be really lazy too.

Another unique thing from the style is its grunge-like textures, which solidly captures the dark atmosphere surrounding it. The coloring does have some uniqueness in it as well where some of the background colors do look relaxing, especially when deviating from the overly common and repetitive dark blue colors. They would soon get better in the 4^th season where there are more interesting settings with cool color hues. As the series travel to more places, it ended up making more fascinating background details.

Then there are the other aspects that aren’t as unique as said aspects, starting off with the special effects. For the most part, they look cheaply green screened from the fireworks, explosions, lava, glow, etc. This can apply to dark clouds too where they look pretty tacky on a nighttime background. Season 5 would include more special effects and they just come to show how these effects should've just stick with the traditional style. But then again, most cartoons don’t execute very well when it comes to effects.

The slowness and repetition of some aspects from the writing would apply to what appears in the animation from the character animation to a bunch of aspects the quality would create, and that comes across my next issue with the animation; it’s too experimental where it leaves some aspects forced. The show would experiment with a bunch of different styles, which adds uniqueness and charm to the quality, although it can be too much of that where it doesn't make much room for the others. There are some that looks fascinating like with Raven’s powers and episodes involving Mad Mod, which are the most experimental of them all, but on the other hand, there are some like the foreground layers being black and the shaking effect used especially in action sequences that feel pointless. The latter is also badly timed like the humor where in some shots where it doesn’t feel like shaking, the effect would strike at that moment probably for pleasure.

Audibly, the quality is still bland over there. The voice acting here sound rather dull and serious. I mean, I can see that they are trying to be serious and mature, but they mostly add to the boredom due to the low tone of their voices. If the writing wasn’t tiresome, then the style of the voice acting won’t bother me that much, but in this case where a lot of aspects of the original seriously bores me, it does. There are quite a few voices that kind of got to me like with Starfire’s voice that, while interestingly distinct with her more formal vocabulary, sounds pretty confused and the most irritating of them all, The Brain’s voice where his robotic voice is very spread out from one another to the point where his dialogue just drags on. I can say that the voice acting does become more energetic to listen to later on and Tara Strong did a solid performance as Raven as she’s fittingly serious.

The background music isn’t too far behind either. What makes them a problem for the quality is that they’re pretty dull and also annoying to listen to with its repetitive notes. Plus, it can sometimes feel out-of-place whenever there's soft music playing during an action scene. How about the cultural music because they seem to have charm anywhere I go? Actually, they’re about as soft and washed-out as the other soundtracks I heard from the series.

Verdict: Another aspect to give me the yawns. Just like the writing, the quality is dull and unimpressive. I didn’t care much about the style even if it tried to be unique with its anime influence, it experiments too much where it can look forced at times, and the voice acting and background music just sings the ZZZ’s for me. But just like the writing, it has made improvements overtime.

Actually, they don’t bore me as much as the other two aspects. I mean, they’re not great but pretty decent.

One big thing to note regarding the characters are their development. Like the morals, they can not only be strong enough to develop some pretty strong messages and at times be unpredictably emotional but also feel fresh and original. Character development in Teen Titans would be at its strongest in the 4^th season. The messages displayed within the characters are also seen within the Titans themselves where they provoke a solid display of friendship and sportsmanship, which is nice to see them not leave each other behind.

At first, a lot of the characters start off as uninteresting due to their unconvincing superpowers that don’t seem to be that striking for me. This especially applies to the villains because I've already seen similar powers of theirs before, but they would take a long time to be likable due to how they surprisingly got character development due to the Teen Titans making them realize something. It also includes goals too where a lot of villains in the show are prideful of themselves; hungry for power. The unoriginality and boredom affects the characters too with some of their characteristics.

I guess it’s time to talk about the popular quintet teenage team starting off the most iconic one out of the group, Robin. Despite being the leader who has no superpowers, he’s actually the blandest of all the Teen Titans simply because he just appears to be serious a lot. I get it since he’s on task with what’s going on, but his appearance pretty much bores me even if he develops fluidly. Plus, he can be pretty irritating whenever he’s obsessed with Slade so much that he attacks his robotic look-alikes right away while the other Titans are fighting them and even yelling at his teammates for “letting Slade get away”.

Moving towards Raven, the gothic and anti-social teammate, has magical powers. She’s another dull character I’m not very invested in simply because I kind of find goths overrated and predictable. By predictable, I mean that her emotionally distant characteristics are that when seeing her wanting to be alone, which also gets repetitive.

Then you have Cyborg, a half-human half-robot Titan. Not much to say about him, though some of his conflicts are what I’d usually expect of him (repairs, power, viruses, etc.).

The most whimsical of the team, Beast Boy, has the ability to transform into animals and is considered the comic relief of the team. Now he definitely has a charm due to his energetic appearance. Plus, he had a pretty compelling relationship with Terra, a teenage girl who has the ability to control and lift the ground, even if she’s in danger. I mean, it’s at times really awkward that could drag on but it’s the bond and development that makes them neat together. Even if she's turned away from the good side, Beast Boy would still find good inside her, which is really sweet of him.

And finally, the last member of the Teen Titans, Starfire, is an alien female who came from a planet called Tamaran. At first, she appears to be the one cliché where one is curious about Earth life and her soft and naïve attitude makes her a bit boring, but as I got used to her, she seems to be charming due to those aspects. Not to mention that she’s an easygoing person who goes easy on people, including some villains.

That’s all of the Teen Titans, but there is one notable recurring villain if you’ve watched the series, and his name is Slade, the main antagonist of the series. He seems like a cool villain since I find it unpredictable that Slade would be impressed with Robin's actions since he is the villain after all. But despite him having a rather chill personality, I find his motive quite dull and his character isn't that fleshed out. Even after his last physical appearance, I was still curious to know more about him. Plus, his smart moves of dodging the Titans calmly just gets repetitive because that he’s posed as a powerful threat to the Titans, it’s no surprise that he is capable of defending himself easily from intruder attacks.

As for the other characters that don’t appear very often, they're rather hit-miss because there are some that are interesting and others that are dull. It’s especially applicable to the villains since not all of the villains are necessarily dull as they do have some creativity. Mad Mod would be one of my favorite villains of the series due to how he represents British culture and symbolism, which the show greatly exaggerates.

Man, I really hate watching shows that are boring, but I checked this one out because I’m curious to see if it’s as good as people claimed it to be, just to point it out to some of you wondering why I picked this series. Well, I guess I found another cartoon that has enough room for mediocrity, and this season proved otherwise that I expect better from much of the shows I’ve reviewed. In that case, summary, go!

I can’t really find that much investing in a superhero cartoon like the Teen Titans. It does contain great morals and character development, but the series just bores me. The action scenes are repetitive, the writing is predictable, it can’t execute the interesting on paper but soft humor properly, the overly-experimental animation looks unimpressively typical for a superhero cartoon, and the voice acting just adds to the boredom fest of what makes Teen Titans an overrated and boring adaptation. The show luckily cleaned up its act in the later seasons but it’s not really saying much.

While I can give this show credit, which is pretty major to say the least, they just couldn’t save the fact that the series is just WEAK (44%). I mean, they were almost better enough to consider the series a mixed bag but thanks to the series finale and Season 5’s embarrassing two-parter, it ended up becoming worse than the 4^th season, keeping the series at the rating it’s standing on.

Ah yes, we’re finally here with the highly overhated one. To be honest, I was really excited to check out this show after seeing the original because from the looks of the show, it actually looks pretty energetic enough to feed my tastes very well. Considering that this and the original are similar shows, how is the premise different from Teen Titans’?

This follow-up to the popular "Teen Titans" series takes a more comedic look at the superheroes, showing what life is like for the teens when their capes come off. Funny things happen to Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg between saving the world and being regular teens, living together without adult supervision. The teens, in their ordinary lives, deal with the everyday issues of adolescence that include such important things as having staring contests to determine who does the laundry and going on a series of quests to construct the perfect sandwich. But, of course, the heroes still fight crime in Jump City when the need arises. Whatever the situation, they're always ready for an adventure -- inside the house or out of it.

-sourced from a Google search

So, if you’ve haven’t read my reviews before, then let me tell you that I find it acceptable for this reincarnation to do something different mostly because I just want something interesting to come out of this franchise already and here it is. With the tone of the series making me hyped for the series, there are many other things I think this show would do very well:

Firstly, I feel like from the looks of many episode premises from the show would have clever takes on the Titans’ lives by making the Titans’ characterizations exaggerated to the point where they’re actually quite funny and how they deal with issues is childish yet smart at the same time. I have a feeling that this show would have very few boring episodes and its comedic nature reigning supreme for most of the time.

Having experiences of the show as a child, I do remember that the voice acting is over-the-top and it sounds like everyone’s having a blast, another thing that does get me hyped for what’s coming for the Teen Titans of this decade. The animation doesn’t look too behind either because before I touched upon the show, I think it looks pretty amusing based off the character designs.

But if there’s one thing that I am quite nervous about is that some of the stories might not feel action-like for the Teen Titans to mess around with and feel more like they belong in a typical cartoon where the characters go on adventures of some sorts. But hopefully, there could be some action in it and like I said, I expect this show to have a huge emphasis on comedy and that would honestly keep me interested as long as it’s not botched up like I’ve seen in some other shows back then. After all, I did say that the different direction this show will be taking will possibly be smart.

It can sometimes feel out-of-place, but this cartoon actually sounds fun enough to keep me hyped.

Wow! I can’t believe that this show improved the issues from the original that it makes it more enjoyable than before!

Okay, where do I start with the script? Ah yes, the humor, which ended up making a lot of episodes blessed and even elite enough to make a season’s final rating blessed. People think it’s lowbrow, I think it’s hilarious. There’s actually a lot with the humor this show came up with, so I will talk about them individually in a top 5 list!

5. The relatability: This has come to my surprise, but I ended up finding a lot of the jokes this show came up with relatable. This kind of makes the jokes believable which makes them even better often involving the smart reasoning I didn’t think of and real-life situations such as people debating and more. Also, they can be hit with some great and unsuspecting irony.

4. The timing: This aspect really works if a joke feels unoriginal. Instead of dragging the joke on for a few seconds, they happen just within a second, which makes the energy of the episode faster enough to keep me engaged rather than wait for a joke to play its course for a few seconds. Even if a few jokes drag on, they could possibly end with a punchline, making them passable.

3. It’s creative: This is applicable to many aspects, the relatable jokes and especially the disgusting ones that people hate. This show may be known for its toilet humor but I think it does them more in an entertaining type of way due to how the jokes ended up becoming creative. Plus, the way a lot of the slapstick is handled ended up becoming as good as the other jokes due to its creativity.

2. It’s clever: Again, the reasoning behind the actions of the characters and how the show would take a rather engaging direction with its toilet humor and slapstick makes them better. Also, it even includes the exaggeration of many concepts that makes much of the love aspects (surprise) pretty hilarious.

And the #1 reason why Teen Titans Go!’s humor is one of the best I’ve ever touched upon is…

1. Its use of meta humor: This is the most memorable aspect of the humor that adds in a lot of replay value for the series. What I love about the show’s use of meta humor is how it uses it to poke fun at other properties in the cleverest ways possible, whether if it’s Batman and other DC properties, Hanna-Barbera cartoons, EVEN the original where the Titans here would be jealous of how awesome they were back then. The show would also make fun of itself by being aware of the hate it has garnished over the years it has aired, making a bunch of very remarkable jokes that I felt like no one has done before. People may despise the series for being self-aware, but that aspect is what makes a part of the show so unique and ingenious and I love it.

Do you want to know what all these reasons have in common? I have to say that they’re unpredictable thanks to the really clever direction that makes a lot of episodes really reasonable. Because that the writers try to come up with a different route with how the episodes would go in, they ended up making a lot of plot twists that are really amusing. So amusing that like the relatability, I didn’t even think that route would come by. The plot twists would also include some excellent foreshadowing that have some humorous moments in them. There is one plot twist that is pretty repetitive and did get predictable later on and that would be the one where the character doesn’t learn his/her lesson and proceeds to continue with what he/she is doing.

Alright, you may be wondering why I included the humor aspect in this section when I could just make a section focusing on the humor? It’s actually because the humor and writing have so much in common. They’re so connected to each other that I feel like if I’m typing a section focusing on the humor, then I’d only be repeating much of what the writing has.

Anyways, you heard me that the humor is the heart and driving force of the stories that kept making them as energetic as ever. If the comedy wasn’t there, is the writing still good considering the fact that I barely talked about it yet? Oh yes it is. This show would add in a lot of different ideas the original didn't have, which ends up becoming very amusing in a way that makes it stand out. It includes making fun of a lot of subjects thanks to the show's excellent creative freedom, whether if the show tackles on food and would run wild with it in an exaggerated and engaging way.

Moreover, this show would tackle on normal-relatable everyday situations like driving and cleaning and not just be really creative and smart with them but also find a way to include action scenes in them in the most unpredictable ways possible. The fighting here is even more engaging than the original due to its creativity and how it fits very well with the topic the episode is trying to talk about. The original did have creative fight scenes that are engaging, but this series has more of them and they manage to be fresh most of the time.

To kick off the episode, the show would sometimes start off from being a little serious like you see in action cartoons that takes themselves seriously to being energetic and cool, which the sudden shift ultimately starts off the energy of the episode to a clever and funny start.

Did you know that there are several episodes where Robin or anyone else tries to teach something to the characters? If you could debug what I’m referring to, then you think I’m referring to some of the educational material seen in the series. Are you confused? Because there is so that the characters could teach the others a lesson, which adds to the cleverness of the script. It tackles topics like how to make food, be funny, and even go in the more formal route by talking about finance and renting.

But, there is definitely some duds to be seen in the writing, starting off with the morality, which is nearly the opposite of the original’s morals. Here, they’re seen as rather  idiotic, but then I realized that the point of the show isn't to tell a moral whether moral or immoral, so for the most part, they invoke minor to no damage to the episodes. Rather, since this show doesn't take itself seriously, so does how it treats its messages and expects its audience to not take them seriously. However, the characters' actions can make it seem like (Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg), they just don’t learn their lesson, preventing a lot of episodes from being elite. However, I can say that when it wants to tell viewers about something, it does that by just not by delivering positive messages but by being reasonably clever by looking upon both the ups and downs of what it's trying to tackle. The meta humor can affect the morals as well where the episode can make fun of its morals from time to time.

Admittedly, there were some episodes that did progressed slowly like some of the original’s episodes, which I especially see in earlier episodes of the show. What’s probably the source of the pacing being a bit slow would be that a bunch of filler-y moments can be seen here, which can occasionally be just unfunny. They do make an episode feel a bit dull but even with them, the episode still keeps its energy alive and still have a lot of great jokes.

As for the reasoning, some of them have rather unnatural consequences that are fairly confusing, but like the filler and slow progression aspects, they’re no match for the comedy and energy. There are the endings where they’re like the consequences combined with comedy where some of the episodes’ endings are funny, but also stupid at the same time.

Now that I covered the pre-Bumblebee episodes, what is exactly my problem with the series when Bumblebee became an official Teen Titan? Unfortunately, they became less clever and hilarious where the jokes end up becoming rather obvious and unoriginal or just plain copied straight from older episodes. The running gags like bees vomiting, the Titans thinking that Bumblebee's shrinking power is dull and that she could make honey, or The Atom getting squished are rather flat as they're the same thing over and over again. Come to think of that, I noticed that much of the jokes at that time focus on Bumblebee as the buttmonkey as she's used for the Titans to ignore and shove aside, which doesn't work here because every moment, it pretty much gets old and likewise, it felt similar to other jokes I've heard of from previous episodes. And also, the timing is less quick to ensure that much of the jokes become flat as a result. Story-wise, the episodes are about as flat as the humor with much of them being focused on Bumblebee, which I will get to. Here, they're just predictable, adding to how boring they can be and the pacing, a problem several episodes encountered is even slower as it takes almost one half of the episode for the conflict to process.

Verdict: Hah, hah, hah! So much of the writing is comedy gold with its fresh take on meta humor, which ends up making the writing really creative, smart, reasonable, and surprisingly educational. It just needs to take care of its other problems especially handling itself when Bumblebee was around and it’s all perfect for a fresh take on the original.

The type of childish yet convincing and engaging I wanted that makes it nearly as good as the writing.

The biggest advantage the animation has must be the character designs. For the most part, the simpler designs and vibrant coloring actually makes them pretty cute to look at. Plus, some of the characters look interesting due to how they look like they pay homage to very old cartoons. And speaking of homage, there are a lot of character designs (mostly involving the minor ones) that are distinct from one another. Sure they may be out-of-place but it makes sense because of the emphasis on their traits.

A surprising thing to come out of the quality is that it would shift often in animation style to support the atmosphere and theming of the episode, resulting in great creative freedom. Okay, the revival may gain inspiration from the original’s experimental animation, but what makes Teen Titans Go! have more effort than the original is that it also redesigns the character designs and put them into the environment of the style rather than affect just the backgrounds. They would commonly be used for pop culture references, adding to the cleverness, which even applies to the series going to the original’s animation style.

Although the backgrounds aren’t as fascinating as the designs, it does look neat inside the Titans tower, where much of the rooms look interesting due to the color choice that makes them distinct from one another as well as the type of environment the rooms have such as dirty clothes everywhere. There would be other places that'll be discovered and they look distinct from one another with their different hues making them look better, which does include the creativity of the background designs. The live action backgrounds may feel out of place, considering that much of the animation is animated, but their colors blend in decently with the rest of the coloring. They briefly looked nicer when in the Super Summer Hero Camp miniseries where it has a bit of the comic book atmosphere, particularly the dots and it works thanks to how the miniseries is all about superheroes.

Speaking of coloring, they kind of lack variety due to the episodes often using cyan, pink, and purple as they dominate the skies. This does bring the quality down a little but what helped this issue is in the later seasons where around Season 4, the lighting and editing look higher quality where they look even more appealing than before, having what appears to be a vignette inside the Titans towers.

While the animation style is mostly solid, the audio is really something. The voice actors from the original series came back to do the voices of the characters of this show and they sound as energetic as ever, which fits the energy and mood of the series really well. Instead of feeling serious and low-toned in the original, they’re now quick, lively, and feel like they’re having a blast with their roles. It bothers me that a few villains such as Mad Mod and Punk Rocket lack voices but they don’t appear that much in the series.

The background music, like how the series would experiment with different animation styles, is also appealing with its very good sense of variety where they sound catchy. Also, they're quite fast-paced, very upbeat, sometimes futuristic as well that makes them sound neat. Although some of the background music is a bit repetitive with the credits theme being used quite often especially in the fight scenes and some are noticeably recycled from another show (MAD), they don’t happen that much.

And how about the songs? They too are catchy and great like the background music. Just like the different animation styles, there are a lot of songs that are excellent due to their theming and how they fit the atmosphere of the episode really well. While it’s fairly common to see rap numbers especially in the later seasons, which does get old, the energy of the episode makes them fairly enjoyable.

The sound effects are also pretty enjoyable even if relying on stock sound effects. They would perhaps add to the humor thanks to the timing of their placement, which makes them feel creative. However, there are sounds like the overused fart sound effect that are randomly thrown in within different moments even if no one’s physically farting.

Verdict: Overall, it’s solid with cute character designs, great sense of variety that blends everything really well and especially energetic and appealing with the fun voice acting and music. There is one aspect that could’ve had more variety and it would be the coloring.

Ah yes, we’re finally at the most controversial aspect of the show; the characters. To be honest, I really enjoyed much of these characters.

Before I break down the reasons as to why the characters are very consistently entertaining to me, how about I chat about some of the characters, eh? Of the Teen Titans, Robin is now the vigorous leader who is sometimes arrogant and egotistical about his position as team leader often expecting the best out of and at times ignored by his pretty incompetent team and does desperate attempts to impress Starfire, the more idiotic and social version of her original self who can contradict herself sometimes.

We move over to the most detestable characters, Cyborg and Beast Boy, who have a stronger bond than in the original and in this instance, they’re very slothful and childish with a love for food and friendship.

Then the last member of the team, Raven, is about as careless as the other Titans when Robin is trying to give them attention at times, but despite that, she’s nearly identical to her original counterpart, containing some bits of her gothic personality.

Now you’re wondering right now; why do I love these characters so much compared to the original? Well, of course they’re jerky very often, but I actually find their cruel actions really funny thanks to the clever script, their energetic appearances that really adds to the energy of the episode, and the excellent humor that can perhaps make their cruelty and stupidity reasonable and hilarious to sit through. This also includes some of their conversations where it becomes surprisingly ironic and how they would do normal actions in an exaggerated type of way that it makes it chuckle worthy, comprising of the Titans using their powers to try to do everyday life like eating, reaching for the remote, etc.

Perhaps if a lot of you can’t bare Robin’s strictness, the clever script as to how he would lead the Titans to his meetings as well as keeping them on task is often unexpecting with multiple clever outcomes where they're so amusing. Plus, he alongside the other Titans in some situations would get a fair amount of comeuppance where they would be bashed for their actions or be humiliated.

But even if they aren’t hilarious, does that mean I dislike them? Pretty rarely. Since this show is pretty satirical, it would make sense for Teen Titans Go! to make fun and take advantage of the original by taking the characters and turn them into exaggerated versions of themselves by adding characteristics that end up linking fluently to their original counterpart's. This becomes unpredictable in a hilarious type of way. Essentially, it’s how this show mocks the original’s characters that makes another reason as to why I enjoy them, now that they’re more interesting and enjoyable than the original’s. Plus, transforming the Titans into a useless and immature team of supers is really unique and the comedic tone takes advantage of this idea very well.

The show would go on its way to toss in new characteristics that adds to how skillfully written much of these characters are like with Robin’s surprising fascination of finance and Cyborg’s dream of joining the Justice League. Sure, some of the characteristics of some characters seem pretty contradictory to them as we see a side of them that wasn’t present in the original (like with Raven’s love for Pretty Pretty Pegasus considering it's a girly cartoon and the tone contrasts with her gloomy personality and Terra being portrayed as an antagonist wanting to destroy the Teen Titans for some reason) but this show has these thrown in for satire and maybe even relatability, and it at least found a way to make a joke out of them.

Also, I can say that the Titans aren’t mean to each other all the time. In several bits of Season 2, the Titans are now lighter on each other by giving each other support and respect, which does add some emotional support to some of these episodes.

If you've been watching the series, you may be familiar with Bumblebee, the newbie Titan who joined them in the Super Summer Hero Camp miniseries and officially after that only to leave them to live her life-long dream. Honestly, she just isn't as enjoyable as the other Titans where she appears to be just nice, enthusiastic, and the new member of the group trying to fit in with the other Titans by attempting to act like them and at one point try to be involved with the other Titans' memories. The way the Titans treat her is mostly just mean-spirited and not even the humor could save it because again, it becomes overdone to the point of being old. How the Titans treat Robin is enjoyable because he's at times arrogant and often expects the best out of his teammates, but with Bumblebee who seems to be a likable character just don't work. I like the idea of a new member having trouble to adjust to the Titans tower, but having a soft character who's just dull and forgettable like Bumblebee is, you guessed it. Plus, it was a missed opportunity to not answer why she left Titans East in favor of Titans West and the reasoning behind her life-long desire.

How about the minor characters? Are you kidding? There’s no competition with Teen Titans Go!’s minor characters vs the original’s. Just like the other characters, they too are humorously written and have ingenious characteristics. Some of these characters would include Stinky Joe, a friendly and light-hearted homeless person, Santa Claus, the jolly fat man himself wanting to take over holidays, and Pain Bot, once a robot whose purpose was to haul torture over to heroes only to surprisingly have character development where it appears to be friends with a Titan for once.

Like the writing, the characters absolutely have a problem with them not with some of the new characteristics being contradictory but with the backstories. Now the origin stories are portrayed just fine, but how the Teen Titans would form would be inconsistent and you could tell that it’s that judging by the character designs. At first, it feels realistic since we see the characters in their old designs but later on, the characters are in their normal models.

Verdict: It was all thanks to the satirical approach of much of these characters as well as the amazing comedy that makes a lot of them pretty lovable. They have a lot of cleverness inside them that really comes to show that the writing is so good, except for one character.

Gee willikers! This continuation actually proved itself that Cartoon Network can handle reincarnations in the smartest and most hilarious ways possible. I mean, both The Powerpuff Girls (2016) and Ben 10 (2016) were okay, but this revival is really special in my opinion. Looks like these reboots were taking notes, just not as good as how Teen Titans Go! handled the aspects that are pretty similar to what said CN reboots had. Is the summary perfection or not? Obviously not but it does seem great:

There is so much replay value to be seen within this very charming series. From crafting an ingenious script that contains a lot of creativity and hilarity, its unique and fabulous take on comedy, solid animation that is experimental in a good way, a wacky and lively cast of high energy, and cleverly written characters who are actually funny and reasonable, I guess you could say that Teen Titans Go! is my new favorite show. Just if it fixed itself when a character got the spotlight but it doesn’t compete against how strong much of the show was put together.

Well, it’s official (and probably obvious to some of you), Cartoon Network has dished out reincarnations of their most popular shows and they managed to become better than the original. Oh yes, except for Samurai Jack. I forgot to mention that show while breaking down Cartoon Network's worthy successors. Anyways, while The Powerpuff Girls (2016) was slightly better than itself 18 years ago and Ben 10 (2016) became a big improvement over the 2005 series even though it’s not that good, Teen Titans Go! was GREAT (89%) enough to crush the original to a pulp. You know, I wowed at Teen Titans Go!’s final rating because it was so close to becoming a blessed series, just if its stupidity consistently sparked.

Epilogue: And that, my friends, conclude “what I consider a trilogy” of three reincarnated critically acclaimed Cartoon Network action shows whose overhated revival proved themselves to be better. There could be other cartoons CN might reboot in the future, but judging from the big three, I have faith on these future reboots that they can be better in some possible way than their predecessor(s). By the way, in the summary, did you recognized the fact that I referenced Teen Titans Go!’s former (and infamous) promotional slogan “Your new favorite show”? If not, then I described the reference for you already. Well, considering that this show has been consistently doing great over the past few years, it has remained a favorite of mine as one of the best ongoing shows in my opinion.