Friday, December 19, 2003

Teen Titans GO!

I’ve just watched my first ever episode of Teen Titans (ok so I’m slow, I have to wait till I’m visiting my parents to see it). Overall I impressed, I had a feeling it was going to all nice and fluffy, thankfully it’s not. The animation is pretty good, especially considering I’d just watched an episode of Static Shock and that animation is dire! The characterisation of Robin is spot on (assuming they are going for the Dick Grayson Robin as it looks like they are) as seems Beast Boy, who should be called Changeling like in the old comics but never mind. Cyborg is pretty good character as well, I’m not sure if he’s that similar to the comic version or not due to my limited exposure to both. Raven didn’t appear enough for me to make a judgement.

The choice of Slade as the main bad guy is a damn good choice as well. He’s not the Slade Wilson we know from the comics but with his relationship to the Titans in them it makes perfect sense.

I do have some qualms about it though. Starfire is a complete wimp. I don’t have a problem with them tweaking characters so they work better (which I think is what they did Cyborg and definitely for Slade), but they completely and utterly inverted Starfire’s personality. Next the intro, whoever decided on that song deserves shooting. This from the same people that brought us Batman, Superman and Batman Beyond whose intros were fantastic. The animation to go alongside it is good though and a nice step away from the CGI intro they tried for Justice League.

And now my biggest gripe. This is purely personal preference. It doesn’t relate to what has come before. Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond and Justice are all the same continuity, one that started in 1991, but isn’t required knowledge. Suddenly it’s abandoned for this one. The Robin can’t be the Dick Grayson or Tim Drake from the Batman cartoon. I know it sounds silly but it bugs me.

Update - 20 December 2003

Well I’ve now heard the Japanese sung intro and I no longer hate it. Much better! Raven is another character that falls into the “tweaked to suit the cartoon better” and well done too. Aqualad makes a guest appearance, and quite a good one too. But why call him Aqualad, that just ties him into Aquaman and to my knowledge there has been no tie into the other cartoon’s continuity, why not call him Tempest, one to separate him and two it does sound a damn sight better. Oh and Marv Wolfman is writing it which takes it up a few places in my books.

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