For a lot of millennials who got here of age within the early 2000s, Cartoon Community’s animated Teen Titans present was a cultural touchstone, one thing we’d watch at a sure time each weekday in order that we may discuss it with our buddies the subsequent morning. Gentle sufficient for youths, however with an intimate data of a few of the well-known arcs within the Teen Titans comics, the present deftly married PG-rated kids’s programming with research of insanity, obsession, despair and heartbreak. It was my first introduction to superheroes as a style, and my first and solely foray into posting fanfiction on-line. (No, I cannot elaborate on this.)

Many people had aged out of weekday cartoons by the point the present ended its five-season run in 2006, and the Teen Titans — Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven — went dormant. Then, in 2013, after a check run of youth-skewing mini-episodes, drawn in a radically completely different type, the unique voice actors got here again to reprise their roles in Teen Titans GO!, a sillier, decrease stakes collection that centered on what sort of shenanigans the Titans rise up to of their tower once they’re not combating crime. The reboot was chibi-er, with characters are drawn with physique varieties that really make them appear to be teenagers, reasonably than muscled 20-year-olds, and filled with goofy humor. The present requested a daring query: what if superheroes had enjoyable?

The reinvention continues with the present’s first full-length film. Teen Titans GO! to the Motion pictures, retains the sunshine, jokey tone that linked with the younger followers of the brand new present. The best technique to describe it could be a weight loss program model of The LEGO Batman Film: a movie so self-referential it places even Deadpool’s fourth-wall-busting to disgrace. There are even a couple of strains about how the Titans’ nemesis Slade, aka Deathstroke, seems to be like Deadpool, with one of many characters telling him to “say one thing to the digital camera.”

The unfastened plot of Teen Titans GO! to the Motion pictures finds the Titans pining for their very own film automobile — an idea that’s already very meta, provided that it is a film in regards to the Teen Titans). They study that to get one, they have to be taken critically, which of their world means discovering and defeating an archvillain. In fact, this iteration of the Titans can’t take something critically, which, naturally, they uncover is their best energy. In-jokes about DC’s super-serious filmic embarrassments — just like the Inexperienced Lantern film and Batman v. Superman’s “Martha” second — abound.

Because the extra grounded model of Teen Titans ended, we’ve seen a resurgence in DC superheroes on the massive display screen, heralded and tremendously influenced by 2005’s reinventive Batman Begins. After Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy ended, DC and Warner Bros. resurrected the caped crusader for a deliberate collection centered across the heroes of the Justice League, with Man of Metal and Batman v. Superman main into an ensemble team-up that might then enable the opposite discrete members of the League to guide their very own standalone movies. Thus far, and considerably hilariously, the one profitable post-Justice League standalone is that this December’s Aquaman. The Surprise Woman collection appears to have rejiggered of the hyper-brooding technique (or at the very least prompted a “multiverse” method).

DC Universe

Teen Titans GO! to the Motion pictures is a brand new type for DC on the massive display screen, however not the last word course for the crew. Final 12 months, DC introduced Titans, a live-action present rejected by TNT that might as a substitute air on their DC Universe platform, the comedian firm’s upcoming streaming service. A Titans trailer debuted at San Diego Comedian Con final weekend, and gave followers a primary have a look at a brand new incarnation of the crew. The present, shot in shades of grey and black, Batman v. Superman-style, with the occasional spark of coloration from Starfire’s outfit or Beast Boy’s hair, focuses on Robin and his troubled previous as a circus acrobat, and Raven, whose darkish powers and demonic household ties trigger her to crouch in corners and scream loads. “Fuck Batman,” Robin growls after capturing a gang of thugs, a line that quickly turned notorious shortly after the trailer was posted on-line.

That is the New Mutants of DC’s new programming: a present that leans closely on the darker facets of the supply materials, slipping nearer into the grimdark morass of Zack Snyder’s superhero films that DC retains assuring us it gained’t attempt anymore. “Bored with Teen Titans GO?” the trailer appears to say. “Do this on for dimension, kiddos.” There’s a unusual but virtually completely symmetrical disconnect between an animated film which is so self-referential and foolish and a brand new present that boomerangs straight again to the exact same dour tone that Teen Titans GO! to the Motion pictures so gleefully pokes enjoyable at.

Warner Bros. Footage

The Teen Titans have at all times been a band of misfits and orphans that discover energy in each other, and a way of their internal darkness can have a spot of their tales. This type of theme lends itself properly to each the lighter Teen Titans GO! — the place a lesson about friendship is stitched into each episode — and, maybe, one thing darker and extra dramatic like DC Universe’s Titans. All of those heroes have scary, miserable origins: Robin’s acrobat mother and father have been murdered by the mob; Beast Boy’s abusive household carried out experiments on him; and Raven is the daughter of an interdimensional evil demon.

The truth that a children’ TV present may even be made about them is spectacular, and Teen Titans GO! hanging 5 seasons on irreverent humor much more so. Nonetheless, within the tonal gulf between this film and the trailer for Titans, there’s a distinct lack of the lighthearted, adventurous teamwork these of us who grew up with the early 2000s present know the Titans can pull off as a superhero group. There are a selection of charming musical sequences in Teen Titans GO! to the Motion pictures that embrace vibrant, various kinds of animation, and even a fast callback to the unique present which will trace at a revival past the reincarnation of Young Justice. I do know of a sure twenty-something who could be greater than excited to tune again in.

Emma Stefansky is a author whose work has appeared in Self-importance Truthful, ScreenCrush, and extra. Observe her on Twitter @stefabsky.