Teen Titans
Created by: Glen Murakami
Executive producers: Sander Schwartz, Sam Register, Tramm Wigzell, Todd Casey
Producers: Glen Mlurakami, Linda Steiner, Bruce Timm
Starring: Greg Cipes (Beast Boy), Scott Menville (Robin), Khary Payton (Cyborg), Tara Strong (Raven), Hynden Walch (Starfire)
I didn't have much of an American childhood because my dad was oil and I grew up overseas. Because of that, I missed out on a lot of pop culture that other 90s kids had, like Gamecubes, Power Rangers, and several other things.
Except this show.
I'm super excited to say that I did grow up with this show. Every summer my family would return to the States to visit family, and I would catch this wonderful cartoon as often as I could. I still remember the ecstatic, giddy sensation I'd feel after monotonous cartoons would go by and then this theme song came on. All other activities were dropped, nothing else was important: I had a need to watch the episode.
I'm proud to say that the giddiness has hardly vanished. Heck, I've seen the entire series and I turned on an episode to inspire this post, and got sucked right in. There's so much beauty, wonder, magic, and intrigue about this show: so much depth, so much wit, and it both takes itself completely seriously and has a great time being silly. (Just like Avatar :D)
And there's another major thing about this show that's personal for me: it was my very first introduction to something I love about the DC universe. (And honestly, comics as a whole.) I was never really into comics as a kid, and in fact I only recently started diving into them as a whole. But Teen Titans was definitely a baseline. When several comic-based movies came out that I truly loved -- specifically The Avengers and Man of Steel, I realized these movies were only a taste of an incredibly deep world, and I wasn't sure where to begin. It was only after seeing those movies that I began to explore other comic-based media that I already loved, and Teen Titans was at the very top of my (admittedly short) list. So I re-discovered that cartoon and tried to really explore what I loved about it and actively search for other DC properties that gave me that fix. Since then, I've become quite a DC fanboy, and I'll write more about other comic properties I discovered in future posts.
There is one somewhat of a flaw in Teen Titans that I felt disappointed by in my re-watch (and granted I think it's only because I came at it with the wrong mentality). I was fairly fresh off Avatar and a few other anime with series-long plot arcs, and I dove back into Teen Titans hoping to learn all about each individual character in gory detail and excited for how all the episodes would lead to an epic conclusion. I got neither, at least not the way I expected it. But in retrospect, that's not a flaw at all. It's just not the way the show was designed to shine. It wasn't meant to have every single episode build up toward a grand finale. It wasn't meant to have seasons that contributed toward a series finale. It wasn't meant to dive into the complete backstory and motivation of every character; not the way some other shows do. And in its own way, it did do each of those things. Each season had a major finale, and we definitely learned about each individual character in very satisfying ways: we visited Azarath and learned about Raven's fears and cares. We met Starfire's sister and learned about their culture. We were introduced to the Doom Patrol and learned why Beast Boy left them. And we learned so much about each of their flaws and strengths, especially when Slade preyed on Robin's weaknesses. And each of these things was portrayed in deep, meaningful ways that not only taught us about the character, but taught the character about themselves. Brought their personal struggles to light and helped them process through those struggles with the help of the team. It was truly beautiful and inspiring to watch and it always left me feeling more complete, too.
My favorite character in the show was probably Raven. Though I couldn't identify with her attitude most of the time (I like to be cheerful and optimistic, as evidenced by this blog), I really admired the reason behind it, her outlook on life, and I loved her powers. I could see that she was generally calm and quiet because she needed to control her powers. Excess emotion and excitement was literally dangerous for her. I also loved her dedication to being a hero in the world despite a predetermined destiny decided by others at her birth. She didn't accept that destiny -- she fought against it for what she believed in. She also had the mostly flashy, interesting, magic-like, and versatile powers, in my opinion :D
Next was Starfire. Her powers weren't as wonderfully intricate or versatile, but they were still fascinating and her personality was easier for me to empathize with. Starbolts and superstrength are still awesome, too! I really loved her optimism toward life, her life-is-precious viewpoint and very morale personality, and the refreshingly different point of view she offered from Robin's lone-wolf, tunnel-vision mentality toward missions. Cyborg was probably next in my list, though I wished his technology would occasionally do more than sonic blasts (and why couldn't he fly???). Still, I loved his dynamic with Beast Boy and his internal conflict with human vs machine always brought fascinating depth to episodes.
After Avatar, Teen Titans is probably my favorite animated series of all time. The characters were all wonderfully complex, fascinatingly powerful, and the series presented conflicts that brought out the best in their dynamics.
There is one somewhat of a flaw in Teen Titans that I felt disappointed by in my re-watch (and granted I think it's only because I came at it with the wrong mentality). I was fairly fresh off Avatar and a few other anime with series-long plot arcs, and I dove back into Teen Titans hoping to learn all about each individual character in gory detail and excited for how all the episodes would lead to an epic conclusion. I got neither, at least not the way I expected it. But in retrospect, that's not a flaw at all. It's just not the way the show was designed to shine. It wasn't meant to have every single episode build up toward a grand finale. It wasn't meant to have seasons that contributed toward a series finale. It wasn't meant to dive into the complete backstory and motivation of every character; not the way some other shows do. And in its own way, it did do each of those things. Each season had a major finale, and we definitely learned about each individual character in very satisfying ways: we visited Azarath and learned about Raven's fears and cares. We met Starfire's sister and learned about their culture. We were introduced to the Doom Patrol and learned why Beast Boy left them. And we learned so much about each of their flaws and strengths, especially when Slade preyed on Robin's weaknesses. And each of these things was portrayed in deep, meaningful ways that not only taught us about the character, but taught the character about themselves. Brought their personal struggles to light and helped them process through those struggles with the help of the team. It was truly beautiful and inspiring to watch and it always left me feeling more complete, too.
My favorite character in the show was probably Raven. Though I couldn't identify with her attitude most of the time (I like to be cheerful and optimistic, as evidenced by this blog), I really admired the reason behind it, her outlook on life, and I loved her powers. I could see that she was generally calm and quiet because she needed to control her powers. Excess emotion and excitement was literally dangerous for her. I also loved her dedication to being a hero in the world despite a predetermined destiny decided by others at her birth. She didn't accept that destiny -- she fought against it for what she believed in. She also had the mostly flashy, interesting, magic-like, and versatile powers, in my opinion :D
Next was Starfire. Her powers weren't as wonderfully intricate or versatile, but they were still fascinating and her personality was easier for me to empathize with. Starbolts and superstrength are still awesome, too! I really loved her optimism toward life, her life-is-precious viewpoint and very morale personality, and the refreshingly different point of view she offered from Robin's lone-wolf, tunnel-vision mentality toward missions. Cyborg was probably next in my list, though I wished his technology would occasionally do more than sonic blasts (and why couldn't he fly???). Still, I loved his dynamic with Beast Boy and his internal conflict with human vs machine always brought fascinating depth to episodes.
After Avatar, Teen Titans is probably my favorite animated series of all time. The characters were all wonderfully complex, fascinatingly powerful, and the series presented conflicts that brought out the best in their dynamics.
Comments
Post a Comment