Behold... the New Teen Titans Cartoon...

[Drtooth]

The original Teen Titan cartoon... well... this original Teen Titan cartoon (there was that one well before it by Filmation in the 70's... and not that there wasn't an effort to get a Teen Titan cartoon in the 80's, but the networks wanted Smurf ripoffs instead) was one of the most insane shows out there. When it did a wacky episode, it was a million times wackier and funnier than this series ever would. But it was pretty much your standard dark super hero based cartoon show. Not quite as dark as the comics, but a lot darker than most kid's programs.

Anyway, what REALLY gets my goat on this program are out of character jerkbutt moments. I saw the latest episode where Beast Boy refuses to change from a gorilla, acting like a complete childish buffoon. That wasn't completely out of character, granted... until they were actually fighting a supervillian. Beast Boy refuses to help Robin out (because "Gorillas don't help out in battle...giggle giggle giggle." ), and then laughs when Robin's being beat to a pulp. Later on in the episode, Robin gets angry at Cyborg and throws him into a pit of snakes. Even in context, that was pretty nasty and out of character. I can take Robin having a Simon Belmont like ego, I can take Raven being a Brony for a cute voice actress joke... but when the Teen Titans are this dangerously close to being Family Guy characters, it's a turn off. Beast Boy was childish, but at least he would hold his own for his comrades in arms.

Luckily this hasn't been so bad since the first episode until this one... but really...

 

[Drtooth]

This show has gradually started to grow on me, I must admit. The only thing bothering me now are how cheap the show's casting budget is (it really stunts the potential for more older villains to pop up besides ones voiced by the cast already and the rare occasion when they have Gizmo's VA). I can live with dumb jerk Robin and Cyborg having no indoor voice. You can tell the cast is having fun... but, well... WAAAAAAY too much fun. The show does, however, need more mythology gags. Comedy versions of Super Heroes work better with Mythology gags. And there was a great one in the one where they become hooked on books.

While not unexpected, TRU has an assortment of TTG toys now. I'll give them this. The character designs work beautifully in 3-D toy interpretations. That's saying something... Everyone on Regular Show except for Mordecai and Rigby work, for example... The Fairly Oddparents characters look like the Jimmy Timmy Hour CGI versions, and there's no way Timmy's Dad would look right. I might just consider picking up Beast Boy or Cyborg if the price goes down.

But the weird thing is, they're not manufactured by Mattel, but rather Jazzwares. Now if they could have got Jazzwares to do Green Lantern the series or Sim-Biotic Titan, those shows would have lasted longer. personally, I want to see Beware the Batman stuff. Pyg and Toad especially.

 

[Drtooth]

Okay... I totally LOVE the show now. Why?

Teen Titans Go just totally referenced Ducktales. And it's like an extended theme song parody reference too. Scrooge McDuck is mentioned by name.

 

[mr3urious]

Well, Mr. Enter finally tears into TTG by reviewing the episode "Staring at the Future" (there is some strong language in this one, BTW).

I honestly stopped watching after the gorilla episode, but since this one manages to crap all over a beloved ep of the original series (that even Enter himself endorsed), I'm even less convinced into returning to watching it.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, Mr. Enter finally tears into TTG by reviewing the episode "Staring at the Future" (there is some strong language in this one, BTW).

I honestly stopped watching after the gorilla episode, but since this one manages to crap all over a beloved ep of the original series (that even Enter himself endorsed), I'm even less convinced into returning to watching it.

I've actually managed to find myself liking this series, but even I admit the quality is all over the map. The Gorilla one was an example of what's wrong with the series. Turning the characters into complete jerks and putting cheap jokes above team dynamics.

However, I highly recommend the Blackfire episode. I've been waiting for Starfire to go ballistic on Blackfire since the first series. If they only did more mythology gag episodes and less comedic sociopath episodes, they'd really have something. But the writers stress they love the comedic sociopath episodes...

 

[The Count]

I'm actually waiting to catch the Blackfire episode in repeats, so far it's pretty much all the other lame episodes I keep getting. And the July 4th episode where Robin is uber-obsessed with being leader that he ends up fighting George Washington—who incidentally pulls off a powerplay that probably scored points with most people except for me... Meh. What I want is for them to repeat Beware the Bat's new episodes at such adnauseum scheduling once we get enough of them so we don't have to wait until 3:30 AM on Saturdays/Sundays. *Second meh.

 

[Drtooth]

I fail to see why they don't have a DC nation block anymore. Even just to rerun any DC related cartoon that isn't TTG. Disney still has the Marvel Block, even though they pushed it to 8 AM for some reason. They basically used Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble to introduce/advertise Guardians of the Galaxy characters. DC just can't get anything right, other than the fact TTG is a ratings goldmine somehow. Something tells me BTB falls into CN's conspiracy of cartoons with girl characters don't sell toys and don't get boys involved. Tell that to April O'Neil.

But at least it isn't Discovery Kid's show ripoffs, Poorly Testing Johnnies, or Clutch Cargo's annoying Fruit Patrol. Still, I'd rather see Steven Universe or Uncle Grandpa take at least one of the slots TTG has.

 

[The Count]

Why no more DC Nation? That's easy... Blame the growing Adult Swim takeover of CN.
It used to start off with Family Guy for a full hour at 11 PM followed by Robot Chicken at 12:00 AM. Then they added American Dad at 10 PM and I was excited because American Dad is a great show, most of the time. Then King of the Hill came along so they started at 9 PM. Now they went and brought in The Cleveland Show, Bob's Burgers, The Boondocks, and that means they need an extra hour to push CN's endtime even further back to 8 PM.

What does this have to do with DC Nation? Simple. The pushback means everything has to get reslotted back an extra hour. Their weekend movies, known as Flix now start at 6 PM. And that means their morning movie has to start at 9 AM in order to fit an all-day marathon of their other proper CN shows into the remaining 11 AM-6 PM vacancy. Yes, DC Nation could garner a spot in that scheduling... Or even be given the 7-8 AM spot leading into Pokemon XY afterwards, but you know execs always have a knack for mucking perfectly good schedules with stupid nonsensical moves. Heck, even The Hub's movies have been bumped up an hour earlier on the weekdays so they can fit Sister Sister at 9 PM and Blossom at 10 PM respectively.

 

[Drtooth]

What does this have to do with DC Nation? Simple. The pushback means everything has to get reslotted back an extra hour. Their weekend movies, known as Flix now start at 6 PM. And that means their morning movie has to start at 9 AM in order to fit an all-day marathon of their other proper CN shows into the remaining 11 AM-6 PM vacancy. Yes, DC Nation could garner a spot in that scheduling... Or even be given the 7-8 AM spot leading into Pokemon XY afterwards, but you know execs always have a knack for mucking perfectly good schedules with stupid nonsensical moves. Heck, even The Hub's movies have been bumped up an hour earlier on the weekdays so they can fit Sister Sister at 9 PM and Blossom at 10 PM respectively.

That and it's also due to the "we're only rerunning the same 5 shows over and over" bit. I really do NOT like CN moving AS an hour earlier just to accommodate King of the Hill. KOTH has no business being on AS, as much as I do like the series. It seems like it should be rerun on FX or TBS or something. Though I do like how Rick and Morty is rerun at 9 PM on Sundays.

Still, that's no excuse to just rerun the same shows over and over. I'm sure it's mostly a summer thing, with many more shows to come. Also no excuse in not rerunning Dragons: Riders of Berk when the movie hit theaters. Could have pushed their box office take up a bit.

And, Beware the Batman is going to be completely available on DVD in short time. I just can't remember exactly where season 1 Part 2 comes out. I can easily see BTB, but I'd rather just get the DVD's and watch them at my leisure. It's obvious the show was pulled due to lack of interest in a toy line (girl character and all). And toy lines are the only reason they have action shows. And they get cancelled if one fails to materialize or they sell poorly.

 

[The Count]

Yeah, I know what you mean about the DVD thing regarding BTB. I'm pretty much keeping up to date on Onepiece thanks to the individual story arc articles being updated at their Wiki, though I think they might finally get to Thriller Bark at some point this year, dunno, haven't been watching it on Toonami.

The summer thing might be another factor... They just finished airing the second half of Total Drama's fifth season, titled Pahkitew Island, in a compressed two-week format with the entire season run marathon style yesterday afternoon. CN has notoriously used the summertime around now in July for their Sneak Peak weekends or Sneakends as well as their Fandom Weekends on the weekend of SDCCI to show new upcoming stuff coming soon to the network. But I'm kind of feeling they've put more emphasis behind their weekday afternoon lineup of TTG+Gumball+Clarence+AdventureTime+RegularShow from 6-8 PM and let everything else languish in that "forgotten programming" bin.