I'll be on a roll today as I try and review a ton of shows in a short time.... No really, I'll start with Teen Titans Go.
Teen Titans was originally a psuedo anime super hero show that is very well fondly remembered back in the days of Toonami, exploring the lives of Robin, Starfire, Beastboy, Cyborg and Raven, while very compelling with it's action it also had a good mix of dark drama and oddball comedy and any fan of the show would love to see this come back yet this remake that they chose to bring back is nothing but oddball comedy to the extreme to the point where you can't really call it a Teen Titans show; it really was a strange choice yet in a crazy roundabout way this is still a good cartoon.
Yes I can see all the criticisms, yes some of the jokes are somewhere between juvernile and WTF, yes it does feel like a kids show yet they sprout references aimed at my age group and yes the characters do feel badly dumbed down, and yes compared to the original there's no comparison.
Yet I actually like it. Despite all the heavy criticism this show gets I really don't hate it, it's a reminder of the cartoons of old when all you really want to do is laugh and not need a degree in storytelling to even pass the most caustic of critics, simple pleasures has it's place alongside strong storytelling and sometimes the only way that works is with a familiar property like the Teen Titans, and look on the bright side, the Marvel equivalent to this show is the Super Hero Squad Show which is a million times worst than this.
First off, I would like to offer my thanks to theotaku and my fans for the showcase on Facebook, it really inspired me to write more and hopefully I can continue providing my usual British wit of writing to the website, so to celebrate I'm pulling out one of my biggest lists, the 100 cartoons may have been cancelled but this list and it's follow up list showcases the worst animations of all time. Cartoons & Anime will both be accepted and requests are open to suggest any series I don't list in the dishonorable mentions to be added to the main list. Without further interruptions these are the dishonorable mentions, spared from the Top Ten list.
Yeah these shows are that bad
Android Ana Maico 2010: It's soooooooo boring, a good looking character doesn't mean it'll be used for a good story.
Comic Party: I still hate Comic Party with a passion, a mixture of the most annoying fans mixed with it's most hypocritical critics.
Mega Babies: Rugrats on acid channeling Ren & Stimpy.
Matt Hatter Chronicles: A story where you enter the movie world to fight B-Movie monsters sounds like an idea that couldn't possibly go wrong; yet it did and this was the result.
Slugterra: Turning slugs into a new collectable toy range was never going to catch on, not to mention scraping the barrel of ideas.
Teen Titans Go: Despite all the terrible things that have been said about it, I don't find it as bad as some of the other shows I've seen.
Fanboy & Chum Chum: As long as this show exists Nickelodeon will always be haunted by the fact that it picked this over Adventure Time.
Sanjay & Craig: But in all seriousness Nickelodeon deserve the pain it gets for all it's poor decisions and this Regular Show ripoff is just another one of those crappy shows.
Uncle Grandpa: I don't hate it, I know it looks really terrible but I just don't hate it.
Almost Naked Animals: Has got the humor of Spongebob, at it's worst it's atrocious, at it's best it's barely funny.
Kung Fu Dino Posse: A shameless Ninja Turtles ripoff
Johnny Test: A show that doesn't deserve to stay on air for the length of time that it has.
Elliot Kid: Over active imagination is one thing, make believing everything like you're on drugs is just wrong.
Idol Densetsu Eriko: All the worst qualities of Jem and the Holograms.
Dragon Booster: The worst you can offer from a CGI action show.
Long Runners: They did good in the past but seasonal rot is still rot.
4Kids: More a company problem than their products.
Failed Pilots: At least they realized they failed, Allen Gregory, Bubsy, Doozy Bots, Saban Moon, Battletoads, Defenders of Dynatron City, The Groovenians are all just examples.
Preschool Shows: You know my rules by now, I can't review preschool shows because the target audience are too young to defend it. If I had my way, Peppa Pig would be the worst cartoon of all time.
Video Brinquedo: Their work consists of copying popular animated films so horrifically it makes China facepalm in disgust but they do films and were looking at animated series.
So that gives you a fair idea of what to expect, now the fun bit is seeing what else is possible to dig up from you guys, the viewer, thanks again everybody.
Our next review got an unanimous vote but considering the subject matter that comes as no surprise as we dive into Teen Titans.
DC has been under the Warner Bros banner for quite some time now and a look at their history going back as far as the Batman animated series days, there were a number of shows that were really successful and arguably the best of the early 00s era was Teen Titans.
The cartoon is based on the comic book of the same name featuring a team of five heroes consisting of the 1st Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Beastboy as they fight crime and act like teenagers in a pseudo anime world and pseudo anime is the correct term as it takes every cliche anime has to offer including an opening theme sung by Japanese J-Rock duo Puffy AmiYumi a.k.a the musical Dirty Pair. Now while many people groan at the idea of a Western cartoon using anime styling, Teen Titans actually gets a free ride alongside Avatar the Last Airbender & Code Lyoko and in some cases mistaken for an actual anime and who can blame them as we have some of the best written characters and stories in the 00s era, an era that I normally associate with the downfall of animation.
The comedy is pure gold with Starfire being voiced by Princess Bubblegum, Raven's deadpan humor and plenty of one-liners to keep everyone entertained there's never a dull moment; this is why the gag comedy Teen Titans Go was green lit which didn't get the best reception from the fans hoping for a proper Teen Titans remake; being honest it's quite funny and it's better than no Teen Titans.
It can get pretty dramatic as well particularly with both Starfire's & Raven's backstories being the show's crowning moments for drama. (In Raven's case it could compete for an oscar)
If Warner Bros can stop acting like Business men for a moment and take a good look at how well Teen Titans was received during it's run, then they wouldn't need to cancel this series along with Young Justice and other DC shows that are also really good.
Overall I really enjoyed Teen Titans, I normally hate the constant wave of super hero cartoons because the genre is so saturated to the point of collapsing under it's own weight, but within the ocean of this genre a number of shows do wash ashore and manage to do the job without feeling like it was forced to be there because of some blockbuster film release.
