YMMV / Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is the Atom mocking Robin about not getting his own movie due to being a Jerkass, or because he was angry with the Boy Wonder for stepping on him during the premiere?
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Due to Teen Titans Go!'s legendary base of haters, many believed (and even hoped) that the film would be critically panned to the level of The Emoji Movie and a Box Office Bomb. However, critical reception has been widely positive, with 91% on Rotten Tomatoes from 115 reviews, and it did mildly well at the box office.
  • To put this all into perspective, a film version of Teen Titans Go! performed better with professional critics than four of the five then-released installments of the DC Extended Universe. The exception (for the record) was Wonder Woman (2017), a fact that was referenced in this film's teaser trailer.
• Awesome Art:
  • The character animation might not be that much better than in the show, but the backgrounds of the city look amazing.
  • The best way to see the difference is to take a look of the opening shot of the Titans Tower as seen in the movie◊ and compare that to the shot in the show.
  • The traditionally animated sequences (Robin's The Lion King-esque nightmare, "My Superhero Movie") are gorgeous. All of them were produced and animated in-house at Warner Bros. Animation and it shows.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Jade Wilson is Slade in disguise. Any savvy viewer (or at least, someone familiar with Deathstroke the comic book character, since this Slade is still never referred to in full as "Slade Wilson") could figure this out (or, at the very least, that the two are connected somehow) once her name is dropped for the first time. Doesn't help that, later on in the film, she starts acting more blatantly nasty and evil. Lampshaded when Robin tells the other Titans only for Raven to admit she saw it coming a mile away.
• Crosses the Line Twice: As the Titans go back to the past to undo their interference with the heroes' origin stories and correct the timeline (already a hilarious and pretty twisted joke), they not only casually lead the Waynes into Crime Alley, ensuring their doom but Raven also happily slaps THE pearl necklace on Martha Wayne!
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Stan Lee, due to his surprising presence, and making the most of his only two scenes in the movie. His death shortly after the film's video release made it more poignant than intended.
• Epileptic Trees: Guessing the possible offensive jokes in the film (some of which cross the line even further than the show ever would) has become popular with its detractors. Though some of them are clearly just kidding.
• Evil Is Cool: Slade. While this version is more humorous than his previous incarnation, he also proves to be just as much of a legitimate threat, and is perhaps the greatest villain the 2013 Titans have ever faced.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • "How come one of the most hated modern cartoons gets a theatrical movie but [name of popular cartoon] didn't?" This is especially notable given that it's a Spin-Off of a better-received series that only got the Made-for-TV Movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, that it is only the second Cartoon Network show since 2002's The Powerpuff Girls Movie^note Not including Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, which is based on a [adult swim] property to get a theatrical movie, and because Adventure Time was previously announced to get the theatrical treatment only for that movie to not have gotten off the ground.
  • The Incredibles fandom developed a rivalry with that of this movie, because its theatrical release was set a little over a month after Incredibles 2. Hilariously enough, the villains of both films had similar plans to brainwash the heroes of their respective worlds.
  • With fans of The LEGO Batman Movie, which its fans consider to have done the "comedic DC movie parody" earlier, better and with more respect for the source material, in addition to its Batman serving as a more sympathetic example of the Designated Hero than the Titans.
• Genius Bonus:
  • One of the movie posters seen in the film is of Challengers of the Unknown. Similar to Deathstroke's connection with Deadpool, Challengers of the Unknown predated Fantastic Four, but were overshadowed by the later Marvel comic to the point where not only audiences, but also members of the movie's crew, thought they were created for the film. The fact that this wiki's page for the Challengers is rather bare-bones should tell you something about their obscurity.
  • Cyborg panics that Tiger's dad might be a cop. Michael Bolton's father actually was a police officer, being the chairman of his city's 24th ward.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The only overseas country where this film was a success was Mexico, thanks to it being released at the end of August after the film's two competitors unlike most countries which received the film. It also helps that superhero cartoons are big in Mexico.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Deadpool 2, a film adapting characters belonging to the Distinguished Competition, has Deadpool asking if Cable got his dour personality from the DC Universe. Other than making a neat Mythology Gag for Slade, the ribbing gets inversed when the Titans ask the most serious foe they've faced to date if he's Deadpool himself.
  • When the Titans sneak into a movie premiere, they see a trailer for a Alfred Pennyworth movie. A little over a week after the trailer for the film came out, which used this scene, Epix announced an Alfred television series.
    • Same thing about the Batmobile movie trailer, as an actual series based on it was announced for HBO Max and Cartoon Network two years after this film's release.
  • Robin lamenting that he isn't among the superheroes getting their own movie is pretty ironic given that Dick Grayson is getting his own film in the DC Extended Universe, albeit as Nightwing.
  • Jade Wilson plans to build a streaming service called D.O.O.M.S.D.A.Y.^* Digitally Ordering Online Movies Streaming Directly At You where everyone can watch her superhero movies, with the Teen Titans movie being the first to premiere.^* This turns out to be a lie since the service's true purpose is to mind control the world. Warner Bros. released the "DC Universe" streaming service later that same year. Bonus points for Titans (2018) being the first original show on premiere on the service.
  • Slade's plan to control peoples' minds (and all superheroes) via screens is remarkably similar to Screenslaver, with both films being released just weeks apart. What also helps is that both villains have aliases as seemingly-friendly females, took advantage of people spending their time using screens for said control, and even manage to take control of the main protagonist at one point.
  • On December 29, 2015, Cartoon Network ran a nearly all-day marathon of the show this film is based on to compete with an all-day marathon of the Back to the Future series on the Paramount Network (which was known during that time as Spike). This movie has a time-travel sequence that not only spoofs the film said marathon competed with, but it also uses the movie's theme and Huey Louis' "Back In Time" during it.
  • In the first teaser, the Titans talk about how good Wonder Woman (2017) is, and how much they suck in comparison. Fast forward to the movie's release, and this movie's Rotten Tomatoes score ended up being higher than that of every DC Extended Universe film at the time... except Wonder Woman.
  • An AV Club article about a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie marathon held for Avengers: Age of Ultron had one user comment that they would like to see a movie where superheroes needed to rescue the world from endless comic book movies. The climax of this film reveals that Slade disguised himself as a Hollywood filmmaker named Jade Wilson, and he's been giving all the DC superheroes movies as an evil plot to mind control the world, leading Robin to try to stop his plan.
  • One of the scenes in the film parodies the "Circle of Life" sequence from The Lion King. Almost a month after the home video release, Disney releases a teaser for the remake.
  • One of the trailers making fun of Aquaman getting his own movie, going off of the old joke of him being a lame hero. Then his movie proceeded to come out at the end of the year to become one of the best received movies in the DCEU by both audience reception and gross, and completely reversing the character's reputation among casual audiences.
  • After being casted in the now cancelled Superman Lives, Nicolas Cage finally got to play Superman in this movie. It only gets better when he voices one version of Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in the same year.
  • When the Titans visit the Warner Bros. Studio lot, Starfire points out that the Animaniacs happen to live up in the studio water tower. It was only two years later that the Warner Siblings returned in their own new series on Hulu.
  • The Titans getting the Waynes killed end up causing the "My Parents Are Dead!" meme where Batman slaps Robin (along with other times he's been a dick to... Well, Dick) make a whole lot more sense now.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • One thing about the movie that got people interested is the fact that Nicolas Cage finally got to play Superman.
  • The appearance of Slade as the Big Bad also made a fair number of people interested in seeing the movie. He has easily been the most requested character throughout the entire show's run.
  • The return of characters such as the Justice League (with John Stewart representing Green Lantern), including cameos from the Young Justice team, was yet another incentive for people to give the movie a chance.
  • Some of the people watching the movie in theaters probably did so under the promise of the 2003 series getting a sixth season if this movie did well enough. Which may be the case considering the the credits briefly get interrupted by the 2003 Teen Titans telling the audience that they "found a way back".
  • Some people just want to see Stan Lee’s unexpected cameo since nobody thought he would appear in a DC movie adaptation.
  • Some people were willing to watch the movie just because of the Lauren Faust DC Super Hero Girls short that was shown in front of the movie.
  • Some Looney Tunes fans probably just wanted to see the new opening logo animation of the wacky 1940s Daffy Duck, which served as a preview to Looney Tunes Cartoons.
• Magnificent Bastard: Though sillier than usual, Slade proves a competent adversary to the Teen Titans. Disguising himself as a film director, Slade plays on superheroes' ego and films a fake movie of them while he moves undetected to steal pieces to a Doomsday Device, even having the unwitting heroes help him build it. Constantly improvising his strategy to deal with the Titans, Slade plays off Robin's desire for his own movie and other underhanded tactics to break the team apart. Tricking Robin into letting him into the Titans' vault, Slade uses his device to mind control the entire world. Coming within a hair's breadth of victory, Slade even remains a Graceful Loser as he is beaten, proclaiming the Titans' song to be "monumentally dope".
• Memetic Mutation: Has its own page as part of the one for the main Teen Titans Go! series.
• Misaimed Marketing: One trailer where Slade lists various reasons he is better than Deadpool ends with the line, "But sure, go see his movie, because it comes out before mine". The target audience for Teen Titans GO! is definitely too young to watch any Deadpool movies, regardless of when they came out—both films have an R rating.^Explanation Not recommended for anyone under age 17.
• Moral Event Horizon: If Slade didn’t cross this before when he destroyed the Titans Tower, he definitely crosses it when he taunts Robin into watching his corrupted film to hypnotize him and orders him to kill his friends.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Orchestral versions of the 2003 series' theme, heard several times throughout the movie's score.
• Older Than They Think: Technically, this is not the first cameo appearance of Stan Lee in a DC cartoon. Superman: The Animated Series had a non speaking cameo of him in the final episode of the series during the funeral of Dan Turpin. It is, however, the first and only DC role that has Mr. Lee in a speaking cameo.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • After 4 seasons of Batman being used as a Running Gag Joke Character, he finally alleviates his Badass Decay by showing off how unstoppable he really is in combat when he takes on the Titans after being Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • The Titans themselves, to a lesser extent. While still being mischievous Idiot Heroes, they're far more serious about saving the world and working together as a team as opposed to being Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Rooting for the Empire: Some people cheered for Slade given the annoying personalities of our "heroes", Will Arnett voicing the villain and Slade making some legitimately funny jabs at the Titans.
• The Scrappy: Balloon Man has gotten a lot of hatred for being the one responsible for the widely-reviled fart joke shown in the trailers. Thankfully, he only appears in the movie's opening.
• Shocking Moments: Seeing the 2003 Teen Titans attempt to make a comeback into the spotlight during the movie's credits caused an explosive reaction of shock and joy from that show's fans.
• Signature Scene: Thanks to Memetic Mutation, the "My Superhero Movie" song has become this for the line about a 3D booty.
• Squick:
  • The overly long fart joke in the teaser.
  • Same goes for the minute-long prop toilet joke.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The Big Damn Movie far surpassed the expectations and the quality of the main cartoon series, being praised for actually having deeper writing this time attributed to the writers having a larger timeframe to work with, as well as famous DC heroes and villains being actual characters with voice actors rather than throwaway shout-outs that don't mean anything.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Continuing with the series' love of the culture of The '80s, "Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life" sounds a lot like "Gloria" by Laura Branigan from the same era.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • The sneak peek was hit with this hard, with over 10,000 dislikes compared to fewer than 2,000 likes. The biggest reason would be that the animated series is one of the biggest punching bags on the Internet.
    • Even taking the show's reception out of the equation, there are those who disliked the sneak peek teaser because of the poor lip syncing and the overall rushed look of it.
  • The teaser wasn't received much better, with over 13,000 dislikes compared to 6,000 likes, due to having much the same style as the show, both in terms of animation and writing (such as an overly long fart joke). Many took that joke as an indicator of what a majority of the movie's content was going to be.
  • Character design-wise, John Stewart was reviled by everyone as a poor palette swap of Cyborg, believing that more original character designs were needed for a movie that was going into theaters.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Superman and Slade calling out the Titans on never actually doing anything heroic and mocking some of their more fan-reviled antics.
  Robin: We're taking you down!
  Slade: How are you going to do it? What—are you going to fart on me? You wanna have a dance-off? You gonna annoy me to death with your waffles?
  (Cut to Beast Boy and Cyborg dropping their waffles angrily.)
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Replacing Ron Perlman, Slade's voice actor in Teen Titans (2003), with Will Arnett angered a few fans who were hoping that Slade's comeback would have Perlman reprise his role. Though Arnett's performance in the final movie won many people over, and works well for the more comedic (yet still competent) take on the character.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In this movie all about the team wanting to get a movie about them, there's not a single reference to the fact that Cyborg was recently in a major movie role or the fact that he's getting his own solo film in a few years (or was).
• Trailer Joke Decay: The aforementioned fart joke, which had been featured in every trailer except the first official one.
• Unexpected Character:
  • After it was long suspected they would never touch Slade, lo and behold he shows up in the film as the Big Bad.
  • Nobody expected the Titans from the 2003 series to appear during the credits.
  • Stan Lee appears in a cameo in this movie, something no one expected since this is an adaptation of a DC comic book.^note It must be mentioned that like everyone in the comic book industry, Lee has worked for multiple companies, including DC, notably the Just Imagine Stan Lee... series.
  • The Challengers of the Unknown, largely for how very obscure they are even among hardcore DC fans.
  • One of the superhero origins the Titans prevent in the time travel sequence is that of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Watch It for the Meme: Became this in June 2020 after the "Picture my booty up in 3D" part of the song "My Superhero Movie" underwent Memetic Mutation.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • While some negativity continued surrounding the movie, the first TV spot was received a little bit better for implying that there would be some actual action and heroics in the movie and for showing more than just the fart joke.
  • Then the official trailer showed even more heroics and the plot, which interested more people.
  • The Stinger had fans cheering.
• The Woobie: Robin for most of the movie. All of his actions stem from wanting to be taken seriously by a community of superheroes that sees him as nothing more than a pathetic joke and his efforts seem to be shot down at every turn. During the climax, he willingly takes a peek at his solo movie, despite knowing it'll put him under Slade's control, because he wanted to see if it really was as cool as Slade claimed it was. His self-esteem sunk that low.

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