Friday 16 June 2017

Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo review (2006)

When Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo was first announced, many fans speculated that the film would be the closer to the Teen Titans animated series, much like Return of The Joker was the closer to the Batman Beyond series if you don;t count that one Justice League Unlimited episode with the thirty year old Terry. People speculated that Trouble in Tokyo would wrap up some loose ends, such as the final episode with the returning Terra, Slade's dusty mask and who exactly the second Red X was.

Turns out not to be the case, but that's not to say that Trouble in Tokyo is bad. It's just not what people, like myself, had hoped for.

The movie starts off as a villain named Saico-Tek attacks the Titans's city, and ends up  utterly trashing Titans Tower before he is captured. Robin interrogates Saico-Tek and learns he was sent by a villain named Brushogun, Tokyo's top supervillain. So, the Titans end east, hoping to learn more about this mythical threat.

A lot of the movie's humour comes from the Titans's interaction in this new environment, but the meat and potatoes of the story is the relationship between Starfire and Robin, as Robin's single-minded towards heroism and defeating criminals keeps him from accepting Starfire's love.

Animation quality is about as good as the series, maybe even better. The backgrounds of the various Japanese environments are intricately detailed, and the animation quality is quite clean, for the most part.

Storywise, it's entertaining and there are quite a few funny moments. There aren't that many surprises along the way, the "twist ending" is quite predictable. As you would expect, the movie contains a litany of Japanese references. Godzilla, Astroboy. Laughing school girls. Karaoke. Even the soundtrack has a bit of a Japanese vibe to it.

For what it's worth, Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo is an enjoyable film. But it and the entire series for that matter, seems like wasted potential, that there was more focus on the anime chibi kawaii desu faces rather than the storylines. It's not bad, but let's face it, Slade, Trigon and even the bastardized Brother Blood are far more interesting characters than "Brushogun"...even if his superpower is my dream power.

And also nothing beats Tara Strong's gravely voice as Raven.

I wish they would return to the Teen Titans series and give it a proper send off. Lord knows the world will survive not seeing another Scooby Doo movie.

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