Titanic

This weekend, I caught a lightweight bit of fun at my local theater, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. It's a jump to the big screen for the Cartoon Network series about goof-off superheroes hanging around their fortress between their superheroics. (It's a series I've actually only caught on occasion, but has definitely made me laugh.)

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is delightfully meta, as team leader Robin laments not having a superhero movie of his own and sets out to make one happen. DC allows the characters to be goofy and irreverent, much as with The LEGO Batman Movie, and with similar results. That is, the movie is both pretty funny, and actually manages to be better than all the "official" DC superhero fare of the last decade (outside of Wonder Woman).

On the one hand, it is very much a movie for kids (and adults who sometimes act like them). Early on, you get the longest fart joke I've seen since Blazing Saddles. Later on, there's an even longer poop joke that keeps getting one-upped. There's plenty in between aimed at the same demographic. (But don't pretend you aren't laughing at least a little.)

The big reward -- as has been the case with Warner Bros. animation for decades and decades -- comes in being an adult who pays attention between the slapstick. There's just as much humor in the movie (maybe more) that will sail right over the kids' heads. Plenty of it is referential. None of it is deferential or reverential; biting the hand that feeds you is this movie's brand. It mocks the tropes of superhero films with glee (all while actually being a decent one itself, of course).

The core voice cast of the show is there to voice their established characters (Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton, the omnipresent Tara Strong, and Hynden Walch). Joining them are two bigger names no stranger to animation -- Will Arnett (LEGO Batman himself) and Kristen Bell. There's also a raft of great cameos and casting of minor characters.

Is it one of the best things I've seen all year? No. But it delivers exactly the fun it promises. And, at a moment when even Marvel has mostly swerved into self-seriousness, it comes at just the right time. I give Teen Titans Go! To the Movies a B.