On Sunday 29 July 2018 our family got the opportunity to attend a preview screening of ‘Teen Titans GO! To The Movies’. It was a rainy day but we headed off for the cinema in London in quite an excited mood. There have been many different versions of the cartoon. Some of them are quite gritty and aimed toward teens and young-adults, but the latest re-boot, Teen Titans GO!, seems to be for a children’s audience.
Our Visit
As we arrived at the cinema, The Vue in Leicester Square, London, we joined a long line to get inside. A few moments later, we were joined by three friendly, familiar faces: Robin, Starfire and Beast-Boy. Even though we were already in a long line, we then joined an equally long line to take a picture with one of them! I only managed to get a picture with Beast-Boy, but it’s better than nothing, isn’t it?
We then followed the crowd up some stairs and into a room with a bar opposite us and an arch-way of balloons as we walked in. Next to the balloon archway were two people making balloon-modelled dogs and robots (a very odd combination, I know): Toby got a ‘robot’ balloon model.
Around the rest of the room, there were other activities to keep young children occupied while everyone waited for the movie. These included face-paints, more balloons, arm-painting (with face-paints), tattoos, people coming around offering you cakes, biscuits and drinks. Eventually we had the whole team in with us! Toby, lucky thing, got a picture with Robin and Beast-Boy.
Toby queued to get a face-painting character. He got Cyborg’s head painted on his arm, and he’s rather pleased with it!
The Story
The cartoon follows the story of the Teen Titans, a young, crime-fighting team, consisting of Robin, Starfire, Beast-Boy, Raven and Cyborg. Each member of the team has a unique power, well, except Robin. Starfire is an alien princess who can shoot energy blasts from her hands and eyes. Beast-Boy is a young boy who, 1) is green and 2) can turn into any animal in the world. Raven is a half-demon, who casts spells and curses, being supplied with them from a spell-book, and Cyborg is a half-robot, half-human, with powers that any robot would have.
The Film
The movie follows the story of Robin, wishing to have a movie made about him. The rest of the team support the idea but don’t take it very seriously. They make Robin a short film that he never gets to the end of before getting annoyed and storming off. The rest of the movie is them trying out different ideas to get Hollywood to make the movie, with some pretty bizarre tactics. One of the ideas is to get the team an arch-enemy, in which they find the perfect candidate in Slade, the movie’s No.1 villain and Deadpool look-alike. At one point Robin falls victim to Slade’s MIND MANIPULATION! (Dun Dun DUN). However, he is rescued and then rejoins the team and defeats Slade.
Verdict
We loved the film. Both Toby and I are big fans of the TV cartoon series and this was just great. The story continued and we were able to meet our heroes in person. And we had a morning out in Central London 🙂
