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Television

The Issue with Remakes


On July 19, 2003, a cartoon series unlike any other premiered on Cartoon Network. The show was animated in almost an anime style, yet it retained western themes. It was eccentric, somewhat beyond its time. The five main characters were incredible heroes, with a range of abilities - some could fly, another could use magic, and others were built to fight bare knuckle. Their name suggests immaturity yet their age reflects on strong bonds and friendships that no villain could break. As it has been said, when there's trouble you know who to call... Teen Titans!
Cartoon Network

I was six when the show came on and my young mind was thrilled. There weren't many superhero shows on TV and we had discs of the 1940s Superman that I had watched multiple times but it wouldn't compare to the Teen Titans. This show was gold and it retains plenty of nostalgia for me. For further proof of its validity as a "great show", it received a few awards in its short run time.

The final episode ran on Jan 16, 2006, after 5 seasons, yet the fans were left wanting more. There was so much left out, so much that could have happened yet it never did. The truth was never revealed as to why the show was canceled. One idea was that only 5 seasons were planned. Another was that it came down to who owned the toy rights. Whatever the case, Teen Titans died...

And then reincarnated into this ugly beast.

Cartoon Network

Teen Titans Go! premiered April 23, 2013. It is a spin-off/remake of the previous Teen Titans series and retains limited continuity from the previous series. It appears cheaply made, almost like a cash grab. Shockingly, it has aired for 5 seasons and has a feature film - the exact same milestones the previous Teen Titans had. But yet, I don't like it one bit.

From a business perspective, Teen Titans Go! was a great investment for whoever started it and still continues to provide for their company. If money was all that I cared about, this post would be a packaged deal and I wouldn't have to type anymore. Yet it isn't about the money. 

A good artist, a good animator, and a good story writer should all have the same consensus: to create a show that provides as much as possible for its viewers. Evolved storylines are huge in Hollywood for the last 10 years, with shows like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones all having a concrete story in which each episode adds on to the last. The original Teen Titans ran with a mixed bag, with some episodes acting as fillers and the rest adding a continuation to the story.

Teen Titans Go! is much like Family Guy or The Simpsons. There is no build up, no true story, just simply episode after episode of shenanigans in which the consequences of the previous episode have no reflection on the next. We have come to a point in which even the characters state the old Teen Titans was better.


This may simply be a call out to all the older viewers who watch Teen Titans Go! who watched the previous Teen Titans. The Teen Titans Go! crew knows their show is being made fun of. They know that people find it cringy and ridiculous yet they continue on with their episodes almost with the idea that they need to make it more insane than the last. Storylines don't follow along with the team fighting villains, in fact, villains are the smallest aspect in this series (which revolves around superheroes). For example one time they spent the episode trying to convince Beast Boy to clean his trashy room, but he escapes amongst the trash. 


And as you see, it is a huge trash utopia of sorts, which is bigger than the actual Titan Tower that Beast Boys room is in. This is a weird cartoon trope you can continuously find in the Teen Titans Go! series where the original Teen Titans takes on a more realistic approach. With the original, every room is set to real life, there are no changes to the environment that would go beyond the laws of physics save for their abilities.

Why such a blatant remake?

The show is popular among young viewers. As seen in my own household, my nine-year-old brother loved the show and his friends also loved it. For a time, it was as pop culture-heavy amongst the younger kids as Fornite is today. I generally believe that this show is tailored to children, even though it retains suggestive themes for an older audience as well as ridiculous mantras and nothing to build upon the morals of the characters. It is almost a Family Guy clone without the cussing.

In the end, the show makes a ton of money. There is no end coming up simply because that would be a bad decision. Money talks, and with the views this series receives, I guess the quirky, weird, and ridiculous is what children would like to see now. As for me and my friends, the old series remains true to our hearts.

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