|
|
|
Teen Titans Episode Reviews Teen Titans - Episode "Fractured" This review was originally published by Karrli on the "TV Tome" website. Great Glorgs above! This episode was well worth the 40 man hours it took to get it, and I have a feeling the other final four episodes of season 2 will be as well. David Slack does it again, the man is a freakin' genius! The episode starts out in classic titan action fashion. Robin is on his motorcycle chasing another motorcycle clad villain named Johnny Rancid. Johnny Begins to taunt Robin because he is the boy wonder, not any sort of man wonder, and that a little birdie boy hasn't got a snowballs chance in hell stopping a big strong guy like Johnny. And as we all know, Robin gets angry at this belittlement and when Robin gets angry he becomes a bit reckless. Even reckless enough to damage the same civilian car Johnny did just to pursue him. Which bothers me a bit because that's the side of Robin I hate, the side that gets so reckless that he starts to destroy things he is trying to protect (see: "Apprentice" episodes). Anyway so chasing Johnny up a bridge support beam, Robin forgoes calculating the jump and crashes into the main beam at the top in a small ball of flame. Now before I go into reviewing the intro and all its comic glory, I would like to say, besides Slade, Johnny Rancid is one of my favorite villains. He is just the biggest bad ass, him and his awesome red motor cycle ridding skills. He gives that "Oo, its fun being a bady!" aura and is much less of a sissy then some other young men bad guys like Fang and that dorky remote control monster guy. Now to the intro, we hear a seemingly middle aged man singing the Japanese intro akin to him belting it out in the shower. Pure Fanatic vigor. Just the attempted extra emphasis on the "Teen Titans" between versus makes me laugh. And when he does that singing part a little character goes whizzing by whom ill get to in a moment. Back at the Titans Tower Raven is helping Heal Robins injuries, which after her help is nothing but a FRACTURED (and cast inbound) right arm. Which very well may be a play on words because as a result of this fracture as you'll see, the episode becomes fractured. Also it seems UNREALISTIC that the great boy wonder could ever get such a common injury (Robin "not to me they (accidents happening) don't")....but moving on. At robins screaming and self scolding Starfire gives another play with words "Please, no more Robin yelling at Robin." again you'll see later. And despite BeastBoy's attempt to cheer Robin up by suggesting a signing cast party (no pun intended), Robin still remains self deprecated by his mistake. As he gets up the team pounces on him, assuming that reckless Robin is out to strike again, but he assures them that he was just getting the remote because even if he does try something he'll just mess up again.
But just before he is about to settle in, Robin starts to yell and hold his head in something like pain and discomfort and confusion. (those who have seen FLCL will recognize this and do a double take for a laugh). Suddenly a fleshy colored blob pops out of Robins forehead and transforms into a miniature super deformed version of himself, and well there is buck teeth, kinda cute I guess?
The little Robin is the character that went whizzing by during the intro, though I believe he was on a vespa or something.
Robin still ponders little Robins existence and states that he is a pretty bad job of a clone. But little Robin reassures he is not a clone, but Robin from a different universe. Universe 4 and 9/8's to be exact which is between 3D and 5 (cinderblocks with faces?).
Starfire bear hugging him- "Welcome to our universe small amusing doppelganger!" and Nosyarg melts into a puddle of mush in love, which is awfully accurate for a double of Robin to do ;-). This was fun, because you don't really realize all the little stuff Robin does to fight some crime till Larry lists it all, and when Robin refuses that's another UNREALISTIC thing for him to do.
When Robin has enough of this he gets in a scuffle with Larry and the result breaks Larry's magic finger. Larry - "Big Oops." After the titans get knocked out and re awoken, the world is right out of a kinder-gardeners crayon drawing. Cyborg - "Why does the entire world look like it belongs on my grandmas fridge?" Raven - "This is bad." But not all bad because BeastBoy has lost his mouth, which he gets revenge from Raven by stealing her mouth to complain. Which is hilarious because hearing Tara Strong as Raven, as BB, freaking out, is awesome.
Suddenly out of the sky, Larry and Robin come flying and fall on top of Beast boy . BB yells of course but its raven yelling. More fun.
Cyborg feels the need to speak so he grabs Starfire's mouth and it just had me on the floor laughing. Its Starfire's voice still happy go lucky but with Cyborg scripting. Cyborg - "Well somebody's gotta clean up this mess. Come on yall." then quick swish so everyone has their mouth except BeastBoy. And Cyborg declares they are heading for Titan Tower.
Trouble ahead, a giant 5-year olds version of Godzilla appears and starts to chase the gang, this goes on for a minute or two, and is to me mostly annoying filler. But a side chase is going on as BB is chasing his mouth around various objects until it falls down a sewer :-( poor BB. So they all fly up to the top, but unfortunately Johnny is there waiting. He jumps ahead of them and falls into the light coming from the Tower for he sees it controls the whole city. Which is a quite an observation for a criminal of his stature.
After he jumps in the light changes from white to red and the entire city morphs into a dark and depressing like state.
Johnny wants Robin to chase after him, but he doesn't quite yet, instead the other Titans try to have a go. And one after the other Johnny beats them, which is a little disappointing (Especially when Raven tries to show him what dark really is but gets beaten.) but expected given he controls reality.
Magically Robin gets his confidence back and gets on his flying motorcycle with Larry ("Larry fixed the biiike!").
We relive a little of the first battle at the beginning of the episode, but this time Larry is there to help Robin where he got beat before. Then to finish Johnny off, Robin pulls a stealthy Robin attachment cable around a bridge move to swing over it and kick Johnny off his perusing bike from behind... move. Very cool. Hooray! Bad guy beat moment.
Thankfully, just in time, Larry's Magic finger is fixed and he repairs all that was changed, except for Beast boys mouth. Robin, having his faith restored in Larry and learning the lesson of the day, asks Larry to give his best shot at finally fixing his arm. This makes Larry all giddy, which is very cute. Happily Larry fires up the old finger and Robin's arm returns to its healthy, un fractured self. But, unfortunately, Larry has also sent Robin to a place where it is nothing but white, (limbo or something.). "Oops."
Man, this was probably the funniest episode I've ever seen. Not just character funny like "Switched" but would generally get any one rolling on the floor in minutes. Loved it. Note: I review Teen Titans as just the show, not the comic relevance or batman tie-ins. Also Note: I would like to give an extra special thanks too Shakey_Jake33 for I could never of reviewed this episode with out Jake's help. :-) Written by: Chip2
E-mail address: chip2@aemail4u.com you need reviews? I can handle a good satisfying review. Teen Titans - Episode "How Long is Forever?" This review was originally published by Karrli on the "TV Tome" website. In The Episode "How long is forever?" David Slack's different writing style is noticed with the dramatic scenes that haven't touched the show before. Also writing the Apprentice episodes I have come to like his writing as one of the best. We are thrown into the episode with the usual focus on the main character for the day, as Starfire is elated for this special day is "Blorthog" The celebration of friendship. All of Starfire's friends refuse to acknowledge her celebration (by generally ignoring her and focusing more on how annoyed they are with each other) when she finally shouts out and expresses her concern about their friendships. This is when Robin explains how friends fight some of the time but they, the teen titans, will stay friends forever. It is after these words that a Teen Titan alert comes in from a museum. Upon arrival the gang finds Warp, a sinister villain who is after a Clock that turns time. After butting heads, the Titans seem to be out matched, but it is when Starfire catches Warp by surprise and is thrown with him through a disappearing portal to the future that gets the rest of the team fully aware of her presence for the first time that day as Robin yells after her. It was at this point that I would of like to stay with the teen titans for a few more moments to see how they really dealt with losing Starfire in the short term. But the show is, unfortunately, a mere thirty minutes long so its understandable that Slack couldn't put it in. But we do get a taste of what this could have been in "Transformation". So instead we go with Starfire through the portal and dropped onto the cold city streets twenty years into the future. Of course the first place Starfire visits is the titan tower. Only there she finds disintegrating Blorthog necklaces and a Cyborg that's stuck connected to a battery since his power cells died years ago. Their meeting is sweet and just what I thought it should be. Here you see the true nature of Starfire's love for her friends and their love for her. I mean Starfire and Cyborg are the most normal of the group, with Ravens "mystery girl routine", Robins um... mystery ...boy.... routine (on hyper justice override), and BeastBoy's handicap of having to always transform into another species to express him self, it was a good call to have Starfire meet the stable Cyborg first to give her a clear mission. Though Cyborg's voice doesn't match his appearance (still sounds eighteen to me) its better then the sad attempted old BeastBoy voice that I'll discuss later on. One of the best scene changes I ever seen on a half-hour cartoon happens here too, when Cyborg gives Starfire the location of Raven and BeastBoy and she goes out to find them. Cyborg keeps narrating about her friend's whereabouts while we see a shot of Starfire flying fast and determinedly to locate the second lost titan. Perfectly done. (Robin not having contacting them in years doesn't seem kosher but the moral lesson of the episode ends up breaking a lot of the shows rules.) The second titan to locate is BeastBoy. He is found in a cage as "See The One Man Zoo-The freakish Wonder!" which, honestly, seems a bit odd since he is a bit of an animal activist and you would think he would be object to people looking to animals in cages for entertainment. Even if he has "gotten his butt kicked, a lot" while trying to be a super hero solo. But his other flaw is Greg Cipes attempt at a 20 year older BeastBoy. It's a little like his IQ dropped and he got a speech impediment. Any way his personality matches his alibi, and he looks just as pathetic as he says he is (bald, fat, shrunken). He refuses to Help Starfire in his search because he keeps himself in a cage to keep the outside world away from him. Which doesn't help debate my Zoo comment above, because now he says he wouldn't want to be submitted to the public in the first place. That's enough nit-picking though. Next stop is Raven. Poor Raven, in a broken down apparent room, a scorching light shines white walls and her cape is the white it was in the end of "Nevermore". As Starfire tries to talk to and approach her in corner of the empty room she hears her utter things like "Just another figment" "just like all the rest". And when Starfire tries to reach out to her she draws a dark power shield violently over her back. Realizing that she doesn't want to harm Raven, (or her self) Starfire leaves her be. This one actually makes a lot of sense. Raven has to guard her emotions in order to use her powers, which she does using calm thoughts. Her being emotional, it would make sense that if she were deeply saddened by Starfire's absence there would not be a way for her to suppress that with calmness. Since she "Doesn't do happy" it would leave her as miserable and hopeless as she appears. And her being meditative explains that she would hallucinate about Starfire. The whole white cape thing makes me think about her mirror, its possible that when she could no longer meditate the mirror lost its power to separate her thoughts. Releasing what was left of her personality and causing the bright white atmosphere of mental disarray. Back on the streets, Starfire is walking along looking lost when a blast fires towards her feet. It's Warp again; looking a little older, and still holding the clock he stole. He is after Starfire because she stole his teleportation device (you know, like the flex-capacitor) when they fought in the past. Starfire blames him for the new state of her friends, he retaliates saying that he didn't change anything and that history says he went back when he did and did what he did so he did.... yeah. So naturally as confused as we are, Starfire gives up the Warp button or whatever, but Warp still wants to beat her into the ground. He is about to attack her as a blur of a human nocks him down and causes him to make one of those "I don't have time to fight with you, but really its me knowing I can't win" exits. The Human blur turns out to be Robin (long hair, black cape-less muscle costume with blue falcon on the chest) now calling himself Nightwing. They go to his new headquarters, there Starfire is looking at the old Robin costume now behind glass when Nightwing covers her shoulders with a blanket. You half expect him to do something, anything else, but no, he goes over to his batman styled control panel. There, as he hears her acceptance of the new future that is impossible to change, he starts his mature and confident way of approaching things by saying the teen titans had done the impossible many times. It is with that that he takes out an old Teen Titan communicator to beep the rest of the team. Robin's new persona during the episode is like the opposite of BeastBoy. Now, so many scenarios are possible to explain his behavior its not even worth it because I think Slack didn't give it too much serious thought as to what made the future titans what they are, it was just to fit the moral of "Don't take your friends for granite" that they felt they had to drive home, so I understand that, but one still wonders. Personally, I think that Robin figured out what happened to Starfire and didn't go nuts looking for her, but either didn't tell the others or they didn't believe him. Also it is possible he defeated Slade but rather than become a hero like batman he became a villain, cause the city is a mess and Starfire would have seen him fighting crime. The last part is, well, Robin is kinda good looking and probably has had a social life in the past 20 years (like how Bruce Wayne is apparently a player?), making his feelings toward Starfire a little dulled. But like I said, this is all guess work, maybe he has just been waiting for Starfire for 20 years in a cool new costume in order to set things back, who knows? We see each Titan's red beacon blink as Robin, or, Nightwing pressed the call button.... The Titans have a look of self-question about them as they receive. Now we see Warp back at the old empty museum trying to repair his warp button when he is struck by and attack from Starfire and Nightwing. They fight a little, then as Warp manages to beat them up a little too much, (having some roof fall on Starfire to distract Nightwing and shoot him in the side) Cyborg shows up all blue, charged, and wireless (how he did this? movie magic...) to give Nightwing and Starfire some breathing room and throw in some one-liners. Then this scene happens two more times as BeastBoy charges in like a Lion and Raven has a great entrance "Nobody hurts my friends!" as the angry powerful Raven we all know and love. BTW, Tara Strong is awesome with most her voices but Ravens sad and angry yells in this episode are really just, great, they're just great. (Again, see "Nevermore" for the best of Ravens voices, and more Tara talent.) So after the battle Warp gets turned into a baby and Cyborg takes the Warp button and gets ready to send Starfire back home with the stolen clock. Here Starfire questions the reality of the future again. It's here many think Nightwing was about to kiss Starfire or something of a sort, but I doubt it. It looked to me that he hands her the clock, stands close to her and says "Sorry Star, there isn't time" because he wants to give her a good old Robin lecture about if you believe you can do it, and with friends you can do it. Yes not only would it be kind of public and melodramatic for a kiss, it just wouldn't fit in this stage of the show. So Starfire steps through the warp tunnel teary eyed and returns a few seconds after she went into the portal with Warp for the first time. She comes through kneeling on the floor with the clock, saying history was wrong; giving her happiness that what Warp said was false. Back in the squeaky clean Titans Tower, Starfire has recapped the entire story and the first response from the group is, BeastBoy: Bald! I'm going to be bald? Soooooo, the meaning swooshes over BeastBoy's head, but the rest of the group gets it. Especially Raven who assembles a broken Blorthog necklace with her powers and asks Starfire if it's not too late to celebrate, and of course its never to late. (Awwwwww) At the end of the episode Starfire smiles as she lays a Blorthog necklace around Robin's neck, he grins back and says "So? Nightwing huh?" this, is Robin wanting to be a cool grownup superhero, he is a teenage boy. I'm sure he is thinking about Starfire's experience and how he saved the day too... So, overall, I enjoy watching this episode a lot, its well done and is fun to yell at. Its second to Nevermore and just above Switched for me, can you tell I like the episodes that develop Starfire and Raven? Honestly, I don't think I would watch the show if they weren't in. but their interactions with the boys makes it a show that I watch twice a day when I can. Yes, its THAT GOOD. Score: 9 out of 10 (Note: I understand that Nightwing is a fellow hero in the batman series, but I try to review Teen Titans as just the show, not the comic relevance or batman tie-ins.) Written by: Chip2
E-mail address: chip2@aemail4u.com you need reviews? I can handle a good satisfying review. |
Home | Biography | Writings | "The Maintainer" | "Mr. Fuzzy & Fluffmutt" | Memorial Scholarship | Memorial Service | Gallery | Links