] type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Teen Titans Episode 2

sg
sg
Episode 2: "The Space Beast Round-Up"

This penultimate episode of Filmation's Teen Titans opens up with an alien ship about to crash onto Earth!

sg
Inside, the...interesting-looking aliens (who undoubtedly come from France) realize they are carrying too much weight, so they decide to drop their cargo: namely, a collection of huge alien beasts!

The three beasts, not terribly happy about being caged and then dropped onto a a strange planet, go on a rampage, attacking a small town nearby. Luckily, the Teen Titans are there to help--Wonder Girl, Speedy, Aqualad, and Kid Flash:
sg
I know it's easy (and fun) to goof on Filmation's extremely limited animation, but I have to say I thought this was a really cool effect on Kid Flash.

Anyway, the Titans gang up on one of the beasts, with Aqualad taking a very direct approach, and Wonder Girl...um...

sgsg
The aliens return, having righted their ship and ready to reclaim their cargo. When they see the Titans approaching, they think they are attacking and fire back. Wonder Girl tells them they're trying to help, which mollifies the aliens.

Speedy fires a bunch of arrows at the creatures, which knock them for a loop, long enough for the Titans to subdue two of them. The third, which wanders out to sea, is captured by dropping a net over it, which Aqualad tugs back to shore.
sg
The aliens apologize (they're "just" intergalactic hunters) for causing so much trouble. The Teen Titans are good sports, saying no harm, no foul, and the aliens depart while the Titans split up, but ready for another adventure.


The Filmation writers could not get enough of the Titans calling each other nicknames, like "Wonder Doll" and "Twinkle Toes." Speedy uses the latter so much I kept hoping he'd be killed in action and replaced by Lilith or something. Also, it could be worth pointing out that Aqualad doesn't get a whole lot to do, but when the whole segment is only five minutes long, no one gets a whole lot to do!



4 comments:

Richard said...

The Filmation writer in question here is none other than George Kashdan, who was of course the editor of both Aquaman and Teen Titans and several other DC classics, as well as writer on the Filmation DC superhero cartoons that made so many of us back then pick up our first comic books.

Joseph Brian Scott said...

Ahhh...why do I enjoy these so much, in inverse proportion to the amount of money that was apparently put into making them?

Russell said...

Get with it, Super Dudes and Dudettes! These cartoons were so awesomely cheezy yet bouncingly fun that the ever-lovin' budget had nothing to do with the sheer joy they created!

Just not a true-to-life fan of the red Kid Flash zoot suit. Other than that one teeny tiny, I'm loving these flash-backs! 'Nuf said!!

Joseph Brian Scott said...

He does look more like Johnny Quick than "Flasheroo".