Whether you watch them still or have decided you’re just too grown up for cartoons, you can’t deny that they’ve somehow played an essential role in your life. From rushing home to catch your favourite show to laughing at something almost too ridiculous to fathom, we all have memories of cartoons that will never leave us.
All this love for cartoons was evident when I managed to grab fifteen sweet, short and hilarious minutes with the voice-over cast for Teen Titans Go. Not just any voice-over cast, I might add, but more of a family of oddballs that probably live in a giant tower in the shape of a letter on an island somewhere.
Today, the 8th season of Teen Titans Go airs in the African region, a momentous occasion for any series. We at NAG thought it would be the perfect occasion to find out what makes the voicecast behind this crazy show tick.
For those of you who don’t know the show, Teen Titans Go is an almost behind-the-scenes look at what happens with the Teen Titans when they aren’t out in the city fighting crime and saving the world. Featuring Robin, voiced by Scott Menville; Raven, voiced by Tara Strong; Starfire, voiced by Hynden Walch; Cyborg, voiced by Khary Payton; and Beastboy, voiced by Greg Cipes, each episode takes a parodic stab at what it’s like to live with your teenage roommates, who also have superpowers, doing regular every day normal things like getting a drivers license.
Initially, the superhero community was not all for this type of show, but the longer it aired, the more it started to break down people’s walls and gain its own cult following. As Payton describes it, “Teen Titans Go is meeting up at the bar with your colleagues, getting drunk, and insanity ensues.” And boy, does the insanity ensue. During a recording of one of the episodes, the booth got a little hot, so Cipes, without letting anyone else know, proceeded to undress until he was standing there in only his American flag speedo, voicing out Beastboys’ lines as if nothing had changed. Of course, you can only imagine the laughter coming from the rest of the actors in the booth, which must’ve translated to quite the episode on the other end.
Throughout the interview, this comedic thread was always present in all the stories the voice crew told. From pretending to have actual superpowers in real life to wanting to be a seagull that could “poop on people’s heads and steal their fries from their hands”, and all the banter in between, to my very own wife accidentally walking into the room appearing on camera and then quickly racing out again, constant smiles and laughter were coming from all ends of the interview.
Add to this that all of the crew feel that the coolest thing they get to do is go to conventions and events under the Teen Titans Go banner and meet so many people who have told them how the stories in the show have shaped and impacted their lives. You can easily see why the show is so popular.
“I’ve been able to meet, talk to, feel, and look into fans’ eyes and see how important these stories we tell have been in their lives. Even something as silly as Teen Titans Go. I don’t know how many times someone has come up to all of us and told us that this show had got them through some difficult times because they’ve been able to connect with the characters because they’re misfits, they’re different, and there’s something about the personalities that they can connect with. I feel like every time I go to a convention, there is someone I am supposed to meet, and I know, this is why I came, this is why I do what I do,” says Khary Payton.
Yes, the show is sarcastic, silly, and perhaps a little bit pointless at times, but the strong connection between the characters, not only in the show but also in the booth behind the scenes, is palpable. And that’s what makes Teen Titans Go so good. It’s like being with family.
As the 8th season kicks off, the show approaches its 400th episode, another huge accolade for the team. The special 400th episode will go live in Africa in November, later this year.
Don’t forget to tune in to Cartoon Network at 16:55 this afternoon to catch the season 8 premiere. The show airs Monday to Friday at the same time, and this season even includes a special episode dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros., where the Teen Titans attempt to host a party, not very successfully.
