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REVIEWS
Episode #04 - Forces of Nature
Original Airdate - August 16th 2003
Dark clouds blow in, bringing Thunder and Lightning, two stormy brothers
looking for a good time. Unfortunately their idea of fun is wrecking
everything in sight. Meanwhile after one of Beast Boy's practical jokes
misfires, Beast Boy learns his lesson.
Review by Steel
Media by Bird Boy |
Titans Writers
Written by David Slack
Directed by Ciro Nieli
Producer Glen Murakami
Producers Linda M. Steiner, Bruce Timm
Asst. Producer Kimberly A. Smith
Music by Lolita Ritmanis
Casting and Voice Direction Andrea Romano
Animation Services by Dong Woo Animation C.O., LTD.
Titans Voices
Greg Cipes as Beast Boy
Scott Menville as Robin
Khary Payton as Cyborg
Tara Strong as Raven
Hynden Walch as Starfire
Scott Bullock as Thunder
Quinton Flynn as Lightning |
Review
Vibrant characters, a strong message, hilarious
dialogue, nonstop action, and a compelling villain all coalesce to form the
strongest and most entertaining episode of the series since its debut.
"Forces of Nature" is chock full of all of the good stuff that makes Teen
Titans such an engaging show: The jokes, gags, and humor not only
incessantly barrage the viewer with endless comedy that appeals to multiple
senses but bridge the gaps between fight scenes and plot developments in
what would be an otherwise very straightforward story. Unfortunately, the
episode is weighed down at points by useless exposition and very awkward
dialogue, but in light of the episode's strengths they blend in a little bit
more organically than they might otherwise.
Above all, this episode was hilarious, especially at the beginning! It was
great to see the Titans just messing around and interacting as kids, and the
visual effects that complemented Beast Boy's explanation to Raven (the
thought bubble, diagrams, music, and subtitles) built up the tension in such
a way that Cyborg's unexpected appearance was funnier than what it should
have been.. With such
a diverse range of character attributes, both kids and adults will be
hard-pressed to find at least one Titan that doesn't remind them of
themselves. The fight was played out very cutely ("Cyborg... can't fly."),
with Beast Boy as the cute little kitten leaving the people viewing the
episode with me and I in uncontrolled fits of laughter.
Speaking of the conflict between Starfire and Beast Boy, this time their
difficulties were grounded in realism much more so than the previous fight
between Cyborg and Robin, because Beast Boy was forced to confront the
consequences of his behavior and learned that he couldn't fix it just be
being cute or funny. While I feel that the message should have just been
left alone at this point, the theme was carried to its logical extension as
it applied to Thunder and Lighting as well. Unfortunately, the comparison
was hammered into the story too bluntly as Beast Boy spent useless lines
bantering on about how he was just like the duo of pranksters and talking
about how their actions were wrong. This aspect of the story destroys the
subtlety of the original delivery of the message and assumes that the kids
watching the show are too dumb to draw conclusions for themselves so it ends
up sounding very preachy. Combined with some of Robin's corny one-liners,
this almost significantly impacted the episode. Thankfully, the action
stayed strong and the message itself was universal and an important thing to
keep in mind: There's a fine line between innocent fun and hurtful behavior,
and just because you *can* do something doesn't mean that you should.
The second half of the episode took a more serious tone, but Slade's
appearance as the old man kept me from even noticing the transition right
away. Despite the fact that Slade's voice and behavior as the old man was a
dead giveaway as to who he was, he was still weaved into the story
brilliantly. Even though he was personally involved in the story for the
first time, he still felt somewhat removed from the situation because he was
as manipulative and mysterious as always as he was just background to the
monumental action most of the time. The way he toyed with Robin in more of
an effort to gauge him than to actually fight him was cool, and hopefully
it'll keep the tension up between these two until the finale. I was a little
put-off by Slade being involved in this sort of mysticism which I figured
would be a bit uncharacteristic of him, but it was well worth it for his
final disappearing sequence when his mask disintegrated. I can't believe
that Slade just wants to destroy the Teen Titans because it seems like he
probably could have done it by this point, so it will be interesting to see
how everything pans out and to find out what he wants with our beloved
Titans.
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