Teen Titans – Review: Car Trouble

Cyborg has just finished building the vehicle of his dreams: the super-cool, super-fast, ultra-high-tech T-Car. But before Cyborg can take it out for a spin, the Titans are called to an electronics superstore where Overload, an electrical menace, is wreaking havoc. But after the Titans capture Overload,
Cyborg freaks because the T-Car is gone. A wild adventure unfolds as the
T-Car changes hands from bad guy to worse guy.

Review by Steel
Media by Bird Boy

Titans Voices
Greg Cipes as Beast Boy
Scott Menville as Robin
Khary Payton as Cyborg
Tara Strong as Raven
Hynden Walch as Starfire
Matt Levin as Sammy
James Arnold Taylor as Overload
Lauren Tom as Gizmo

Awww yeah, bring on the funk! Or something, I dunno. In any case, this episode had one of the best introductions in a long time! Cyborg and Beast
Boy’s exchange, Starfire’s little comment followed by Beast Boy and Robin falling down, the little touches like the ‘z’s coming from Raven, and the little sequence of beeps on Robin’s communicator combined with Cyborg’s fantasy car goes to show how much of a kid’s fantasy this show is… and it made for a hilarious scene!

After “Apprentice,” which got pretty intense considering the show’s target demographic, airing a silly, laid-back episode like “Car Trouble” was a
*great* choice. A lot of the show’s merit comes from the development of the individual characters and the “moments” that they have, and this episode was chock full of all that good stuff. Most of the episode centered around
Cyborg and (to a lesser extent) Raven, and while the other three characters took a back seat to the vast majority of the action and development, they still didn’t feel out of place. THIS is one way the development of characters within a team environment can be accomplished, and it would be nice to see some other shows use this tactic as well.

This episode wasn’t really much more than some silly fun, but at the same time the ridiculous situations that Cyborg put himself through for his car is a fairly accurate reflection of human nature, especially regarding the absurdities and preposterous actions that we take for the sake of material items. From the bridge scene to the car chase, to when Overload finally takes over the car, the entire episode really didn’t make a whole lot of sense, which was very appropriate given the situation. One of the things that I really liked about this episode (and the series as a whole) is that the more minor villains like Overload often don’t provide the real threats, but rather serve to supplement the deeper underlying conflicts that end up getting resolved within the characters and team itself. That was a nice chat between Raven and Cy, and it was great to see one of the most grounded and rational characters of the show able to empathize with his difficulty.

As far as other oddities are concerned, the T-Car was very cool. I remember when I was a kid growing up with Batman: The Animated series I thought that all the awesome stuff that the Batmobile could do was just… insanely cool.
If the T-Car ends up becoming a recurring vehicle, I can just see kids growing up with this series developing the same kind of appreciation for the
T-Car. Oh yeah… Metropolis got mentioned! OMG LOL XD!!!11111 That doesn’t really have any relevance to anything, it was just sweet because I’m a dork.
On a completely unrelated subject, I can’t wait for the “Justice League” episode “Wild Card” which features the VAs for the Teen Titans voicing the villains of the episode.