Teen Titans

The Teen Titans Animated Series has never been grounded in reality, and it’s doubtful that any fan of the show thus far would really ever want that to change.

Sure, there were outcries from the most diligent fans when the series began to take shape, but those protests were linked to a change in direction from what we all expected from Bruce Timm and company. Swapping out the adult themes from the comics in favor of more childish humor, the series appeared to be more Tiny Toons than Batman: The Animated Series.

You know, for the kids.

It’s safe to say that these protests have quelled as the series has ramped up more nascent storylines with the development of Slade in the first season to the introduction of Terra in the second season. Maintaining the balance between fun antics and plot driven character development has always been the key, and the producers of the series seemed to know when to pull back from serious storytelling and allow the kids to have some fun, with one exception. Just when viewers sense that a season-long story arc is heading into the third and final act, the series creators decide to throw us a few curveballs.

Last season the suspense was building to a crescendo with Slade’s impending plans for the Titans growing closer to conclusion when the series took a shift into low gear with the whimsical yet entertaining “Mad Mod” episode followed by the resounding misfire that was “Car Trouble.”

Come to think of it, maybe “screwballs” is more accurate where “Fractured” is concerned.

This episode falls somewhere in the middle of the pre-finale mess that occurred last season. At times it’s quirky enough to entertain and at others it seems borderline cringe-inducing.

The essence of the story centers around Robin’s failed attempt to capture a criminal named Johnny Rancid, voiced by none other than Henry Rollins. Once again, in homage to Akira (see “Date with Destiny”), Robin chases Rancid throughout the City and ends up fracturing his wrist when he crashes his T-Cycle.

Has anyone else noticed the correlation between Titan vehicles and throwaway episodes? Robin’s T-Cycle makes its second appearance here since “Date with Destiny” and both appearances have resulted in sub-par episodes.

Meanwhile, Cyborg’s T-Car is all but the death knell for enjoyment having been featured in both “Car Trouble” and “Every Dog Has Its Day.” Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh, considering that Gar’s turn as a canine at least provided us with the emotional setup for his attachment to Terra.

The only T-Vehicle to narrowly escape this curse is the T-Sub, featured in the excellent “Deep Six.” Undoubtedly, the fact that Marv Wolfman also provided the story for “Deep Six” likely played a huge factor here. Interestingly enough, the T-Sub was turned into a space craft in the moderately significant “Transformation” episode. Go figure.

Back to the story: stranded in the Tower Robin uncharacteristically decides to let go and leave the capture of Rancid up to the rest of the team. This results in the arrival of a Robin from another dimension, a dimwitted, bloated head, pint-sized Robin with the ability to alter reality.

This alternate Robin has a penchant for making mistakes, which is one of the reasons he adores our version, because he never messes up. At first this seems promising, as the alternate Robin introduces himself as “Nosyarg Kcid,” which is obviously Dick Grayson spelled backwards. This recalls the Superman villain Mr. Mxyzptlk, and the chaos Nosyarg inflicts is certainly on par with that of Mxyzptlk. The problem is, Nosyarg doesn’t derive the kind of sick glee from his meddling that makes Mr. Mxyzptlk so interesting. He seems far more like Batman's impish "enemy," Bat-Mite, a character most would rather forget unless he's in beanie buddy form.

After a longwinded explanation of the alternate Robin’s other-dimensional origins, Beast Boy decides to make things more confusing by re-naming Nosyarg “Larry.”

As you can probably guess, Larry wants to help out and mistakenly alters our reality causing everything to shift into his crazy, crayon drawn, perspective of the world.

My wife put it best midway through the episode when she said, “This is completely absurd.” Then, as if searching for some redeeming quality within the episode, she followed with, “The giant dinosaur is kind of cute.”

Truth is, he was.

His appearance in the episode was a high note. He pops up from between buildings looking like he jumped off of a kindergartener’s art project. Cyborg has one of the funnier lines in the episode, “Why does everything look like it belongs on my grandma’s refrigerator?”

There is also an amusing sequence in which the Titans steal one another’s mouths (and thus swap voices) because Beast Boy has somehow lost his. When he is re-united with his mouth he accidentally puts it on backwards causing him to speak in a mix of backwards English and Japanese, complete with hilarious subtitles.

See, there were some redeeming moments here and there, but it is all tied together with a plot so snooze inducing that it doesn’t fully pay off in the end. Who cares about Johnny Rancid when the whole Terra ordeal is still up in the air? Yes, even if Rollins is voicing him.

Of course the bright side to all of this is that our two part season finale will be all the more juicy and will no doubt deliver the goods without any interference from Larry the Titan. Or so we think.

Next Week: Part One of the Season Finale, “Aftershock” will air this Saturday at 8 p.m., and boy does it sound delicious! One can only assume that Slade and his new apprentice Terra will be back to ratchet up the chaos for the teens. Will Beast Boy and Terra resolve their love feud? Will Slade finally crush the Titans? Will a giant crayon dinosaur show up to stomp everyone to pieces? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Mario Anima