Teen Titans, Volume 1 - Divide and Conquer (DC Comics Kids Collection)

Director: Ciro Nieli, Michael Chang, Ben Jones (III), Matt Youngberg, Alex Soto (II)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The Cartoon Network and WBTV's fine adaptation of Marv Wolfman and George Perez's '80s-era DC Comics title Teen Titans comes to DVD in a fun and extras-laden single disc. The attractive, anime-influenced episodes that comprise Divide and Conquer are the first six episodes of the series' 2003 debut season: "Final Exam," "Sisters," "Divide and Conquer," "Forces of Nature," "The Sum of His Parts," and "Nevermore," each of which pit the Titans--former Batman sidekick Robin, Beast Boy (who in the comic renamed himself Changeling), Starfire, Cyborg, Terra, and Raven--against a horde of regular foes, including Slade (voiced by Ron Perlman), Trigon, and many others. True to their age, the Titans also have to deal with issues about maturity, confidence, and even a hint of romance between team members. WB's DVD includes a featurette about transferring the comic book to the screen (with input from Wolfman and Perez) and a video for Puffy Ami Yumi's irresistible theme song. --Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews:

Our whole family loves this show!!.......2006-02-28

OK, I was surprised to read such negativity in some of the reviews. Our family has been watching Teen Titans on Cartoon Network for a while. We were so excited when the First Season on DVD was released. Now we can watch our favorite episodes anytime! To those comic book junkies...THIS IS NOT LIKE THE 1960-1970'S COMICS!! IT'S NOTHING LIKE THE JR JUSTICE LEAGUE! This is a new take on an old comic. Kids today LOVE IT! It still has incredible characters, action, humor, and wit, with a story line kids today can follow and relate to. We are a family of four. We have a 9yr old girl and a 5yr old boy. We all end up laughing out loud to this cartoon. The characters are unique, and you get to know them well. We can never decide who is our favorite. People in the reviews are trying to say their "Anime" is superior. Who cares?? At least viewers can follow the story line, this isn't an animated soap opera! This is a great show for KIDS and adults, and a great addition to our DVD collection!!!!!

Teen Titans......NOT!!!!!!.......2006-01-11

I normally don't write reviews on items so trust me if I take the time to write about how absolutely bad this DVD is it means something. If you are expecting some great animation and stories similar to the George Perez Titan days FORGET IT. The target audience is for kids 6 and younger. The characters are far too silly for this to be good story telling. This is by far the worst animated series ever made based on comic characters. DC and Warner get a big, fat "F" for this! Go back and try again!

This is not Teen Titans.......2005-11-05

This show joins the long list of comic cartoon abominations. And it's done in anime. Maybe someday they'll do a Teen Titans: The Animated Series.

The Kids Aren't All Right.......2005-10-09

In honesty, I never really liked Teen Titans (or Young Justice, although issue #1 was funny) old or the versions of the 1990s and 2003 era. Whatever. Young superheros really don't work in the DC comic universe (unless your partnered with Batman or Superman) like it does in the Ultimate Marvel universe. So when I heard they were going to make a cartoon series out of it, I wasn't in the least excited. But I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt although at the time my love for comic books gone cartoon series had died when Batman Beyond went off the air. So I put my skepticism aside for a moment to look at this ever popular cartoon from Warner BROS. I only have to say one thing -- they could've done better, waaay better for this comic book gone Cartoon. So I know that this series was aimed at a younger audience (via ages 10 up) so I won't even comment on the atmosphere surrounding the characters, just the characters - storyline/plot - writing - and art/voice acting. Brace yourself loyal otaku/fans of the cartoon.

Cyborg (Khary Payton) as the be the most annoying character in the Titans, only second to Beast Boy. He's got be the densest male character in the entire series; I'm not sure what they were thinking when they adapted his character from the comic books. He's not so much as funny as he is stupid. Best Boy (Greg Cipes) has to be the equivalent of a bad character that does absolutely "nothing" when there's no danger. His character really only shines when he's beating the crap of bad guys with his ever powerful ability to change into any animal he wants. The character based episodes on him are like watching "Dude Where's my car?" over and over again, its painful. Is it not enough that Cyborg is the comic relief, but now we have to have two idiots? Raven's (Tara Strong) character, is the usual stereotyped "silent but deadly/grouchy" character, but at least she's the most likable character of the group who has an actual personality and backstory that sadly, does not translate well in the cartoon (her constant chant for her attack and meditation is bothersome).

Robin (Scott Menville) was someone I was hoping like as much as I did him in the comics/1992-98 Batman Cartoon series, but alas it was not so. He ended up being characterized as a too macho - to obsessed with slade character and I didn't like the fact that seemed more worried about Starfire than he did his other teammates. The episodes surrounding thie skimpy teenagerI were so dramatized that I found myself laughing at them. I also didn't like what they did with Nightwing when he appeared in one episode ("how long is forever" if I remember correctly). His chest stuck to far out - his back was in a little too much - the overall body articulation for Nightwing was just simply horrible despite the fact that he almost resembled the Nightwing in "The New Batman Adventures." I'm not sure why they didn't go out their way to bother Loren Lester instead of settling over Scott Menville who currently voices "the amalgam of all Robins" - Robin. At least the episode would've been slightly bearable to watch. Another down fall is that they try to make this character fart too serious ultimately destroying at little likableness there is in his personality.

Last of the characters is Starfire (or Cory) - the half-dressed alien of another planet (Hynden Walch) is unbearable. I honestly don't like her character - she probably only third densest next to Beast Boy and Cyborg. She's doesn't seem to understand human vocabulary or culture, she's not convincing when she's fighting along side the other Titans, let alone angry and overall she doesn't seem to be very bright. One of her most annoying characteristics is that she tries to be friends with everyone (in other words she too darn friendly toward everyone) and then she equally worries over Robin more so than her other teammates (sound familiar?). And at any given moment of any episode throughout the entire season of Teen Titans, the creators will make up some absurd moment for the duo to hint a romantic relationship forming between the two cartoon characters, covering up as friendship (though at times it does seem that way). I'm also aware that the Starfire and Robin/Nightwing had a romantic relationship in the comics, heck, even tried to get married once before they were interrupted by Mad-Raven. But if your gonna "loosely base" a cartoon an original 80s' comic then yous better leave the romance behind in the comic book as well.

Another bothersome character was the outside Terra --"like terra forming"-- (Ashley Johnson) - the girl with the power to manipulate earth. Throughout the episodes she appeared in ("Terra" - "Terra Rising" - "Betrayal" -"Aftershock Parts 1 & 2"), Terra is the usual abandoned dog character that the Titans befriend and make an official part of the team. She even starts to have feelings for Beast Boy. All that happens with this character has been seen and done, its just done a just a tiny-bit better with Terra. However, as she progressed throughout her short time on the series, she just became another "Anakin Skywalker" type character; She turns to the dark-side and then somewhere along the line decides to atone for her sins by destroying Slade along with herself by turning herself into a statue. A fitting end for such a character if I do say so myself.

That aside, another plus that Teen Titans managed to acquire many characters from the comics, such as Aqualad and Speedy. They have appeared occasionally throughout the show. The only persons they were missing is Wonder Girl and Impulse of Young Justice. The so called "self-referential humor with villains of the week -----equivalent of Smallville's "freak of the weak," Buffy or The X-Files "monster of the week"------ for many episodes" villain's is when the show really falls in the character department. From the villain who looks like a younger version of Elton John, the lightening and thunder twins to the HIVE ACADEMY teen villains among others, there really is no depth to these bad guys or much of a challenge. The Titans pretend that they're struggling against them. Probably the only actual interesting villain is Slade voiced by Mr. Helloboy himself - Ron Perlman, who also did some voice acting in "Batman: The animated series" as monstrous Clayface. No wonder I like him. I always figured it was Bruce Wayne gone bad or something. He kept saying "you learned from the best"- duh, its only a natural line of thinking. Slade's probably the only villain who actually holds his own character and storyline - no matter how flimsy it is. The only down fall with this character is that he appears in one to many episodes throughout the seasons of "T-T"; When the creators can't think of a villain to make up they use Slade. In all honesty they should've spaced him in-between seasons like MacGyver, Buffy, and Xena did with Murdoc, Faith, and Callisto or Ares.

As for the DVD - I think Amazon.com explains plenty to you about what the DVD contains. Most notably it holds out of order episodes contrary to the original airing of the episodes, which were:

.01.01: Divide and Conquer: Cinderblock breaks into a prison only to find the Teen Titans waiting for him. But when Robin and Cyborg's big "Sonic Boom" maneuver goes awry, the bad guys get away and the boys blame each other. An argument erupts, and when the shouting stops, Cyborg quits. Robin later regrets the argument, especially when the group faces off against Plasmus.

01.02: Sisters: When Starfire's sister, Blackfire, shows up to visit, Starfire just wishes she would leave. Blackfire is wild, cool, and hip...everything Starfire's not. Since the other Titans seem to like Blackfire so much, Starfire thinks they won't need her around anymore. But just as Star's thinking about leaving, a couple of alien thugs show up to haul her away.

01.03: Final Exam: The H.I.V.E Academy unveils its top graduates: three teenage supervillains known as Gizmo, Mammoth, and Jinx. Before Slade will hire the new HIVE agents, he requires that they pass one final test: they must destroy the Teen Titans.

01.04: Forces of Nature: Dark, ominous clouds blow in from the East, bringing Thunder and Lightning with them: two forces of nature made flesh in the form of costumed super-teens. The stormy brothers aren't evil...they're just looking for a good time. Unfortunately, their idea of fun involves wrecking everything in sight.

01.05: The Sum of His Parts: A day of fun in the park is cut short when Cyborg suddenly freezes like a statue. His power cell is dying. But before Cyborg can get home to fix his power cell, the Titans are called into action. During a wild junkyard battle with the Amazing Mumbo, Cyborg's battery goes dead. While the Titans search the city for Mumbo, Fixit, a strange cybernetic hermit with sinister intentions, finds Cyborg.

01.06: Nevermore: When a battle with Dr. Light pushes Raven over the edge, the Titans see a side of their mysterious friend that they've never seen before. After Raven's creepy tantrum of crackling black energy leaves Dr. Light begging for mercy, Beast Boy isn't quite sure how to treat her.

Instead the DVD showcases the first season episodes in this order.

DVD. Episode 01: Final Exam

DVD. Episode 02: Sisters

DVD. Episode 03: Divide and Conquer

DVD. Episode 04: Forces of Nature

DVD. Episode 05: The Sum of His Parts

DVD. Episode 06: Nevermore

Now for the animation and art. People call this art-style a 'hybrid' western and eastern art (Japanese and American), but the animation for the show is low grade. A majority of the mistakes in the animation can be seen from the action poses to just simple walking animations. The character designs are just a bit on the flimsy side (A majority of the character's necks are too skinny & their heads are too big). It tires just a little too hard to play off the ever popular "Anime" (Japanese for "Animation") styled art with the action-stylized backgrounds, expressions varying from Shocked to absolute stupefied. The list goes on and on. Another thing wrong with Teen Titans are the storylines. Aside from the fact that Seasons two and four were based upon two of the most popular New Teen Titans arcs, "Judas Contract" and "Terror of Trigon" respectively, a majority of the episodes (seasons 1-5) don't have one. Their just you're usual action romp - beat the bad guys episodes. Your usual "wash-rinse-dry-repeat" so to speak. Expect nothing less from a cartoon for children via ages 10 and up. Lastly the show basically does another thing wrong similar to X-men: Evolution; it tires to be too cool with rock music blaring in the background, the over exaggerated attacks from the heroes/villains along with Robin always shouting "Titans Go!." Now Jaded-30 something's adults seem to enjoy this action a lot but me being a teenager, I know a good cartoon when I see one. This ain't it. Of course Reviewers will say otherwise. And, as much as I would like to enjoy watching "Teen Titans" I just can't find the will power to overcome the gaping flesh-wound flaws of the series so I'll be sure to dodge this DVD. Read the comic books (ones not affiliated with the cartoon) instead. [a 3 out of 5]

TEEN TITANS ROX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2005-09-29

It's the best thing ever! Oh, yeah this is the thing you want to buy! I loooooove Teen Titans!!!!!!!!!!!!! They're sooooooooooo cooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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