Teen Titans: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Teen Titans: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

The teenage superheroes are back for one last Teen Titans mission in the fifth (and final) season: Robin (Scott Menville), Raven (Tara Strong), Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), Starfire (Hynden Walch), and Cyborg (Khary Payton) are super-powered superheroes who fight down dastardly villains all across the world. Robin remains the second-fiddle to The Dark Knight, Beast Boy remains a vigilant goofball, Cyborg remains very hungry, Starfire remains eternally confused, and Raven remains bored out of her mind. Saving the world (teenage style) for one last time.

The fifth season of Teen Titans is a curious thing to experience: the season has some of the best episodes in the entire series run and yet it also has episodes which (while entertaining) are a bit disappointing for their lack of the actual Teen Titans core characters. Side characters are given a moment in the spotlight. Some viewers appreciate that. Yet it is a strange change-of-pace from the typical season.

The core characters spend a good portion of the season apart from one another and go out on individual missions (while communicating with their gadgets and gizmos). These elements take the series in new directions. While it's understandable that after four seasons of the show the writers would want to shake things up a bit in season five, Teen Titans is a bit more fractured feeling in its final season.

One of the best episodes of the entire series run is the brilliant “Go” and it is an essential view for fans. The episode focuses on how Starfire comes to Earth for the first time and it delves into introducing all of the main characters and acts as an “origin story” episode. This was a must-see episode. There are some truly great moments that fans can't go without seeing.

The animation remains one of the greatest strengths of Teen Titans. The fifth season mixes up the colorful palette a bit as the characters roam the world and are away from their tower home. The result of the change-up in scenery is a change-up in background animation. The layouts are interesting and very colorful while exploring different parts of the globe. The efforts are impressive and the series remains beautiful to look at.

As the final season of the series, it was nice to see fan-favorite character Beast Boy take the center stage for some of the last episodes. The two-part premiere entitled “Homecoming” brings viewers an origin story for Beast Boy and delves into his history of working with the Doom Patrol. Delving into his former involvement with that team, these premiere episodes are some of the best episodes in the entire series run to feature the character. The energy and excitement of the episodes is palpable.

The final episode of Teen Titans again focuses on Beast Boy as the central character: “Things Change” focuses on Beast Boy's involvement with the long-lost Teen Titans character, Terra. A plot thread that some fans might have thought was long forgotten is once more explored. The good news is that it is certainly an entertaining episode. The bad news is that it is one of the only episodes in the series run which leaves threads for next time and it was clear the series was not supposed to end on that episode.

The series could have used a better conclusion (another season, perhaps?) and its disappointing for the show to end with so little fan-fare. After so many entertaining seasons, one would hope for every little thing to be wrapped up nice-and-tidy. Nonetheless, Teen Titans is such an entertaining series that one would be remiss to miss out on the final batch of episodes. The voice-cast always impress and in the series final moments, the entire cast give it their all.

Teen Titans: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, the fifth and final season of Teen Titans is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio. This is a truly outstanding presentation. The series has never looked better. The upgrade to high-definition is significant and the colorful animation is robust and sleek in appearance. The show looks new.

Throughout the entire run of season five episodes, the colorful animation made a huge impression. The DVD's of Teen Titans seem archaic by comparison and should be donated or discarded. Though the series was originally broadcast in a 4:3 full frame aspect ratio, the jump to widescreen is significant and there are no issues with the framing. Fans will be thrilled by how the series looks. The colorful hues are truly outstanding and the line-art is more crisp than ever before.

Teen Titans: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The fifth and final season of Teen Titans is presented with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 audio track. The lossless audio sounds remarkably crisp and clear throughout the entire season. Dialogue is well reproduced and easy to understand. The sound effects are engaging and fit the action-packed scenes to a tee. The music score and theme song are reproduced with outstanding clarity. This is another superb sound presentation. Fans will be pleased.

Teen Titans: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Teen Titans: Friends and Foes (SD, 25:11) shakes things up a bit from the villain-focused extras on the season three and season four sets. The featurette explores both a range of supporting heroes and dastardly villains this time around. The addition of hero characters is a nice change of pace for the bonus features.

The extra includes interviews with producer Glen Murakami, casting/voice director Andrea Romano, series story editor Amy Wolfram, series story editor Rob Hoegee, character designer Derrick Wyatt, director Michael Chang, and director Matt Youngberg. Characters discussed include the following: Doom Patrol, Titans East, Honorary Titans, Kid Flash, Brotherhood of Evil, and the Gordanians. The big "Doom Patrol" cross-over episode is also given a special level of attention.

Teen Titans: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The final season of any series is something that hits fans with a sense of sadness and excitement at the same time. There are usually some big moments in any concluding season and Teen Titans Season 5 provides viewers with some epic episodes (even though it ends on a cliff-hanger of sorts). The series didn't seem quite ready to end and it would have been amazing to see more episodes produced. Nonetheless, the fifth season is outstanding and has more than enough memorable moments to make it an essential watch. The Blu-ray release is another first-rate production by Warner Archive (with a superb audio-video presentation) and is well worth adding to any DC animated universe collection. The set comes highly recommended.