TEEN TITANS GO!: EAT. DANCE. PUNCH! SEASON 3 PART 1 -- DVD Review by Porfle

Anyone who has been keeping track of all my likes and dislikes so far--and really, who hasn't?--will be well aware of the fact that I love Cartoon Network's "Teen Titans Go!", the cartoon series in which those colorful Teen Titans characters we've known and loved for years are stripped of all their relative realism and seriousness and transformed into wacky, pint-sized juveniles engaging in the most farcical and freakishly cartoonish misadventures imaginable. 

This is a big turn-off for some fans, but for me it's the visual equivalent of eating cupcakes oozing with gooey icing or drinking pink lemonade through a crazy straw with a festive cocktail umbrella sticking out of it. 

So far I've already gushed about the previous DVD collections TEEN TITANS GO!: APPETITE FOR DISRUPTION SEASON 2 PART 1 and TEEN TITANS GO!: HOUSE PESTS SEASON 2 PART 2.  Now, with Warner Brothers Home Entertainment's 2-disc DVD set TEEN TITANS GO!: EAT. DANCE. PUNCH! SEASON 3 PART 1, their surrealistic comedy hijinks continue unabated.  In fact, these cacophonous chunks of cartoon chaos may be the team's most relentlessly brain-bending assaults on sanity so far. 

As always, Batman's youthful sidekick Robin is their leader, which isn't bad since he's the only one without any super powers.  He's the most gung-ho of the group, often trying to whip the others into shape or exhort them to be more dedicated and disciplined crimefighters.  But he's vulnerable to his own failings which include narcissism, overconfidence, occasional blatant stupidity, and a crippling infatuation with fellow member Starfire. 

Starfire, of course, is the sweetly girlish alien still learning the ways of earthlings and prone to gush over things like kittens, babies, flowers--pretty much anything except Robin.  There's also half-human, half-demon Raven, the mysterious Goth girl with black magic powers and a dark disposition.  Cyborg is mostly machine but an all-around fun guy.  Beast Boy, who can assume any animal shape, is the smallest and least mature of the group and is pretty much their mascot. 

While these cartoons do occasionally show us the Teen Titans actually fighting crime--usually their arch enemy Brother Blood or their other arch enemies The Hive--we mostly get to see their various domestic conflicts and other off-duty mishaps and misunderstandings that occur within their massive T-shaped headquarters on an island right off the shore of Jump City. 

In "Cat's Fancy", Robin decides to become a kitty cat in order to win Starfire's love, a plan which works all too well when she moves into her own apartment with him and becomes a crazy cat lady.  "Leg Day" shows what happens when the team neglect their legs in order to concentrate on upper body strength, until Raven transforms them into the League of Legs. 

"The Dignity of Teeth" is a terrifying cautionary tale in which Beast Boy, thrilled by the prospect of getting money from the Tooth Fairy for his teeth, begins pulling them all and racking up the cash. When the others follow suit, Raven confronts the Tooth Fairy on his own turf and must compete against him in a tooth-eating contest. In "Croissant", Beast Boy disappears one day and a giant cocoon turns up in the living room.  A disgusting creature emerges from it, which the team believes is a new incarnation of the missing Beast Boy.

"Spice Game" warns of what can happen when one becomes addicted to spicy foods and gradually requires hotter and hotter peppers.  In "I'm the Sauce", Robin forces the others to partake in rainy day games to cheer up the sad clouds that are crying.  When the rainy day games prove to be irresistibly fun, the Titans then deliberately make the clouds sad so they'll continue to cry.

"Hey You, Don't Forget About Me in Your Memory" finds the team going back to school so Robin can live out his fantasies of being popular.  In "Accept the Next Proposition You Hear", Robin tries to teach the team to think for themselves, which fails miserably when they discover that fortune cookies can tell them what to do. In "The Fourth Wall" the Titans are told by the evil Control Freak that they're on a TV show and that he is going to "reboot" them.

"40%, 40%, 20%" has Cyborg driving the others crazy with his new favorite song, which he repeats over and over until he can no longer function without it.  "Grube's Fairytales" has the team re-enacting well-known fairy stories with their own bizarre twists.

The Titans are put on trial by their own super-villains for accidentally destroying Jump City in "A Farce." Halloween is ruined in "Scary Figure Dance" when The Hive blow up Jump City's only candy factory and then seemingly kill the Titans, who come back as ghosts to haunt them.  In "Animals, It's Just a Word!" Beast Boy must save the lives of the others by giving them his blood, which turns them all into animals. 

Robin, Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg break Beast Boy's heart by forgetting his birthday in "BBBDAY!"  Starfire refuses to go shopping with the others on the day after Thanksgiving in "Black Friday", which causes her to get a visit from three spirits in this takeoff of "A Christmas Carol." 

The two-part episode entitled "Two Parter: Part One/Two Parter: Part Two" features the team sneaking into the Justice League's headquarters while they're away, and then having to take over the real heroes' identities and come to the rescue when they're captured by the dreaded Darkseid (voiced by "Weird Al" Yankovic).  

"The True Meaning of Christmas" finds the team traveling to the North Pole to find out why Santa has put them on his naughty list--which means no more presents ever. "Squash & Stretch" parodies the old Warner Brothers and MGM cartoons when a squirrel steals the team's precious bowl of mixed nuts, leading to a free-for-all of old-fashioned cartoon violence.  In "Garage Sale", Robin forces the team to sell all their old mementos but finds that in doing so, they've disrupted their own timeline and must get all of the items back before it's too late.

In "Secret Garden" Starfire's idyllic secret hideaway from the others is ruined when they discover it and turn it into a shambles.  "The Cruel Giggling Ghoul" is a spot-on spoof of "Scooby-Doo" with guest star LeBron James (look for him in the opening titles sequence).  "How 'Bout Some Effort" finds Cyborg and Hive member Jinx pretending to be married on Valentine's Day.

"Pyramid Scheme" begins with the team fighting evil mummies and somehow turns into a spaghetti western.  "Finally, A Lesson" has Robin teaching the others about rental properties, equity, credit ratings, etc. in what must be one of the weirdest "educational" cartoons ever. 

The 2-disc DVD set from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (26 episodes, 11 minutes each) is in matted widescreen with English, Spanish, and Portuguese Dolby surround sound. Subtitles are in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.   No extras except trailers for other WBHE releases.

If you're not into this incarnation of the Teen Titans, then you might as well stay away because this is more of the same and then some.  But if you love this wacky combination of Tex Avery and John Kricfalusi done in a colorful American anime style that's packed to the gills with lightning-fast gags and cultural references and frenetic as a flock of hummingbirds on a caffeine rush, then TEEN TITANS GO!: EAT. DANCE. PUNCH! SEASON 3 PART 1 is just the confection to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Buy it at WBShop.com
Street date: May 31, 2016