Teen Titans Go! begins their epic four-night event today at 6/5c on Cartoon Network! What can you expect from this 80’s inspired musical extravaganza? Well, we found out at SDCC!
We’re big fans of Teen Titans Go!, and we had the opportunity to sit down with producers, Aaron Horvath and Pete Michail, and voice actors Scott Menville (Robin), Greg Cipes (Beast Boy), and Tara Strong (Raven) at San Diego Comic-Con, as well as watch the one-hour special, “The Night Begins to Shine”.
The hour long special will be spaced out over four nights, August 1st -August 4th, and will feature guest stars B.E.R, Fall Out Boy, and CeeLo Green.
If you’re familiar with Teen Titans Go!, you know that the song, “The Night Begins to Shine” is one of Cyborg’s favorite and features in a few episodes before this, most notably “40%, 40%, 20%”. It’s sang by B.E.R. which is an alias used by Carl Burnett, Franklin Enea, & William J. Reagan.
This episode sees our beloved Teen Titans transported into an alternate dimension that’s guarded by a dragon who desperately wants the song for himself. When the other Titans are sent back to their world and Cyborg is left to fend for himself against the dragon, they must find the magic of the music to get them back to this 80’s inspired dimension and save Cyborg.
Producers, Aaron Horvath and Pete Michail, shared that this episode didn’t take longer to make than any other episode of Teen Titans Go! but it did undergo some changes as they were creating it, including adding a special, tiny guest with CeeLo Green during his cameo on the show.
In the storyboard stage, things are constantly changing until we find the right spot.
Defining success for the show is a combination of trust and zero ego, according to Pete Michail. It wouldn’t be a complete answer without a little joking from Aaron Horvath, though.
It’s magic. The right crew came together and the right personalities.
Yeah, for me, it’s the money.
As children of the 80’s they really wanted to capture their childhood and it totally played into the epic fight scenes in this episode, too.
We had to pull back a little bit because we wanted to go all out. And it looks like we did, but we had to tone it back. Being kids of the 80s, he needs to fight Centipede. That’s why he looks the way he does. We tried to push it as much as the story allowed.
Be sure to tune in for this incredible musical episode and be prepared to have B.E.R’s extremely catchy song stuck in your head for days afterward.
Teen Titans Go! airs on Cartoon Network.