"The Academy" is the thirty-ninth episode of the fourth season of Teen Titans Go!, and the one-hundredth-ninety-sixth overall episode of the series.
Summary[]
Robin creates the Teen Titans Awards in an effort to get his teammates to clean up the tower.
Plot[]
All the Titans except Robin watch an award show. It all seems fine until Robin orders them to clean up the mess, but they all neglect Robin's advice anyway. Afterwards, Starfire informs Robin that they are watching the Academy Awards, yet Robin shows disinterest by saying that it's terrible. Cyborg is going to retort by giving a speech about the Academy when Raven tells them about the result of the award-giving ceremony, in which, the four are initially exhilarated but becomes mad and annoyed about it, because an award is given... to, unfortunately, a person that hugely resembles Michael Jelenic. The four Titans don't like, which causes them to rage about it. Robin explains that it is just their opinions, yet the four other Titans rebut about his words by claiming that The Academy decides the awards. Robin instructs them to clean their mess, though they still refuse to do so and instead proceed focusing on the award show. This gives Robin an idea.
The next day, Robin is so enthusiastic as he announces that a new award contest, named the Teen Titan Awards, is happening (in a way to motivate the four other Titans to clean). The four other Titans are filled with enthusiasm, and they take the challenge nonetheless. The next couple of seconds are movie-style scenarios of the four doing different chores.
After a week, the whole Titans Tower is cleaned, and the Teen Titan Awards ceremony has just begun, with Birdarang as the host, and Sticky Joe and Tooth Fairy as the award givers. However, all four categories were all won by Robin. Raven seems suspicious and takes a sneak peek about the awards by snatching away his cards, and she is infuriated when she realizes are all won by Robin, meaning that he has monopolized the awards. This causes her to spark outrage against him, yet he rebuts by claiming that the Academy made those decisions. Cyborg claims that the Academy doesn't exist at all he just made this whole thing up to get them to do chores so he could win the awards for himself and fool everybody into thinking he did them...until all five golden statutes move and speak, much to their astonishment.
Nonetheless, the four other Titans all claim that Robin was the deserving winner because they judge him to be the best, and they also assured that the decisions were "based arbitrary" as well as recognizing him as "superior", while they also give shout-outs to the sponsors of the show. Raven doubts about this, which sparks outrage for the Academy. This lead to the Titans' punishment, which also causes Robin to lose his awards, much to Robin's dismay. They start a fight, yet before that, Birdarang holds an in-memorial montage to the loss of everyone's favorite animated TV shows of DC like "Batman the Brave and the Bold", "Krypto the Super Dog" and even the original Teen Titans of the year 2003 and they will be missed. The fighting resumes, and in the end, the Academy suffers injuries. Despite the victory of the Titans, Birdarang announces the winner of the battle is still the Academy. The Titans spark outrage, yet after the Academy say that they will never win an award, all of them grieve in disappointment and accept their fate.
Characters[]
- Robin
- Cyborg
- Starfire
- Raven
- Beast Boy
- Batman (cameo)
- Commissioner Gordon (cameo)
- The Penguin (cameo)
- Sticky Joe
- Tooth Fairy
- Michael Jelenic (cameo)
- Birdarang
- Superman (mentioned)
- Alfred Pennyworth (mentioned)
- The Wonder Twins (cameo)
- Academy (debut)
- Octopus
Trivia[]
- This episode premiered a year after "Shrimps and Prime Rib".
- The year when this episode premiered was also the year that a other episode, "Orangins", was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the specific category of "Outstanding Short Form Animated Program".
- The episode itself might be a self-aware joke on how the series has never won an award despite being nominated several times.
- This is no longer the case, as in late 2019 it received a BAFTA against SpongeBob and Apple and Onion.
Continuity[]
- Raven is unhooded for the 70th time.
- One of the show's producers, Michael Jelenic, made an appearance in this episode. Marking his first appearance since "Let's Get Serious" and his second overall appearance in the series.
- Raven wore a dress that has a very similar design to the dress she wore originally in the comic books. The first two times she wore a dress like this was in "Baby Hands" and later in "Justice League's Next Top Talent Idol Star".
- This is the second episode Birdarang has hosted a special event. He hosted the Teen Titans Awards in this episode and he hosted Justice League's talent competition in "Justice League's Next Top Talent Idol Star".
- The Wonder Twins get on the stage and fall off in the form of an octopus and an ice unicycle, much like they did in "You're Fired!".
- The second time Raven saves the team from certain death by summoning a magical dome, like the first time she did against an evil cloud in "I'm the Sauce".
References[]
- This episode is a parody of the Academy Awards.
- The announcer for the awards ceremony mentions that it takes place in the "epicenter of entertainment", which is shown to be a movie studio with a water tower. This may be referencing Warner Bros. Studios, which animates Teen Titans Go!.
- Each Titan (excluding Robin) has parodied a scene from a well known film.
- Raven reenacts a scene from Back to the Future.
- In the same scene, her hairstyle bears a similar resemblance to Albert Einstein, the German-born Jewish scientist.
- Beast Boy reenacts a scene from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
- Starfire reenacts a scene from Indiana Jones.
- Cyborg reenacts a scene from Forrest Gump.
- Coincidentally, both E.T. and Indiana Jones were directed by Steven Spielberg, while Back to the Future and Forrest Gump were directed by Robert Zemeckis.
- Raven reenacts a scene from Back to the Future.
- During the "In Memoriam" segment, several shows were shown on screen (in order from first to last);
- Green Lantern the Animated Series
- Krypto the Super Dog
- Batman the Brave and the Bold (which co-producer Michael Jelenic has previously worked on)
- Teen Titans (2003-2006 series)
- There is writing on the bathroom wall that reads, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir beware THE BATMAN." The message references the Harry Potter series. The line, "Beware the Batman", was a reference to a discontinued Batman animated series with the same name, which ran only for a year from 2013 to 2014.
- The Academy appear to be modeled from Emmy and Oscar awards, some of the most coveted awards in the entertainment industry.
- When the Titans battle the Academy, they do it dressed as characters from Lord of the Rings. Robin is Frodo, Beast Boy is Gollum, Starfire is Legolas, Cyborg is Gimli and Raven is Gandalf.
Errors[]
- The leader of the Academy mentions that the Teen Titans will never win an award but the Teen Titans' voice actors did win awards for the specific category of "Best Vocal Ensemble in a New Television Series" from the Behind the Voice Actors Awards.
Running Gags[]
- The Titans mentioning how the awards are for specific categories based on arbitrary metrics.
- Robin repeatedly winning all the awards much to the rest of the Titans' displeasure.
Transcript[]
The transcript for "The Academy" can be found here.
Gallery[]
The image gallery for The Academy may be viewed here. |