''Justice League vs. Teen Titans'' is a 2016 American

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

superhero film Superhero film/movie is a film genre categorized by the presence of superhero characters, individuals with extraordinary abilities who are dedicated to fighting crime, saving the world, or helping the innocent. It is sometimes considered a sub ...

directed by

Sam Liu Sam Liu is an American animation producer, director, storyboard artist and character designer. He is best known for directing animated superhero films at both Marvel Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. Sam attended the University of Califor ...

from a screenplay by

Alan Burnett Alan Burnett (; born February 17, 1950 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American television writer-producer particularly associated with Warner Bros. Animation, Hanna-Barbera Productions, DC Comics, and Walt Disney television animation. He has had a h ...

and Bryan Q. Miller. It is the 26th film of the

DC Universe Animated Original Movies The DC Universe Animated Original Movies (DCUAOM; also known as DC Universe Original Movies or DC Universe Movies or DC Animated Movies) are a series of American direct-to-video superhero animated films based on DC Comics characters and stories. ...

and the seventh film in the

DC Animated Movie Universe The DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU) is an American media franchise and shared universe of Animation, animated films distributed between 2013 and 2024 by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment. Based on characters from the DC Universe ...

. The film features the voices of

Taissa Farmiga Taissa Farmiga ( ; born August 17, 1994) is an American actress. Her numerous appearances in horror films have established her as a scream queen, alongside her older sister Vera Farmiga. Farmiga was encouraged to begin acting by her sister ...

Jon Bernthal Jonathan Edward Bernthal (; born September 20, 1976) is an American actor. He came to prominence for portraying Shane Walsh on the AMC horror drama series '' The Walking Dead'' (2010–2012; 2018), where he was a starring cast member in the f ...

Stuart Allan Stuart Allan is an American actor. He is known for voicing Damian Wayne in the DC Animated Movie Universe films ''Son of Batman'', ''Batman vs. Robin'', ''Batman: Bad Blood'', ''Justice League vs. Teen Titans'', ''Teen Titans: The Judas Contract'' ...

and

Jason O'Mara Jason O'Mara (born 6 August 1972) is an Irish-American actor. He has starred in American television series '' Terra Nova'' (2011), '' Vegas'' (2012–13), '' Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (2016–17) and '' The Man in the High Castle'' (2018–19). Fo ...

. The film had its world premiere at

WonderCon WonderCon is an annual comic book, science fiction, and film fan convention, convention held in the San Francisco Bay Area (1987–2011), then—under the name WonderCon Anaheim—in Anaheim, California (2012–2015, 2017–present), and Wond ...

on March 26, 2016, and was released through digital download on March 29, followed by home media release on April 12 by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

Plot

Years ago, the demon Trigon conceives his daughter

Raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

with the human Arella. When Arella discovered his demonic nature, she ran away and was taken in by a group of mystics who lived in another dimension called Azarath. As she grew older, Raven wondered about her father. She attempted to use her powers to learn more about him. Trigon used her probe to find and destroy Arella along with Azarath and all its inhabitants. Raven managed to imprison Trigon inside a magical crystal in what was left of Azarath. Sometime later, she met and joined the

Teen Titans The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to DC ...

. In the present-day on Earth, Trigon sends a demonic corruptor to Earth, which briefly possesses

Weather Wizard Weather Wizard (Mark Mardon) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Weather Wizard made his first live-action appearance in the television specials '' Legends of the Superheroes'' (1979), played by Jeff Altma ...

, following a battle between the

Justice League The Justice League, or Justice League of America (JLA), is a group of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). Writer Gardner Fox conceived the ...

and

Legion of Doom The Legion of Doom is a group of supervillains who originated in '' Challenge of the Superfriends'', an animated series from Hanna-Barbera based on DC Comics' Justice League. The Legion of Doom has since been incorporated into the main DC Univers ...

. Ignoring his father

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

's instructions beforehand,

Damian Wayne Damian Thomas Wayne is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman. He was created by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert. Damian Wayne is the biological son of Bruce Wayne/Batman. His mo ...

helps defeat the entity, but left the League with no background information from it. As a consequence for his reckless actions,

Nightwing Nightwing is a superhero alias used by multiple characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. The most prominent bearer is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, who adopts the Nightwing identity to assert his independence from Batman. ...

takes Damian to join the Titans. He meets Starfire, their leader; Jaime Reyes, a teenager infused with technology that turns into a beetle-like exoskeleton; Garfield Logan, a metahuman with the ability to shapeshift into any animal; and Raven. At first, Damian does not get along with them, believing he can be a better leader. When he almost dies in an altercation with Jaime, Raven uses her power to heal him. They inadvertently bond through this experience - Raven sees flashes of Damian's life and he sees Trigon within her. Meanwhile, Batman and

Cyborg A cyborg (, a portmanteau of ''cybernetics, cybernetic'' and ''organism'') is a being with both Organic matter, organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

is later possessed by one of the entities and brutally damages Atomic Skull, grabbing the attention of Diana and Batman. Before calming him down with

kryptonite Kryptonite is a fictional material that appears primarily in Superman stories published by DC Comics. In its best-known form, it is a green, crystalline material originating from Superman's home world of Krypton (comics), Krypton that emits a u ...

, Batman learns the entity was after the "girl", but Superman escapes before the kryptonite can disable him. Batman requests Cyborg to help him in tracking the girl in question. Elsewhere, the demonic Superman raises a gate somewhere in the desert. Starfire takes the Titans to a carnival in order for them to try and get along. Unbeknownst to the Titans, Raven is called by Trigon's entities, who attack Raven. She fights them off with aid from the Titans. After the attack, Raven explains her backstory to the Titans, who had not learned about it until that moment. When they return to the Tower, the Justice League attempts to take Raven with them.

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * The Flash, several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Barry Allen ** Wally West, the first Kid Flash and third adult Flash ...

, Diana, and Cyborg are possessed by the entities; Batman avoids possession by knocking himself out with a nerve toxin designed to take down Bane. After the League beats the Titans senseless, Raven agrees to go with them to save their lives, but as they teleport away, Jaime knocks Cyborg out and frees him from possession. Raven takes the rest to Superman and summons Trigon to Earth. Cyborg awakens and uses his Apokoliptian technology to teleport them to Superman. Damian stabs Superman with Kryptonite, releasing him from his possession, who then heads to release the entity from Flash and Diana. The League stays behind on Earth to battle Trigon while Cyborg joins the Titans in a venture to Hell to save Raven. Robin confronts and defeats a demon in the form of his deceased grandfather

Ra's al Ghul Ra's al Ghul is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. Created by editor Julius Schwartz, writer Dennis O'Neil, and artist Neal Adams, the character first appeared ...

. Raven uses a spell to create a magical prison to detain Trigon, and shrinks the crystal down to wear on her forehead. Robin then persuades a reluctant Raven to stay on Earth with the Titans. In a

mid-credits scene A post-credits scene (also known as a stinger, end tag, or credit cookie) is a short teaser clip that appears after the closing credits have rolled and sometimes after a production logo of a film, TV show, or video game has run. It is usually i ...

, a mysterious costumed girl riding a flying chunk of rock is seen heading towards the Titans Tower.

Voice cast

Production

''Justice League vs. Teen Titans'' was announced by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

, along with '' Batman: Bad Blood'', in July 2015 during

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

. The voice cast includes

Jake T. Austin Jake Toranzo Austin Szymanski (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Jake T. Austin, is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor at the age of seven, Austin is best known for his role as Max Russo on the Disney Channel ...

, and

Brandon Soo Hoo Brandon Soo Hoo (born November 2, 1995) is an American actor and martial artist. He is known for playing Tran in the 2008 film ''Tropic Thunder'' and for his series regular role on the Cartoon Network sketch comedy series '' Incredible Crew''. Soo ...

, and returning cast members

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama '' Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include '' He Got Game'' (1998), '' Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in B ...

, Jerry O'Connell,

, and

Christopher Gorham Christopher David Gorham (born August 14, 1974) is an American actor. He is best known for his work on television, particularly for playing Henry Grubstick on the ABC comedy-drama series ''Ugly Betty'', Auggie Anderson on the action-drama serie ...

. Frederik Wiedmann composed the film's score.

Distribution

The first official image from the film was released, as well as an image of

recording voiceover for the film. A sneak preview of the film was released as a bonus feature on '' Batman: Bad Blood''. The sneak preview of the film was later released online along with the film's official trailer. ''Justice League vs. Teen Titans'' had its world premiere at the Los Angeles

on March 26, 2016. The film was released via digital download on March 29, and straight-to-DVD and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on April 12. A gift set of the film was released with an exclusive Robin figurine. It was released straight-to-DVD on May 30 in the United Kingdom.

Sequel

An adaptation of ''The Judas Contract'' was planned as the third DC Universe Animated Original Movie, to be released after '' Superman: Doomsday'' (2007) and '' Justice League: The New Frontier'' (2008). The project was announced in 2006 but later put on hold. This film was to be based on " The Judas Contract" story from 1984 featured in ''Tales of the Teen Titans'' #42–44 and ''Teen Titans Annual'' #3 by

Marv Wolfman Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's ''The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade (character), Blade, and DC Comi ...

and

George Pérez George Pérez (; June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' and ''The Avengers (c ...

. Warner Bros. Animation's writer/producer

Bruce Timm Bruce Walter Timm (born February 5, 1961) is an American artist, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for contributing to building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, most notably as the head producer behind '' Batman: ...

confirmed in April 2010 that there were no current plans to revive the project, but in July 2016, Warner Bros. revived the project as '' Teen Titans: The Judas Contract'' and was repurposed as a sequel to ''Justice League vs. Teen Titans''. Farmiga, Austin, Wahlgren, Soo Hoo, Allan and Maher reprised their roles, and

Christina Ricci Christina Ricci ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge. Ricci works mostly in Independent film, independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is ...

and

Miguel Ferrer Miguel José Ferrer (February 7, 1955 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film ''RoboCop''. Other film roles include Harbinger in '' Hot Shots! Part Deux'' (1993), Quigley in '' Blank ...

were announced to have joined the cast as

Terra Terra may often refer to: * Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess * An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy * Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scient ...

and

Deathstroke Deathstroke is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, the character first appeared in ''The New Teen Titans'' #2 (December 1980) as Deathstroke the Terminator. In his co ...

respectively. The film was released on April 4, 2017, and is the final film role of Ferrer, who died on January 19.

Reception

Critical reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported an approval rating of , with an average score of , based on reviews. Brian Lowry of '' Variety'' gave the film a mixed review, calling it inferior to other entries of the franchise. Eric Diaz of

Nerdist Nerdist Industries, LLC (also simply known as Nerdist) is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast ( The Nerdist Podcast) created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a net ...

awarded the film a rating of 3.5/5: "The movie is mostly entertaining with some pretty fun action beats. It captures the essence of the Titans, shown mostly as they were portrayed in the animated show, but with a slightly more grown-up feel".

Sales

''Justice League vs. Teen Titans'' has earned $4,585,929 from domestic home video sales.

Notes

References

External links

*
''Justice League vs. Teen Titans''
at The World's Finest {{Warner Bros. animation and comics 2010s animated superhero films 2010s direct-to-video animated superhero films 2010s English-language films 2016 American animated direct-to-video films 2016 films American animated action films Animated Justice League films Animated superhero crossover films DC Animated Movie Universe Demons in film The Devil in film English-language action films Films about spirit possession Films directed by Sam Liu Films scored by Frederik Wiedmann Films set in 2016 Films with screenplays by Alan Burnett Teen Titans films Warner Bros. Animation films