While the DC Animated Movie Universe and its Tomorrowverse successor deliver more serious stories directed at older fans, there’s plenty of DC content available for a wider age group that also offer more humor. For instance, Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is now out, marking the first time the title superhero teams are crossing over in a film setting after previously hanging out in TV episodes. James Tucker, who oversaw the DCAMU, was as supervising producer on Mayhem in the Multiverse, and the movie’s earnestness gives it common with one of Tucker’s prior animated DC TV shows, Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
I had the pleasure of recently speaking with James Tucker about his time on Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, and knowing that he’d co-developed Batman: The Brave and the Bold with Michael Jelenic, I asked him how his work on this movie compared to the animated TV show that aired from 2008-2011, as both projects rest comfortably in lighthearted territory. Tucker answered:
Well, working on Brave and the Bold, that’s my natural default. The tone of Brave and the Bold, which is mainly comedic, but the superhero action is serious, and then occasionally real stakes happen. It’s kind of like the comics I read when I was a kid. My whole way of doing that show was reflective of the comics I was reading. The comedy was more cranked up than what I was doing, but it was always present in those early comics. Batman cracked jokes well into the ‘70s. People think he just stopped when Neal Adams drew him on that rooftop, and I’m like, ‘I read stuff after that where he was pals with Superman.’ The lighter side of DC is always a thing I try not to forget because I think some people do, and I’m like, ‘You need that heart to go with the humor and the heroism.’ Those were the three H’s I always said about Brave and the Bold, you need heart, heroism and humor, and in different amounts per episode.
So although James Tucker has shown he’s more than capable of handling darker and serious superhero stories with the DC Animated Movie Universe, Batman: The Brave and the Bold (which revolved around Diedrich Bader’s Caped Crusader teaming up with all kinds of DC heroes and even some villains) serves as his main tonal standard, as it brings the same kind of sensibility as the comics he read in his youth. So when it came time for him to work on Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, he was well prepared to delve back into this lighter end of DC media, but not to the point that he ignored seriousness entirely, specifically where the DC Super Hero Girls are concerned. In his words:
So that aesthetic applies to the DC Super Hero Girls usually. It kind of was a similar aesthetic, it was a similar way of looking at these characters, in that you find the little part of their personality that’s quirky, and you lean into that a little bit. But they’re also superheroes, and they can also get serious when they need to be, and they also are emotionally tied to each other. My work on Brave and the Bold made it so DC Super Hero Girls wasn’t a huge stretch for me to work on.
When it comes to the Teen Titans Go! characters, it’s rare that you can get deeply serious with them given how wacky a property it is. DC Super Hero Girls, on the other hand, is more balanced with its comedic hijinks and narrative complexity, which was fortunate for James Tucker since, without going into specific spoilers, Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is more focused on the latter team. The story involves the DC Super Hero Girls clashing with Lex Luthor and his Legion of Doom, who have unlocked an ancient Kryptonian power that gives the other heroes a run for their money, including Will Friedle’s Matthew McConaughey-sounding Aquaman. In the midst of the Girls dealing with this massive threat, they’ll once again find themselves interacting with the Teen Titans Go! iteration of the Teen Titans, who live in another universe.
Directed by Matt Peters and Katie Price, with Jase Ricci writing the script, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is available to buy on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD now. The movie will also premiere on Cartoon Network May 28, and you’ll be able to stream it with an HBO Max subscription starting June 28.
