Dr.T: I think it was, considering the changes that you had to make, and the fact that you had to style things that American kids and teens would really connect with — like making Raven kind of a Goth — I liked the way you did that. When I originally saw the character designs, I was very curious about how they were going to animate. And they animate beautifully. They’re thin and shadowy, but when they move, especially with some degree of speed, well, the action is terrific to watch. You noted, Glen, in the Cartoon Network’s preview tape that sometimes you were told that the show wasn’t weird enough and that you should push it even farther. That had to be fun! What were some of the notable instances when you and your team really pushed the package?

GM: We’re doing something that I think anime fans are familiar with; it’s called “Super D.” It’s the equivalent of, say, a Tex Avery take. So, for example, when a character is feeling angry they get big or when they’re feeling sad they shrink down small. I guess it gets kind of surreal, but it seems it’s an effective way of telling the story, of conveying emotion in a really stylistic way. I think it’s something that fans aren’t really used to seeing, so it seemed natural to go in that direction with it.

What else did we try to do weirder? I think the music is different because the style of music changes with the style of the show. I think the story structures are different compared to what you’ve seen from Batman and Superman. They’re not as linear — not as if there’s a crime where the Riddler steals something, and Batman has to solve the crime and then, in the end, Batman defeats Riddler. In some of our Titans episodes we have the villain appear and then just go to jail right away and then we introduce a different villain.

Dr.T: Well, that’s in the anime tradition, too. You mentioned Akira earlier — that was a wonderfully nonlinear film.

Anime classics Akira and Speed Racer had a major influence on Teen Titans. Akira image courtesy of Pioneer Entertainment. Produced by Akira Committee Kodansha. © 1987 Akira Committee. Speed Racer image courtesy of Cartoon Network.

GM: Akira was more intellectual, more heady. I think I’m going more back to things like Kimba and Speed Racer where there was sort of a moral to the story. I think we’re trying to do it without making it sound like an afterschool special, you know, hitting the audience over the head and saying “Here’s the moral of the story!” Even if we were saying that, I’d like to think that at the end of the episode you had a good time watching the show while you were being given the moral.

Dr.T: Your second episode, “Sisters,” was very much like that. It gave a lesson about the meaning of true friendship, and the message didn’t feel heavy-handed.

GM: Well, to me that’s just good story. In the beginning, when David Slack and I were talking about developing the stories, we said that they should be about things that kids could relate to. The whole story shouldn’t involve building a laser cannon — it should be about how people interact and get along. We wanted all of the stories to have heart. We wanted the show to be able to focus on one or two of the characters and their relationships. So we won’t really focus on Cyborg’s origin or Starfire’s origin, but throughout the course of the series there’ll be little glimpses into the characters and what their backstory is. We took things from the comics, but we sort of twisted them around to fit. We had to cram material from — well, how many issues of Titans — into 22 minutes and figure out which parts to use to tell the stories.