Bunny Raven... or ...How to Make A Titananimal Disappear

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"Bunny Raven... or ...How to Make A Titanimal Disappear" is episode thirty-seven of the Teen Titans series and the eleventh episode of Season 3.

Plot

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Mumbo robbing the bank.

The Amazing Mumbo tries to rob the Bank of Perez, and once again the Titans intervene. Raven in particular is anything but impressed with Mumbo's magic, so Mumbo decides to draw her into his hat to teach her a lesson. The other Titans try to hold her back, but they are yanked in as well; Raven gets separated from the others...and is turned into a blue-cloaked bunny rabbit, as a sign for being kidnapped!

Mumbo reveals that he has decided to make Raven his (highly unwilling) assistant for his grand show, in which he intends to get rid of the Titans once and for all. Despite evidence to the contrary, Raven still insists that all this is just an illusion, but Mumbo refuses to tell how he accomplishes all this under the motto: "A magician never reveals his secrets."

The other Titans quickly find Raven inside the hat dimension, but are all the more quicker overpowered by Mumbo, who also brainwashed them into circus animals: Robin into a monkey, Starfire into a tiger, and Cyborg into a bear. The exception is Beast Boy, whose shape-changing powers Mumbo restricts to inanimate objects only. In addition, the Titans are forced to find out that inside the hat dimension their  powers and weapons are turned into circus-themed parodies of themselves: Robin throws bananas instead of birdarangs, Starfire coughs up hairballs instead of shooting Starbolts, Cyborg's sonic cannon unfurls a flag reading “BANG”, and Raven's powers only work with stock magician sayings. Despite their best efforts, the Titans are restrained and locked into cages.

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The Titanimals

Finally, Mumbo opens his show, yanking the Titans onto the stage one by one for his introductory acts and humiliating them in front of a massive audience of Mumbo look-alikes before the grand finale. The Titans try to think of a way to escape, but with the restrictions Mumbo has placed on them, it appears to be a futile task. Raven finally concedes that Mumbo’s magic is real, even if it’s a trick. However, this gives Raven an idea to beat Mumbo, an idea involving several nearby cans of paint and Beast Boy as a paintbrush.

Raven's magical moment

Mumbo is finally ready for the finale, and he has the Titanimals' cages lifted onto the stage - to find them all seemingly empty! Baffled, he opens the door to Raven's cage, but it is then revealed that Raven used the paint to blend the Titans with the stage background. Raven uses the element of surprise and kicks Mumbo in the face; this evicts the villain from the hat, thus breaking his spell, and subsequently expels the Titans and the loot back into the real world. As he is arrested, Mumbo eagerly asks Raven about how she managed to pull off her trick, but Raven smugly responds, "A magician never reveals her secrets."

Characters

Main Characters

• Raven

Supporting Characters

• Robin
• Starfire
• Cyborg
• Beast Boy

Villains

• Mumbo Jumbo
  • Anycard

Trivia

• The premise of this episode might be a reference to the television show Lidsville, as both feature the main character(s) going into a magician's hat and ending up in a surreal world. Plus, Mumbo Jumbo's similarity to Lidsville's the Great HooDoo is also noteworthy.
• One of the Mumbo look-alikes called Raven’s trick “old hat”, a phrase meaning old-fashioned. Referring to the fact that Raven‘s trick is merely pulling herself out of a hat. Which is one of the oldest magician tricks, commonly done with rabbit’s no less.
• The secret to the trick Raven used to kick Mumbo in the face from his hat seems to be that she took advantage of her circus themed magical powers.
• This is the only episode in the Teen Titans series with a musical number sung by one of the actual voice actors. The other instance of a musical number with an actual voice actor appears in the Teen Titans movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo.
• Mumbo Jumbo has similar mannerisms to Jafar from Aladdin. In addition, the song number Master Of Your Fate is similar to "You Are Only Second Rate" from the Direct-to-video sequel "Return of Jafar". The use of the Magic hands as well as some of the tricks he does during the song, are a reference to "Friend Like Me".
• The two elderly Mumbos in the loge making puns on the show are an obvious reference to The Muppet Show characters Statler and Waldorf, who likewise keep heckling with sarcastic puns in their show.
• The Mumbo stage manager is also an obvious reference to Scooter from The Muppet Show.
• When Mumbo appears as a fortune teller machine, it's a reference to the Zoltar machine from the movie Big.
• When Robin is turned into a monkey his cape is yellow instead of its usual black resembling that of other Robins from the comics.
• Starfire's quote about being a cat in a hat is an obvious reference to Dr. Seuss' "Cat in the Hat"
• The way that Mumbo smiles at the end of his music number is similar to how the Cheshire Cat smiles in Alice in Wonderland 
• The Maestro at the piano is modeled after the entertainer Liberace.
• The Titanimals and Mumbo are featured again in a DC Nations New Teen Titans short called "Titanimal Kingdom".
• Raven putting mumbo's hat makes her resemble fellow DC Comics heroine Zatanna, who was a stage magician who could create magic spells by speaking backwards.
• When Mumbo is trying to turn Beast Boy into an animal (but failing due to his powers) he turns him into a mouse a duck and a dog, a possible reference to Disney's "The Sensational Six" who all consist of pairs of those animals.
• This was the first episode to air in 2005.

Gallery

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See also

Bunny Raven... or ...How to Make A Titananimal Disappear (Transcript)