Titan A.E.Where will we be a year from now? Or even a thousand? Will we finally put aside our differences and reach out to the stars to discover what mysteries our universe holds? Or will we learn that some mysteries imperil us more than we ever could ourselves? Titan A.E. is a sci-fi animated film about the diaspora of humanity amid the stars following the destruction of Earth in the 31st century by an alien race composed of pure energy called the Drej, who employ genocide because they are afraid of what our species might become. Among the few survivors is a young man named Cale, who has a destiny to claim...if he's ready for it.
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To date, Titan A.E. is the last feature film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, following their smash hit, Anastasia. It was a movie originally conceived as a live action sci-fi adventure story. Screenplay credits include Joss Whedon, and the tone and pacing of the movie resembles other works by him, including The Avengers, through its mix of contemporary dialogue juxtaposed with world-shaking events--quite literally in the case of Titan A.E. Compared to previous Bluth animated films, Titan A.E. employs a dramatic amount of computer generated imagery (CGI). However, because of the scope of this project and budget cuts, this forced much of the CGI to be farmed out to other studios. Despite what has become a swansong for Fox Animation Studios (the animation studio behind Titan A.E. and many of Bluth's prior films), and that it was considered something of a commercial and critical disappointment at the time of its release, this movie has grown into a cult classic over the years. A part of this has to do with the quaintly dated soundtrack, which is peppered throughout the movie a bit too liberally for my taste, including then-radio popular bands like Powerman 5000 and Jamiroquai. Regretfully, this overemphasis on selling the soundtrack does the film's most electrifying set pieces a disservice in my opinion. Take the majestic "Wake Angels" scene, where Cale--having reunited with an old colleague of his father's named Korso, who is now the captain of a spaceship called "Valkyrie"--pilots the "Valkyrie" through the gaseous rings of a planetoid. The "wake angels" are essentially luminescent space manta rays, who glean energy from the "wake" of spaceships. Cale pilots the craft through twists and turns in a dazzling display...but this awe-inspiring scene somehow feels cheapened by overlaying "It's My Turn to Fly" by The Urge all over it. I'm reminded of a story about 2001: A Space Odyssey, being that Stanley Kubrick originally wanted Pink Floyd to score his movie. Although I'm a fan of Pink Floyd and all, this would have been a grave mistake, and would have inflicted a "sell by" date on the movie, rendering its anachronistic score (and subsequently, the movie) as nothing more than a relic of the past, which is what has happened to Titan A.E.
Like the soundtrack, time has shown that CGI becomes increasingly unconvincing with age. And while this is also true with Titan A.E. to an extent, it is a credit to the film's technical prowess that it isn't a more severe cinematic sin than it is. Compare the rather gorgeous computer animation used for the Drej--giving them a distinctly "alien" feel--or the massive ice crystals as big as moons in the Andali Nebula with other sci-fi films of the era (like Event Horizon or Alien 3, for example), and it becomes immediately apparent just how deftly the CGI was merged with the movie's traditional animation. Also, like many animated movies targeted for theatrical release (including Anastasia), Titan A.E. has popular live action film stars voicing the characters, including Drew Barrymore as Akima Kunimoto, a pilot of the "Valkyrie", and Bill Pullman as Korso. This stylistic choice has pros and cons; American audiences may associate aspects from these actors' other roles to add a degree of depth to their characters, but it can also be terribly distracting if the voice is, maybe, too different from that audience expectation. (I am reminded of Billy Bob Thornton's casting in the English dub of Princess Mononoke here.) Call it personal opinion, but I always feel suspicious when a movie is flooded with celebrity voice actors, as though it were afraid that we wouldn't like it if we didn't have someone like Matt Damon in the lead to fill seats in the theater. Conversely, some animated classics are genuinely enriched by the performances of these talents; for example, Bluth's own The Secret of NIMH, and Dom DeLuise's delightful performance as Jeremy the crow. Ultimately, this has been a consistent part of Bluth's body of work, so the best way to look at it is as a stylistic choice, I suppose.
Titan A.E. opens with a narration by Cale's father--voiced by Ron Perlman--who speaks of revolutionary steps in humanity's history that have led us to a paradigm shift in our understanding of the world (or worlds, as is the case here)--from fire and electricity, to splitting the atom. He adds that the "Titan Project" will serve as the next step in our species' evolution, although the nature of this project remains deliberately obfuscated until the climax of the movie, at which point it serves as something of a glorified reset button. But this sends a unique message about humanity and risks inherent in the advancement of our species. It is indicated that the creation of the Titan Project directly resulted in the Drej destroying the Earth, so the lingering question is whether exploring this reality-shattering technology did more harm than good. Certainly people have died from fire and electricity, and nuclear power is now an ecological peril that appears to have more detriments than benefits--just look at Chernobyl. But the answer to the question about whether we should take that risk is a core tenet of what we are as a species: we try or we stagnate and become obsolete. This is the spirit of adventure that is at the root of Titan A.E., and the movie answers its own question by saying "yes", we should try and we should reach higher and higher, to the stars and beyond, if we are to ever discover what makes our lives special.
Recommended for: Fans of a gorgeous (if inevitably dated) sci-fi animated adventure film that has oodles of thrilling alien locales and a motley crew of space cowboys searching for a galactic MacGuffin to save humanity. For audiences seeking sci-fi action in an animated movie without adult content (e.g. Heavy Metal), Titan A.E. is a good choice, as it is devoid of virtually any foul language, and has only a couple of moments of severe violence or partial nudity. That said, the prologue involving the exodus from Earth and the Drej's total disregard for killing noncombatants is pretty horrifying.
Like the soundtrack, time has shown that CGI becomes increasingly unconvincing with age. And while this is also true with Titan A.E. to an extent, it is a credit to the film's technical prowess that it isn't a more severe cinematic sin than it is. Compare the rather gorgeous computer animation used for the Drej--giving them a distinctly "alien" feel--or the massive ice crystals as big as moons in the Andali Nebula with other sci-fi films of the era (like Event Horizon or Alien 3, for example), and it becomes immediately apparent just how deftly the CGI was merged with the movie's traditional animation. Also, like many animated movies targeted for theatrical release (including Anastasia), Titan A.E. has popular live action film stars voicing the characters, including Drew Barrymore as Akima Kunimoto, a pilot of the "Valkyrie", and Bill Pullman as Korso. This stylistic choice has pros and cons; American audiences may associate aspects from these actors' other roles to add a degree of depth to their characters, but it can also be terribly distracting if the voice is, maybe, too different from that audience expectation. (I am reminded of Billy Bob Thornton's casting in the English dub of Princess Mononoke here.) Call it personal opinion, but I always feel suspicious when a movie is flooded with celebrity voice actors, as though it were afraid that we wouldn't like it if we didn't have someone like Matt Damon in the lead to fill seats in the theater. Conversely, some animated classics are genuinely enriched by the performances of these talents; for example, Bluth's own The Secret of NIMH, and Dom DeLuise's delightful performance as Jeremy the crow. Ultimately, this has been a consistent part of Bluth's body of work, so the best way to look at it is as a stylistic choice, I suppose.
Titan A.E. opens with a narration by Cale's father--voiced by Ron Perlman--who speaks of revolutionary steps in humanity's history that have led us to a paradigm shift in our understanding of the world (or worlds, as is the case here)--from fire and electricity, to splitting the atom. He adds that the "Titan Project" will serve as the next step in our species' evolution, although the nature of this project remains deliberately obfuscated until the climax of the movie, at which point it serves as something of a glorified reset button. But this sends a unique message about humanity and risks inherent in the advancement of our species. It is indicated that the creation of the Titan Project directly resulted in the Drej destroying the Earth, so the lingering question is whether exploring this reality-shattering technology did more harm than good. Certainly people have died from fire and electricity, and nuclear power is now an ecological peril that appears to have more detriments than benefits--just look at Chernobyl. But the answer to the question about whether we should take that risk is a core tenet of what we are as a species: we try or we stagnate and become obsolete. This is the spirit of adventure that is at the root of Titan A.E., and the movie answers its own question by saying "yes", we should try and we should reach higher and higher, to the stars and beyond, if we are to ever discover what makes our lives special.
Recommended for: Fans of a gorgeous (if inevitably dated) sci-fi animated adventure film that has oodles of thrilling alien locales and a motley crew of space cowboys searching for a galactic MacGuffin to save humanity. For audiences seeking sci-fi action in an animated movie without adult content (e.g. Heavy Metal), Titan A.E. is a good choice, as it is devoid of virtually any foul language, and has only a couple of moments of severe violence or partial nudity. That said, the prologue involving the exodus from Earth and the Drej's total disregard for killing noncombatants is pretty horrifying.