tiscali.film & tv review

Running time: 95 mins
Starring: Voices of: Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, John Leguizamo, Ron Perlman

The year is 3028 and Earth is under attack from a vicious alien race known as the Drej, merciless beings made of pure energy who despise mankind above all else in the universe.

Thankfully, the humans are prepared for the assault and manage to escape Earth before it explodes. Among those who leave in the nick of time are five-year-old Cale and his alien guardian Tek (voiced by Tone-Loc), separated from Cale's brave scientist father Sam Tucker (Ron Perlman) who must pilot Earth's greatest treasure, a ship christened the Titan, to safety on the other side of the galaxy.

Fourteen years later, Cale (Matt Damon) has grown up to be a rebellious loner working at Salvage Station Tau 14. He's reckless and always getting himself into trouble, and can barely contain his bitter resentment towards his father for abandoning him.

But redemption is just a light year away when Captain Korso (Bill Pullman) docks at Tau 14, hoping to recruit Cale for a dangerous mission. Korso plans to find Titan before the Drej and unleash whatever magical power is contained within the craft. His only guide is a map imprinted in Cale's hand.

Joined by beautiful navigator Akima (Drew Barrymore), dour first officer Preed(Nathan Lane), weapons expert Stith (Janeane Garofalo) and eccentric scientist Gune (John Leguizamo), Cale begins his quest to find the mysterious Titan, embarking on an incredible adventure to new and exciting planets which will eventually lead him to his father.

The detailed, digitally created backgrounds and hand-drawn characters are often at odds with one another - the former always crisp and clear, the latter looking sloppy and muted in comparison. The mismatches are especially evident during the numerous action sequences, which rely heavily on speed and edge of seat thrills.

A high stake game of hide-and-seek in a minefield of giant ice crystals is particularly striking, the two ships using their reflections to confuse one another. Titan AE has plenty of eye candy for its target audience - teenage boys - to chew on.

Unfortunately, the same care hasn't been taken with the screenplay which hastily sketches characters and their motives before launching into the next slam-bang fix. Cale is a sympathetic hero but his feelings towards his father are only given scant regard, and his romance with Akima is surprisingly problem-free. Within the space of 95 minutes, neither has much room to develop as an individual let alone a couple.

Wikipedia.org article

Titan A.E. is a 2000 animated science fiction adventure film from Fox Animation Studios and Twentieth Century Fox. The title refers to the fictional spacecraft that is central to the plot, with A.E. meaning "After Earth."

The film's animation technique combines traditional hand-drawn animation and extensive use of computer generated imagery. The film is in color, running 94 minutes in length, and is rated PG for "action violence, mild sensuality, and brief language." Its working title was Planet Ice.

Summary 

n the dawn of the 31st century, deep space travel has become a daily routine for the human race, who have by now used their advanced technology to reach into the deepest reaches of the Galaxy, pursuing domination. The film opens with protagonist Cale's father stating that mankind's future is forever altered whenever a secret of the universe is unlocked (fire, electricity, nuclear fission, etc.), referring to the newest such secret, codenamed "Project Titan". Although this discovery has a peaceful purpose, an energy-composed alien race called the Drej see it as a threat to their existence.

In the year 3028 A.D., on the outskirts of Pierce, Colorado, young Cale Tucker is testing out an invention he made at a brook when a flock of panicked birds flies by, indicating an approaching dust storm. The brook turns violent, breaking Cale's invention and almost causing Cale to lose it. Sam Tucker, Cale's father, rescues the invention and tells Cale that now is not the time to fix it, because the Drej, having found out about the secret Titan ship, are attacking Earth, in response to which the Earth's President has ordered an immediate evacuation of the planet in case the Earth's Global Defense System (abbreviated as "GDS") fails to drive off the attackers.

While Sam and Cale wait for transport, Cale spots a fleet of V/STOL aircraft heading towards the Spaceport. A hovering jeep, driven by Joseph Korso and Sam's alien friend Tek, takes the Tuckers to the Spaceport, where streams of refugees are boarding spaceships. The jeep stops near a spaceship reserved for relatives of the scientists involved in Project Titan. To Cale's horror, Sam chooses to stay behind, giving Cale a ring just as Korso reveals that the Drej have succeeded in breaching the GDS. Tek takes Cale aboard the ship, while Sam takes the hover jeep to the Titan's secret underground hangar (cleverly concealed by a 20th century barn) and boards the Titan just as the giant hangar doors open.

Earth, meanwhile, is being attacked by the Drej. Their mothership sends a squadron of smaller "stingers" to attack Earth and some of the evacuees' ships as hundreds of space vehicles are fleeing with mankind aboard. The fighter ships return to the mothership just as the Drej Queen orders the immediate destruction of Earth. The Drej mothership then fires a powerful energy beam toward the North Pole, while the Titan is launched from its secret hangar and disappears into space. The energy beam causes the Earth's spin to increase until the resulting centrifugal force blows the planet to pieces. Magma and chunks of the tectonic plates fly out into space, blowing up the Moon and destroying many escape ships. The debris then gives way to the main title.

Fifteen years later, in 3043, Cale, having been raised and protected by Tek, works on a salvage station built into an asteroid, Tau 14, living a rough life and resenting his father for having disappeared aboard the Titan. Without a home planet, surviving humans have been reduced to space drifters and are constantly bullied by other space-faring races. Cale experiences this when the aliens working at Tau 14 stop him from entering the express line, forcing him to use the docking port, in which the spaceship Valkyrie comes. Cale catches a glimpse of Akima, the ship's pilot, and tries to hide his affections for her by pretending to wash the canopy roof.

Inside, the ship's cockroach-like cook will only serve Cale unappealing alien food. Tek's advice fails to comfort Cale, who is later beaten by two bullies. Korso intervenes and later explains that he is seeking Cale because in the DNA-encrypted ring Sam gave to Cale is a map by which they may find the Titan and unite all of mankind.

During the conversation, three Drej soldiers enter the salvage station. Korso explains to Cale the Drej wish to destroy him in order to conceal the map. The Drej then start firing at Cale and Korso, but the pair manage to stall their attackers my damaging the gravity generator. Although Cale asks Tek to join them, he insists on staying. Cale and Korso flee towards the kitchen and out the air vents. In the process of hotwiring an escape pod, more Drej units infiltrate the station, and Cale is wounded in the arm and leg. Korso manages to pilot the pod up through a glass roof and flies toward the docking port.

During the flight, the pod suffers considerable damage, including a cracked glass canopy. Korso orders Cale to exhale and kicks through the cracking glass. Using a fire extinguisher to propel themselves through the vacuum of space, the pair manage to enter the Valkyrie's cargo bay, which then makes a leap into hyperspace before the Drej fighter ships can attack.

With Akima's help, Cale has his blast wounds healed and thus begins his race across the Universe with Korso and his ship and crew, including first mate Preed, a wisecracking, English-accented, rat-like humanoid (an Akrennian); Gune, an eccentric, green-skinned scientist (a Grepcan); and Stith, a tough, female weapons expert who resembles a kangaroo (a Soggwan).

The map first leads them to a seemingly dead planet, Sesharrim, which is littered with explosive Hydrogen Trees. Cale, Akima, Korso, and Stith travel to a temple by boat, leaving Gune and Preed to guard the ship and watch for the Drej. At the temple, the search party meets with the planet's inhabitants, a bird-like race called the Gaol. The Gaol are hostile towards the intruders until Cale explains that he and his friends are on Sesharrim to look for the Titan. The Gaol leader looks at Cale's hand and instructs him to hold his hand up to the planet's broken moon. Korso and Akima then notice that the map is pointing toward a nebula.

Meanwhile, Preed is distracted from his watchman's task. Gune, paying more attention to the radar, sees Drej fighter ships and immediately alerts Korso. The Gaol facilitate the group's escape after the Drej blow up their boat. Drej shoot down some of the Gaol; during the attack, Akima notices that the Drej are not shooting at Cale, suggesting that they want him alive and not dead as originally thought. Preed and Gune shoot down the many of the remaining Drej ships, but one manages to kidnap Cale and Akima and take them to the Drej mothership. En route, Cale asks Akima why the Drej want to destroy mankind and what mankind did to the Drej that would deserve the loss of Earth. She responds that humanity did nothing to the Drej, but adds that the Drej are afraid of what humanity might become, and narrates her own life's history.

On the mothership, the Drej Queen uses the map to locate the Titan. She orders Cale imprisoned and Akima to be sent to a slave-trade station. Upon her arrival ther, Korso, Preed, and Stith appear at the station. Preed tries and fails to sneak Korso inside. Akima, meanwhile, is being inspected by the guards who brought her; after they open the pod, she beats them and meets her rescuers.

Meanwhile, Cale remains in his cell in the Drej mothership, until he discovers that by using two fingers to push apart the energetic membrane imprisoning him, he can escape his cell. When the Drej Queen orders several fighter ships to go to the nebula, Cale makes his way aboard one of the ships and manages to evade the Drej undetected.

Cale manages to pilot the Drej ship to the Valkyrie. Cale frantically tries to send an encoded sequence to identify himself and prevent confrontation. Korso intercepts the code and allows Cale into the Valkyrie. Cale informs them that the Drej have copied the map, whereupon Gune examines it once more and realizes that it is pointing to a nebula known as the Ice Rings of Tigrin. Later, Korso shows Cale how to pilot the ship and race some Wake Angels (creatures rumored by star pilots to be sources of good luck) for fun.

When they stop at the New Bangkok drifter colony for supplies, Cale and Akima overhear a conversation between Korso and the Drej Queen's hologram, wherein it is revealed that Korso is searching for the Titan in order to hand it over to the Drej for money. In the ensuing confrontation, Korso aggressively reveals that the Drej have long ago killed Sam Tucker after refusing reveal the location of the Titan, and that he believes that it makes no difference whether or not the human race find another home, because the Drej will continue pursuing them until the humans are destroyed. Cale and Akima flee, and Preed—having been aware of Korso's intentions all along—attempts to catch them, only to become stranded on the drifter colony.

There in New Bangkok, Cale and Akima are helped by the colony's elder women. When Cale sees a boy inventing a new sport, he remembers the invention he made during Earth's final hour and other memories of his father. Cale and Akima repair one of the wrecked spacecraft on the station, the Phoenix, and use it to make their way to the Ice Rings of Tigrin, in which the Titan has been hidden. Korso learns of Akima and Cale's actions and follows the pair, who again manage to evade Korso and at last find the Titan.

Within the Titan, Cale and Akima discover that Cale's father had been one of the main architects in designing the craft. The designers, anticipating the destruction of Earth, gave the Titan the ability to create a new planet and loaded it with the DNA of every living Earth species for the purpose of repopulating the new world. Unfortunately, according to a holographic message left by Sam Tucker for Cale, the ship's energy has been long since drained and the process cannot be activated.

Korso finds and boards the Titan, accompanied by Preed. Preed leaves Stith and Gune a communication watch, which later turns out to have been a bomb designed to remove the two of them; Gune apparently sacrifices himself to detonate the bomb away from Stith. Korso and Preed confront Cale and Akima. Cale tries to reason with Korso to no avail. Preed turns on Korso, having been promised his life and a substantial amount of money by the Drej in exchange for his killing of Cale, Akima, and Korso. However, Preed hesitates, and a scuffle follows, in which Korso kills Preed by breaking his neck. Korso then fights with Cale before falling over a railing. Cale grabs hold of Korso's hand, trying to save him, while Korso goads him to let him fall to his death. Cale refuses to let go, but Korso slips from his grip and falls. However, Korso survives by hanging onto a rope. Akima and Cale, joined by Stith, then work together to defend the Titan against the impending Drej attack. Cale realizes that the energy comprising the Drej and their ships may be used to power up the Titan's systems; therefore they work to bring the vessel online, until they see that one of the circuits is jammed.

As Cale dons a space suit, and Akima and Stith use the Titan's guns to provide cover for Cale. The Drej ships destroy the guns and threaten Cale until Gune, who has survived the explosion, pilots the Valkyrie to fight the Drej ships. He manages to damage one, which crashes and pins Cale against the Titan's outer wall.

Korso reappears, but unexpectedly frees Cale, realizing that they might have a chance to defeat the Drej. The ships then return to the mothership, which is preparing to fire in the same method it used to destroy Earth. Korso joins Cale in the circuitry room, and persuades him to use his ring to power up the system while Korso sacrifices himself to bridge the jammed circuit. Reluctantly, Cale agrees, and bids farewell to his friend. Korso, bleeding to death after suffering a blast from a Drej ship, uses his final moments to bridge the circuit with his gun. the Drej mothership fires a destructive beam at the Titan. Cale, at the last moment, uses the ring to channel the beam's power into the Titan's systems. The Titan drains all the Drej energy—which causes them to disintegrate—and uses the surrounding matter to form a new planet, which is mostly comprised of the Ice Rings.

The film ends with Akima and Cale standing upon their newly-created world, with Stith and Gune flying above them aboard the Valkyrie, and bidding their friends "good bye" as they prepare to kiss. Akima wants to name the planet "New Earth," while Cale suggests naming it "Bob" as a joke. The final scene is of the human refugees in the spaceships coming to the planet labeled "New Earth [Planet Bob]." It is now the year 16 A. E. ("After Earth").

Reception  

Titan A.E. was not financially successful. After it made only $9,376,845 during its opening weekend, Fox Animation Studios was shut down. The film only grossed a total of $22,753,426 in theaters.

One of the reasons most commonly given for the financial failure of Titan A.E. is its poorly identified target audience.^{[citation needed]} People were unsure, having seen trailers for the film, whether it were intended for the older sci-fi fan crowd, or whether it was pitched more at children.^{[citation needed]} This confusion was further increased by the mixture of people used to write and direct the production. Joss Whedon, was, at the time, famous for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as for making contributions to films such as Speed and Disney/Pixar's G-rated family CGI hit Toy Story, whereas Don Bluth and Gary Goldman were more noted for creating also G-rated children's cartoons such as The Secret of NIMH and Anastasia. Bluth later added to the confusion when he stated during an interview with HBO's First Look, "This is not one of those cute, little kid musicals; this film is nothing but action." The film treats its soundtrack as a purely background element. However, the film garners a 50% "fresh" rating among users at Rotten Tomatoes and a "C+" at Box Office Mojo. Notably, though, film critic Roger Ebert enjoyed it, giving it 3.5/4 stars for its "rousing story," "largeness of spirit," and "galactic visuals [which] are beautiful in the same way photos by the Hubble Space Telescope are beautiful." He cited the Ice Rings sequence as "a perfect examine [sic] of what animation can do and live action cannot."[1] Another possible reason for its failure could be the fact that it was overshadowed by Disney's Tarzan.

Prequels

To tie in with the film, there were a series of prequel novels released, as well as a prequel comic book mini-series.

• Cale's Story told the adventures of Cale, ending with the beginning of the film. The book chronicles Cale growing up on Vusstra, Tek's home planet, for ten years and having to move to a different place every time the Drej attack. It also reveals how Cale became resentful of his father's disappearance and how he came to despise drifter colonies.
• Akima's Story told the adventures of Akima, ending with the beginning of the film. The book chronicles Akima's life aboard drifter colonies when she tries to be close to her family and how she trained to be a starship pilot after the Drej killed her grandmother and destroyed her most recent drifter colony. It also reveals whence Akima learned her karate skills and the reason for which she is desperate to find the Titan.

The Dark Horse Comics prequel comic told the story of Sam Tucker and his crew, and their quest to hide the Titan.

 

[edit] Cast

• Matt Damon — voice of Cale Tucker
• Drew Barrymore — voice of Akima
• Bill Pullman — voice of Capt. Joseph Korso
• John Leguizamo — voice of Gune
• Nathan Lane — voice of Preed
• Janeane Garofalo — voice of Stith
• Ron Perlman — voice of Professor Sam Tucker
• Alex D. Linz — voice of Young Cale
• Tone Loc — voice of Tek
• Jim Breuer — voice of The Cook

 

Soundtrack

1. "Over My Head" — Lit
2. "The End is Over" — Powerman 5000
3. Cosmic Castaway — Electrasy
4. "Everything Under the Stars" — Fun Lovin' Criminals
5. "It's My Turn to Fly" — The Urge
6. "Like Lovers (Holding On)" — Texas
7. "Not Quite Paradise" — Bliss 66
8. "Everybody's Going to the Moon" — Jamiroquai
9. "Karma Slave" — Splashdown
10. "Renegade Survivor" — The Wailing Souls
11. "Down to Earth" — Luscious Jackson

 

[edit] Cinematography, Influences and Music

• Creed's song "Higher" was played in many of the theatrical trailers for Titan A.E., but the song did not appear either in the movie or on the soundtrack.

• The film is credited as being produced using CinemaScope, when in fact it is a regular anamorphic film and does not use the long retired CinemaScope process which was notorious for causing visual problems with animated films. As with his 1997 film Anastasia, Don Bluth insisted the CinemaScope credit be used.

• In the first scene when they arrived at New Bangkok, as the camera pans out, you can clearly see a Death Star-looking formation around the center of the space station.

• The Tattoo on Cale's upper right arm bears a striking resemblance to the emblem of the "Terran Empire" from Star Trek

• For the "New Genesis" scene, Blue Sky Studios created the entire CGI. Blue Sky is known for feature-length animated films such as Robots, Ice Age, and Ice Age: The Meltdown. They have also done a lot of live-action work, including the 'sliding' penguin in the movie Fight Club, and the infamous talking fish on the HBO series The Sopranos.

• The theatrical poster depicted Cale running forward and firing a gun. However, this film was released during the fallout of the Columbine High School massacre, and movie companies were coming under heavy criticism for violence in films. As a result, for the home video release, an altered version of the movie poster was used for the box cover which depicted Cale in a similar pose, except instead of the gun, his hand was outstretched, revealing the map.

• Due to the high, rasping voice of his character, Gune, John Leguizamo developed problems with his voice during production, as stated in the movie's Fox Kids special "The Quest for the Titan," which can be seen on the film's DVD release.

 

[edit] The Digital Screening

Titan A.E. became the first major motion picture to take part in end-to-end digital cinema. On June 6, 2000, ten days before the movie was released, at the SuperComm 2000 tradeshow, the movie was projected simultaneously at the tradeshow in Atlanta, Georgia as well as a screen in Los Angeles, California. It was sent to both screens from the 20th Century Fox production facilities in Los Angeles via a private internet LAN line. [2]

 

[edit] External links

• White Paper (pdf) by Qwest communications about historic digital screenings
• Titan A.E. at the Internet Movie Database
• Titan A.E. at Rotten Tomatoes
• Titan A.E. at Box Office Mojo
• IGN Information Page on the cancelled game

 

 

Silver Screen Reviews

My first glimpse of Titan A.E. came a year ago.  It came as a teaser during the trailers before Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace.  I thought it would be live action at first.  All that was shown was the Earth being blown up.  My assumption that this would be another sci-fi extravaganza like Independence Day (1996) was laid to rest early this year, when I discovered that Titan A.E. would be an animated movie.  Then I found out that Don Bluth and Gary Goldman were at the helm.  At their best, Bluth and Goldman are unbeatable at animation.  Their work includes the wonderful The Secret of NIMH (1982) and An American Tail (1986).  After some weak efforts, they bounced back in 1997 with Anastasia, one of the best films of that year.  Bluth and Goldman have an uneven track record, so I wondered how their second effort from Fox Animation Studios would turn out.

Titan A.E. doesn't quite measure up to Anastasia.  The soundtrack isn't all that good, for one thing.  The movie's animation technique is sometimes choppy.  In one scene, the hero's tatoo "floats" on his arm.  In addition, the stunning backgrounds don't always mix well with the characters, which appear to have been created using standard techniques.  Once we get into the story, though, these flaws aren't much of a distraction.  Anastasia succeeds with both music and animation, as well as having a good enough story of its own.  Titan A.E. differs from the first Fox Animation effort because of its science fiction roots.  Sci-fi animation is something that rarely reaches theaters in the U.S.  There hasn't been a market for such films, mainly because what few films have reached the theaters have been disappointments.  By the looks of it, Titan A.E. will likely make an impact, and hopefully will pave the way for more animated science fiction films.

The story combines elements from Star Wars and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but that doesn't restrict the movie from reaching into the realms of originality.  The movie opens in 3028, which is 28 years after Jonnie Goodboy Tyler and his band of cavemen outwitted the evil Psychlos.  Oops, wrong movie.  I meant to say that 3028 is the year that the evil Drej destroyed the Earth.  Before that happens, Sam Tucker (Ron Perlman) puts his son Cale on an escape ship, before disappearing along with the Titan spaceship.  The Drej feared the increasing technological advances of humans, so wiping them out was their only alternative.  Some humans did manage to get away, and have resorted to living out their lives as scavengers.

Fourteen years after Earth's destruction, Cale (Matt Damon) works in a space junkyard.  He disowns his father for abandoning him.  He still wears the ring his father gave him, but otherwise, he doesn't talk or think about him much.  He lives out his life with little hope or ambition.  That is, until Captain Korso (Bill Pullman) enters his life and reveals some startling information.  Korso worked with Cale's father years before on the Titan project, and the ring Cale wears holds the secret to its location.  Cale is reluctant at first, but the Drej get wind of the ring and decide to hunt him down.  With few other options, Cale agrees to join the search for the Titan.

Korso's crew consists of the eccentric Gune (John Leguizamo), pilot Akima (Drew Barrymore), weapon’s expert Stith (Janeane Garofalo) and scientist Preed (Nathan Lane).  Together, they journey from one world to the next, tracking down the Titan's location while the Drej are not too far behind.  What is so important about the Titan?  That is never revealed until the end, but in the meantime, the Drej are willing to do anything to get to it.

Even though the influence of Star Wars is seen throughout, with the weird aliens, imaginative worlds and the fact that Korso calls Cale "kid," the movie stands on its own by developing tension in the narrative, and by including some standout scenes that really give the film its punch.  A chase scene involving a motorboat and Drej ships is made exciting by its fast-paced animation and the inclusion of hydrogen balloons that explode on impact.  Another awesome sequence involves Cale's ship and another ship in the Ice Rings of Tigrin.  The soundtrack crackles with shattering ice.  The huge shards float hazardously while the two ships are confused by the countless reflections.

The movie doesn't stop there.  There is romantic chemistry between Cale and Akima.  I also liked the film's subtle humor.  In the beginning, Cale looks grim over his meal, which is still moving, as if a Klingon was the chef.  Korso's crew is also a surprise.  They get adequate screen time in order to develop into interesting characters.

2000 has been a slow year for terrific films.  Titan A.E. is one of the better ones.  It is a film filled with breathtaking visions and good storytelling.  That's two in a row for Bluth and Goldman.