Titan A.E. is a 2000 animated post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure film directed by both Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. The title refers to the 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. Its working title was Planet Ice. Even though the film was unsuccessful at the box office, largely overshadowed by Toy Story 2, it was well-received by audiences and critics alike and has since then become a cult film. It is also the final film made by Fox Animation Studios before its closure.
Summary
In 3028 A.D. humanity has deep space travel and interacted with several alien species; however, a human experimental discovery called "Project Titan" has caused the Drej, a species of pure energy, to become alarmed and attack the human race. As the Drej prepare to destroy Earth, Professor Sam Tucker, the lead researcher for "Project Titan", gives his son Cale (along with a broken toy/project/console called "TITAN PRO") a ring and sends Cale on one of the evacuation ships with his alien friend Tek the University Student. Meanwhile Sam Tucker takes the TITAN Pro and other members of his team fly the Titan spacecraft from Earth and into hyperspace. With Earth destroyed, the remainder of the human species become drifters and are generally ridiculed by other species.
Fifteen years after Earth's destruction, Cale, now working in a salvage yard in an asteroid belt called Tau 14, encounters the human Captain Joseph Korso, who requests Cale's help to find the Titan. Cale is initially reluctant but agrees when Korso activates Cale's ring to show a map on his hand leading to the Titan. The yard is attacked by Drej, and the two escape on Korso's ship, the Valkyrie. Cale is introduced to the other members of Korso's alien crew, including his sly first mate Preed, an astrogator called Gune, and a cranky female weapon expert named Stith. The only other human is co-pilot Akima, whom Cale finds himself immediately attracted to. Korso explains that Professor Tucker encoded a map in Cale's ring that will lead them to the Titan, which is humanity's only chance at having a real future. They travel to the planet Sesharrim, where the bat-like Gaoul race helps Cale to understand how to interpret the map, and discover the Titan to be hidden in the Andali Nebula. As the group is leaving, they are attacked by the Drej, and Cale and Akima are captured. The Drej eventually discard Akima, sending her off into space in a pod, while they extract the Titan map from Cale. Cale eventually escapes in a Drej fighter and regroups with the Valkyrie, learning that Akima's pod was located and she was recovered successfully. The Valkyrie is able to reach the human drifter colony called New Bangkok to make repairs and prepare for the final trip to the Titan, however, Cale and Akima discover that Korso and Preed are working with the Drej to try to destroy the Titan in exchange for money; they escape from the Valkyrie but Akima is shot by Preed in the chase. They are stranded on the colony as Korso and the rest continue to the Titan's location. With the help of the other humans, Cale and Akima repair and refit the Phoenix, one of the colony's derelict spaceships, and race off to find the Titan before the Valkyrie reaches it.
Amid the Andali Nebula's giant ice crystals, Cale and Akima find and board the Titan. During their exploration of the massive ship, they discover a holographic message left by Cale's now-deceased father and left the console TITAN PRO, which reveals the true nature of Project Titan and the Titan itself: the ship has the ability to create a completely new, Earth-like planet, and has stores of all the DNA of the animal and plant life that once lived on Earth. This ability to create a new planet from scratch is the reason that the Drej feared humanity's potential enough to destroy Earth. Cale's father also explains that in its escape from the destruction of Earth, the Titan has run out of power, and can't currently execute the process of creating a planet. Cale's father's message is interrupted by Korso, who has arrived with the Valkyrie and the rest of its crew.
Korso and Preed have disembarked, leaving Stith and Gune behind with the intent to get rid of them by planting a bomb inside Stith's wrist-communicator; Gune, however, discovers the detonator on time and throws it down a corridor, saving Stith but suffering serious injuries. Back aboard the Titan, Preed turns on Korso, revealing he intends to kill all three of the humans to curry favor with the Drej. Korso attacks Preed, eventually killing him in hand-to-hand combat. Korso then attempts to steal Cale's ring but falls over the edge of the bridge, disappearing into the depths of the ship below. Before Cale can recover, they learn the Drej are attacking the Titan, and gain the help of the other Valkyrie crew to defend it (including Gune, who unexpectedly recovered from his wounds in the meantime). Cale comes up with a plan; as the Drej are pure energy, he could reconfigure the Titan's power system to harness that energy and start the planet-creation process. Unfortunately, one of three critical circuit breakers malfunctions, forcing Cale to go outside and activate it manually while Akima and Stith attempt to fight off the Drej. Korso reappears and offers to redeem himself by sacrificing his life to complete the circuit while Cale returns to the bridge to activate the Titan. With the ship active, the Drej are drawn into its engines, Korso is electrocuted to death, and the ice field is used to create a new planet. As Cale and Akima step onto the new planet, Cale decides to call it "Bob". The film ends in 3044 A.D. (16 A.E.) with Cale and Akima romantically embracing each other, the surviving crew of the Valkyrie flying off, and other ships with human colonies approach 'New Earth' (Planet Bob) to start their new lives.
Cast of characters
- Matt Damon as Cale Tucker, a 19-year-old human who is separated from his father moments before the destruction of Earth by the Drej fifteen years prior to the main film. He begins to resent his father and background for this, but eventually steps in to fight for his race. Animation supervised by Len Simon.
- Drew Barrymore as Akima Kunimoto, the pilot of the Valkyrie. She works under Captain Korso and is determined to save the human race from extinction. Animation supervised by Len Simon.
- Bill Pullman as Joseph Korso, the captain of the Valkyrie and once an ally of Cale's father (seen as one his subordinates during the prologue of the film). He heads a crew in searching for the Titan which will create a new home for the human race, but he betrays Cale for money from the Drej and seemingly because he believes the Drej cannot be beaten. As soon as Cale discovers their weakness, he gives his life to help destroy them. Animation supervised by Len Simon.
- John Leguizamo as Gune, a Grepoan and Korso's eccentric scientist. While he looks the opposite, he is quite intelligent and even knows how to pilot the Valkyrie. Animation supervised by Troy Saliba.
- Nathan Lane as Preed, Korso's first mate. An Akrennian - a race of batlike creatures - in his late 30s or early 40s who speaks with an English accent, he sarcastically jokes and has unrequited feelings for Akima. Like Korso, he has a weak point for money, demonstrated when he betrays his closest comrades to the Drej and is killed by Korso (who breaks his neck) for this. The character quickly became an audience favorite. Described in the Ben Edlund 12/15/97 Goldenrod Production draft as a "fruit bat-faced alien" whose full name is Preedex Yoa. Animation supervised by Edison Goncalves.
- Janeane Garofalo as Stith, a Kangaroo-like alien known as a Mantrin/Sogowan, who has a cranky, but lovable attitude. She is Korso's tough weapons handler. Animation supervised by Troy Saliba.
- Ron Perlman as Professor Sam Tucker, Cale's father, who is forced to leave his son to hide the Titan ship from the Drej and is killed when he refuses to disclose the Titan's location to them.
- Alex D. Linz as Young Cale, who appeared to be 5-years-old (saying that "he's older than four") when the destruction of Earth took place.
- Tone Loc as Tek, he was a student of University, Sam Tucker's friend who cares for and raises Cale when the two are separated. At some point during the fifteen years between the destruction of Earth and the events of the movie he has gone totally blind. He decides to stay behind when the Drej attack Tau 14, saying to Cale that he'll 'read about him' after he finds the Titan. It is unknown if he survived or not. Animation supervised by Edison Goncalves.
- Jim Breuer as The Cook, an alien who despises humans and treats Cale with nothing but contempt, he is killed by the Drej early on.
- Mark Linn-Baker as Queen Drej, the leader of the Drej, and the main villain of the film. Her sole purpose is to extinguish the human race from the face of the universe. She is destroyed along with her entire race during the climax. She sounds similar to the aliens from Ultraman.
- Jim Cummings as Chowquin, Cale's overseer on Tau 14. He also despises humans, and attempts to beat Cale up early on in the film, but is subdued by Korso.
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, GA as well as a screen in Los Angeles, CA. It was sent to both screens from the 20th Century Fox production facilities in Los Angeles via a VPN.[1]
Reception
While Titan A.E. was met with quite a positive response—even receiving an Annie Award nomination for Best Animated Feature that it lost to Toy Story 2—the film ultimately flopped; it was a financial failure and as a result, after the film's failure, Fox Animation Studios was shut down. The film opened at #5, with only $9,376,845 for an average of only $3,430 from 2,734 theaters. The film then lost 60% of its audience in its second weekend, dropping to #8, with a gross of just $3,735,300 for an average of just $1,346 from 2,775 theaters. The film ended up grossing a mere $36,754,634 worldwide ($22,753,426 in the United States and Canada, and $14,001,208 in international markets).
A reason commonly given for the financial failure of Titan A.E. is its poor marketing with a poorly identified target audience. People were unsure, having seen trailers for the film, how the movie was special and whether it was intended for an older sci-fi fan crowd, or whether it was pitched more at children. This confusion was further increased by the mixture of people used to write and direct the production. Bluth 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". However, the film garners a 70% "fresh" rating among users at Rotten Tomatoes, in comparison to the 51% given by critics, 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 "lush 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".[2]
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: 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: 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, her encounter and friendship with Stith, and the reason for which she is desperate to find the Titan.
- Sam's Story: a Dark Horse Comics prequel comic telling the story of Sam Tucker and his crew, and their quest to hide the Titan.
Soundtrack
- "Over My Head" — Lit
- "The End is Over" — Powerman 5000
- "Cosmic Castaway" — Electrasy
- "Everything Under the Stars" — Fun Lovin' Criminals
- "It's My Turn to Fly" — The Urge
- "Like Lovers (Holding On)" — Texas
- "Not Quite Paradise" — Bliss 66
- "Everybody's Going to the Moon" — Jamiroquai
- "Karma Slave" — Splashdown
- "Renegade Survivor" — The Wailing Souls
- "Down to Earth" — Luscious Jackson
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.
References
External links
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