Selected Customer Reviews
JCMICHAELS.COM Titan A.E. Review
Titan A.E., a highly under-appreciated film about a young man holding the future of mankind in the palm of his hand, just couldn't capture the targeted market, adults. With the unbelievable special effects, beautiful alien worlds and mind-blowing ice ring chase, Titan A.E. has everything to make it a classic animated film. Fortunately for those who didn't get to see it on the big screen, have the opportunity to view it on DVD or the less desirable VHS version.
Along with stunning visuals, the characters have the ability to draw you into the story and really lose yourself in their quest. Matt Damon, Bill Pullman and Drew Barrymore offering their voices to these tenacious characters enable you to become more familiar and comfortable with them. After that initial "whose voice is that" routine, you will realize that the actor fits the character in the same instance as Anastasia.
Overall, if you are looking for space action and exploration, an awesome soundtrack, stunning visuals, and outstanding bonus features, then this is the DVD that you should definitely pick up.
Wasted potential
Marketing strategy must have killed Titan A.E. The films tries too hard to appeal to both children......and older children. In its manic attempt to be "hip" (hero sports tattoo, heroine sports bright purple bangs, intrusive soundtrack featuring banal 80-ish style power-ballads), the gimmicks and innuendos become a distraction. In its attempt to be witty, it becomes sophomoric. Surprisingly, the voice talents (Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, Janeane Garofalo) all fail to breath life into the characters. Indeed, the old-school approach to the character animation clashes with this dark and dystopian tale. Some say the tale is a homage to everything from Star Trek II to Heavy Metal. But unfortunately, with five people hammering at the script, the logic gaps in the screenplay become another serious distraction. The animation itself is awesome. Bluth's immense team of animators has rendered giant, crystalline ice fields and hovering "hydrogen flowers" with a seamless ease; it's some of the most visually enticing work around. But so what? The filmmakers here had the opportunity to do something really original and interesting and instead they just chose to be "cool".
Not exactly "Titan"-ic...
Although I'm a fan of both "space opera" sci-fi and 'toons geared more towards the older crowd, I didn't find "Titan A.E." to be a particularly interesting or original melding of these two elements. On the story side, I found the whole "boy-man-destined-to-save-humanity" angle that the central character plays a bit derivative of, and not played out quite as well as such previous sci-fi messiahs as the 'Star Wars' trilogy's Luke Skywalker and 'Dune's' Paul Atreides/Muad'Dib. I also would've preferred they put a little more exposition into-- and explained with a bit more detail-- the period between the Earth's destruction and the commencing of the hero's search for the Titan. On the technical end of things: although the folks who put this together made an admirable effort to meld both 3-D computer animation and traditional cel animation together as seamlessly as possible, It rarely ever looked quite right. This lack of cohesion is especially noticeable in one scene where a cel-drawn character is walking down a CGI spiral staircase. Or was he walking UP it? See, the thing looks so odd I couldn't even tell which direction the guy was goin' on the staircase! How's THAT for a case in point, eh? Otherwise, the 'toonage was some of the most detailed and painstakingly-rendered I've ever seen in a non-anime feature.
But even though I found the story and animation less than stellar, I thought some of the deleted scenes in the bonus features section were moderately interesting. A few parts of these scenes were rough-drawn, giving the viewer a little window into the animation process and what the film's producers worked with before adding the finishing touches to the 'toonage. The feature-length commentary track featuring co-directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman also lets the viewer in on the more technical aspects of producing animated features in general and 'Titan A.E.' in particular. Sadly, I found their commentary so dry that I bailed out on them about twenty minutes into the feature. It also didn't help that they spoke in an almost hushed tone half the time, prompting me to turn the volume up just so I could understand them.
Also included among the special features were the usual trailers and TV spots for the movie, and a behind-the-scenes special on the making of the feature. My viewing of the BTS special made me come to the realization that I've become rather tired of most of these "making-of" featurettes that they throw onto most "special-edition" DVDs nowadays. About halfway through the show I realized I really didn't give two doots about how the animation was done, or the voice actors talking about the complexities of their characters. Immediately after making this realization, I bailed on the special and decided to go do something a little more productive-- like writing this review about the DVD.
And people say I'm a slacker...
'Late
