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Titan A.E.
Titan AE comes across as a live action science-fiction film made as a cartoon. Unlike most cartoons, there are no musical numbers, but there are a large number of scenes in which the film makers are showing off what they could do with the computer animation. This doesn’t detract from the movie though as the scenes themselves are awesome, and fit quite well into the story. Well, all except one, the scene with the wake angels is completely gratuitous, but cool nevertheless.
A couple of big name actors star in cartoon form, namely Matt Damon, Bill Pullman and Drew Barrymore. And as it is a cartoon, there isn’t any real eye candy in the traditional sense. This is alright as the film doen’t require any eye candy to maintain your interest. The plot is simple, but the action moves it along at a rapid pace, and the pretty animation will hold your interest through the slow patches.
Titan AE blends a number of animation styles, from the traditional hand drawn characters through 2-D computer generated backgrounds, and some scenes which are fully 3-D, the transition is relatively seamless, although it is a little jarring at the beginning. Other than that, it’s a relatively straightforward space story, with an alien race trying to destroy the humans, and a small band of humans that must stop them.
Dodginess
If this was a live action film it would probably rate a 4 on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Scale. As it is, the film lacks the requisite dodginess one would normally expect from a cartoon and so only scores a 2. The dodgiest moment in the movie would have to be the number of scenes in which the film makers were just showing off. This includes the destruction of the earth, the creation of a new planet, the game of hide and seek in the ice fields, and of course, the scene with the wake angels. While some of these had little relevance to the plot, they were all pretty to look at.
Rewatchability Rating
Titan AE has really taken the whole “sit back and watch the pretty lights” concept to a new level. The plot seems to serve to move from one set of impressive animations to the next. Despite this, the film is still rewatchable and ranks a 4 on the rewatchability index.
Most Memorable Quote
Humour abounds in Titan AE and the script is what makes the film so rewatchable. My favourite phrase in the movie is “a veritable cornucopia of nothing” but there are other moments, like the naming of the planet in which it gets called “Bob”.
Final Thoughts
Titan AE is one of those great kiddies films, that isn’t really a kiddies film. They do make some concessions to the fact that children will watch it, by only killing the bad guys, but other than that, it’s a reasonably grown up plot. If you haven’t seen it yet, and I’d be very disappointed in you if you haven’t, you’d better get it and watch it. You’ll enjoy it.