Titan A.E.

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.

Plot

It is the dawn of the 31st century, deep space travel has become a daily routine for the human race, and they have by now used their advanced technology to reach into the deepest reaches of the Galaxy, pursuing domination. The film opens with Cale's father explaining about how mankind's future is forever altered whenever a secret of the universe is unlocked (fire, electricity, splitting the atom). By the dawn of the 31st Century, mankind has unlocked another secret, the creation of a new planet, which they've codenamed "Project Titan." Although this discovery is 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 making Cale lose it. Sam Tucker, Cale's father, rescues the invention and tells Cale that now's not the time to fix it as the Drej, having somehow found out about the secret Titan ship, are attacking Earth, and the Earth President has ordered an immediate evacuation of the planet in case the Earth's GDS (Global Defense System) fails to drive off the attackers.

A hover jeep, driven by Joseph Korso and Tek, Sam's alien friend, takes the Tuckers over to the Spaceport where streams of refugees are boarding the spaceships there. To Cale's horror, Sam won't be going with him aboard a small ship. Sam gives Cale a ring just as Korso reveals that the Drej have suceeded in breaching the GDS. Tek takes Cale aboard the ship, while Sam takes the hover jeep over to the Titan's secret underground hangar (cleverly concealed by a 20th Century designed barn) and boards the Titan just as the giant hangar doors open up.

Earth, meanwhile, is being attacked by the Drej. Their mothership sends a squadron of smaller "stingers" to attack Earth and some of the escaping Earth ships just as hundreds of space vehicles manage to escape with the last of 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 just off of the North Pole, just as the Titan is launched from its secret hangar (before Cale's horrified eyes) and disappears into the depths of space. The energy beam causes Earth to spin faster and faster until centrifugal force blows the planet up. 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 looked after by Tek, works on a salvage station built into an asteroid, Tau 14, making out a rough life and hating his father for having disappeared aboard the Titan so long ago. Without a home planet, surviving humans have been reduced to outer space drifters and are constantly bullied and looked down on by other space-faring races. Cale feels this when the aliens working at Tau 14 won't let him take the express line, forcing him to try using the docking port, in which the spaceship Valkyrie comes along. Cale catches a glimpse of Akima, the ship's pilot, and tries to hide his affections by pretending to wash the canopy roof.

Inside, its much worse for Cale as the ship's cockroach-like cook will only serve him disgusting alien food and everyone becomes weightless when the salvage station's faulty gravity generator malfunctions. Advice from Tek doesn't help Cale feel any better, and neither does almost getting beaten up by two aliens, who are stopped when Korso comes along. Korso explains that he is seeking out Cale because he must help them find the Titan which contains a mechanism that will create a new Earth and therefore unite all of humanity, providing them with another chance at life and battle against the Drej.

During the converstation, three Drej soldiers enter the salvage station. Korso explains to Cale the Drej want him for the same reason, only dead. The Drej then start firing at Cale and Korso, but Cale manages to stall them by telling Korso to shoot the gravity generator, which Korso does. Cale then asks Tek to come along, but Tek insists on staying. Cale and Korso make it to the kitchen where they follow the cook into the station's air vents. The two humans then disappear down another vent, leaving the cook to face the Drej. The cook tries to save his hide by telling the Drej where the two humans went, and the Drej "thank" him by blasting him with their ray guns. The blast makes the cook swell up like a balloon and explode into a pile of smelly goo, not to mention a pair of teeth.

Realizing they need to get out of the station, Cale and Korso discover an escape pod and stall the Drej by blowing up a fuel drum. The pod won't start, so Cale has to get out and hotwire it, just as more Drej units infiltrate the station. Cale manages to get into the pod with Korso, but not before a couple of Drej blasts pierce the skin on his arm and leg. Korso manages to pilot the pod up through a glass roof and heads right for the docking port.

During the ride out, the pod's engines are ripped off by some closing airlock doors and it crashes its way out of the docking port by blowing up the hatch. Just as Korso thinks they're out of danger, Cale notices the pod's glass canopy is starting to crack. While the cracks are extending, since Akima won't make it to them before the canopy completly shatters, Korso orders Cale to exhale and kicks through the cracking glass. Then, using a fire extinguisher as a rocket, Korso seizes Cale and pulls him out into the vacuum of space, without the protection of spacesuits, and manages to make it into the Valkyrie's cargo hold just before they explode from decompression. The Valkyrie then makes a leap into hyperspace before the Drej fighter ships can attack.

With Korso's help, Cale has his blast wounds healed and discovers that the ring his father gave to him contains a genetically encoded map to the Titan, and thus begins his race across the Universe with Korso and his ship and crew, including: Preed, a wisecracking, English-accented, rat-like humanoid (an Akrennian) who is Korso's first mate; Gune, an eccentric, green-skinned scientist (a Grepcan); and Stith, a tough, hard-as-nails female weapons expert who resembles something of a kangaroo (a Soggwan). The map first leads them to a a seemingly dead planet, Sesharrim, littered with explosive Hydrogen Trees above the water. They meet with a bird-like race, the Gaol, and their leader uses the planet's broken moon to show Cale the way to the Titan. However, they are attacked by Drej, who kidnap Cale and Akima and take them back to their mothership. En route, Cale asks Akima why the Drej want to destroy mankind and what mankind did to the Drej just to deserve the loss of Earth. She responds that humanity did nothing to the Drej but the Drej are afraid of what humanity might become.

On the mothership, the Drej Queen uses the map to locate the Titan. She orders Cale imprisoned and Akima to be sent to a slaver station within a Drej Escapepod. Cale manages to escape and takes control of a fighter ship while Korso, Preed and Stith rescue Akima, only to find that she has freed herself with ease and beaten her lecherous cellmates unconscious.

Cale manages to pilot the Drej ship to the Valkyrie, and after a small confrontation follows, Cale sends Korso a number-code to identify himself. Korso intercepts the code, and allows Cale inside. Cale informs them that the Drej have copied the map, but Gune examines it once more, and realises that it is pointing to a nebula known as the Ice Rings of Tigrin. Later on, Korso shows Cale how to pilot the ship and race some Wake Angels (creatures rumored by star pilots to be good luck) for fun.

Before long, after they stop at the New Bangkok drifter colony for supplies, Cale and Akima find out, through a conversation between Korso and a Drej Queen hologram, that Korso is searching for the Titan in order to hand it over to the Drej for money (it was actually an argument in which Korso accused the Drej Oueen of violating their agreement on Sesharrim). In the ensuing confrontation, Korso reveals that the Drej have long killed Sam Tucker (who refused to tell them where the Titan is hidden), and that he believes that it makes no difference whether or not the human race find another home, since the Drej will keep pursuing them until they are all wiped out. They narrowly escape from him and Preed, who is working with Korso, only to become stranded on the drifter colony.

While at New Bangkok, Cale and Akima are helped by the colony's elder women. When Cale sees a boy invent a new sport, he remembers the invention he made during Earth's final hour and the good times he used to have with his father before that terrible day. Cale and Akima manage to 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. With Korso in hot pursuit, a cat-and-mouse chase ensues, but Cale and Akima eventually manage to evade Korso, finding the Titan at last.

Within the Titan, Cale and Akima discover that Professor Tucker 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 (Korso needed Stith and Gune out of the way), and Gune apparently sacrifices himself to detonate the bomb away from Stith. Korso and Preed confront Cale and Akima. Cale tries to reason with Korso, but he doesn't listen. Then, Preed turns on Korso, having been promised his life and a substantial amount of money by the Drej in exchange for him killing Cale, Akima and Korso (presumably, the map copy the Drej intercepted didn't work, and they turned to Preed for help). However, Preed hesitates, and a confrontation follows, in which Preed single-handedly defeats his three opponents until Korso sneaks up from behind and 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 as Korso goads him to let him fall to his death. Cale refuses to let go, but Korso slips from Cale's 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, and Cale realizes that the energy comprising the Drej and their ships may be used to power up the Titan's systems, and they work to bring the vessel online, until they see that one of the circuits is jammed.

As Cale gets into a space suit to see to the problem himself, Akima and Stith use the Titan's guns to counterattack the Drej ships and keep them away from Cale. The Drej ships destroy the guns and leave Cale and the Titan as sitting ducks, until Gune, who miraculously survived the explosion, pilots the Valkyrie to fight the Drej ships, but manages to damage one which pins Cale against the Titan's outer wall.

Korso shows up again, but unexpectedly frees Cale, realizing that they might just have a chance to defeat the Drej after all, and continues to fire at the ships to cover Cale. 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 he sacrifices himself to bridge the jammed circuit with his gun (to redeem himself for trying to kill them earlier). Reluctantly, Cale agrees, and bids farewell to his friend. Korso, bleeding to death after a blast from a Drej ship, uses his final moments to bridge the circuit, losing his life in the process as 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 its system. The Titan powers up and drains all the Drej energy, disintegrating the Queen and the mothership and creating a new Earth out 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 just 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 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, if 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 loved 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 it's failure could be because it was overshadowed by Disney's Tarzan. An odd element of the film was the mixture of traditional cel animation and advanced computer graphics.

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.
• Akima's Story told the adventures of Akima, ending with the beginning of the film.

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

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

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.

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]

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

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