Titan A.E.

Titan A.E.
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Don Bluth Gary Goldman
Screenplay by	Ben Edlund John August Joss Whedon
Story by	Hans Bauer Randall McCormick
Produced by	Don Bluth Gary Goldman David Kirschner
Starring	Matt Damon Bill Pullman John Leguizamo Nathan Lane Janeane Garofalo Drew Barrymore
Music by	Graeme Revell
Production companies	David Kirschner Productions Fox Animation Studios
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	June 16, 2000
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$75,000,000
Box office	$36,754,634

Titan A.E. is a 2000 American animated post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by 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 (with digital ink and paint/animation using Toon Boom) and extensive use of computer generated imagery and features the voices of Matt Damon, Bill Pullman and Drew Barrymore. Its working title was Planet Ice. The film was a failure at the box office, barely grossing half of its production budget, though it received a mixed to positive response and is mostly notable for the opening sequence, which features a disturbing graphic and detailed Earth destruction sequence.

Plot

In 3028, the Drej, a malevolent, energy-based species, decide to destroy Earth after declaring war on humanity. Professor Sam Tucker (Ron Perlman), a lead researcher of the experimental Project Titan, gives his 5-year-old son, Cale (Alex D. Linz), a ring and sends him on one of the evacuation ships with his alien friend, Tek (Tone Loc). Meanwhile, Sam and other members of his team fly the Titan spacecraft from Earth and into hyperspace. The Drej mothership fires on Earth, obliterating it.

Fifteen years later, humans have been reduced to either living in drifter colonies or being second class citizens in alien societies. Cale (Matt Damon) is breaking up spaceships in the salvage yard of the Tau 14 asteroid belt. Joseph Korso (Bill Pullman), a human captain who requests Cale's help to find the Titan. He shows Cale how his ring contains a map to the ship. It is genetically-encoded to Cale's father and will also respond to Cale himself, making him the only chance for humanity's future. Cale has no interest in going with him, but the Drej show up, forcing Cale and Korso escape to Korso's ship, the Valkyrie.

Cale is introduced to the other members of Korso's alien crew; sly first mate Preed (Nathan Lane), astrogator Gune (John Leguizamo), cranky weapons expert, Stith (Janeane Garofalo) and other human is co-pilot Akima (Drew Barrymore), to whom Cale falls in love. They travel to the planet Sesharrim, where the Gaoul, a race of bat-like creatures, helps Cale understand how to interpret the map and find the Titan, hidden in the Andali Nebula. The Drej again attacks the group and captures Cale and Akima. The Drej eventually discard Akima, sending her off into space in a pod where she is recovered by the Valkyrie crew. The Drej scans the map from Cale, but Cale escapes on a Drej ship and reunites with the Valkyrie as well.

The ship is able to reach the human drifter colony called New Bangkok for repairs and preparation for the trip to the Titan. Overseeing arguments between Korso and the Drej Queen, and learns that Korso and Preed are working for the Drej to try to destroy the Titan in exchange for money, Cale and Akima escape from the ship, but she is wounded by Preed. The Valyrie departs without them, with Gune and Stith still unaware of Korso and Preed's treachery. Fortunately, the colony consists of a number of derelict spaceships, cobbled together. With the help of the other residents, Cale and Akima repair and refit one of the ships, the Phoenix. They race off to find the Titan before Korso can.

Amid the Andali Nebula's giant ice crystals, Cale and Akima find the Titan. While exploring the gigantic ship, they discover a holographic message left by Cale's dead father, revealing the true nature of Project Titan: The ship is able to create a completely new, Earth-like planet. Since it also has DNA samples of the destroyed Earth's plants and animals as well, they can ultimately be recreated as well. This latest advancement was the reason the Drej feared humanity's potential enough to destroy Earth. Cale's father also explains that the Titan's energy was depleted escaping Earth, and it requires a vast injection of energy to function. Korso and Preed confront Cale and Akima and interrupt his father's message. Preed detonates a small bomb designed to kill Gune and Stith and betrays Korso, revealing a more tempting deal; Preed will live (and get paid for helping the Drej find the Titan), provided he murders them all before they arrive. Akima fails to disarm Preed before he knocks her unconscious, but Korso kills him. Korso drops Cale's ring and falls into the depths of the Titan, but he grabs onto a cable. The Drej arrive and begin attacking the Titan.

Surviving Preed's bomb, Stith arrives and three work to defend the Titan from the Drej. Cale decides to re-configure the Titan, they can use the Drej to start the ship's reactor since they are pure energy. He activates two of the three circuit breakers needed to channel the Drej energy into the Titan. Cale dons a space suit and goes outside to fix it where Gune who also survived the bomb, uses the Valkyrie's guns to fight the Drej. As Cale reaches the breaker station, he is pinned by a Drej ship Gune shot down but Korso uses a large laser rifle to free Cale. Aware that it may be possible to defeat the Drej after all, Korso tells Cale to get to the breaker while he provides him cover fire. Cale reaches the faulty breaker, but is unable to fix it. As the Drej prepare for a final attack, Korso tells Cale to activate the ship. He wedges his rifle into the gap between the breakers, closing the circuit, but at the cost of his own life. When the Drej mothership fires its energy weapon, it is absorbed into the main reactor of the Titan and destroyed, and the latter then uses the massive amounts of usable matter in the ice field to create a new planet.

As Cale and Akima step onto the planet, Cale jokingly decides to call it "Bob." Akima insists that she's never calling it that, and they kiss. As the movie ends, the humans from New Bangkok and other drifter colonies are shown en route to New Earth (Planet Bob) to start new lives.

Voice cast

• Matt Damon as Cale Tucker, a 20-year-old human with a very large chip on his shoulder. He was separated from his father moments before the destruction of Earth by the Drej 15 years earlier. He is summoned by Joseph Korso to search for the Titan. Animation supervised by Len Simon.
  • Alex D. Linz plays Cale at age 5.
• 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 Sam Tucker. He has Cale join the Valkyrie crew in search of the Titan, but he actually has a very different agenda. Animation supervised by Len Simon.
• Christopher Scarabosio as Drej Queen, the leader of the Drej. She believes that humanity is a threat to the Drej, and intends to purge them from the universe.
• John Leguizamo as Gune, Grepoan and Korso's eccentric scientist. While he behaves in a very odd fashion, he is extremely intelligent: in addition to astrogation and science, he knows how to pilot the Valkyrie and fire its weapons. However, he seems to have a serious distraction problem. Animation supervised by Troy Saliba.
• Nathan Lane as Preed, Korso's first mate. An Akrennian (a race of bat-like creatures) who speaks with an English accent, he is sarcastic and has a crush on Akima. Unlike Korso, he only cares about his own life. He betrays his closest comrades to the Drej, then attempts to kill Korso (who responds by breaking his neck). "The particular alien race that Preed belongs to is very haughty, floating above it all," explains co-director Goldman. "Nathan just seemed appropriate--he can really put on airs when he needs to." In giving voice to Preed, Lane has said he took aural inspiration from none other than the imperious George Sanders. Described in the Ben Edlund 12/15/97 Goldenrod Production draft of the screenplay 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 expert. A good friend to Akima, she is also protective of Gune, but highly distrusts Preed. Animation supervised by Troy Saliba.
• Ron Perlman as Sam Tucker, the father of Cale Tucker who was forced to leave his son to hide the Titan from the Drej and was presumably killed because he refused to disclose the Titan's location to them.
• Tone Loc as Tek, a university student and Sam Tucker's friend. At some point during the fifteen years since Earth's descruction he apparently became totally blind (though his blindness is never mentioned in the movie, but it is hinted when he struggles to find a salt shaker on his table). Animation supervised by Edison Goncalves.
• Jim Breuer as The Cook, a cockroach-like alien who despises humans. The Ben Edlund 12/15/97 Goldenrod Production draft of the screenplay reveals his name is It, though no mention of this is ever made in the film.
• Jim Cummings as Chowquin, Cale's overseer on Tau 14.
• Charles Rocket as Firrikash, a large alien co-worker of Cale's on Tau-14, who despises humans. He, along with his friend, Po, tried to beat Cale up while he was alone in the basement of the space station, but Korso intervened, quickly subduing the pair.
• Ken Hudson Campbell as Po, another alien co-worker of Cale's and a friend of Firrikash.

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 trade show 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 VPN.

Reception

Titan A.E. received a mixed to positive critical response, though it did receive an Annie Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. The film was a financial failure and, as a result, Fox Animation Studios was shut down. The film opened at #5, with only $9,376,845 for an average of only $3,430 from each of its 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. It combined post-apocalyptic situations with childlike supporting characters, and people were unsure, having seen trailers for the film, 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. Don 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." The film received 51% positive reviews from critics according to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Notably, though, film critic Roger Ebert loved 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 example of what animation can do and live action cannot."

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 where 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

No.	Title	Artist	Length
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

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. Vertical Horizon's "We Are" and Lunatic Calm's "Leave You Far Behind" were also not included in the soundtrack though both songs appear in the theatrical trailer and the film itself.

External links

• Titan A.E. at IMDb
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Titan A.E. at AllMovie
• Titan A.E. at Box Office Mojo
• Titan A.E. at Rotten Tomatoes
• IGN Information Page on the cancelled game