| Titan A.E. | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | |
| Screenplay by | |
| Story by | Hans Bauer Randall McCormick |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Edited by | Bob Bender Fiona Trayler Paul Martin Smith |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75–90 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $36.8 million[2] |
Titan A.E. is a 2000 American animatedpost-apocalypticscience fictionaction film directed byDon Bluth andGary Goldman, and starringMatt Damon,Bill Pullman,John Leguizamo,Nathan Lane,Janeane Garofalo, andDrew Barrymore. Its title refers to thespacecraft central to the plot withA.E. meaning "After Earth". The animation of the film combinestraditional hand-drawn created animation with the extensive use ofcomputer-generated imagery.
The film tells the story of a young man who receives a mission to save humanity and protect the giant ship that can create a new planet, after the hostile alien species have destroyed the planet Earth. Along the way, he joins up with a ship's crew and their captain, who help him race against time and find the ship, before the aliens can destroy it.
Theatrically released on June 16, 2000, by20th Century Fox in the United States as the third and final project produced byFox Animation Studios, the film received mixed reviews from critics with praise for its visuals and animation but criticism for its characters and story. The film was also abox office failure, grossing only $36.8 million against a budget of $75–90 million, though it has since become acult classic.[2][4][5]
In 3028, a groundbreaking scientific project known as "The Titan Project" incurs the wrath of the Drej, a hostile race of aliens made of pure energy, who fear that it will allow humans to challenge them. Determined to wipe out humanity due to the potential of the project, the Drej initiate a massive attack on Earth, forcing the human race to evacuate the planet. During the evacuation, Professor Sam Tucker—head researcher on the Titan Project—leaves his young son Cale in the care of his Vusstran friend Tek and flees Earth in the spaceshipTitan. Before he leaves, he gives Cale a gold ring, promising him that there will be hope for humanity as long as he wears it. The Drej destroy Earth, and the surviving humans flee into space.
Fifteen years later, the remnants of humanity live on as refugees, but face extinction without a home planet of their own. Ex-military officer Joseph Korso, a former friend and confidant of Sam, tracks down a jaded and cynical Cale, who works in the salvage yard of space station Tau 14. Korso reveals that a holographic map leading to the location of theTitan is encoded in Cale's ring, and invites Cale to join the crew of his spaceshipValkyrie as they seek theTitan. Accepting Korso's offer, Cale escapes Tau 14 with him as the Drej pursue them. On theValkyrie, Cale befriends pilot Akima Kunimoto, and three alien crew members: first mate Preedex "Preed" Yoa, surly weapons officer Stith, and eccentric astronomer Gune.
Cale's map leads the crew of theValkyrie to the planet Sesharrim, where an alien race called the Gaoul help them interpret the map, revealing that theTitan is hidden in the Andali Nebula. Drej fighters then attack the planet and abduct Cale and Akima in order to copy the map. Akima is rescued by the crew after being jettisoned by the Drej Queen, while Cale escapes the Drej mothership in a stolen fighter and makes his way back to theValkyrie. The map changes to reveal that theTitan is hidden in the Ice Rings of Tigrin, a labyrinthine ice field in space. While resupplying at human space station New Bangkok, Cale and Akima discover that Korso and Preed have made a deal to sell theTitan's location to the Drej. Cale and Akima manage to escape theValkyrie and are left stranded on New Bangkok when Korso leaves for theTitan. Determined to beat Korso to theTitan, they fix up a dilapidated spaceship with help from the station's inhabitants.
Cale and Akima navigate the ice rings of Tigrin in a race against theValkyrie and dock with theTitan. They discover DNA of various animals onboard and a pre-recorded message left by a now-deceased Sam, explaining that the ship was designed to create planets. However, the ship's power cells were drained during the escape from Earth, and lack the energy necessary to create a planet. TheValkyrie arrives, and Preed sets off a bomb in an attempt to kill Stith and Gune. Finding Cale and Akima, Preed reveals that he has betrayed Korso and made his own deal with the Drej, who just arrived and located theTitan. A fight ensues, and Korso kills Preed by snapping his neck. Cale and Korso fight, resulting in Korso falling over a railing.
As the Drej begin their attack on theTitan, Cale realizes that he may be able to recharge theTitan by using the Drej, as they are made of pure energy, but a circuit breaker stalls before he can complete the process. As Cale attempts to repair it, Akima, Stith and Gune fight off the Drej. Korso, who survived his fall, has a change of heart and sacrifices his life to repair the circuit breaker. Cale triggers theTitan's systems, which absorb the Drej and their mothership, killing them. TheTitan creates a new world, and Cale and Akima embrace in the rain on the newly created planet as ships filled with human colonists arrive to start a new life on the planet.
Titan A.E. was originally intended to be a live-action film tentatively titledPlanet Ice, with Art Vitello hired to direct.[6][7] By November 1997, the project had been revamped into an animated feature, with Matt Damon joining the voice cast, along withBill Pullman,Drew Barrymore,Nathan Lane,Jim Breuer,Janeane Garofalo, andLena Olin. In an interview withVariety,Chris Meledandri, then-president of Fox Family Films, stated: "The imagery would be too costly to realize in live action. It will distinguish this film, which has a cast not only of humans but also aliens. And the group of actors we've put together is about the finest assembled for an animated film."[8] By September 1997,Ben Edlund had written the first screenplay draft.[9]John August came aboard the project in February 1998, and was hired to polish the dialogue but remained on the project for further rewrites.[10] The film's visual effects were handled by theBlue Sky/VIFX visual effects studio, and millions had been spent onprevisualization tests of the space environments and spacecraft.[7] In February 1998, Vitello departed the project.[6] During the summer of 1998,Bill Mechanic, then-chairman of 20th Century Fox, handed the script toFox Animation Studios creative headsDon Bluth andGary Goldman, who had finished directingBartok the Magnificent (1999).[11] Mechanic had no in-development projects for Fox Animation Studios to work on and was faced with the choice of potentially laying off the animation staff unless they took another project. Despite their inexperience with the science fiction genre, Bluth and Goldman took the script regardless.[12] Bluth explained, "When we came to Fox, one of the things that we all talked about was that we shouldn't try to be a 'Disney wanna-be'. We wanted to make a picture that's edgier, still reaches the family and goes a little further and even brings in the teenagers."[13]Joss Whedon, who had signed a multi-picture film and television deal with 20th Century Fox, was hired to finalize the script.[10][14]
As directors, Bluth and Goldman were given a production budget of $55 million and 19 months to finish the film.[6] Before their involvement, $30 million had been spent on pre-production.[15] Unlike Bluth and Goldman's previous films, the animation inTitan A.E. is predominantly computer-generated while the main characters and several backgrounds were traditionally animated. Many of the scenes were enacted by the animation staff using handbuilt props before being captured by a computer. Many scenes and backgrounds were painted by concept artist Paul Cheng, who had previously worked onAnastasia (1997) and its direct-to-video spin-offBartok the Magnificent (1999).[16] Much likeAnastasia, the storytelling and tone inTitan A.E. is much darker and edgier than Bluth and Goldman's previous films with the film being regularly compared to Japaneseanime. Although Bluth and Goldman denied any influence by anime, they have acknowledged the comparison.[11] During production, Fox Animation Studios suffered a number of cutbacks which ultimately led to its closure in 2000. Over 300 animation staff were laid off from the studio in 1999 and as a result, much of the film's animation was outsourced to several independent studios.[17] Several scenes were contracted to David Paul Dozoretz's POVDE group; the "Wake Angels" scene was animated by Reality Check Studios (their first feature film work)[18] while the film's "Genesis" scene was animated by Blue Sky Studios, who would later go on to produce 20th Century Fox'sIce Age andRio film franchises as well asHorton Hears a Who! (2008) andThe Peanuts Movie (2015) and the CGI Animals inThe Greatest Showman (2017). Under pressure from executives, Bill Mechanic was dismissed from 20th Century Fox prior toTitan A.E.'s release eventuating in the closure of Fox Animation Studios on June 26, 2000, ten days after the film's release. All these events stunted the film's promotion and distribution.[12]
| Titan A.E.: Music from the Motion Picture | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by various artists | |
| Released | June 6, 2000[19] |
| Genre | |
| Length | 44:30 |
| Label | |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
The soundtrack toTitan A.E. was released onaudio cassette andCD byCapitol/EMI Records on June 6, 2000, and featured 11 tracks by contemporary rock bandsLit,Powerman 5000,Electrasy,Fun Lovin' Criminals,The Urge,Texas,Bliss 66,Jamiroquai,Splashdown,The Wailing Souls andLuscious Jackson.[19]
| No. | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Over My Head" | Lit | 3:39 |
| 2. | "The End Is Over" | Powerman 5000 | 3:10 |
| 3. | "Cosmic Castaway" | Electrasy | 3:30 |
| 4. | "Everything Under the Stars" | Fun Lovin' Criminals | 4:04 |
| 5. | "It's My Turn to Fly" | The Urge | 3:44 |
| 6. | "Like Lovers (Holding On)" | Texas | 4:36 |
| 7. | "Not Quite Paradise" | Bliss 66 | 3:59 |
| 8. | "Everybody's Going to the Moon" | Jamiroquai | 5:24 |
| 9. | "Karma Slave" | Splashdown | 3:26 |
| 10. | "Renegade Survivor" | The Wailing Souls | 4:07 |
| 11. | "Down to Earth" | Luscious Jackson | 4:51 |
Creed's song "Higher" was played in many of the theatrical trailers forTitan A.E., but the song did not appear either on the soundtrack or in the film itself.[20]
| Titan A.E.: Limited Edition | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Film score by | ||||
| Released | October 23, 2014[21] | |||
| Genre | Film score | |||
| Length | 76:55 | |||
| Label | La-La Land Records | |||
| Producer | Graeme Revell | |||
| Don Bluth Music of Films chronology | ||||
| ||||
Titan A.E.'s score was composed and conducted byGraeme Revell. Although an official album containing the film's underscore was not originally released alongside the film, it was eventually made available for the first time on October 23, 2014, by La-La Land Records as a limited edition CD of 1,500 copies. The soundtrack contains 32 tracks and music cues, most of what Revell composed for the film, and includes two bonus tracks: an orchestra-only version of "Creation" and an alternative version of "Prologue" with a different opening.[21]
Titan A.E. became the first major motion picture to be screened in end-to-enddigital cinema. On June 6, 2000 (ten days before the film was released) at the SuperComm 2000 trade show, the film was projected simultaneously at the trade show inAtlanta, Georgia as well as a screen inLos Angeles, California. It was sent to both screens from the20th Century Fox production facilities in Los Angeles via aVPN.[22]
Titan A.E. was released onVHS[23] and aTHX certified "Special Edition"DVD on November 7, 2000[24] by20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, which contains extras such as a commentary track by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, a "Quest for Titan" featurette, deleted scenes, web links, and a music video forLit's "Over My Head".[25][26] Theregion 1 North American version also comes with an exclusiveDTS English audio track in addition toDolby Digital 5.1 featured in most international releases.[26] Chris Carle ofIGN rated the DVD an 8 out of 10, calling the film "thrilling... with some obvious plot and character flaws" but called the video itself "a fully-packed disc which looks and sounds great" and "for animation and sci-fi fans, it's a must-have".[27]
Titan A.E. earned nearly $9.4 million during its opening weekend, ranking in fifth place behindShaft,Gone in 60 Seconds, 20th Century Fox's ownBig Momma's House andMission: Impossible 2.[2][28] The film then lost 60 percent of its audience during its second weekend, dropping to eighth place, with a gross of $3.7 million.[29] The film grossed nearly $22.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $14 million in international markets, totaling $36.8 million worldwide.[2] The film's budget is estimated between $75 and $90 million.[2][3] According to former Fox executive and futureIllumination founderChris Meledandri, who had supervised production of the film,Titan A.E. lost $100 million for the studio.[4]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 103 reviews with an average rating of 5.70/10. The site's consensus reads: "Great visuals, but the story feels like a cut-and-paste job of other sci-fi movies".[30] OnMetacritic the film has a score of 48 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[31] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[32]Roger Ebert gave the film3+1⁄2 stars out of 4, praising it for its "rousing story", "largeness of spirit" and "lush galactic visuals [which] are beautiful in the same way photos by theHubble Space Telescope are beautiful". He cited the Ice Rings sequence as "a perfect examine of what animation can do and live-action cannot".[33] Bob Graham of theSan Francisco Chronicle wrote: "Titan A.E. comes through where it counts, in the big picture. It will fascinate anyone old enough to read comic books, and, with its dark undercurrents, sudden reversals and confrontation of an uncertain future, teens probably can identify with it."[34] Robert Koehler ofVariety praised the animation and felt the film was an improvement over Bluth and Goldman's previous filmAnastasia, resulting in a "canny attraction for genre purists, hard-core ani-heads and the mass aud for galactic adventure."[35]
Reviewing for theChicago Tribune, Michael Wilmington stated "Despite its highly derivative story, this animated saga from the Don Bluth-Gary Goldman team is done with such visual razzle-dazzle, there's no denying it's some kind of a technological marvel: a modern lollapalooza concocted out of old-fashioned space opera elements."[36]Richard Corliss, in hisTime magazine review, felt the film has "the retro-pioneering spirit of recent [science fiction] movies" and praised the animation visuals.[37]Kenneth Turan of theLos Angeles Times wrote the film's "rudimentary narration does work up a certain amount of propulsion. But it's not the story that's the story here, it's the film's bravura visual look. Under the joint direction of animation veterans Don Bluth and Gary Goldman and influenced, connoisseurs say, by the style of Japanese anime,Titan A.E. does an excellent job of using computer-generated effects to create a vast and wondrous outer-space world."[38]
Stephen Holden ofThe New York Times gave the film a mixed review, stating: "Despite some gorgeous sequences, including one set in a lake of glowing hydrogen 'trees,'Titan A.E. is bland. Although crammed with action, little of it produces roller-coaster thrills of adventure and self-discovery."[39] Similarly,Owen Gleiberman ofEntertainment Weekly graded the film a C, writing the story and visuals were "unutterably bland ... Bluth had the right idea with those epic ice crystals, but it takes more than one F/X flash to create a universe.Titan A.E. isStar Wars pulped and mashed into flavorless kiddie corn."[40] Dennis Lim, in his review forThe Village Voice, dismissed the film, writing it is "suggestive of nothing so much as Saturday-morning TV: 2-D characters frolic in 3-D CGI spacescapes, but the handiwork is uninspired, the digi-chicanery obviously expensive but bland, theNew Age odor off-putting, and the reliance on inspirationalGlen Ballard power ballads fatal."[41]
Titan A.E. won aGolden Reel Award for "Best Sound Editing for an Animated Feature",[42] and was nominated by the same organization for "Best Sound Editing for Music in Animation", and aSatellite Award for "Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media", losing both toChicken Run.[43][44] The film was also nominated for threeAnnie Awards, including "Outstanding Achievement in An Animated Theatrical Feature", "Effects Animation", and "Production Design" which it lost toToy Story 2 andFantasia 2000, respectively,[45] and was nominated forBest Science Fiction Film at27th Saturn Awards, but lost toX-Men, another film from20th Century Fox.[46] Drew Barrymore was nominated for "Best Voice-Over Performance" by the Online Film & Television Association for her role as Akima, but was beaten byEartha Kitt fromThe Emperor's New Groove.[47]
| Award | Nomination | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annie Award | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Effects Animation | Julian Hynes (visual effects) | Nominated |
| Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production | Philip A. Cruden (production design) | ||
| Outstanding Achievement in An Animated Theatrical Feature | Titan A.E. | ||
| Golden Reel Award | Best Sound Editing - Animated Feature | Christopher Boyes, et al. (editors) | Won |
| Best Sound Editing - Music - Animation | Joshua Winget (scoring/music editor) | Nominated | |
| OFTA Film Award | Best Voice-Over Performance | Drew Barrymore (Akima) | Nominated |
| Satellite Award | Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media | Titan A.E. | Nominated |
| Saturn Award | Best Science Fiction Film | Titan A.E. | Nominated |
A video game adaptation byBlitz Games was planned to be released for thePlayStation andPC in Fall 2000 in North America, following the film's summer release (even receiving a mention at the end of the credits).[48] Development on both platforms had begun in March 1999 under the film's original titlePlanet Ice,[49] and an early playable version was showcased at the 2000Electronic Entertainment Expo inLos Angeles.[48] In July 2000, a spokesman from the game's publisherFox Interactive announced that development on the title had been halted largely due to the film's poor box office performance which was "only one of many different factors" that led to its cancellation.[50]
To tie-in with the film, twoprequel novels written byKevin J. Anderson andRebecca Moesta were released on February 10, 2000, byAce Books, the same day the official novelization of the film written by Steve and Dal Perry was released.[51] ADark Horse Comics comic series focusing on the character Sam was also released in May 2000.[52]
According to sources,Titan A.E. cost about $90 million
