Titan AE: The 2D/3D Hybrid from Hell

Titan AE (2000)
Synopsis: It's the year 3028 and the Drej, a vicious alien race, have destroyed Earth. Fifteen years later a young man named Cale learns he possesses a genetically encoded map to the Titan, a spaceship that holds the secret to salvation of the human race. With the Drej in hot pursuit, Cale blasts off with the new crew of the Valkyrie in an attempt to find the Titan before the Drej destroy it... along with mankind's last chance for a home of their own.

Initial Impression:

N - Wow... The trailer was so 2000's it is physically painful. The character designs are lovely, but the trailer literally has one job: entice me to see the movie. Based solely on this trailer, I would never spend the $10 watch it in theater, let alone $2 to Redbox it. The CG looks really cheap, like cheap-knock-off-video-game cheap. Not to mention, the trailer was incredibly long and only offered a minuscule amount of information about the actual movie in the last 10 seconds. Most of it was just showing spaceships and explosions. Not really interesting or drawing you in with that feeling of "Omg! I have to see this, like, now".

J - The trailer offers a really great song and action packed, explosive visuals. The song fits well with the action that the animation is giving you. It appears to take place after Earth has been destroyed and humans are now having to incorporate themselves into the world of aliens.

Final Review:

N - This is one instance in which I am sooo glad the trailer was deceiving. Titan AE is phenomenal! The characters are beautifully animated with incredible attention to detail: skin folds, lumps, wounds that actually ooze and bleed! Not super common in animation, especially a Don Bluth film. Even the characters themselves are complex and believable, making them multi-dimensional and interesting.

 The world-building is spectacular with unique concepts, flora, fauna, and mech tech. This tech-heavy film makes every use of seamlessly blending spaceships, lighter-than-air craft, as well as everyday household tech to make unique vehicles, weapons, and dwellings and the spacescapes are absolutely breathtaking.

The fight scenes are well choreographed, visually interesting, and dynamic with great cinematography, foreshortening, and pacing and the plot, along with it's twists, really pull you into the action, drama, and suspense.

While the imagery and animation are superb, the attempt to mesh 3D and 2D animation together, in this case, was a complete untextured disaster. Most of the 3D seemed flat, lazy, and untextured; something I'd anticipate from a student thesis film, not a major production studio that has funds enough to hire on talent like Drew Barrymore and Bill Pullman.

Speaking of Drew Barrymore, this movie has the added benefit of being the only movie in which I don't actively hate Drew's acting. So, you know, yay for you Barrymore fans.

J - The movie has an amazing plot that is brilliantly told through hand drawn animation. They incorporated 3D animation as well, and due to the time period, it wasn't executed very well, but they did what they could with what they had. There is a lot of character development and enough backstory to help you understand why the characters do what they do and say what they say. The action is done really well and the pacing is excellent. Don Bluth has always impressed me with their more realistic movements, character designs and personalities, and their story ideas.

I think this is the only movie of theirs where they attempted to utilize the 3D animation. Some aspects of the 3D was done well, like the galaxies and the ice crystals and even the ships, however, the planet at the end looks pretty awful and so do the space suits that switch from hand drawn to 3D many times throughout the movie.

Unlike most child friendly movies, this one does have blood and has a violent on screen death. However, growing up and watching this movie as a kid, I never really noticed it.

The music is perfect for the settings and tone of the movie and the character designs fit the time period. I love the aliens that they created for the movie and appreciate that they don't seem out of place. The main girl alien "Stith" has strange legs that make me unsure of how they would actually work.

Grade:

N - 8/10. Brilliant plot, complex characters, fantastic score, great casting, and detailed animation and world-building make this lesser-known film a winner in my book. While it has a lot going for it, the choppy blending of 2D and 3D animation can be distracting and make it difficult to be fully immersive at times, especially considering Shrek came out less than a year later and I feel like the 3D texturing was far better in that.

J - 9/10. The movie is an amazing original idea and executed in a fantastical way that best showcases the story, characters, and settings. The backgrounds are absolutely beautiful and the characters are believable and interesting. I love how the story paces itself well and creates an intricate world that we can be apart of for the duration of the movie.