Titan A.E.

[Jedi Marso]

Just rewatched this for the first time in several years. I thought the animation and production design was fantastic (especially for its time), and the music was just like stepping into a 90's time machine.

I remember watching this in the theater for the first time, the opening sequence in the junkyard when the song 'Cosmic Castaway' kicks in, just grinning and having flashbacks to watching Heavy Metal for the first time.

The story was flawed in my book- I think they could have done better here, but overall not too bad. I know this was made as a kid-friendly movie for the most part, but I would have loved to have seen this story done as an R-rated movie with a more adult cant to it.

Any other fans of this classic? Discuss!

 

[fireproof78]

This is one of my favorite scifi films in terms of exploring a post-Earth humanity. The animation is great, the storytelling is a bit simple but fun enough. There are a couple of dramatic moments that I think are maybe overly drawn out, and Corso's arc is a bit flippant. But, it works for what it does.

I think the repairing of the ship montage is probably my favorite. And Planet Bob.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I like the part where he flies the ship with the space angels or whatever the were, with the "It's my turn to fly" song playing.

I would have liked to see more movies space / sci-fi made with this style of western animation. I also think the story would have worked better if the Dredge hadn't destroyed Earth, but merely rendered it lifeless, and the Titan was an ark of planet an animal species that could be used to restore the planet to life, rather than some magic technology that makes planets.

The other big plot hole in this story was why the Dredge considered humanity an enemy at all. They seemed to tolerate everyone else out there in the 'verse okay.

 

[Markonian]

Saw it in my late teens or early twenties. Impressive combo of 2D traditional and then-modern computer animation.

furry bait

 

[Ovation]

Enjoyed when I watched it years ago with my kids. Might be worth revisiting. I know I have the DVD somewhere.

 

[JD]

Titan AE is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I really wish it had been popular enough to get more movies.
I didn't realize until recently that Joss Whedon had a writting credit on it, but I'm not sure how much of what he wrote actually made it on screen.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I originally didn't like/almost hated the film when I first saw it (not in theaters but sometime after that), having a big hang-up about the basic premise and predetermination, but I watched it again a year or so ago and I really loved it now. Whatever issues I had with it the first time around melted away with the incredible worldbuilding (er, so to speak), the animation style, the fun characters, and Don Bluth being pure Don Bluth.

 

[JD]

I didn't realize until fairly recently how many of my favorite animated movies Don Bluth made. As a kid I absolutely loved The Land Before Time, An American Tail and The Secret of NIMH. I also watched Anastasia a few weeks back for the first in ages and really enjoyed it.
I really think he deserves to be a bigger name outside of the hardcore animation fans than he is.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I think he does have a strong following outside of hard-core animation fans: Kids of the 80s.

The Land Before Time was the first film I saw in theaters and I'm certain that was the case for many kids for either that film or The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, or All Dogs Go Heaven (which I've never seen!).

He may not be a household name beyond that generation, but he's certainly not an obscure name either.

 

[Reverend]

Yeah, probably my two most re-watched animated movies as a kid were 'Land Before Time' and 'An American Tail' (the latter of which I re-watched just recently for the first time in decades!)
For some reason I hadn't even heard of 'The Secret of NIMH' until just these last ten years or so. Perhaps it didn't get much of a release over here, and/or little advertising? Or maybe it just never ended up on the TV, since that's where I got most of my movies from back then. Regular cinema visits weren't an option; we'd just record enough movies that were on at Christmas time to last the rest of the year!
It's unfortunate because now that I have seen it, it's technically impressive and I get why people are so attached to it, but I just don't have that same emotional connection to it that I do with the ones I saw as a kid.

As for 'Titan A.E.', I rented it when it came out and remember there being a lot of marketing for it. I recall much being made of the of the hybrid use of CG, even though I remember a similar amount of fuss being made a decade prior for basically the same thing in 'Oliver And Company' (which I never got to see at the time, because Disney were weird about VHS release windows.) I'm honestly lukewarm on it. It's not bad, but it feels like it needed to be about 10 mins longer. The characters don't really get a chance to breath because the plot is driving everything forwards at a hectic pace. (A problem I also had with 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire', incidentally.)

 

[Forbin]

The film came out back when Polar Lights model company was on the rise and bringing out repops of classic old model kits, and creating new kits of their own. They got the Titan AE license, but they were, unfortunately, of the opinion that figure models were the thing to do. So we got a model kit of the Drege alien (in clear blue plastic) that was a huge flop for them, instead of model kits of those very damn cool space ships.

 

[Oddish]

The other big plot hole in this story was why the Dredge considered humanity an enemy at all. They seemed to tolerate everyone else out there in the 'verse okay.

Probably because of the tech level humanity had reached. A species capable of fabricating planets might figure out a way to destroy the Dredge themselves.

Maybe that's why humanity got so much crap after Earth's destruction... it was a "how the mighty have fallen" sort of thing.

 

[Jedi Marso]

The film came out back when Polar Lights model company was on the rise and bringing out repops of classic old model kits, and creating new kits of their own. They got the Titan AE license, but they were, unfortunately, of the opinion that figure models were the thing to do. So we got a model kit of the Drege alien (in clear blue plastic) that was a huge flop for them, instead of model kits of those very damn cool space ships.

Have you gotten into 3D printing at all in terms of your model work? There are tons of models out there available if you have access to a printer. Seems like you could even print just parts in order to kitbash stuff. I'm just not sure if you would consider it 'cheating' or not.

 

[JD]

The Land Before Time was the first film I saw in theaters and I'm certain that was the case for many kids for either that film or The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, or All Dogs Go Heaven (which I've never seen!).

I haven't see All Dogs Go to Heaven either, but it's probably going to be one of the next movies I watch on Amazon Prime. As a dog person, and a fan of Bluth and a lot of the cast, like Burt Reynold, Dom Deluise, Loni Anderson, and Charles Nelson Reilly, I pretty much have to.

The film came out back when Polar Lights model company was on the rise and bringing out repops of classic old model kits, and creating new kits of their own. They got the Titan AE license, but they were, unfortunately, of the opinion that figure models were the thing to do. So we got a model kit of the Drege alien (in clear blue plastic) that was a huge flop for them, instead of model kits of those very damn cool space ships.

That's a shame, there were some great ships in it.

 

[Oddish]

"An American Tail" remains one of my favorite Bluth movies. Dom Deluise is always fun.

"Titan AE" had a nice array of voice talent as well. Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, Tone "Funky Cold Medina" Loc, and one of the "Home Alone" kids playing the younger version of Cale.

 

[Forbin]

Have you gotten into 3D printing at all in terms of your model work? There are tons of models out there available if you have access to a printer. Seems like you could even print just parts in order to kitbash stuff. I'm just not sure if you would consider it 'cheating' or not.

I'm not gonna bother with 3D, because I already have 3,000+ model kits in my stash and I'm 66 years old, so... ya know.
I have a friend with a 3D printer who's trying to make some money with it. He told me to give him stuff to print, so I did buy an STL or two of things I wanted and asked him to print them. It's been about a year and he's just flaking on me, just printing stuff HE likes. So I'm just gonna keep going the old fashioned way until my eyes cloud over.

 

[Anwar]

The other big plot hole in this story was why the Dredge considered humanity an enemy at all. They seemed to tolerate everyone else out there in the 'verse okay.

The Planet Making Technology was able to absorb and convert pure energy into new planets, and like we saw at the end this technology was VERY compatible with the Drejj's energy-biology. The Humans had stumbled onto something that could easily destroy the Drejj...which is exactly what happened in the end.

 

[Ovation]

Just dug out the DVD (while looking for something else—I really need to get my stuff organized again). Will try to find time to rewatch it soon.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

Great movie!

Very simplistic scifi cliches, but its beginner's scifi for kids. I didn’t see the movie when it came out, but saw it years later in college and loved it.

Hail Preed.