Review of Titan A.E.

Introduction

Titan A.E, not a new size condom but mankind’s last hope. It’s the year 3028 and mankind is being wiped out by a race known as the Drej, beings composed of pure energy who see mankind as a future threat to their domination. Fifteen years after the destruction of Earth it’s left to a young man called Cale, son of the leader of the Titan project, to locate mankind’s salvation with the Drej hot on his heels.

This is one of those animated affairs that introduces computer generated images and effects into the mix. Reputedly this movie cost Fox an absolute packet ($75 million) and, as far as I have heard, was a monumental flop leading Fox to announce that this was their last animated feature.

I know a few people who saw this at the cinema and they assure me that this paints a very unfair picture of what they found to be a very enjoyable movie.

Well I guess taking a look at the recent region 2 release is in order to see who was right, the cinema avoiding masses or my friends.

Video

This disc presents an anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer with faultless clarity. The picture really is first class throughout which makes it kind of tricky to say anything else about it :).

A comment about the visuals however. The movie combines more traditional cartoon animation for characters and some structures with state of the art computer generated effects, some structures, backgrounds and objects. The cartoon elements are drawn in a very distinct style as are the cgi images and are very impressive on their own. Put them together, however, and something just doesn’t seem right to me. It’s all very impressive and perhaps I’m alone in this opinion but the two different styles don’t fit together as well as they might.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is uniformly excellent throughout and even stunning in places, the opening sequence is easily demo quality material. Through the length of the movie the bass is deep and heavy, the music thumping, the effects amazing and the voices sharp and clear. The voice of the enemy Drej is very cool indeed, involving an all round machine like vocal effect similar to the Borg from Star Trek.

So far so good but sadly I do have 2 criticisms. Firstly, as great as this DVD sounds, the region 1 version carries an incredible THX certified DTS soundtrack, which is sadly missing from this region 2 version. This really annoys me and is one of the few remaining reasons that I still insist on buying region 1 discs. When will the movie studios learn for crying out loud? In case you hadn’t guessed my flat mate has the region 1 disc so yes I have heard just how good the DTS track is.

My other criticism is the soundtrack. The opening sequence sets the scene beautifully with a stirring orchestral score but then you get various pop-rock tracks appearing throughout the movie. The tracks aren’t bad but aren’t necessary in my opinion and the more cynical might think that they were included to appeal the to teenagers and to build sales of a “tracks from . . . “ soundtrack CD. Focussing solely on the orchestral score would have been far more suitable.

Criticisms aside I can’t fault the audio quality at all, it’s extremely impressive even if we are being sold short.

Features

A respectable set of extras here. Director’s commentary, Deleted scenes, ‘Making of’ featurette, Music Video, Stills gallery, Trailers and TV spots . . . all wrapped up in a pretty nice menu.

Of note I particularly liked the 20 minute ‘Making of’ featurette. It provided an interesting insight along with comments from the voice actors (Drew Barrymore – Akima, Bill Pullman – Korso). The Deleted scenes were also very interesting as they show several scenes using a mixture of different stages of the animation process.

On comparison to the region 1 disc I am pleased to report that both discs are equal in terms of extras. A refreshing change :).

Conclusion

I have to agree with my friends who were adamant that this is an enjoyable movie, it is great fun and very impressive.

The story is a bit weak to be honest but there’s enough going on on-screen that you can easily forgive it that. The effects are amazing it has to be said, you really do see where a large chunk of the huge budget went. The opening attack on Earth has to be one of the best animated scenes I’ve ever seen. The voice acting is again excellent with everyone pulling their weight and really fleshing out their 2D counterparts. My particular favourites were definitely Bill Pullman as Korso and John Leguizamo as the weirdly voiced Gune.

The characters themselves work well, particularly together, but one major problem is the villain of the piece, the Drej. The idea is great. Here you have beings composed entirely of energy who sound absolutely awesome . . . it’s a real shame that they look so bad. As far as my untrained eye could tell they’ve been designed to look very electric and technological but it simply doesn’t work. With all the other characters being animated line drawings they stand out like a sore thumb. Not that this is a bad thing but in this case it just draws more attention to characters that look poorly drawn and animated.

That said the amount of well drawn characters and stand out scenes far outweigh this. The ice crystal scenes towards the end of the movie are great examples of just what the animators have managed to achieve here and this does deserve credit.

Overall then this is a first class disc and an enjoyable movie. I like that fact that it clocks in at little over 91 minutes. It’s short enough that you don’t have to clear a whole evening to watch and moves along at a very fast pace. Breaks in the action are few and far between making the time fly by. The movie is let down in a few areas but nothing major enough to spoil your enjoyment, definitely recommended.

Yes I think it’s a crime that the disc doesn’t come with the same DTS soundtrack which was present on the region 1 disc however I’ve marked the audio on quality and not in comparison to the other version, in case you were wondering :).