DailyView: Day 107, Movie 179

Titan A.E. is the DailyView for today and it was a spectacular animated science fiction adventure. For some reason, it is rotten at 50% on the Rotten Tomatoes web site. That makes no sense to me because this was a beautifully animated adventure with a strong voice cast and plenty of classic twists.

Earth has been destroyed. It is the 31st century and a young boy Cale (Matt Damon), whose father left him on a question when he was but a boy, suddenly becomes a sought after resource because he has a ring, given to him by his father, that gives a map to Titan, a ship that holds the key to saving the human race.

Cale is approached by Captain Korso (Bill Pullman), who is trying to help Cale get to Titan before the evil Drej, a species of pure energy that is hoping to destroy Titan before it is activated. On Korso’s ship there is Akima (Drew Barrymore), Stith (Janeane Garofalo), Preed (Nathan Lane), and Gune (John Leguizamo).

Titan A.E. is a fun, energetic science fiction romp f an animated movie that has amazingly beautiful images. Combined 2D animation with CGI, Titan A.E. is an amazing looking film. The animation, especially of the time, was cutting edge and really should have been more of a draw than it appeared to be.

Cale and Akima had a great relationship, albeit a little typical for this type of story. They started out not liking each other and developed feelings for one another as the adventure progressed. It had a Han/Leia vibe to it.

This is the reason I think it received several of the rotten reviews. Titan A.E. has a bunch of the science fiction beats that we see in other areas and string them together into this film. While there may not be a lot of material that we hadn’t seen before, there should be some consideration about how effectively the material is presented. Have we seen a lot of this before? Sure, but has the material ever been presented with such flair or energy? I’m not so sure.

The film is paced well, as events move through the short runtime, but it does not feel rushed.

Titan A.E. is an exceptional animated movie that provides some epic sci-fi action. If you are a fan of the genre, you should check out this movie.