Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Titan A.E.

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Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 06-21-2000, 03:20 AM:

I'm sorry but I really liked this movie. Don Bluth feature or not. And hearing that he and Gary Goldman were directing this really worried me. Sure the characters were stereotypical and the plot simple, but sadly, it's one of the best movies I've seen so far this summer. But then again, I'm the kind of guy that thinks most animated shows out there have more intelligence behind the writing than most live action sitcoms. For instance, I thought Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was the best of the Batman motion picture series.

Anyway, there were a few problems I had with Titan. Namely, the Hydrogen Tree Chase Sequence. I would think if one tree goes, they ALL go. That and the fact the Dredge mothership actually expended the effort to send attack ships on the Titan when they locate it rather than just use their primary weapon to destroy the ship in the first place. And the name for the new Earth is a bit of a groaner. But these problems didn't bother me too much.

But there were also a lot of cool scenes. The ice ring sequence to name one. The sequence with those wake creatures that chase the ship inside the gaseous landscape with all those huge gas columns to name another. And the Alternative music that is spread throughout is a cool selection. Anytime I pass this movie in the booth and decide to turn up the monitor and watch a little bit, I get hooked in and have to yank myself away. Go ahead. Laugh at me. Get it out of your systems.

Written by Ben Edlund (creator of The Tick series) and Joss Whedon (co-screenwriter of Toy Story and writer for Alien 4 {the script IS better than the movie}), I've looked forward to seeing this movie for a little more than two years (when it was known as Ice Planet). And while I wasn't blown away with the end result, I was far from disappointed.

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The man with the magic hands.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 06-21-2000, 11:20 AM:

One theatre I know of had NOBODY show up for the 7 & 9 pm Saturday showings.

Posted by Tyler Skinner (Member # 229) on 06-21-2000, 11:33 PM:

yeah, I dug this as well but you have to like Don Bluth's animation style to get it. Secret of Nimh is one of my favorite animated films. Truly under-rated.

Titan AE wasn't anything groundbreakingly original as far as science fiction goes, but it still held your attention and had a feel of originality as far as the look and style are concerned. Its pure brain and eye candy, but done with a bit more intelligence than Gone in 60 Seconds or MI2.

he one thing that bothered me was that it was butchered. Characters would appear without any context of entering the scene and I could tell the pacing was meant to be a bit more epic, hopefully the dvd will have a directors cut (this will look great on dvd) I also would have liked to seen more of a dramatic score rather than the cheesy alternative music that was blatently (and poorly) written for the movie.
other than that, no complaints.

tyler.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-30-2000, 11:19 PM:

So what's better? Don Bluth quality animation ("Dragon's Lair" was by far his best by leaps and bounds) or Filmation? Filmation made those awesome TV cartoons like He-Man, She-Ra, Bravestarr, and other crap. Don Bluth's latest animation looks awful. Most of Titan was computer, and the bland 2-D characters did not match the backgrounds. Also, did you notice that the main character's (the Matt Damon wannabe) tattoo was cut and pasted on his arm? When his arm moved, the tattoo just kind of floated with it. It didn't change angles or anything.

Ah well. Titan may be OK storywise (haven't seen the entire thing) but Transformers: The Movie even had much better animation (as do most anime features).

Bad animation is one of my major pet peeves (Chicken Run looks very herky-jerky to me at its "15 frame or less per second in some scenes" animation).

Also, does EVERY movie really need to have Matt Damon or Ben Assflex in it? I am getting sick of both of them. They make one good movie and suddenly no movies are allowed to be made without at least one of them. Somebody please make them go away!

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 06-30-2000, 11:35 PM:

Joe Said:
"Also, does EVERY movie really need to have Matt Damon or Ben Assflex in it? I am getting sick of both of them."

Or Gwyneth Paltrow? Heather Graham? Drew Barrymore? Samuel L. Jackson? Natalie Portman?

Sorry for being away for so long, having computer troubles

Aaron

Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 07-01-2000, 06:48 AM:

I didn't watch Titan A.E. for the animation. Because I knew Don Bluth was doing it. Yeah, it would have been better had some Japanimation studio done the project, or if it had been a joint American/ Japan project in order to maintain a wide release, because let's face it, Anime doesn't do shit in the American Theatre market because of its graphic nature. About the only thing to take America by storm is Pokemon, and it's nowhere near as violent as most Japanese based cartoons.

And of course that's the problem. Animation features in the U.S. is targeted at the G rated audience. And it was either Don Bluth or Gary Goldman that said they were going for a Japanimation look and feel, and this IS by far their most violent film to date (i.e. blood globules floating in Zero G, a talking bug chef getting turned into goop, etc.). I can't remember how Princess Mononoke did here, or even if it's the typical Anime film since I didn't see it (I doubt it since it was PG-13), but if it was a fairly sucessful venture releasing it in the U.S., then that's the kind of commerical success they needed to duplicate for this movie. Of course it doesn't matter now since it's been release in glorious Bluthvision, but I would have died waiting to see this thing if it had the look of Ghost in the Shell.

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The man with the magic hands.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-04-2000, 09:56 PM:

I don't think American audiences are as mature as the Japanese when it comes to their cartoons. In Japan, everything is a cartoon. They don't make many real movies. Mononoke did extremely well in Japan, but it was only released to art houses here. Bad marketing. Once American audiences get a clue and realize that it's OK for a cartoon to have blood, violence, nudity, and sex, then I think anime would do better here.

Stuff like Pokemon is anime "lite". They only give you 4 frames per second. No wonder it took less that 8 months to animate the sequel. I will have to admit that Titan AE's animation is better than Pokemon's Big Adventure (or whatever the movies are called).

Is everybody getting excited for the 12 (or however many) new Pokemons they will be introducing in the sequel? I can't wait to buy the toys and battle with my friends I remember getting all wet over Transformers: The Movie and then going out and buying the toys.