What is it?
Titan A.E. Released on June 16th 2000. Now usually I'd write and review about Star Wars stuff, however I'm pretty passionate about this film. It came out 17 years ago and I remember seeing it back then, it's still great and hasn't really aged! It's awesome! So I thought I'd give it a bit of a mention!
If you like Star Wars or any kind of good versus evil, you will like this film.
Primarily, there's a Father Son relationship always in the background. Cale, a boy, our Luke Skywalker was left in the care of his fathers colleague. Cale never really understood why he went away or why he never came back.
Their world was dying, then the Dreg (pronounced Dredge) destroy Earth. Cales Father was the creator of the TITAN.. The "Only Hope" for the Human Race, we learn later on in the film that it has the ability to create life, a new world even..
So how does this tie in with Star Wars? Well apart from the obvious characteristics of each of the characters, which I'll run through them now? Not masses, but some of the story with seem a little familiar, alot, but I thought this would be a fun post!
Cale (Luke/Anakin Skywalker):
Like Luke, he doesn't realise how important he is, but VERY determined once he understands. He's the last hope too, the key to saving the human race..
Oh yeah, also very good with his hands..
Korso (Han Solo):
He's the sly, cocksure pirate. He's the guy who comes back at the last moment screaming "YAHOOO!" yeah, Korso does that too..
Akima (Princess Leia/Padme):
She's NON damsel in distress which handles herself VERY well, gives orders and takes them. The love interest and Cale also saves her..sound familiar?
Gune (R2D2/Jarjar?):
Now Gune, I had a little trouble placing, see, he's wise, but shows it in a very crazy way, he's also a little silly but very lovable all at once. You'll notice watching the film he helps ALOT along the way, helping to navigate the ship, very good with ships sensors and also piloting and gunning at the end of the film, WOW that was a relief he was ok right? Of course! R2D2! "I'VE FINISHED MY NAP!!!" The Feels!! hehe! Wish R2 came onto a scene like that!
Preed (Lando Calrissian):
Preed is a liar.. now a dead liar, but before he decided to back the Dreg, him and Korso were in cahoots, Korso's Lando of sorts.. but then as I say the mutiny happened and he would have done anything to kill Korso and Cale. Good job Korso is good at turning heads :P
Stith (Chewbacca?)
I was going to say that Skiff was Gune's C3-P0 but she's actually mental.. maybe she's an exact opposite of 3-P0? A gunner, engineer, Skiff does it all..
Colonist (Rebel?):
There was also another character in the film who only had a small part to play, he was the colonist, I have to mention him as the Voice Actor is the extremely now well known Star Wars voice-artist, STEPHEN STANTON! Yes, Grand Moff Tarkin, Ben Kenobi! AP-5 and several Stormtroopers and Imperial officers! More recently he played Admiral Raddus in Rogue One!
The Valkyrie (The Millennium Falcon):
The main cool ship of the film. There's a great flying sequence with some really awesome music aswell as fantastic graphics too!
The Titan (The Anti-Death Star):
Whilst the Death Star destroys stars, the Titan literally creates them, and with them, life too..
The Phoenix (Cales X-Wing):
Every Hero needs their own awesome ship! Our Anakin archetype rebuilt his ship from scrap, and it turns out to be an amazing piece of machinery, extremely maneuverable, just like the X-Wing!
The Review
After a quick chat about the film, I thought I'd give you a nice little review of this old(ish) film.
Don Bluth, who brought us the hidden classics of The Secret of Nimh, An American Tail (and its hilarious sequels) and who can forget The Land Before Time!! (The original was clearly the best!)
But as you can tell from the types of films above Titan A.E. was cutting edge stuff! And also the first kind of Sci-fi genres that Don produced.
It's a great mix of feels, disaster, humour, fisty cuffs, space battles. It's really good fun.. It also, surprisingly, for an animated film stands the test of time, the feel is kind of Steampunk, also like Star Wars it has a very lived in feel with no kind of 'advanced' tech as it were, food replicators and such, and the colours are a warm gold or a darker colder blue when we have the alien enemy on the screen.. I cant praise this film enough and at only £3.99 on iTunes you'd be mad to try it out..
I really hoped for a prequel of this film but it never came, it would be great to see how the characters got themselves to where we first see them in the film. Also to find out what exactly happened to Cales father when he left Earth. Hey ho, its animation so they can do it anytime I guess..
I also showed this to my 7 year old boy and he really liked this movie too!
Titan A.E. is available on iTunes, and also still available on Amazon so go get it! You will not be disappointed!!
