Titan A.E.

Titan A.E. is a 2000 American animated post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. The title refers to the spacecraft that is central to the plot, with A.E. meaning "After Earth."

The film's animation technique combines traditional hand-drawn animation (with digital ink and paint/animation using Toon Boom) and extensive use of computer generated imagery and features the voices of Matt Damon, Bill Pullman and Drew Barrymore. Its working title was Planet Ice. The film was a failure at the box office, barely grossing half of its production budget, though it received a mixed to positive response from critics.

Plot
In 3028, the Drej, a malevolent, energy-based species, declares war on humanity causing Professor Sam Tucker (Ron Perlman), a lead researcher of the experimental Project Titan, to give his 5-year-old son, Cale (Alex D. Linz), a ring and sends him on one of the evacuation ships with his alien friend, Tek (Tone Loc). Meanwhile, Sam and his team launches the Titan spacecraft into hyperspace and the Drej mothership obliterates Earth, which explodes into a massive cloud of debris that destroys the Moon as well, ending any chances of humanity finding a place to settle in the universe. Most of the evacuation ships survived, though some were destroyed by the Drej and Earth's debris, though the majority of the human race perished. Fifteen years later, the surviving humans are reduced to either living in drifter colonies on settlements made from the metal of the evacuation ships or being second class citizens in alien societies, in which they are generally ridiculed. Cale (Matt Damon) is breaking up old spaceships in the salvage yard of the Tau 14 asteroid belt and meets Joseph Korso (Bill Pullman), a human captain who requests Cale's help to find the Titan. He shows him how his ring contains a map to the ship. It is genetically-encoded to Sam and responds to Cale himself, making him the only chance for humanity's future. The Drej find the salvage yard and drive Cale and Korso to Korso's ship, the Valkyrie. Cale is introduced to the other members of Korso's alien crew; sly first mate Preed (Nathan Lane), astrogator Gune (John Leguizamo), cranky weapons expert, Stith (Janeane Garofalo) and another human, co-pilot Akima (Drew Barrymore), to whom Cale is attracted. They travel to the planet Sesharrim, where the Gaoul, a race of bat-like creatures, tells Cale how to interpret the map and find the Titan, hidden in the Andali Nebula. The Drej again attacks the group and capture Cale and Akima. The Drej eventually discard Akima, sending her off into space in a pod (where the crew finds her) and scans the map from Cale, but Cale escapes on a Drej ship and also reunites with the Valkyrie.

The ship is able to reach the human drifter colony called New Bangkok for repairs and preparation for the trip to the Titan. Cale and Akima refuse a plan by Korso and Preed (working for the Drej) to destroy the Titan in exchange for money and escape from the ship, but Akima is wounded by Preed. The Valyrie departs without them, with Gune and Stith still unaware of Korso and Preed's treachery. Fortunately, the colony consists of a number of old spaceships, cobbled together from derelicts. With the help of the other residents, Cale and Akima repair and refit one of the ships, the Phoenix and races off to find the Titan before Korso. Amid the Andali Nebula's giant ice crystals, Cale and Akima find and explore the Titan with a holographic message left by Cale's dead father who reveals the true nature of Project Titan: The ship can create a completely new Earth-like planet with DNA samples of the Earth's plants and animals, requiring a huge input of pure energy (the Titan's reserves were depleted escaping Earth); the development of this technology is the reason the Drej feared humanity's potential enough to destroy Earth. Korso confronts Cale and Akima and interrupt his father's message. Preed detonates a small bomb against Gune and Stith and betrays Korso, revealing a more tempting deal; Preed tries to live and get paid for helping the Drej find the Titan murdering them all, but Korso kills him, drops Cale's ring and falls into the depths of the Titan, but he grabs onto a cable.

The Drej arrive and attack the Titan. Surviving Preed's bomb, Stith arrives and the three work to defend the Titan from the Drej. Cale decides to re-configure the Titan to use the energy of the Drej to start the ship's reactor since they are pure energy. He activates two of the three circuit breakers channeling the Drej energy into the Titan. Cale dons a space suit and goes outside to fix it where Gune who also survived the bomb, uses the Valkyrie's guns to fight the Drej. As Cale reaches the breaker station, he is pinned by a Drej ship Gune shot down but Korso uses a large laser rifle to free Cale. Aware that it may be possible to defeat the Drej after all, He tells him to get to the breaker while he provides him cover fire. Cale reaches the faulty breaker, but cannot fix it. Telling Cale to activate the ship, Korso wedges his rifle between the gap and breakers and closes its circuit, but at the cost of his own life. The Drej mothership fires its energy weapon, but the blast is absorbed into the main reactor of the Titan and destroyed, and the Titan then uses the massive amounts of matter in the ice field to create a new planet. As Cale and Akima step onto the planet, Cale jokingly decides to call it "Bob." Akima insists that she's never calling it that, and they kiss. The humans from New Bangkok and other drifter colonies approach New Earth (Planet Bob) to establish their new homeworld.

Voice cast

 * Matt Damon as Cale Tucker, a 20-year-old human with a very large chip on his shoulder who is separated from his father moments before the destruction of Earth by the Drej 15 years earlier. He helps Korso finding the Titan. Animation supervised by Len Simon.
 * Alex D. Linz plays Cale at age 5.
 * Drew Barrymore as Akima Kunimoto, the pilot of the Valkyrie. She works under Korso and is determined to save the human race from extinction. Animation supervised by Len Simon.
 * Bill Pullman as Joseph Korso, the captain of the Valkyrie and once an ally of Sam Tucker. He has Cale join the Valkyrie crew in search of the Titan, but he actually has a very different agenda. Animation supervised by Len Simon.
 * Christopher Scarabosio as Drej Queen, the leader of the Drej who believes that humanity is a threat to the Drej, and tries to purge them from the universe.
 * John Leguizamo as Gune, Grepoan and Korso's eccentric scientist. While he behaves in a very odd fashion, he is extremely intelligent: in addition to astrogation and science, he knows how to pilot the Valkyrie and fire its weapons, but he had a serious distraction problem. Animation supervised by Troy Saliba.
 * Nathan Lane as Preedex Yoa, Korso's first mate. An Akrennian (a race of bat-like creatures) who speaks with an English accent, Preed is sarcastic with the crew. Having cared about his own life, he tries to unite the Drej but is killed by Korso (who breaks his neck). "The particular alien race that Preed belongs to is very haughty, floating above it all," explains co-director Goldman. "Nathan just seemed appropriate--he can really put on airs when he needs to." In giving voice to Preed, Lane has said he took aural inspiration from none other than the imperious George Sanders. Described in the Ben Edlund 12/15/97 Goldenrod Production draft of the screenplay as a "fruit bat-faced alien". Animation supervised by Edison Goncalves.
 * Janeane Garofalo as Stith, a kangaroo-like alien known as a Mantrin/Sogowan, who has a cranky but lovable attitude. She is Korso's tough weapons expert, a friend of Akima and likes Gune, not Preed. Animation supervised by Troy Saliba.
 * Ron Perlman as Sam Tucker, Cale's father who saves his son from the Drej and was presumably killed because he refused to disclose the Titan's location to them.
 * Tone Loc as Tek, a university student and Sam Tucker's friend. Fifteen years later, he apparently became totally blind though it never mentioned in the film, but hinted when he struggles to find a salt shaker on his table. Animation supervised by Edison Goncalves.
 * Jim Breuer as The Cook, a cockroach-like alien who despises humans. The Ben Edlund 12/15/97 Goldenrod Production draft of the screenplay reveals his name It, though no mention is this is ever made in the film.
 * Jim Cummings as Chowquin, Cale's overseer at Tau 14.
 * Charles Rocket as Firrikash, Cale's alien co-worker at Tau-14, who despises humans. He, along with his friend, Po, tried to beat Cale up at the basement of the space station, but Korso stops, by subduing the pair.
 * Ken Hudson Campbell as Po, Cale's other alien co-worker.

Digital screening
Titan A.E. became the first major motion picture to take part in end-to-end digital cinema. On June 6, 2000, ten days before the movie was released, at the SuperComm 2000 tradeshow, the movie was projected simultaneously at the trade show in Atlanta, Georgia and a screen in Los Angeles, California. It was sent to both screens from the 20th Century Fox production facilities in Los Angeles via a VPN.

Reception
Titan A.E. received a mixed to positive critical response, though it did receive an Annie Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. The film is a financial failure causing Fox Animation Studios to shut down. The film opened at #5, with only $9,376,845 for an average of only $3,430 from each of its 2,734 theaters. The film then lost 60% of its audience in its second weekend, dropping to #8, with a gross of just $3,735,300 for an average of just $1,346 from 2,775 theaters. The film ended up grossing a mere $36,754,634 worldwide ($22,753,426 in the United States and Canada, and $14,001,208 in international markets).

A reason commonly given for the financial failure of Titan A.E. is its poor marketing with a poorly-identified target audience. It combined post-apocalyptic situations with childlike supporting characters, and people were unsure, having seen trailers for the film, whether it was intended for an older sci-fi fan crowd, or whether it was pitched more at children. This confusion was further increased by the mixture of people used to write and direct the production. Don Bluth added to the confusion when he stated during an interview with HBO's First Look, "This is not one of those cute, little kid musicals; this film is nothing but action." The film received 51% positive reviews from critics according to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Notably, though, film critic Roger Ebert loved it, giving it 3.5/4 stars for its "rousing story", "largeness of spirit", and "lush galactic visuals [which] are beautiful in the same way photos by the Hubble Space Telescope are beautiful." He cited the Ice Rings sequence as "a perfect example of what animation can do and live action cannot."

Prequels
To tie in with the film, there were a series of prequel novels released and a comic book mini-series.
 * Cale's Story: The adventures of Cale, ending with the beginning of the film. The book chronicles Cale growing up on Vusstra, Tek's home planet, for ten years and having to move to a different place every time the Drej attack. It also reveals how Cale became resentful of his father's disappearance and how he came to despise drifter colonies.
 * Akima's Story: The adventures of Akima, ending with the beginning of the film. The book chronicles Akima's life aboard drifter colonies when she tries to be close to her family and how she trained to be a starship pilot after the Drej killed her grandmother and destroyed her most recent drifter colony. It also reveals where Akima learned her karate skills, her encounter and friendship with Stith, and the reason for which she is desperate to find the Titan.
 * Sam's Story: A Dark Horse Comics prequel comic telling the story of Sam Tucker and his crew, and their quest to hide the Titan.

Soundtrack
Creed's song "Higher" was played in many of the theatrical trailers for Titan A.E., but the song did not appear either in the movie or on the soundtrack. Vertical Horizon's "We Are" and Lunatic Calm's "Leave You Far Behind" were also not included in the soundtrack though both songs appear in the theatrical trailer and the film itself.