Skip to content
Mark Bubien reviews
20th Century Fox
- Cert: PG
- Cat.no: Cat.no: 2000924
- Running time: 95 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 24 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the Hearing Impaired, Spanish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $26.98
- Extras: “The Quest for the Titan” Featurette, Director’s Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Lit Music Video “Over My Head,” Theatrical Trailers
Director:
- Don Bluth
Cast:
- Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, Drew Barrymore
Writers:
- Hans Bauer, Randall McCormick (Story); Ben Edlund, John August, Joss Whedon (Screenplay)
You know, I actually liked Titan A.E. Not a perfect movie by any means, but when I talk to my friends about it, I shrug and say “it’s alright.” But I sure as heck wouldn’t even go that far on the DVD itself. Uh uh. Honestly, the Titan A.E. DVD seems to me a study on exactly how not to do a Special Edition!
The movie itself is about the destruction of the planet Earth, and how mankind – one in particular, named Cale – fares afterward. Normally, that’d be a major spoiler, but in this animated adventure, the Earth bites the dust in the first five minutes. A bold move in the writers’ part, because most Science Fiction movies deal with saving the poor planet!
The rest of the film, while entertaining, ain’t rocket science. One problem is that the bold beginning worked against the writers by obviating the ending. We also have (spoiler warning!) the rather cliche scenario where the Captain betrays Cale, but has second thoughts at the last second, and even helps save the day. Imagine that (unfortunately, the writers couldn’t imagine something other than that).
I definitely enjoyed the animation, a very obvious mix between hand drawn 2-D characters, and computer generated 3-D backgrounds. While I personally feel that this technique won’t always mesh well, becoming so blatant that it would become distracting, the genre and setting here worked to the animators’ advantage. Computers and science fiction do mix.
Where the movie really goes south is in the soundtrack. I like Grunge music, really I do, but I have my limits, and throwing a bunch of it into a half-way decent movie crosses the line. I’m sure the producers thought hiring a bunch of Grunge bands to write songs specifically for Titan A.E. would pull in teenagers by the droves. Big mistake. Music sets a mood, a tone. But all I ended up feeling was annoyed. Hopefully Fox learned a lesson here: Hard Rock may be hip and cool, but it just doesn’t mesh with a movie soundtrack.
Honestly, every time I consider dropping Titan A.E. back into my DVD player, I remember this awful soundtrack and just skip right over it. What a tragedy, since it’s otherwise an entertaining movie.
Really, this is the only bad thing I’d say about the sound. Since Fox included a DTS track on the disc, everything else came through very sharp, clean and clear. I loved the detail. And while they went with a more subtle surround track than I’d prefer, it still felt right.
The image quality fared equally well. I’m not sure what it is about animation on DVD, (I think it’s the punchy colors, and high-contrast darks and lights) but I’ve been impressed with almost every animated disc I’ve seen. Titan A.E. is no exception! (I’ve heard rumors that Titan A.E. received a digital-to-digtal transfer, going straight from computer to DVD with no film involved, and while I haven’t verified this, I do believe it – it looks that good!)
Now when it comes to features, let me say that if the Grunge soundtrack didn’t give you a Titan-sized headache, these extras will. It’s like everything Fox added for this DVD pushed the envelope of human tolerance for abuse. Take, for example, the Fox Kids Special “The Quest for the Titan.” I might have tolerated its MTV-style snap cuts, that choppy, strobe-effect during the interviews, and the grunge mood music – if it gave one shred of real information. Note to Fox: abuse minus redeeming value equals angry consumer!
I’m not sure how I actually survived long enough to check out the commentary, but I certainly didn’t make it far after that. Obviously the DVD producers thought that, surely, anyone who enjoys being bombarded by a bad Featurette will just love to hear every single thing that went wrong with Titan A.E. because that’s exactly what Director Don Bluth gives us on the commentary. I gotta wonder if they got anything right. Of course, this is the only informative feature on the disc, but having the director constantly point out the problems sort of taints the whole experience.
Oh yes, and to round out this torture chamber of extras, we get a music video by Lit. Yet another reminder that this garbage (yes that really is a synonym for “Grunge”) pretty-much made the movie unwatchable.
Maybe one explanation for these crummy features had to do with bitterness on the part of the producers – Fox disbanded their animation department after making Titan A.E. Revenge of the disgruntled Fox employees? Hmm.
Be that as it may, it probably didn’t help anyone that the movie only pulled $35 Million in box office receipts. I honestly don’t think Fox was too smart with this piece of property. They could’ve turned a heftier profit, if they only tried. On my own, I came up with ten possibilities.
The Top 10 Ways to Make More Money Off Titan A.E.
- 10. Attract the kiddies: after the Earth is destroyed, have Matt Damon and Bill Pullman break into a Grunge version of Hakuna Matata.
9. At the end of the Fox Kid’s Network special, segue into a snuff movie involving all the people involved with making the special. (Optional: Throw in Oliver Stone as “added value material” to boot.)
8. Disband your animation department and give all the high-speed supercomputers to management so they can cut corners twice as quickly.
7. Volunteer millions of children for a study exploring Television-induced brain damage. Name the study “Fox Kid’s Network.”
6. Make a DVD that includes a watchable and truly informative documentary.
5. Charge twice as much for a version that removes the Grunge soundtrack.
4. Invest in aspirin company, watch sales skyrocket after Titan A.E. DVD release.
3. Before hiring Grunge bands to do your music, remember: A lot of things rhyme with Lit, but only one of them matters.
2. Make the movie better by using a director who actually cares about the project.
1. Instead of a wimpy cockroach that sounds like Joe Pesci, send the real Joe Pesci after the Drej with a baseball bat and let him save the human race.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL Check out Mark’s homepage: www.storybytes.com.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.