n the year 3028, the alien Drej are closing in on Earth for a final attack. Young Cale must board an evacuation ship. His devoted father gives him a gold ring and promises the two will reunite soon. As Cale's ship blasts off, he watches his father's super-secret starship Titan launch into the cosmos. Then, in horror, Cale sees the Drej unleash a massive power beam that obliterates the planet.
Fifteen years later, humankind is adrift in space. A grown-up Cale (Damon) endures the burden of being human on the alien-run salvage asteroid Tau-14. But the taunts of his co-workers don't diminish his spirit.
Cale encounters the mysterious Korso, captain of the starship Valkyrie, who says he's come to help Cale fulfill his destiny: to save humankind. Burned out and bitter, Cale refuses--until Korso shows Cale how to activate the ring. It illuminates a cosmic map in Cale's palm, showing the way to his father's long-lost ship, Titan. "That ship means everything," Korso says. "Humanity depends on your finding it."
Before Cale can argue, Drej assassins appear. Korso and Cale shoot it out in the Tau-14 hangar bay, narrowly escaping to the Valkyrie. There, Cale meets the beautiful pilot Akima (Barrymore), who still holds out hope that humanity can be saved. He also encounters Korso's motley alien crew: the angry weapons officer, Stith (Janeane Garofalo), the oleaginous first officer, Preed (Nathan Lane) and the squirrelly navigator, Gune (John Leguizamo).
Cale's map leads the ship to the planet Shesharrim, inhabited by batlike creatures and overgrown with explosive hydrogen trees. But the Drej track them down. Despite a valiant battle, Cale and Akima find themselves captive aboard the Drej mothership. Through this and other adventures, the pair grow closer as they unravel the secret of the Titan.
Dazzling, contemporary space opera
Titan A.E. marks a major departure for legendary animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (Anastasia). It's their first SF story, and the first in which they mix 3-D computer animation with traditional 2-D hand-drawn animation to such a degree. It's also the first film aimed at an older (in other words, adolescent) audience. The two have succeeded in crafting a dazzling, engaging space opera with a contemporary feel. The result, a Disney-meets-Star Wars-meets-Heavy Metal hybrid, should be a big hit with young adult viewers.
The story, while derivative of SF films from Star Wars to Independence Day, nevertheless benefits from the quirky, trademark humor of Edlund (The Tick) and Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), particularly in Cale's exchanges with Korso and Akima. For example, why do the Drej hate humans? "They're afraid of what we might become," Akima tells Cale. "Yeah, well it looks like we're becoming extinct," Cale replies acidly.
The stunning visuals more than compensate for the overly familiar plot. Goldman says designers cribbed from Outland and Alien, and the spaceships and space environments are rendered with great care. The 3-D animation is burnished to complement the 2-D characters, who show Bluth and Goldman's characteristic liveliness.
The set pieces are breathtaking, particularly a cat-and-mouse game between two starships in the ice rings of Tigrin (the film was originally entitled Planet Ice). Though it has its forebears in World War II submarine movies, the ice sequence adds a hall-of-mirrors element that is so mesmerizing it's easy to forget the film is animated.
Much of the film's modern feel is due to music supervisor Glen Ballard's contributions. Ballard, best known as Alanis Morissette's producer, commissioned original songs from bands such as Lit, Electrasy, Powerman 5000 and The Urge. The amount of original pop and rock music is unusual for an animated movie in which no characters actually sing.
