Titan A.E. 2000
This is an animated space movie. While geared primarily towards pre-teen and teenage boys there is something here for just about anyone who is a fan of science fiction. The Earth is blown up in the first few minutes of the movie and the universe is left with a bunch of drifter Earthlings with no place to go. The conquering species is called the Dredge and are made of pure energy (not sure, then, why they need to travel in space ships or are so slow).
All the voices are big names such as Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, and Jeneane Garafolo. I like Drew Barrymore but her voice is a little too unique to be a cartoon character. Ditto Bill Pullman. You know that it’s Barrymore and Pullman. And they even made Damon’s character look like him. A small quibble.
The animation effects are the best part of the movie although the plot moves along well. There is an interesting blend of many different types of animation and much is based on the use of computers. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen so many credits for a movie and everyone was some kind of computer or animation person. The DVD has a voice over by the directors that anyone with a real interest in animation should listen to. I watched the first 15 or 20 minutes with the voiceover and it was more than I ever wanted to learn about animation though it was interesting and gives you a lot of respect for the people that did the work. The directors talk about what had to be sacrificed to meet budgets and schedules: usually they never admit to compromising anything.
The plot moves along well too. Kind of like Star Wars in terms of the basic framework of the plot (with Matt Damon in the Luke Skywalker role, and sidekicks like Princess Leia and Han Solo, though the Dredge are never fleshed out enough to have a Darth Vader). Several different planets are visited as the hero attempts to find his father’s spaceship containing a machine that can create a new Earth, complete with all the animal and plant species (kind of the opposite of a death star). The evil Dredge want to destroy it and destroy the hopes of the beaten down earthlings that wander around.
Very sci-fi, but if you’re in to that kind of thing it’s a must see.
I’ll give it a B, because I’m not in to that kind of thing as much as some are and to me it’s still a cartoon.