Fifteen years before the events of the film, a menacing alien race called the Drej destroy Earth in response to something called the Titan project. The Titan is a gigantic ship that will somehow change the role of humans in the universe. The movie follows Cale, the son of one of the scientists who developed the Titan, as he is recruited by former military commander Korso to hunt for the Titan. His father hid the ship to save it from destruction by the Drej and placed a map to its location within Cale's hand, leaving him as the only way of locating it and making him a target of the relentless Drej.
I was anxious to see this movie after seeing the effects on display in the trailer, and it certainly delivered in the eye candy department. The computer generated scenes are quite entertaining. The cat and mouse chase that takes place in a field of gigantic ice crystals near the end of the film is a treat to watch. The atmosphere was very well textured, with a very gritty feel to the environments that were brought across quite well.
The rest of the package? Well...
The characters are all done with traditional 2d animation and, while I thought were technically well animated, seemed a bit out of place against the high tech backdrop generated by the rendered scenery. They are without a doubt alien in appearance, but in a way that is distinctly...Bluthian (for lack of a better word). This studio has a style all their own, and it is very apparent in the character designs. I felt at times that I was watching Secret of Nimh instead of a space opera. This, I felt, was only slightly annoying. All of the characters are flawlessly voiced and easy to like, however, and I certainly had no complaints about the humans providing the voices.
The soundtrack does get a bit intrusive at times. Several scenes seem inserted simply to serve as a visual backdrop for the grunge inspired songs. While none of them are really annoying, and the visuals are quite nice, they eventually start to intrude on what would have been a perfectly interesting story all by itself.
And the story... It is quite compelling and well set up early in the movie. However, not enough backstory is really given to answer all the questions you will have about what motivated whom to do what they do. The Drej are certainly the most alien looking race in the movie and easy to loathe, but they are left a fairly faceless bunch whose only words are their leader's cliched orders to wipe out humans. The reason for their relentless hatred of the human race is NEVER explained. There is a scene where it seems this would have fit very well, so perhaps some story elements were cut in the interest of time. This was my biggest complaint with the movie however. The device that sets up the entire rest of the rather interesting plot is never really explained! After learning of the Titan's purpose (and extrapolating that use to other races besides the human one), it's slightly more apparent why the Drej would seek to destroy our species, but their motivations are still left very murky in the end. There is one plot twist that comes completely out of the blue and while the character's explanation is satisfying enough, it still happens so quickly as to be a bit unsettling.
If you were wondering about the child friendliness of this animated movie, there's nothing older children won't have already seen on prime time television. But I'd consider it perhaps a bit -too- violent (lots of gunplay) to take my five year old to see.
An entertaining if disposable joyride for a couple of hours. It won't be remembered as well as The Iron Giant (my favorite animated film) or much of the more cerebral anime fare, but I felt overall it was certainly worth the price of admission.
I was anxious to see this movie after seeing the effects on display in the trailer, and it certainly delivered in the eye candy department. The computer generated scenes are quite entertaining. The cat and mouse chase that takes place in a field of gigantic ice crystals near the end of the film is a treat to watch. The atmosphere was very well textured, with a very gritty feel to the environments that were brought across quite well.
The rest of the package? Well...
The characters are all done with traditional 2d animation and, while I thought were technically well animated, seemed a bit out of place against the high tech backdrop generated by the rendered scenery. They are without a doubt alien in appearance, but in a way that is distinctly...Bluthian (for lack of a better word). This studio has a style all their own, and it is very apparent in the character designs. I felt at times that I was watching Secret of Nimh instead of a space opera. This, I felt, was only slightly annoying. All of the characters are flawlessly voiced and easy to like, however, and I certainly had no complaints about the humans providing the voices.
The soundtrack does get a bit intrusive at times. Several scenes seem inserted simply to serve as a visual backdrop for the grunge inspired songs. While none of them are really annoying, and the visuals are quite nice, they eventually start to intrude on what would have been a perfectly interesting story all by itself.
And the story... It is quite compelling and well set up early in the movie. However, not enough backstory is really given to answer all the questions you will have about what motivated whom to do what they do. The Drej are certainly the most alien looking race in the movie and easy to loathe, but they are left a fairly faceless bunch whose only words are their leader's cliched orders to wipe out humans. The reason for their relentless hatred of the human race is NEVER explained. There is a scene where it seems this would have fit very well, so perhaps some story elements were cut in the interest of time. This was my biggest complaint with the movie however. The device that sets up the entire rest of the rather interesting plot is never really explained! After learning of the Titan's purpose (and extrapolating that use to other races besides the human one), it's slightly more apparent why the Drej would seek to destroy our species, but their motivations are still left very murky in the end. There is one plot twist that comes completely out of the blue and while the character's explanation is satisfying enough, it still happens so quickly as to be a bit unsettling.
If you were wondering about the child friendliness of this animated movie, there's nothing older children won't have already seen on prime time television. But I'd consider it perhaps a bit -too- violent (lots of gunplay) to take my five year old to see.
An entertaining if disposable joyride for a couple of hours. It won't be remembered as well as The Iron Giant (my favorite animated film) or much of the more cerebral anime fare, but I felt overall it was certainly worth the price of admission.