Titan AE Movie Review

Despite the movie starting with the earth being destroyed this movie is a pretty upbeat science fiction story, about a people overcoming the loss of their home and at the same time a boy coming to terms with the loss of his father.  What could be a fairly depressing tale ends up being goofy but inspirational.  The film is animated so the there are no special effects to degrade, and the animation is pretty good.

The things that I don't like about this movie are that the destruction of earth does not hit very hard and it is never adequately explained why the antagonists the Drej are after us.  The best I could get is that the technology we were developing was a long term threat to them, but it was never explained why.  Despite these shortcomings I did really enjoy the movie as a basic hero's journey tale in space.

The story follows the main Character Cale who was a young child when he escaped the destruction of earth in the care of his fathers friends.  His father piloted a spacecraft that is supposed to be the hope of humanity, but was never seen again.  Years later Cale is working in a scrapyard when another of his fathers friends, Captain Korso shows up wanting Cale's help to find his fathers ship.  It seems his father left a map in a ring with  his son detailing where he planned to go.  Eventually Kale accepts his destiny and takes up the search.  Through the journey he sheds his bitterness and reconnects to humanity.  Their quest has many twists and turns and Cale becomes good friends with Korso's crew.  At one point Korso is revealed to be  a traitor, and it is left to Cale and his new friend Akima to find the ship before Korso and the Drej can destroy it.

This movie will appeal to anyone who likes a good space adventure, but if you are looking for a hard science fiction film this is not for you.  There is definitely the type of science fiction with more fiction than science.  That being said this is a movie that you could potentially watch with the whole family if your children are not sensitive to mild personal violence, and the fact that the movie has the destruction of earth in the first scene.

This movie can be found at www.amazon.com on disk or streaming for rental or purchase.