In the year 3028, humanity has made a startling scientific discovery (what that discovery actually is is never revealed, which is probably for the best). This discovery is regarded as a threat by the Drej, beings of pure energy, who decide that the way to deal with the problem is to make humanity extinct. They blow up the Earth even as human beings flee like rats deserting a sinking ship. Before the planet explodes, though, the humans launch The Titan, a ship that contains the genetic code for all life on Earth. This ship is sent off into hiding. All of this is filmed with an eye towards the spectacular. It's a rousing opening sequence. Fifteen years later, the Cale, son of the man who built The Titan, is a junkyard mechanic. He is bitter and disappointed. He feels that his father abandoned him and bristles at his lot in life. But someone comes looking for him: a space captain named Korso and his crew arrive at the space colony where Cale lives and he tells him that he has the key to finding The Titan encoded in his DNA. The Drej arrive close behind and the chase is on. There are two more sequences that equal the opening: a chase through a forest of floating hydrogen gasbags and a chase through ice rings. These are the film's best set pieces, and both take full advantage of the computer animation at the film's disposal. When, at last, our heroes find The Titan, they learn that it not only has the genetic material for all life on Earth, it has the ability to make worlds. They turn the energy of the Drej assault against them and use it to fuel the creation of a new homeworld.

The idea of Titan A.E., the latest animated effort to attempt to break the stranglehold on animation held by the Disney people, is better than its execution. The notion of making a science fiction epic in animation is basically sound. The Japanese have been doing it for years. Titan A.E. even gets the relationship between CGI special effects and animation right. But it has two basic flaws. First: it is underwritten. It relies too heavily on science fiction movie cliches drawn from a wide variety of sources rather on than new concepts and it features characters that are all too familiar. The dialogue lapses badly into sub-Star Wars bantering and Cale and Korso are stand-ins for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Second: as mindblowing as the CGI animation is (it is excellent), the main character animation and the environments they inhabit are substandard. Maybe substandard is the wrong word, since, technically, the movement of the characters is fluid and the backgrounds are highly detailed. They are, rather, plain. Ugly. And most of all, dark. This film wants for bright colors whenever there are no space ships on screen. The future it depicts is a monochromatic, grotty, dreary place--kind of like the futuristic worlds Terry Gilliam depicts in Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. While this sort of thing might be right for a darker script, it's wrong for the kind of broad, whiz-bang space opera Titan A.E. wants to be. Even when our heroes stand on their newly-created homeworld at the end of the movie, it is overcast and raining. On the other hand, there aren't any musical numbers, which is a mercy to the audience, I think. The film is skewed to an older audience, too--there is a shot of Cale's naked butt, for instance, and the relationship between Cale and Korso's pilot doesn't seem as chaste as cartoon romances of the past. The cartoon sidekicks undermine expectations, too. They seem to interact with the world more completely than Disney-style sidekicks and they are more integral to the plot.

The bottom line: Titan A. E. is a tiny step towards liberating animation from the deathgrip of the Disney formula. It isn't bad, but it doesn't transcend. It doesn't explode our expectations or touch the audience's sense of wonder the way it wants. It IS a step in the right direction, though...