TITAN A.E.: First I’m Gonna Act Like a Jerk, Then I’m Gonna Save Humanity

Titan A.E. (2000) – Directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman – Starring Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, Nathan Lane, John Leguizamo, Tone Loc, Janeane Garofalo, Alex D. Linz, and Ron Perlman.

TITAN A.E. was a commercial flop when it was released in 2000 and through the writing of this reaction, it is the last film veteran animator Don Bluth has directed. After the film tanked (the movie cost $75 million and grossed just under $37 mil at the box office), Fox shut down their animation studios. It is fitting that some films bomb because they stink.

TITAN A.E. is not one of those movies.

I watched this movie a decade ago or so and enjoyed it and it was with some trepidation that I hit play on the Netflix streaming last night. TITAN is so unrecognized that I was happy to have the vaguely happy memory of what I thought was a decent sci-fi/action space movie; I worried that in watching it I’d see why it’s a film that’s largely ignored.

Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about. TITAN A.E. is a really solid, really aggressively sci-fi action film that moves hard and fast from start to finish, and mixes hand-drawn animation with CGI to great effect. I like the look and feel of this movie, and even though its reality often feels more constructed than natural, it works to reinforce the coldness of humanity in the years A.E. (After Earth blowed up). Co-written by Ben Edlund (The Tick), Joss Whedon (Buffy), and John August (who’s collaborated with Tim Burton on several occasions), TITAN A.E. has plenty of geek cred and that knowledge is evident in the screenplay.

The Drej (which have an “inspired by Original Tron” vibe to them) have decided that the Earth needs to be destroyed because of the experimental Project Titan, erm, project. The lead scientist for this project is Sam Tucker (Ron Perlman), and when the Drej comes he sticks his son Cale (Alex D. Linz) with some associates and then goes and blasts off with the Titan ship just before the Earth is destroyed. The Drej had feared that humans were about to become the most dominant life form in the galaxy, but their successful demolition of the Earth causes humanity to become a scattered, insignificant force in the universe.

I love the look of this first opening action sequence. It’s colored in muted browns and olives and golds, which sets a serious tone to the film. This isn’t going to be a bright and sunshiny film, and when Cale’s dad sends him away and then the Earth blows up, you know this film will have real consequences to the action and violence it copiously displays.

Cale grows up with his friend Tek (Tone Loc) and starts sounding like Matt Damon. They work at a space salvage yard, and he’s grown up to be a selfish jerk, using his dad’s failure to return for him as his excuse for how he turned out. Into this mundane life comes Joseph Korso (Bill Pullman), who reveals to Cale that the ring his father gave him before abandoning him is actually a star map that leads the way to the Titan craft. Cale is less than popular with the aliens he works alongside, and their attack is the second big action piece.

For all of the screenwriting power, TITAN doesn’t really feel like an Edlund piece or a Whedon piece or an August piece, but this escape sequence and Cale’s following introduction to the crew of Korso’s ship, the Valkyrie, does have echoes of Wheden’s Firefly/Serenity. The action is crisp and inventive and Korso’s got that same Descendant of Han Solo vibe as Mal Reynolds, although he’s colored in a darker shade of morality.

The crew of the Valkyrie is full of different-looking aliens, enforcing the idea that the universe is full of all sorts of lifeforms: Preed (Nathan Lane), Gune (John Leguizamo), Akima (Drew Barrymore), and Stith (Janeane Garofalo). Nearly everyone in this film is voiced by someone quasi-famous, and the choices are both inspired and insipid. Nathan Lane’s turn as the traitorous Preed is really strong; cast against type, Lane gives Preed a sense of elitist thuggery that works really well. On the other end, however, is Drew Barrymore’s performance as Akima; her somewhat squeaky voice doesn’t match the strong individualism of Akima. It doesn’t stop there. Where Damon is strong as Cale, Pullman’s Korso feels like a guy playing tough and in control instead of being tough and in control. Leguizamo is fine as Gune, but Garafolo brings nothing to Stith.

With the crew now assembled, the Valkyrie goes off on a series of adventures as they follow the star map. The Drej stays hot on their tails and there’s several skirmishes. None of the action is all that unpredictable, but the filmmakers have done a really solid job meshing typical action with some really nice CGI backgrounds. TITAN A.E. takes its visual cues from movies like Alien and the original Star Wars – things look and feel used and functional – and then paints spectacular backgrounds for the action to play upon.

Korso and Preed end up being traitors to humanity, revealing themselves as agents of the Drej. Akima and Cale are on the other side; at first Cale was completely in the, “what’s in this for me?” camp but their shared experiences (and his fondness for Akima) have brought him around to putting humanity first. Cale and Akima find the Titan ship and everyone gets together for a big final fight. Korso is betrayed by Preed, but before Preed can get away, Korso breaks his neck. Korso now has a change of heart and sacrifices himself so Cale can save the day.

The whole movie just has a really nice sci-fi feel to it; while this isn’t a genre-breaking script, it does move fast and play relatively smart, and there are consequences to individual actions, all of which makes TITAN A.E. a joy to watch. An easy comparison to make is with Disney’s Treasure Planet, and I prefer the grittiness of TITAN A.E. to the visually superior, but narratively weaker Planet.

Nearly forgotten though it may be, TITAN A.E. is well worth a watch.

THE CARE BEARS MOVIE: Nobody Cares Like a Bear

The Care Bears Movie (1985) – Directed by Arna Selznick – Starring Mickey Rooney, Jackie Burroughs, Georgia Engel, Sunny Besen Thrasher, Billie Mae Richards, Hadley Kay, Dan Hennessey, Marla Lukofsky, Cree Summer, Jayne Eastwood, and Harry Dean Stanton.

There are three highly interesting facts about THE CARE BEARS MOVIE to me.

The first is that Billie Mae Richards plays Tenderheart Bear. Who’s Billie Mae Richards? She’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

The second is that they paid for Harry Dean Stanton to be the singing voice of Brave Heart Lion, but not the talking voice of Brave Heart Lion. Why? I have no idea. It’s not like – with all due respect to the great Mr. Stanton – that one hears his singing voice and thinks, “Yes!” and hears his talking voice and think, “No!”

The third is that Carole King wrote and sings the the movie’s theme song, called “Care-a-lot.” It seems pretty clear that “Care-a-lot” was written for THE CARE BEARS MOVIE and was not, as you might wonder, a leftover from the Tapestry sessions. So whatever one thinks of the story (it’s a bit vanilla) and music here (and the songs by King and John Sebastian are mostly bland sing-a-longs), there is some quality talent involved here. There’s also a nice sense of respecting the animated specials of yesteryear, with the use of both Ricahrds and Mickey Rooney (who often played Santa Claus in the Rankin-Bass specials), and the incredibly simple style of storytelling.

Like the Rankin-Bass specials, TCBM isn’t here to dazzle you with a high degree of literary proficiency; it’s here to give your kids something bright and colorful to watch while they get some kind of bland (potentially skewed) lesson on morality.

In TCBM, the moral lesson of the day is that it’s okay to care, that you shouldn’t shut out all people because some people were mean to you.

TCBM is presented as a story told by Mr. Cherrywood, an old man who runs an orphanage with his wife. The kids are up late but want a story, so he tells them the tale of a brother and sister, Kim and Jason, who are cold and bitter because their parents left them and no one will adopt them from the orphanage. Friend Bear and Secret Bear go looking for kids to help and they run across two kids who want nothing to do with them. All four of them get accidentally teleported back to Care-a-lot when the Care Bears new teleportation unit goes online. The kids are like, “Friends are stupid,” but then all the Care Bears sing a song and the kids are like, “We like to have friends!”

Movie over?

Not quite.

Tenderheart has gone to Earth and runs across Nicholas, a magician’s apprentice to the Great Fettucini. (And no, his apprentice name isn’t “Alfredo,” though it would be awesome if it was.) Nicholas doesn’t have any friends in the whole world, but would do anything to have one. (See what they did with Kim and Jason there?) That’s when he meets an old magic book with an evil Spirit inside who seduces him into performing all kinds of bad magic that sucks the caring out of the world.

That’s bad news for Care-a-lot because the place runs on human caring. (What? How? Why? That’s three questions too many for this film.) This means the Care Bears can’t teleport Jason and Kim home, so they have to go on a grand adventure to both get the kids home and save the world from the Spirit. Along the way they meet the Care Bear Cousins, other animals that can be conveniently packaged and sold to kids as stuffed animals.

Which, again, if you’re new here, I don’t think is a problem. Kids like toys. Toys foster imagination. Would the Care Bear toys be okay if there wasn’t a movie? Would the movie be okay if there wasn’t toys? If you said yes to either, that’s a dumb answer.

And this is the way the film goes, with plenty of Spirit vs. Care Bear and Care Bear Cousin fights in wacky locations, and then they get to Earth and rescue Nicholas and restore the world’s ability to care.

It’s really not a horrible movie, all things considered. The family owned copies of this movie and its sequel for my baby sister, and I ended up watching it a few times and never hated it. Simplistic movie that it is, THE CARE BEARS MOVIE is bright, uplifting, and has a decent amount of thrills and action. It’s a well-meaning film about allowing yourself to care about other people, and even if the message of the Care Bears (like the Smurfs and the Seven Dwarfs) is that you are defined by your most notable characteristic. The message for kids, though, is that these caring bears are there to help; importantly, for all the brilliance of the Care Bear Stare (when the powers embodied in the Care Bears shoot out of the designs on their tummies), it’s Jason and Kim who end up getting Nicholas to realize the error of his ways. Secret Bear helps with the final defeat on the Spirit, but it’s the kids themselves who turn the tide of this final confrontation, and I do think that sends a positive message to kids that even if there are people to care about you in your life, it’s still up to you to do things for yourself. Just because someone cares about you doesn’t mean they’re going to do everything for you.

Sometimes, you’ve got to help yourself and care about yourself.

And if buying a green and white, stuffed animal bear with a four leaf clover on its chest helps remind kids of that lesson, I’m not going to begrudge a greeting card company from making a little cake off it.

BATTLEGROUND: First Thoughts on Hulu’s First Original Scripted Program

Battleground (2012) – Episodes 1 and 2: “Pilot” and “Who is Clare Villareal?” – Starring Jay Hayden, Teri Reeves, Jack De Sena, Ben Samuel, Lindsey Payne, Jordan T. Maxwell, and Alison Haislip.

Hulu and Netflix are both attempting to get into the original programming business, and I’ll say this for Hulu: they know how to push their product. I visit both Hulu and Netflix almost every day, and Hulu is consistently putting reminders of BATTLEGROUND in front of my eyeballs while I have not once seen a reminder for Lilyhammer show up at the Netflix site.

Not once.

It’s great that they include an ad in the Blu rays and DVDs they send me, but I can’t click on a mailer and get a program to start. On another day, I’ll rip into the screwy recommendation and navigation system that Netflix uses, but today I’m here to give you my first thoughts on BATTLEGROUND, Hulu’s first foray into original scripted programming. So here it is:

I like it.

Two episodes in, and while I won’t argue this is the greatest show ever, I am impressed enough with the smart writing and solid characters to keep watching.

BATTLEGROUND tells the story of a political campaign in Wisconsin, focusing on the behind the scenes work of the staff of a dark horse candidate. The show is presented documentary style, incorporating both campaign footage and post-campaign interviews. To this point, they’ve only showed post-campaign interviews with Ben Warner (Ben Samuel) and his now-girlfriend, Lindsey (Lindsey Payne).

It’s a smart strategy. Ben is the political newbie in the campaign, the newest volunteer and socially inept ladies man. He serves as our inside man, the guy that gets to have everything explained to him so we know who everybody is and what role they perform in the campaign. The leading man is campaign manager Chris “Tak” Davis (Jay Hayden), who has yet to run a successful campaign, and isn’t likely to win this one. Kara “KJ” Jamison (Teri Reeves) handles the media, Cole Graner (Jack De Sena) writes the speeches, and Ali Laurents (Alison Haislip) runs the social media part of the show.

They’re all twentysomethings, but thankfully they come off more as young professionals who want a career in politics rather than wide-eyed idealists. Tak is already showing signs of being burned out by the process, even though he barely looks old enough to be in grad school. Their youthfulness is one of the aspects that makes BATTLEGROUND work for me, because even though they’re interested in winning (they seem much more interested in winning than they do in any kind of political ideology), they’ve got a distinct vibe of people still trying to figure things out, and there is a real need for them to be creative because the campaign has very limited funds to operate.

The series sets up a triumvirate of young pros with Tak, Cole, and KJ. Cole is the guy who writes speeches and never wears anything more formal than a clean t-shirt. KJ is impeccably dressed, looking like she just stepped out of a Kohl’s catalog. And Tak is positioned somewhere in between them; he wears the same style of professional clothes as KJ, but he’s often got his shirt unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up.

The first episode introduces us to all of the characters and their predicament. The favorite to win the Senate seat is the entrenched old, white male with all the money and contacts. There’s a debate scheduled but he’s not going to attend because he’s way up in the polls, so Tak tricks his campaign manager counterpart into getting him to show up by convincing him that Samuels isn’t. It’s clever and it allows the Samuels’ staffers to have a small victory. We don’t see the debate because that’s not the focus of the show. Unlike a show like The West Wing, BATTLEGROUND isn’t interested in politics. We know Samuels is a Democrat, but there’s few attention given to her positions or time devoted to her speeches.

In the second episode, Samuels gets hit by a planted question from a school girl about a former associate of Samuels. There have been whispers and rumors over the years that Samuels and this woman were more than just colleagues, and we get to see the pressure mount on the campaign. The personal conflicts start cropping up; last episode we saw that Tak, while married, is interested in KJ, and we saw (but Take didn’t) that KJ and Cole have a romantic thing going on. This episode we see KJ and Cole plan to watch a game together the day after a straw poll, and then Cole tell Tak he can’t watch the game with him because he’s watching it with KJ.

Cut to the post-campaign interview session with Ben and Lindsey, who tells us that was where it all went, “Boom.”

I like the desperate nature of the campaign, the struggle to get things done on a limited budget and being behind in the race. I like that Samuels herself is a secondary character, and that her husband is kind of a dick to Tak, as his desire to do the impulsive, emotional thing is countered by Tak’s professionalism. It’s a short view vs. long view dynamic and it’s a good battle to watch. I like that, other than Alison Haislip, I don’t know who any of these people are

BATTLEGROUND is obviously modeled on shows like The Office or Parks and Rec, but that’s not something that’s going to automatically make or break a show. BATTLEGROUND stands on its own as a rather well-written, well-acted show. Hulu’s got themselves a winner.