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Titan A.E. is likely to get lost in the shuffle of this summer's other blockbusters and animated fare. Which is too bad, as it's a nice, entertaining piece of mindless sci-fi. Matt Damon is the voice of Cale, a young slacker who's passing his days harvesting scrap metal in outer space. But it turns out that his hand contains a map that will lead him to a fantastic machine which will create a new Earth.

See, a dozen years before, an evil alien race destroyed Earth, causing its inhabitants to flee to the far corners of the galaxy. But if Earth can be re-created, then a new community can be formed. At first Cale isn't too excited about the mission, but his fondness for the sexy Akima (voice by Drew Barrymore) gets him going.

The story is pretty generic, borrowing liberally from other sci-fi epics. The alien Drej are vicious dictators, Cale and his fellow travelers are hardy souls but vastly outnumbered, and there are alien sidekicks to add a bit of humor. If it sounds like the Star Wars trilogy, you're not far off, and I, for one, wouldn't have been surprised if Akima turned out to be Cale's sister.

The dialogue, though, is often sharp, and the voices (including Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, and Janeane Garofalo) deliver it with gusto. And the animation, headed by long-time animator Don Bluth, is quite impressive. The Drej are particularly well-drawn, with their blue, nebulous bodies striking an effectively hostile tone. And when all's said and done, I had a good time. Which is more than I can say for many of this summer's bigger movies. 
 

J. Robert Parks 06/19/2000