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Titan A.E. and the Drej (6/17/2000)

I just saw Titan A.E., a half CG, half animated sci-fi flick about a nice little boy from Kansas named Cale who has his planet (earth) rudely blown up by a group of "cruel" aliens called the Drej. The boy escapes, and his professor father dies, but not before he can launch Titan A.E., a latter-day Noah's Ark which contains DNA for all of Earth's plants and animals and the ability to create a new earth-like planet. As the boy gets older and his voice becomes more Matt Damon-like, he discovers that only he can find the Titan ship and activate it. At this point, the Drej, beings who happen to be comprised of pure energy, try to kill off Cale and eliminate the "human threat" once and for all. Nonetheless, Cale perseveres, activates the Titan by using the Drej attack beam as an energy source, and destroys the Drej.

At this point, I looked around the theater, and everyone seemed pretty happy with the ending. Now, I know it probably wasn't this way in every audience, but I for one was shocked. The whole movie was just the kind of speciecist rhetoric I thought everyone detested. Although it initially seems that the Drej were villains, in actuality they were the tragic heroes. Humans, no doubt, would have been bad for the universe, procreating uncontrollably and defiling pristine asteroid belts with Slim Jim wrappers. The Drej were just trying to do good for all the peaceful, ecologically minded denizens of the universe. Unfortunately, the crafty humans won out. Again. Just like they always do.

Poor, poor Drej. Blown out of the universe before we (the audience) even got to know them. And we only got to see the military side of the Drej, when, heroes that they are, they attempt to hunt down Cale and his posse. But what did they do in their leisure time, when they weren't blowing things up? Considering how hard they fought, I have to imagine Drej society, art, literature, and culture were worth protecting. After all, the Drej themselves were computer-generated images and were much more interesting-looking than the boring humans, depicted as dull, traditional cartoons. And, considering the fact that the Drej were comprised of pure energy and could manipulate themselves and other matter into whatever form they wanted, it stands to reason that their architecture, not to mention their WWF Wrestling League, was aeons beyone anything the humans could ever produce. So thanks a lot Cale! Thanks for wiping out the coolest part of the movie and one of the most rockin' societies out there in space, just so a bunch of humans could go back to life as usual. A moment of silence for the Drej please.

I wish someone would make a movie version of David Brin's The Uplift War. Now that's some sci-fi, a series that doesn't just replay the same tired old formula: humans suffer at hands of aliens, then humans get revenge. Rather, the Uplift War depicts a much more rationalized scheme of intergalactic relations, where younger sentient species apprentice out to older, more experienced species. Or, stick with classics like Star Wars. There, it's not about what species you are or who's human and who's not human. Instead, it's about your politics--are you with the Empire or against it? Ultimately, let's hope that's the direction we're headed, to a future where aliens are judged not by the color of their exoskeleton or the number of mandibles or orifices, but by the content of their character.

email from an informed reader:

Your site is incorrect. First of all, Cale is from Pierce,Colorado, not Kansas. Also, you said Cale destroys the Drej. I don't think he does because he and Akima Talk about how the Drej won't be bothering them AT LEAST FOR NOW at the end of book. You also said the Drej want to eliminate the "human threat". What I interpreted from the book was They just wanted to take over the universe. You also said that the Drej can turn in to any form. I can't remeber any time they did that in the movie or the book.

Thank you for spelling Cale's name right. As for the book, you really should read it. There's also two more books called "Titan A.E.:Cale's Story" and "Titan A.E: Akima's Story". They're about Cale and Akima when they were 15.

I hope you find this information helpful

Mary


Titan A.E. (The Book)


Titan A.E. (Cale's Story)


Titan A.E. (Akima's Story)


How to Draw Titan A.E.

Dear Mary,

Thank you for your informative response. I will address a few of the points you brought up.

First, I meant "from Kansas" only in a general, wholesome-boy-from-the-midwest kind of sense. I was more or less right in this if he was actually from Pierce, Colorado. I guess the story reminds me of "The Wizard of Oz." Cale gets removed from his ordinary life to go on some crazy adventure with all kinds of strange companions, follows some path through the stars given by his hand (a yellow brick road of sorts), fights some wicked villains, and then gets to return home in the end--at least, return to an earth-like existance. The whole Kansas thing is pretty lame, I suppose, but I'm not changing it since it's more evocative of the sense I have of Cale than Colorado. I'll put your email up on the site, however, so anyone who is concerned with this "factual" matter will see that it has already been adressed by someone else.

The book may ominously say "AT LEAST FOR NOW" in effort to set up a sequel, but I didn't notice any line like that in the movie. Certainly it's not inconceivable that the Drej would come back in some other episode. However, the whole ironic point of my essay--that the Drej have been mistreated--would be undermined by going in this direction, and they certainly didn't say anything about it in the movie, so I chose the interpretation that suited what I was writing about. Maybe the poor Drej will come back. I for one certainly hope they survived!

Regarding the human threat, the Drej seemed specifically trying to take out humanity. They were not on a vendetta against any of the other numerous species of aliens I saw in the movie. The impression I got, I believe from some of Cale's dialogue, was that this was because humans were intelligent and making rapid scientific progress, and the Drej decided to wipe them out before they reached the Drej level of technology. In the same way that the US doesn't want too many other countries developing nuclear weaponry, the Drej perceived humanity as a threat to galactic security. Or at least that was the impression I got.

As for the Drej turning into any form, when Cale was captured on the ship with the Drej, the Drej soldiers and ships were materializing and dematerializing, since they were made of pure energy. The Drej ship also seemed to be made of the same energy, and even the Drej leader's "face" that gave orders seemed to be constructed out of pure energy as well. When shot, the Drej simply rematerialized body parts, and repaired their weapons in the same way. Because of their ability to manipulate energy at will to form and reform Drej soldiers and equipment, I think it's very plausible to say that they could manipulate energy to form whatever they wanted, in whatever shape they wanted. After all, if the Drej could instantly create or uncreate soldiers, weapons, and ships, why would they be limited to only these things? It's just that we only see their military side, and only see a few of their constructs. I imagine when they're kicking back and relaxing they produce different artifacts: paintings, sculptures, oversized coffee mugs. Of course, I admit that all of this is only creative extrapolation from the movie. You point out that you don't remember any time in the movie or book where they did turn into anything they wanted. Well, I don't remember any time when anyone said they couldn't, either. Since the movie and book were based on a very biased, pro-human perspective, it's not surprising that the true story of Drej creativity was downplayed.

Again, thanks. I enjoyed your comments.

A response to Mary's points from another informed reader:

Hi there, Garrett

I would just like to thank you for putting up such a kick ass site. I completeley agree with all your aspects. Much less I would like to say, that the Drej were nearly perfect. They do not need to procreate, have no disease, and they live for thousands of years. The book shows aspects from the Drej point of view. And this is what amazed me most, the ship that blew up Earth called the Alahenena, was powered by a White Dwarf! This truly amazed me. I would also like to say that the Drej destroyed Earth because they had made the mistake of stumbling upon artifact tecnology (the ability to create something out of nothing, an ability that the Drej posessed.) Yes I must say I was truly horrified as well by this disastrous ending. The Drej were truly amazing in the book. They even had the ability to manipulate inert matter. I recommend you read the book if you have not already. Yes I must say this ending really sucked. In response to Mary's comment, the Alahenena was the largest concentration of Drej in the galaxy. Well, thank you for your time.

Andreas

Another informed response to some of this above issues:

Mary questioned your use of the phrase "human threat"... Since "Humanthreat" is a phrase used several times by the Drej in the movie, it seems avalid point for you to make. In fact, the 'human threat' is at the root ofmovie, as the main motivation for the Drej to destroy earth.

My problem is that the movie NEVER explains the human threat, but it doesinfere repeatedly that the threat is attached to the Titan itself.. Withoutany explanation, the humans certainly do not appear to be any threat to theDrej... Without any real threat to the Drej, their actions become more thaninconceivable, invalidating the point of the whole movie.

Perhaps they only thing that bothers me more than the lack of any logicalpremise for the entire movie is that the Titan is the very device used tosave the earth, after it was the cause for it to be destroyed, byco-incidently using the energy of those who destroyed the earth (energy theTitan would never have needed, had the earth never have been destroyed).

Its like building a house of cards with the first floor and every secondfloor missing...

Do the books (which I imagine are written AFTER the movie) clarify any ofthis mess?

Thanks for the page btw, it was an interesting read.

Clinton R. Johnson

Dear Clinton,

Thanks for your comments. All of the emails I've received regarding this page have been an interesting reads themselves, as well as extremely helpful in my attempts to understand and think about the film Titan A.E, and more importantly, to think about how people think about the film.

As for the "human threat", you seem to be trying latch onto a physical object as the human threat. While from a literal "reading" of the movie you may or may not be correct in saying that the Titan was the threat, it has long been a standard trope in science fiction that aliens would view humanity as a threat. Usually the threat is pretty abstract, though almost always the same: humans, though still years behind alien technology, are a threat to the galactic order because they are independent, free-thinking and show a capacity for rapid progress. In short, the aliens are afraid of humanity because itcan think for itself, and despite a lack of laser-weapons this can lead to destability in the alien empire in the long run. I'm not sure why science fiction writers so often assume that the aliens have a "hive" mentality with no individual thought and would be threatened by mankind's innate intelligence and problem-solving ability. (see Orson Scott Card's classic Ender's Game for a canonical version of "hive aliens vs. the human threat" theme). It seems just as likely to me that we'd be "slow" by galactic standards, but I guess that's not what we like to hear about ourselves. Furthermore, since SF (and most fiction for that matter) maps onto the traditional landscape of myth, legend, and heroes, there's a need to cast mankind as a youthful underdog (a Theseus or an Odysseus) who has the cunning and street-smarts to defeat the villains, and more importantly, the status quo. Anyway, that's my take on the "human threat", but a wide range of plausible interpretations exist.

I admit that I haven't read the books, and I'm really just focusing on the movie. I hope someone out there who's read the books will let us know if the books can "clarify any of this mess." However, I sort of view the books as apocrypha, so we should consider what they have to say, but not necessarily accord them the same interpretive status as the movie. (Anyone who comments is free to disagree. That's just my approach.)

A zealous reader registers disagreement below:

You obviously didn't have a good grasp on the fact that the creators told us that the Drej were the enemy. They were like the Borg only triening [sic] to concur [sic]. But i do agree they (the Drej) should come back in a sequel

That's just what the human propagandists who wrote this film want us to think! Were any of the writers Drej? For that reason, I was not too surprised that we got a biased view of them. I'd take anything that "creators" tell us with a grain of salt; they have an agenda too--to wipe out the many wonderful indigenous cultures of the universe and replace them with boring old humanity and the many McDonalds and IHOPs that humanity inevitably brings with it.

I'd also like to point out that like the Drej, the Borg may have a vibrant, thriving culture as well that we never see. I think you should not be too quick to judge them, because we never see what they're like at home--we only see them when they're fighting. They fight so hard, it stands to reason they have something worth protecting. I bet on the Borg TV shows, Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise are portrayed as quite evil. What I'm trying to encourage is that we as movie-goers and readers rise above this sort of "speciecism" and appreciate all the different cultures out there, alien and human, as each worthwhile and each with something valuable to offer.

Although I respectfully disagree with your viewpoint, I would like to make clear that I value your perspective. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and comments.

A die-hard Drej fan writes:

Hello, Garrett.

I like your site. For once someone who actually likes the Drej. I also thought that the ending to the movie was ridiculous. Isn't it always the same plot? Humans suffer at the hands of other beings, humans get revenge, aliens are destroyed. As much as I loved the movie and the books. I must say that this ending was -for want of a better term - ridiculous. You would think that the creators of the movie would want to be different from other movies, which in a way they were (blowing up Earth and all) but it just proves what egomaniacs we humans really are. Do we have that much of an ego to think that some 20 year old bum who had his planet blown up by the near perfect godlike Drej race is actually going to (after finding the titan) come up with a crafty plan (within a period of two minutes before he is blown to smithereeens by the Drej) to use Drej energy against the Drej and destroy them? I think not! It just goes to show how much of an ego humans have. We actually think that we could get revenge against a race that blew up our homeplanet. Much less by an inexperienced boy who just happens to be the son of the guy who invented the Titan. No, this ending was not just. And your absolutely right, we never get to see the Drej's side of the story, which I can almost guarantee would be more intersting than that of the humans. Read the book (which has chapters in the Drej Queen's point of view and you notice how much more intersting Drej life is.) Yet if you read just the chapters that show the Drej point of view you notice how tragic their story really is. This ending proves exactly why the humans should be blown off the face of the universe.

I'm glad you enjoyed my site. Much of what makes this page interesting (to me, anyway) is the wide variety of perspectives expressed regarding the Drej. We allwatched the same movie, yet it meant different things to different people. This just demonstrates that no two people really see the "same" movie -- we take in predispositions, preferences, personal biases, etc., and in the end, we to a largeextent see what we want to in the movie.

I'm glad that you, like me, admire the vibrancy of Drej civilization. However, in your last sentence you show yourself to be quite extreme. In my opinion, if humanity did wrong by destroying the Drej, it would be equally wrong to destroy humanity. It too has something to offer, just not everything to offer. Both the Drej and humanity could probably achieve even greater things if they worked together andleveraged their disparate talents for the common good. Thus, I have to say I disagree with the proposition that "humans should be blown off the face of the universe."

However, by making such a bold statement, you are performing an important symbolicfunction in a discourse where the Drej themselves have no voice. Readers who read that sentence and thought "how awful" will hopefully be prompted to realizethat Cale's desire to blow the Drej out of the universe, and most audience members' automatic acceptance of that end as a reasonable goal, was equally awful. As long as the perpetration of xenocidal war crimes is portrayed in movies as heroism, we will all live in a poorer universe.

Thank you for your valuable commentary,

Garrett

And on the other side of the spectrum . . .

Well, how nice it is to see that so many people are wishing the Drej had destroyed the humans, or have you just forgotten that YOU ARE HUMAN!!!!! Come on, if this actually happened in real life, would you want to let some more advanced species win? The only thing the Drej were afraid of was the humans becoming stronger than the Drej (hence having the ability to use Drej energy for power). That's the reason the Drej destroyed earth, those power-thirsty aliens couldn't stand to have their superiority taken away from them so they just decided to eliminate the opposition, I say way to go humans for kicking they electric asses. As for the topic on humans throwing slim jim wrappers around space, it's supposed to be past the year 3000, I figure that the human race would have found a safer way of dealing with trash, this is sci-fi you know. And since it is sci-fi it shouldn't be so much of a deal to root for the aliens, but I doubt that you'd like to hear an American cheering for the Nazi's during the second world war, and this apple doesn't fall far from that tree. The Drej were a sweet-ass race, their ships were cool, and their technology was bonus, but they just couldn't stand being the inferior to anything, the human race in particular.

I liked the ending, and besides, the Drej weren't wiped out, just their military threat, and that should be a message to the Drej to leave humanity alone. That's my 2 cents, but I sure as hell liked the movie, plus that Akima was hot, LOL.

Sean Sali, British Columbia Canada

Thanks for your perspective, Sean. You raise some important issues. In response, I havejust two points to make:

As to you last point, I think its correctness is pretty undebatable.

Thanks,

Garrett

runesword@hotmail.com writes: It may be a bit late, considering the movie aired about a year and a half ago, but I just found the site. I think that various veiwpoints on you're site are right. I think that the Drej are probably misunderstood, and that we humans can be a threat. I'm just reading a book called Red Mars, it's not set too far in the future, but humanity is on the verge of wiping itself out. I think that this is a valid viewpoint, I mean, look at the Earth now. Some of us live relatively easy lives, our worst concerns being doing well at work and paying for food and taxes etc. But in some countries, people can't even feed themselves. I think that the Drej may have probably been right in attacking them, but they were wrong in they're methods. It was wrong trying to destroy them, but they were looked also looked at only from the viewpoint as Cale, considering that the whole movie really only follows him around. For all that we know, the Drej Queen may have only been trying to keep herself and her kind alive. For all we know, the humans launched a war against the Drej, they may have been killing thousands of Drej a day before they attacked back. For all we know, the Drej were primarily a peaceful species and only became warlike after the humans found them. It's never stated.
I hope that this is...well, helpful.

 gunnm@shaw.ca writes:

Dear Garret,
 
    This e-mail is massively late, since the movie was released some time ago, but hey, better late than never!
 
    What I'm writing about, is that you go into great detail and dissertaion regarding the human/Drej conflict and the synergy betwixt the two, but what hasn't appeared on your site thus far is the analyzation of the animation style in general, and this is what I'm going to touch on now.
 
    Animation in North America has been, for the most part, lackluster at best. From the earliest days where the same background was rotated over and over during "chase" scenes to today where the entire feel of a piece of animation appears flat and 2-D. Nothing has ever had a feel of real to it in any form when it comes to N. American animation, especially when compared to animation from Japan. From Star Blazers (aka Space Battleship Yamato) to Ghost in the Shell, the animation from Japan has eclipsed that of North America at every turn. Until Titan A.E. (and more recently, Final Fantasy). N. America has been apathetic when it comes to animation, whereas it's such a cutthroat business in Japan, that if one of the major anime houses fails to make one hit in it's year, it's pretty much out of business. It's this lack of competitive atmosphere that has kept N. America from putting anything of quality out, except when it comes to big money enterprises like Titan A.E. If you follow anime at all, look at what Japan cranks out on a regular basis just for it's everyday series!
 
    For quite a while, the Japanese anime houses have blended animation and CGI with great success, making it's inclusion in an anime piece near-seamless, as with Ghost in the Shell. It is only now that films like Titan A.E. in N. America have started to sucessfuly apply advanced techniques to it's animation.
 
    Titan A.E. was a milestone of the kind not seen since Heavy Metal. The animation was top notch by N. American standards and set a benchmark for other feature film animation to live up to. Although the CGI/animation blending was certainly not as seamless as it's Japanese counterpart, it was a great leap forward in the direction that the east had taken ages ago.
 
    I first saw Titan A.E. in the theatre with my wife and then 4 y.o. daughter (who was entranced, btw), and that's where the animation effects really shine in this movie. No VHS or DVD can re-capture that heady, "ass over teakettle" feeling like that of the big screen experience for this film, unlike some others. It's here that one can truly appreciate the CGI and animation effects that the makers of Titan A.E. put into the production. From the time where we see an animated Cale zipping through the CGI generated rusted space ship hulks on his way to lunch, to the near-final scene where Courso and Cale play cat and mouse in the ice rings of Tigrin (always want to spell that "Tegrin" :-), we see a new standard for N. American animation. A new benchmark, the bar set a little higher. And it's a good thing. It's about thime the homegrown industry got a kick in the pants and woke up.
 
    Oh, and a note on the Drej... You say that they are beings of energy and implied that as such their boundries were limitless. Well, let's think about that for a sec, and hear my therory out. If their life force was that limitless, why would the mothership have to recall it's stinger fighters prior to firing it's "planetbuster" cannon? Because it required every bit of energy it could muster. Since the singers had to be made of pure energy, the mothership would have to recall the fighters to utilize their energy for the cannon. So, we can say that there *is* a limit to the energy available at any one time to the Drej . I say this without ever having read any of the books that other people on you page have refered to, nor have I had any reference of any kind other than the movie.
 
    And yes... The Drej were DAMN cool...

Hey Garret!

 Sorry for the EXTREMELY LATE E-mail.

Do all of you really think a peaceful race would wipe out a planet with more than 7 billion non-combatants just to keep the universe free of commerce and trade? After all if the Drej were a peaceful race of art and science then why would they be in favor of destroying an entire race anyway? I m not saying that the Drej were a completely evil race but they wanted (and almost did) destroy an entire race that would have probably welcomed them. Can you honestly look at the overall Drej behavior and say that they weren t acting like conquerors on a quest of universal domination?

Something to think about,

Douglas

from  purplewyrm -at- yahoo.com

The human threat was obviously quite a real thing if you consider the fact that the Titan succeeded in
dusting one of their spaceships into component particles. As for the Titan being a state of the art
galaxy changing technological artefact it quite rightly is to be able to stimulate the formation of a
liveable planet complete with habitable biosphere in the time it takes to cook two minute noodles, however
it's operating system knowing humans the ship could probably be operated by a trained monkey, or an angst
driven teen hero. Just take a look at Windows, and you'll know a lot of people know kinda how it works. .
but not the how and the why. And I'd like just one of those people who kind of know how to use Windows, be
able to repair a spaceship in the time it takes to eat before mentioned noodles.
 
The empire are a collection of racist old men in bad suits, saved only by the fact they have one cool leader (Darth Vader, not the Old guy. No the other old guy, not Obi-Wan. Or Yoda either.), troops in really cool armour  (Impractical vision impairing headgear, the real cause of Stormtrooper syndrome or 'Set your blasters to miss!' jokes) and a variety of just mouth watering ships and gigantic walkers (Those snow speeder cables should have snapped dammit!). Moral of this story,
don't get led into battle by old people in bad suits.
 
As for the speciecist rhetoric, the Drej can't exactly be classified as a species because the only one that
ever talks or shows any signs of intelligence is the queen. This leads me to the theory that the Drej are
just a single awesomely powerful entity composed of energy capable of splitting itself up into many forms,
which is unfortunately schizophrenic but is also a particularly bad at throwing it's voice. Not to deny
an awful lot of species related racism isn't thrown into the movie, for other then Drej you've also have
the scene stealing presence of Preed. A member of the Akrennian species, who are cursed with looking far too
much like jackals with two legs and opposable thumbs. Being the only 'bad' character that dies without any
thought of redemption, you've got to wonder why he's also the only alien character based on a earth animal
that is traditionally viewed as evil, dirty and generally unpleasant. Even the Drej get to 'participate' in the construction of the planet Bob, making up for the earth they destroyed at the start of the movie. Poor old Preed however is treated far more roughly having contributed as the best character in the movie to my opinion, his limp broken neck corpse rolling away down the staircase to oblivion. And finally although I agree the movie is based on a very old and extremely tired science fiction premise, but the sheer volume of technological progress achieved in the last two hundred years alone are
certainly nothing to be scoffed at. . and although this progress has been stifled and cramped in recent
years when not in the interest of rich influential parts of society, these elements cannot hold back the
rapid rise of progress forever. For better or worse.

 
from Harshavardhan Bhide (Harsha), India  (harshbhide -at- hotmail.com)
 
Your web page made fascinating reading I must say.. The views truely made me contemplate a lot. This whole debate about who we are and as a species where do we stand in the Galactical scheme of things is truely intriguing.
During the first few moments of the movie,I was horrified at what these Drej do to our planet. I was angry too. I mean, why blow up our whole planet.
 
Sure humans are egotistic, manipulative, down right scum at times. But then why should the other species of Earth suffer? Not many havve raised this point.
 
As the movie goes on, it gets a little outrageous at times. I mean how can one pesky 20 year old save the whole of humanity... Let me make it very clear that I haven't read the book. The end of the movie came as a bit of a
disappointment though. I mean this Kale or Cale.. he manages a double play.. he recreates Earth and destroys another species. Whatever happened to an armstice? We humans are too combative.. This is why we have war today.. We
have never given peace a chance. This will be our undoing. Or even our doom. Matt damon and drew Barrymore have done a good job as the voices. And yes Akima's beauty was captivating.
 

From Joe Serio (jserio-at -BUCKEYESCHOOLS.ORG):  Hey, Sorry this is so late, but I finally managed to see the whole movie, after about a year of looking. I happened upon this webpage, and I must say, you do have some interesting views on the Drej. but COME ON!!! If the Drej were a benevolent race, and they were concerned with us becoming a threat, wouldn't it have made sense for them to ally themselves with the humans? But no, they just blast our planet into oblivion. Were they content with that? not a chance, they also set out to make sure we could never find ourselves a home, and were intent on our extiction. The final blast that took out the mother ship was a direct result of them attacking the Titan in an attept to insure the destruction of the human race. It was their own dumb fault that they failed to account for human ingenuity, so in reality, they were responsible for their own demise, if they hadn't attacked the Titan, and left us humans alone, then their mother ship would not be in little pieces drifting across the universe. So, sorry to sound a little young on this one, but they started it, so it serves them right. If they had just left the humans alone, we would have had no reason to hate them so much. Anyway, it is an awesome movie, and the character design was nice...Akima primarily, of course, what guy wouldn't think so. Shadow

 

Sean Sali back again,

I remember when I first posted on this webpage. I had watched Titan A.E. earlier that week and for some reason (unknown to this day) began browsing the internet in search of topics and pages related to Titan A.E. the movie. I then stumbled upon this web page and offered my opinion on the story.

A few years later, I remember the message I mailed to Garrett. Growing a little older and wiser in the years that have past has allowed me to absorb the views of others and see more reason and accountability in them, even if they may oppose my own views. Having reread the posts of the others on this page, I've decided to write one last post to discuss the opposition of the Drej and the Human race in a more informed light.

The remark made about humans being egomaniacs is fairly true. In every story I can possibly recall, the human race prevailed over all others. Titan A.E. is no exception, but making a movie where the humans lose and a tyrannical alien race gets to rule the galaxy in the end wouldn't bring much revenue, especially when it is a cartoon. That's the reality side, but as for the actual story... the drej, although I have not read any stories involving them, seem to be the bad guys no matter how they may have suffered in the past. Though they may be a scientific and vibrant race, there was no justification for such an advanced and powerful race to eliminate the home planet of another. I dare say this but such an act makes me think of 9/11, where Al Qaida (Drej) murdered thousands of innocents (Humans). Their goal was to destroy the economic center of the States (Earth) in hope of sending their country into a downfall (Human extinction). The comparison is a little loose, but you would all agree that the innocents' death, like the attempt to eradicate the humans, was completely unnecessary.

With that aside, I must agree that the likelihood of some 20-year-old galactic rebel being able to bring down the military might of the most advanced race in the galaxy is extremely rare, but this is the film industry. People like to see the underdog win, and lets not forget, he's human. Other then that, it was practically the drej that destroyed themselves. They were the ones who pulled the trigger against the Titan and because the Titan could use the Drej energy, the attack was reversed and the Drej fleet went bye-bye. The most important lesson that should have been learned from this movie is how an entity should demonstrate its power. The Drej used their power in an attempt to eliminate earth and the human race when they could have mended their differences and formed an alliance in order to prosper. This abuse of power eventually led to the Drej's self-inflicted demise. This should teach all of humanity that when in the possession of great power one should share it with others in order to coexist peacefully, and that one's with great power who would rather seek to eliminate their adversaries are ultimately destined to be destroyed.

Thank you,
Sean Sali

 
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