November 6, 2014

  • Titan A.E. Revisited

    Don Bluth was behind a number of great animated films in the 1980s and 1990s.  He was one of the directors and producer of Titan A.E. (2000).  The animated film featured a host of great voice talent and maintains a sort of cult status as an early screenplay that Joss Whedon had a hand in creating.  The story follows a group of young people who need to find an Earth ship before aliens destroy it, and by extension, humanity’s future.  By the time of this film, composer Graeme Revell had over a decade of scoring work behind him with most years seeing anywhere from 5-10 scores.  In 2000, Revell would work on a number of significant projects including a the SyFy Channel’s Dune and the first Riddick film, Pitch Black.  The present release is a limited edition from La-La Land records of 1500 units.

    The “Prologue” opens with a rather beautiful setting for piano and choir that includes the first thematic idea that will be attached to the Titan.  All of this is shattered by the music that will be used to underscore the Drej (“Drej Attack”).  This propulsive action music has a real visceral intensity filled with punching rhythms and percussion.  It will smash into the midst of “We’ve Got Company” later.  The heavy use of percussion, coupled with unusual sounds will continue to be attached to the Drej throughout the score, most effectively in “The Dreaded Drej.”  The swirling atonal, almost aleatoric, string writing is a great unsettling touch that sort of bubbles about like an intense Corigliano score.  Rhythmically, the music is equally hard to pin down as different motifs swirl about (especially in “Mother Drej”).  A bit of electric guitar appears briefly in “Stith Kicks Butt” which seems somewhat out of place.

    There are some very beautiful moments in this score often related to Cale and some of the more intimate scenes that lie in contrast to all the action.  Early on, a theme that tends to get attached with Cale’s father provides one of these moments in “The Ring is the Key”.  A trumpet is used to signal this connection in “I See Your Father” and later “I Miss Him.”  Another subdued moment opens “The Broken Moon” where there is a blend of synth and acoustic sounds.  Later “The Map Evolves” features some gorgeous writing for flute and strings.  A big push of grand orchestral writing begins a later launch sequence in “Launch/Hall of Mirrors” which soon shifts into electronic overlays (more along the lines of other Revell scores).  These emotional and somewhat traditional orchestral moments help provide some depth to the story as it progresses (“It’s All Up To You”).

    La-La Land has sweetened this presentation by including two alternate tracks.  The first is an orchestra version of “Creation”.  The second is the music for the “Prologue” with an alternate opening.  Titan A.E.  is a rather interesting hybrid of Revell’s use of orchestra and some electronics (on good display in “Power Struggle”).  Some of the score is really quite good with interesting thematic development and orchestral writing, particularly listening for how the Titan theme evolves over the course of the score.  The Drej music is also quite effective.  There are though plenty of fairly generic sounding electronic action cues that could come from any film.  Fortunately, those are spread out enough with integrated ideas to make the score a rather exciting and engaging work.