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PORT PERRY "WEEKEND STAR" FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2000-9 Animated sci-fi picture will leave you breathless SCREENING ROOM By John Foote TITAN A.E. (Yee vy) From Fox 2000 Now in theatres _ Featuge length animated films were for so long produced only by Disney, | must admit to having mixed feelings about the surge in popularity of the art form. While | am thrilled to see someone other than Disney Studios making animated works, the fact remains that Disney really does do it best, which with the release of virtu- ally every new animated film becomes more and more evident. When Disney Studios roared back into the animation business with The Little Mermaid (1989) they recognized their audience had grown past children to include both teenagers and adults. Therefore, the films that followed The Little Mermaid become stronger narrative pieces, merging strongly drawn and voiced characters with the goofy sidekicks that have long dominated Disney films. The results through the 90s were some of the most astonishing animated works created for the screen, including the Oscar winning films Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1991), Pocahontas (1995), Toy Story (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1997), A Bug's Life (1998), Tarzan (1999), Toy Story 2 (1999) and best of all, the masterful The Lion King (1994). Cinema history was made in 1991 when Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, an honour that eluded such Disney classics as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), Pinocchio (1941), and Bambi (1942). While | believe Beauty and the Beast was mar- velous entertainment, my feeling about the best picture nomination is that it was unjust; perhaps swayed by the powerful campaign Disney mounted to secure the 'nomination, Academy voters ignored sev- eral better films that year. How The Lion King was overlooked remains a complete mystery to me; that film is a soaring work of animation art that managed to bring elements of Shakespearean. tragedy into the story, never losing sight of the largest audience. Without question The Lion King is Disney's crowning achievement, easily the greatest animated feature ever made. In recent years rival studios Dreamworks, Fox 2000, and Warner Brothers have jumped into the animated feature game, with mixed results. In hon- esty, not a single film released from any one of those studios comes close to Disney, though the effort to succeed must be admired. Dreamworks has been the most suc- cessful, no surprise since former Disney head honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg runs the animation wing at that new studio. Ironically, one of their first features was eration of animated features. Antz (1998), a computer animated film that was rushed into release before Disney could release A Bug's Life. Whisperings in the Disney camp claim Katzenberg stole the idea and rushed the film into production. Their second animated film, The Prince of Egypt (1998), is a remake of The Ten Commandments (1956), and aimed towards an adult audience. Though the film has some genuinely inspiring moments, particularly the parting of the Red Sea, in the end it is much like a Classic Illustrated comic book version of the story of Moses. Warner Brothers did A scene from Titan" A.E., a picture that marks the arrival of the next gen- well with the animated Anastasia (1997), while Fox had a full scale disaster on their hands with their remake of The King and | (1956). Fox 2000 now unleashes an animated feature that is the film many hoped Star Wars: The Phantom Menace would be. Titan A.E. is a wildly imaginative rush of cinematic adrenaline that will leave view- ers somewhat breathless. 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