Okay maybe I was being a bit too harsh when I wrote that, but the truth is that Titanic:The Animated Movie (or the Legend Goes On) is frankly awful. First things first, if you want to see a better version, the James Cameron version is great. While ambitious, it is well acted and sumptuously filmed. Even the 1996 mini-series was better than this, and that had a lot wrong with that. Personally I do think it was a bad idea making one of the most tragic moments in history into an animated film, that is condensed and rather empty. I don't know where to begin criticising this film, and it needs a lot of criticising, as there is very little good about it.
To cut to the chase, I was very unimpressed with the animation for a start. It was dull and tacky, and where was the colour and the vibrancy? Plus some of the character movements were so forced particularly the facial expressions of the ugly stepsisters; if I were to be honest, the film looks as though it has been made on the cheap. I am not the only person who spotted this, but some of the shots were repeated over and over again, and it was distracting. And it certainly doesn't help that the editing was all over the place. Even some of the Jetlag and Golden Film productions have better animation, and they are low budget for goodness sake.
The music wasn't that much better. The incidental music is kind of pleasant if unmemorable, but in general the songs were poor. Maybe not as bad as the mind numbingly awful songs from Secret of NIMH 2:Timmy To The Rescue, and not as badly sung either, but that is not saying much. I think I need to start with the worst one. That was "Party Time", in my opinion that is a perfect example of a song that is completely unnecessary to the story, and one that is so bad it is hilarious. From the abysmal lyrics to the awful rapping that was out of time in some places, it was horrible to listen to. As soon as the rapping dog arrived on the scene I knew we were going to be in trouble. "Mucho Gusto" fared better, but I remember for a salsa song it lacked energy, spice and pizazz. Without those three things, a salsa song sounds lifeless, and that was the problem I had with the song. The best one and for me, the only redeeming quality of the film was the song "Holding Me". This was sublimely sung, has meaningful lyrics and a nice melody. However, it deserved a much better movie.
Another major problem was the story. Too many back stories crammed into such a short running time, the film is barely even an hour, and as a result the characters seemed underdeveloped and the situations rushed. Also the film has a tendency to be too slow. Well there's the subplot of thieves robbing cabins-sounds like something stolen from the Titanic mini-series, and a love story between Anjelica and William that was rather out of the blue I must say, and I didn't really get the sense they cared for one another until the ending. What angered me was that this film ripped off movies from my childhood. Cinderella is the most obvious one, then there's American Tail, The Secret of NIMH, Beauty and the Beast with Gaston, 101 Dalmatians, Sherlock Holmes(Conan Doyle must be turning in his grave over this one)and even the Cameron movie itself. I'm surprised this wasn't sued for plagiarism.
Maybe I am alone in this, but the characters didn't seem very likable. Anjelica, instead of the headstrong, determined and vivacious protagonist I was hoping for, then again maybe my expectations were too high, was as dull as dish water. William is a rather clichéd love interest, and despite the fact he is optimistic just as dull as well, and the stepsisters were really annoying with high pitched voices that make you want to cover your ears. Not even the animals had any real charm.
The script is, how do I put it, bad. There is very little humour here, and the writing is clichéd and stale. You always feel as though you have heard it all before, I certainly have. So much so, the secondary characters including the stepmother, have very little to do, and the dialogue between Angelica and William is sappy and wishy washy. If there was any comedy, it was unintentional. I am principally talking about the ending, where the writers completely obliterated the poignancy and tragedy that the ending should've had with some ridiculous ideas like the animals being saved by dolphins and then the men throwing the water over the side with buckets. Yeah, you saw right buckets, as if THAT was going to solve anything. The ending left me dissatisfied, not only because it was a happy ending but also the whole film felt rather abrupt.
Not only were the characters lifeless and unengaging but the same applies with the voice acting. Very few of the actors have the energy to carry an already empty film. Lisa Russo tries her best with Anjelica but she is severely hampered by the material she is given. Same with Mark Thompson-Ashworth as William. Some of the actors such as Kenneth Balton as the Captain sounded as though they were reading out loud from a text book, and believe me that can be quite boring. This also happened to be Edmund Perdum's last film, and he is given so little to work with as Jeremy.
All in all, this was a real shipwreck. A bad idea really, and it was executed even worse. 1/10 for the song "Holding me". Bethany Cox
