"Titan AE-like" Animation

Awhile back, someone here asked for suggestions of other animated films done in a style similar to Titan AE. I had a few thoughts on the subject, but never got around to posting them before, so figured I better do it now before some of my recommendations went out of print. (Edit: The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmations and Sleeping Beauty all went OOP in January 2010, after this was initially posted).

Revised 3/10: Originally this list included only titles with traditionally hand-drawn characters. However, based on some of the comments and other suggestions here, it's been expanded to include CG and anime, and some other titles I haven't seen which seem to fit with the general SF/fantasy themes. (Titles I've seen and can recommend have a thumbs-up in the Comments column.) A number of titles on the list also include themes or content of a mature, intense or potentially objectionable nature. Where possible, I've tried to indicate this in the last column. However, I still recommend pre-screening all titles on the list if you have younger viewers.

Revised 4/11: Blu-ray column added.

TRADITIONAL CEL
Animation with traditionally hand-drawn or rotoscoped characters (other than anime).

Title:	Year:	DVD Format:	Image Aspect Ratio:	Blu-ray Disc:	Comments:	Mature, Intense or Potentially Objectionable Content:
Aeon Flux	1991 TV series				C	a
All-Star Superman	2011	16:9		BD		?
The Animatrix	2003	16:9		BD	Mix of traditional and CG.	a
Anastasia	1997			BD	C
Atlantis: The Lost Empire	2001				C
Batman	1993 TV series				C	a?
Batman Beyond	1999-2001 TV series	4:3	1.33		C Season 1 and the first half of season 2 appear to be film transfers, while the 2nd half of season 2 and all of season 3 look like direct digital transfers. So the latter episodes have better color and clarity. The whole series was very well made though.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker	2000			BD	D2V feature based on the excellent Batman Beyond series.	a
Batman: Gotham Knight	2008			BD		a?
Batman: Under the Red Hood	2010	16:9		BD		?
The Black Cauldron	1985	16:9 (2010 edition), 4:3 Letterbox (previous release)	~2.35		C The new 2010 25th anniversary DVD is 16:9 anamorphic, while the previous DVD was 4:3 letterbox.	a (for a couple intense action scenes and abrupt sound cues)
The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury	2004					a
Cool World	1992	16:9	1.78		C Not many folks will admit to liking this (including some of its creators). But I've always rather enjoyed its freewheeling mix of live-action, varied animation styles, 90's techno, voyeuristic themes and neo-noir look. And would recommend it to others looking for somethin a bit off the beaten path.	a
Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme	2007	16:9	1.78	BD	C Animation is quite well-done for a D2V film, and probably the best rendered of the recent Marvel animated films (or a tie with Hulk vs. Wolverine). Detail was a tad soft on the DVD version, but still very watchable.	a
Duck Dodgers (in the 24½th Century)	2003-06 TV series				C Not on DVD yet.	?
Family Guy: It's A Trap!	2010			BD		a?
Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Dark Side	2009			BD		a?
The Fantastic Planet (La Planète Sauvage)	1973				C The René Laloux classic.	a
Fantastic Four	2006 TV series
Fire and Ice	1983	16:9	1.78	BD	C The Bakshi/Frazetta sword and sorcery collab.	a
The Flight of Dragons	1982				Available as a made-to-order DVD here.	?
Futurama	1999- TV series			BD*	C *Only Season 5 appears to be available on BD (so far?).	?
Futurama: Bender's Game	2008			BD		?
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder	2009			BD		?
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs	2008					?
Gnomes	1980				Availability = ? Wikipedia entry.	?
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights	2011			BD*	*Current release date for this title on DVD and BD is 6-7-11.	?
Green Lantern: First Flight	2009	16:9	1.78	BD	C	a?
Heavy Metal	1981	16:9	1.85	BD*	C *Blu-ray available exclusively through Best Buy until 6-14-11.	a
Heavy Metal 2000	2000				Tks to LS for this suggestion.	a
Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms	2006			BD		?
Hellboy: Blood & Iron	2007			BD		?
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe	1983-85 TV series	4:3	1.33		CAnimation isn't quite as good as the 2002 He-Man, and the stories are more youth-oriented, but it's worth a look for its striking color palette, Corben-esque backgrounds and tongue-in-cheek dialogue. A good set of 10 sample episodes can be found in this "best of" collection.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe	2002-04 TV series	16:9	1.78		C Picture's a little on the soft side detail-wise, and occasionally starts to comb on my Sony upconverting DVD player, but otherwise quite good. The palette is more muted and naturalistic than the original He-Man series, and the animation quality is generally excellent and on par with recent Marvel/DC series. The complete series of 3 seasons can now be had in one boxset pretty cheaply, and the cover looks like this.
Hercules	1997				C
Hulk Vs. Thor / Hulk Vs. Wolverine	2009	16:9	1.78	BD	C The DVD has some combing issues on my Sony upconverting DVD player, especially on the characters' mouths. Aside from that the animation quality is pretty good, especially on Hulk vs. Wolverine.	a
The Iron Giant	1999	16:9			C Excellent story and solid animation that's a mix of traditional and CG, with a bit of an old-school feel to it.
The Invincible Iron Man	2006	16:9		BD		?
Jonny Quest	1964-65 TV series	4:3	1.33		C The classic HB series. IMO the best animated action-adventure series ever made for TV, which combined the drawing talents of Doug Wildey with other great artists at HB during that time.	a
The Jungle Book	1967	16:9	1.75		C PQ was a little disappointing to me on this. IMO too much detail and life was filtered out of the image. And even though the OAR is apparently 1.75, I'd gotten used to the 1.33AR open matte of previous releases which shows more image on top and bottom than this newer widescreen edition. Still recommend the film though despite these minor issues. Hopefully PQ will be more detailed when a Blu-ray version is released. Title appears to have gone OOP 1/31/10.
Justice League	2001 TV series			BD*	*Season 2 BD available 7-26-11.	?
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths	2010	16:9		BD		?
Justice League: The New Frontier	2008	16:9		BD		?
Justice League Unlimited	2004 TV series				C	?
The Last Unicorn	1982			BD	Tks to DaveFi for this suggestion.	?
Light Years (Gandahar)	1988				Another Laloux SF animated classic. Availability = ?	a
The Lord of the Rings	1978	DVD: 4:3?	DVD: 1.33?, BD: 1.85	BD	C "Remastered deluxe edition" released April 2010 on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD appears to be "Fullscreen", while the Blu-ray is widescreen. More details here.	a?
Mystery of the Third Planet	1981				According to Wikipedia, there were a couple different versions of this released on home video, but it sounds like they're either hard to find, not in english, or not particularly faithful to the original release.	?
The New Batman Adventures	1997-1999 TV series				C
Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow	2008	16:9		BD		?
101 Dalmations	1961	4:3	~1.33		C Cruella De Vil is one of the more memorable and brilliantly drawn/animated characters in the genre. Title appears to have gone OOP 1/31/10.
Otherworld (Y Mabinogi)	2003				Wikipedia entry. Reviews on this don't look particularly great. But some images on the Otherworld site look mildly interesting.	a?
Pirates of Dark Water	1991 TV series	4:3?	1.33?		C Neat fantasy series that's sort of a mix of LOTR and POTC, with a uniquely colorful animation style. Unfortunately the series was cancelled before "the quest" was complete. Still alot of fun though. Available as made-to-order DVD here. Also runs sometimes on cable.
The Princess and the Goblin	1991	4:3	1.33		C Saw this recently, and was pleasantly surprised. The animation may not be as technically proficient as some other films, but what it lacks in budget and skill, it makes up for with nice drawings, entertaining characters, and plenty of heart.
Planet Hulk	2010	16:9		BD		?
Quest for Camelot	1998	16:9	1.78		C Animation is not the greatest ever done, but a pretty good little Arthurian fantasy with some good tunes and an excellent voice cast.
Reign: The Conqueror	1999 TV series	4:3	1.33		C	a
Return to the Planet of the Apes	1975-76 TV series				The animated series.	?
The Road to El Dorado	2000				C
Rock & Rule	1983		BD: 1.85	BD		a
Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends	1999-2000 TV series	4:3	1.33		C Animated X-files/MIB clone with pretty good stories and characters. Animation is similar in style to recent DC series, and almost as well-done.
The Secret of Kells	2009	16:9		BD		?
The Secret of NIMH	1982	4:3 & 16:9?	BD: 1.85	BD	C A BD version was released March 2011. There are also a couple different versions of this on DVD. However the 2009 edition (Region=?) is the only one which appears to be in 16:9 widescreen, and the others are 4:3.	a
Sleeping Beauty	1959	16:9	2.55	BD*	C I recommend the BD edition which also includes a DVD copy. One of Walt's best, and IMHO a must-have for any animation/movie buff. *Title appears to have gone OOP 1/31/10.
The Snow Queen (Snezhnaya Koroleva)	1957 (English version, 1959)	4:3	1.33		C Beautifully crafted Russian adaptation of the H.C. Anderson tale, which rivals some of the mouse-house's best works of that time. So far I've only seen the 1959 English-dubbed PD version (available on the Internet Archive or budget DVDs), which is actually quite good. PQ is on the poor side though. The contrast is so high on the print that shadow detail is often missing. Still recommend giving it a look though. Have not seen the reworked 1998 version.
Space Angel	1962-64 TV series	4:3?	1.33?		C Early youth-oriented SF series from Cambria studios which employed their patented Syncro-Vox process. Animation is extremely limited, but the drawings were topnotch by Alex Toth, D. Wildey and others (before they moved to HB studios).
Space Ghost/Dino Boy	1966-68 TV series	4:3	1.33		C Another thoroughly enjoyable set of vintage HB/Toth action classics from the 1960's.
Starchaser: The Legend of Orin	1985	16:9	2.35		C This is probably the closest to Titan AE story-wise (both also owe alot to Star Wars). The animation style is a bit stiffer and more "mechanically" drawn than AE though. One reason for this is that the film was originally designed to be shown in 3-D. There's a certain quirky/kitschy 80's appeal to it though. DVD PQ is average.	a
Star Trek	1973-75 TV series				The animated series.	?
Star Wars: Clone Wars	2003-					?
Superman	1930's-40's Fleischer animated shorts	4:3	1.33		C Many of these can be found in the Internet Archive here, and on various DVD compilations. Not sure which DVDs have the best transfers.
Superman	1990's TV series				C
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse	2010	16:9		BD	C	a
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies	2009	16:9		BD		a?
Superman: Doomsday	2007	16:9	1.78	BD	C	a
Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam	2010	16:9		BD		?
The Sword in the Stone					C
Thor: Tales of Asgard	2011			BD*	*Current release date for this title on DVD and BD is 5-17-11.	?
Thundarr the Barbarian	1980 TV series	4:3?	1.33?		Available as a made-to-order DVD here.	?
Time Masters (Les Maîtres du Temps)	1981	4:3	1.33		C Laloux/Moebius. This may be a little hard to find on DVD, but if you're a fan of old school animation or SF, it's worth checking out. The story definitely takes it's time, so those with short attention spans may want to pass on this. Style-wise though, it's very different than anything being done today. The DVD edition I've seen is from Image Entertainment in French with English subs. PQ is on the grainy side, but watchable.	a
Tintin and the Lake of Sharks	1972
Tintin and the Temple of the Sun	1969
Treasure Planet	2002
Turok: Son of Stone	2008				C	a
Ultimate Avengers	2006	16:9		BD	C	?
Ultimate Avengers II	2006	16:9		BD	C	?
Valley of the Dinosaurs	1974 TV series	4:3?	1.33?		Available as a made-to-order DVD here.	?
Wild C.A.T.S: Covert Action Teams	1994-95 TV series				C Stories and animation are average quality for TV, but sort of interesting to see this series/style adapted to cartoon form.
Wizards	1977	16:9	1.85		C One of the best DVD transfers I've seen of an older animated film, with very good detail, contrast and especially color.	a
Wolverine and the X-Men	2008- TV series	16:9	1.78	BD	C Not too bad. Some decent stories and voicework, and the animation is on par with alot of other recent stuff. Detail could be a little better on the DVD, but otherwise PQ is OK. Complete series released on DVD & BD in October 2010.
Wonder Woman	2009	16:9		BD	C Excellent Blu-ray transfer.	a
Young Samson	1967 TV series	4:3?	1.33?		C Available as a made-to-order DVD here.	?

CG
Animation that's largely or completely computer-generated (including CG anime).

Title:	Year:	DVD Format:	Image Aspect Ratio:	Blu-ray:	Comments:	Mature, Intense or Potentially Objectionable Content:
Aero Troopers	2003
Appleseed	2004	16:9	1.78	BD	C Anime style CG.	a
Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina	2007	16:9		BD	Anime style CG.	?
Ark	2004 / 2005				Korean film	?
Astro Boy	2009	16:9		BD
Avatar	2009	16:9		BD	C Mix of CG and live-action.	a
Battle for Terra	2007	16:9		BD	Tks to OvalNut for this suggestion.	?
Beast Machines: Transformers	1999 TV series				C
Beowulf	2007	16:9		BD		a
Bionicle	2003-				C
Delgo	2008	16:9		BD	C	a
Dragon Hunters	2008	16:9		BD		?
Elysium	2003				Korean mecha film.	?
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	2001	16:9		BD	CAnime style CG.	a?
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children	2005	16:9		BD	CAnime style CG.	a
Firebreather	2010			BD		a?
Freedom (aka Freedom Project)	2006- TV series				Anime style CG. Tks to Vracer111 for this suggestion.	?
Galerians: Rion	2004				Anime style CG.	?
Halo Legends	2010	16:9		BD	Mix of CG and hand-drawn animation (mostly anime style).	?
Heavy Gear	2001-02 TV series				C
How to Train Your Dragon	2010	16:9		BD
Immortal (Immortel Ad Vitam)	2004	16:9		BD	C	a
The Incredibles	2004	16:9	~2.35	BD	C
Invader Zim	2001-03 TV series				Mix of hand-drawn and CG.	?
Iron Man: Armored Adventures	2008- TV series			BD		?
Kaena: The Prophecy	2003				C	?
Megamind	2010	16:9		BD
Meet the Robinsons	2007	16:9		BD	C PQ and color are quite spectacular on the BD.
Monster House	2006	16:9		BD	C	a
Monsters, Inc.	2001	16:9		BD	C
Monsters Vs. Aliens	2009	16:9		BD
9	2009	16:9		BD	The Burton/Acker production.	?
Planet 51	2009	16:9		BD
ReBoot	1994-2001 TV series				C
Resident Evil: Degeneration	2008	16:9		BD		a
Robots	2005	16:9		BD
Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles	1999 TV series				C	?
Shadow Raiders / War Planets	1998-99 TV series				C
Space Chimps	2008	16:9		BD
Star Wars: Clone Wars	2008-10			BD		?
Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series	2009 TV series					a
Tripping the Rift	2004- TV series					a?
Vexille	2007	16:9		BD*	C Anime style CG. *BD available 7-11-11.	a
WALL-E	2008	16:9		BD	C

ANIME
Japanese hand-drawn/cel animation. For more ideas on anime, see also DaveFi's excellent list.

Title:	Year:	DVD Format:	Image Aspect Ratio:	Blu-ray:	Comments:	Mature, Intense or Potentially Objectionable Content:
Cowboy Beebop	1998 TV series				C	a
Karas: The Prophecy	2005				C Mix of hand-drawn and CG. Followed up by Karas: The Revelation.	a
Last Exile	2003 TV series				C Mix of hand-drawn and CG.	?
Neon Genesis Evangelion	1995-96 TV series	4:3	1.33		C	a
New Fist of the North Star (Hokuto No Ken)	2003 TV series	4: 3 Letterbox			C	a
Ninja Scroll	1993				C	a
Planet of the Beast King (Jyu-Oh-Sei)	2006 TV series	16:9	1.78		C	a
Robot Carnival	1987				C Anthology film.	a
Transformers: The Movie	1986					a?
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust	2000	16:9	~1.78		C Many of the characters are drawn with a more traditional style than alot of anime. Audio can be quite hot at times so watch volume levels.	a

Edited by ADU - 7/31/12 at 5:23pm

Fantastic! Tks for the tip LC.

If you have other corrections/suggestions feel free to post them.

I think you just did.

Tks for the compliment Lee.

Your confusion is probably justified JZ. I think this is the thread that originally started the discussion.

FWIW, I didn't really have a specific set of criteria for the list other than what you mentioned. I mainly just chose films that I thought the OP might find interesting/enjoyable based on his appreciation of the drawing and animation style in Titan AE. Since he (or she) picked a film with a more traditional style of drawing as his model, I assumed he was interested in more things along those lines rather than the CG and anime which are more prevalent now. But that could've been an incorrect assumption.

What most of the above have in common though (with each other & Titan AE), is pretty good figure drawing, sometimes with the aid of rotoscoping, and also a strong fantasy or SF component. Some employ CG elements as well, as you pointed out. But it's usually for backgrounds or props, and the principal characters are hand-drawn as in Titan AE. Several of the titles were also suggested previously by other folks in the original thread, so I basically just filled in the gaps with some other ideas along somewhat similar lines.

I enjoy anime and CG as much as the next person btw. I just got the impression the OP was lookin for a change of pace from those styles. If you're wondering why it took so long to reply, it was probably just laziness/forgetfulness on my part, until I heard recently a couple of the films were going OOP. Anyway, that's my story. Hopefully it makes things a little clearer.

Update #1

The DVD links for the 2002-2004 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series are not correct on imdb. The series was originally released in 3 boxsets (which looked somethin like this). However as mentioned above, all 3 seasons are now available in one box (shown below) for ~twenty bucks.



(There's an "origins" DVD which contains 10 sample episodes from the series as well for about six bucks.)

The original 1983-85 He-Man is also sort of entertaining, for those into vintage animation. The animation isn't quite as good, and the stories are more youth-oriented, but it's worth a look for its striking color palette, Corben-esque backgrounds and tongue-in-cheek dialogue. A good set of 10 sample episodes can be found in this "best of" collection.

There was also a 3rd series made in 1990-91 called The New Adventures of He-Man, which I have not seen.

Some other fantasy-related titles I haven't seen are Mystery of the Third Planet (1981), Gnomes (1980) and Otherworld (2003). Availability on some of these appears sketchy, and reviews on Otherworld don't look quite as good as the first two. (Some images on the Otherworld site look mildly interesting though.) According to Wikipedia, there were a couple different versions of Mystery of the Third Planet released on home video, but it sounds like they're either hard to find, not in english, or not particularly faithful to the original release.

 

 

A couple newer D2V releases that may also be worth a look: Planet Hulk and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Have not seen either of these yet, but maybe others here have.

Edited by ADU - 11/29/12 at 4:42pm

I've only seen some reruns of PODW on CN, but it looked pretty good to me as well. The style of animation/drawing is looser than alot of recent stuff, which is sort of a nice change, but still pretty well done IMO for a TV series. I'm also somewhat surprised that noone's attempted a home video release given the obvious tie-in potential with POTC and LOTR... in spite of the fact that the series was never fully completed.

http://www.piratesofdarkwater.net/ch...images/ren.jpg
http://www.piratesofdarkwater.net/ch...mages/tula.jpg
http://www.piratesofdarkwater.net/ch...es/niddler.jpg
http://www.piratesofdarkwater.net/ch...ages/bloth.jpg

Interesting suggestion. I've not seen the film myself, but from the trailers, it appears the animation is all CG (computer-generated), which is not as much in keeping with the more traditional hand-drawn approach of the other film and TV shows discussed here. There's certainly a similarity to TAE from a SF/fantasy subject matter standpoint though.

If this is the sort of thing you dig, you might also check out Kaena: The Prophecy or Delgo, and maybe even the Bionicle videos as well. It's been awhile since I've seen these, so can't really give a proper review. I do recall my attention span being somewhat challenged by the rather involved backstory and somewhat heavy-handed plot in Delgo though. So probably would give the others higher marks. Have to put on my thinkin cap for other CG titles along similar lines.

Edit: See new CG table in Post #1 for more titles.

Thanks for the heads up. I'd think some of the detailed backgrounds in this would provide some fairly good eye-candy in HD. So I'll be curious to hear your review if you give it a look. A better example of SW-inspired 80's kitsch I doubt you will find.

Yeah, but the explanation was still interesting.


That I did not know, though some of the FX sort of have that look. I assumed they were done using mechanical drawing techniques. If computers were used, it must've been pretty basic stuff.

Since you brought this up I took a look at the DVD again and another thing I noticed was the similarity in design between Dagg Dibrimi's ship and Serenity. Makes me wonder if JW was a Starchaser fan.

I have no problem with it.

About the only other traditionally animated spacey stuff I can think of are the Riddick film, Trek and Planet of the Apes animated series, and Duck Dodgers in 24½th Century.

It's not really my topic anyway, just one I continued from this thread. So folks are welcome to post what they want, be they anime, CG, stop-action or whatever. I own some anime as well (VHD, some Cowboy Beebop, and Ninja Scroll to name a few), but I'm not as knowledgeable in that area, and would also welcome some new ideas.

Yeah, that's the one I was referring to Lee. Couldn't remember the exact name off the top of my head. There were also animated versions of Trek and POTA as well. (Revised last post to hopefully make that a little more clear.)

Reign: The Conqueror and Flux are already on the table. I bent the rules a little on those as well, since the style is not what you'd typically expect from most anime. PC also did the dragonhawks on Fire and Ice, and according to imdb, worked on the original 1986 Transformers animated movie (and Rugrats).

Update #2

Sorry to disappear there for a bit, but I wanted to make a few revisions to the list to incorporate some of the other ideas and suggestions here. Most of the changes are explained in the first post. Essentially though, the original traditional lists were merged together into one table, and new tables for CG and anime were added.


Very nice list btw, Dave. I'm somewhat surprised how many things I've either seen or heard about on there, so maybe I'm not as ignorant on the subject of anime as I thought. I'd be curious to hear your Top 10 or 20 picks, especially from some of the more recent stuff.


Haven't seen this series, but from the clips it looks like they did a pretty good job of translating an anime style to CG. Reminds me a little of Last Exile, which also employs CG for many of its FX (though I think the characters on that series are mostly hand-drawn).