2009’s overlooked Battle for Terra had a similar message to James Cameron’s Avatar, but in many ways it delivered a more accomplished film.
What Is It?
This movie opens on a distant planet where a race of peaceful beings, who have the ability to fly, live an idyllic existence mostly at harmony with their world. However, an enormous spaceship arrives, carrying the last inhabitants of a destroyed Earth, who plan to settle on this world. The humans must terraform the planet to make the atmosphere breathable which in turn will make it poisonous to the natives. An initial confrontation with the humans and natives leads to one of the humans crashing on the planet and coming face to face with the people he would help destroy. This plants the seeds which eventually lead to the beginning of a mutual understanding between the two races, but General Hemmer, the military leader of the humans, is still determined to conquer Terra at any cost.
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Luke Wilson, Brian Cox, James Garner, Chris Evans, Danny Glover
Crew: Aristomenis Tsirbas (Director/Writer), Evan Spiliotopoulos (Screenplay)
Original Release: 2007
Legacy:
Even though this film disappeared quickly from the theaters, it offered a beautifully rendered sci fi/fantasy tale with some interesting moral quandaries and it deserves better recognition from the sci fi community.
A Closer Look:
As blockbuster franchises like Star Trek, Transformers, and Harry Potter were preparing to assault the theaters at the beginning of the 2009 Summer season, a rather unassuming little animated movie appeared and disappeared within about two weeks time. This film, Battle for Terra, had been made back in 2007 at a very economical price for a CGI film (around $4 million originally, though increased to $8 million with 3-D effects added), and had received some acclaim as it toured the film festival circuit.
Battle for Terra is a beautifully illustrated animated movie that mixes sci fi with fantasy (though still sufficiently rooted in science) and even throws in a bit of steam-punk tech. And while the substance does not always match up to the style, the film still delivers a more satisfying tale than the similarly themed Avatar from James Cameron which would follow this one at the Box Office with much more fanfare. And while Terra’s story verges into the derivative at times with a hodgepodge of genre elements and some copy-and-paste dialogue, it presents a more genuine take on its subject matter than the much more calculated Avatar. It may not fully develop its characters and ideas, in part because of its rather brief 85 minute run-time, but in the end, the movie manages to overcome most of its deficiencies and stand out as a notable genre entry.
And sparse though the plot may be, the writers resist the temptation to give us a simple tale of idealistic, pacifist aliens vs. imperialist, invading humans. Sure, it ventures in that direction with the central villain General Hemmer, but we see that the humans are primarily driven more by their desperation than anything else and we also see that the natives of Terra have the ability to defend themselves if necessary. And it has a rather impressive voice cast which includes Evan Rachel Wood, Luke Wilson, James Garner, Chris Evans, Danny Glover, and more.
Battle for Terra has the look of a fantasy movie aimed at the younger crowd, much like the many of the CGI films from the 21st century. In fact, it seems quite merchandise friendly, with its cute aliens, adorable robots, sleek space ships and steam-punk alien airships. But the movie does not give us the simple tale of good vs. evil that you would expect from a film of this type, which may have contributed to its poor performance in the theaters. In fact, the apparent youthful target audience may have difficulty figuring out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. The movie delivers more mature themes wrapped up in moral dilemmas, and in the final battle children may struggle with who exactly to root for, certainly also getting a jolt from the ending which delivers a heart-rending sacrifice of one of the lead characters. For me, that makes for great story-telling. But since they decided to market the movie mostly toward children (surely as an afterthought), that may have severely hampered its Box Office viability (the limited promotion did not help either, more on that below).
Ultimately, it’s hard to really pin down this film as it presents an exercise in contrast with its cute aliens and invading humans facing some very difficult moral decisions. But science fiction and fantasy fans should appreciate it as a well done movie that rises above the expected family-friendly animated flick and delivers a superior genre tale. If you missed this one in the theaters, do yourself a favor and seek it out. It is a quick watch and definitely worth your time.
Why Was There No Sequel?
As mentioned above, this film received very little in the way of promotion, mostly just ads on Cartoon Network along with a few spots on the broadcast nets. It opened against X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and failed to attract many people to the theaters. It ended up making only $6.2 million in ticket sales against a budget of $8 million and counted as a Box Office flop. There was no interest in a follow up film even though there was plenty more story potential and a sequel could have been done on an affordable budget. A jump to television might have been possible as well if the film was more successful in the theaters, but it ended up disappearing from the public eye after only a few weeks on the big screen.
Should It Be Rebooted?
No. This movie delivered an excellent tale that appeals to children and adults alike and that did not pander to its audience by offering a tidy wrap up to its moral quandaries. In addition, its CGI is quite stunning and an amazing feat considering the relatively low cost of the film. Battle for Terra definitely deserves more recognition, and a continuation would certainly be welcome. But there is definitely no reason for a reboot as the original film counts as a notable accomplishment.
Interesting Facts:
Despite the fact that Battle for Terra was not well-received at the Box Office or by critics, it earned multiple accolades at film festivals before hitting the theaters. It won Best Animated Feature Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2008 as well as Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival and the Silver Gryphon at Giffoni Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Feature at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2009.
IMDb.com lists 2007 as the film’s release date, but that was when it began its tour of festivals. It was released in theaters on May 1, 2009.
Where Can You Watch It?
The film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray and is still available at an affordable price (Note that one version of the Blu-ray has gone out of print and is fetching pretty high prices from third-party sellers.) You can also buy it VOD and it is currently available for streaming on Starz.
