You have to stop and think to yourself - how do you make a children's movie about the RMS Titanic? How do you take one of the most tragic events in history - the sinking of a major ocean liner which left 1500 people, more than two thirds the passengers, dead - and make it applicable to children? You have two options: 1) handle the subject matter in a mature and tasteful way (think Bambi's mother dying); 2) completely change everything about the topic matter and make it happier, albeit at the cost of your script's dignity. Guess what this movie does? You'll see.
The movie starts out with an old mouse being asked by his grandchildren about the Titanic, leading into the story line of the movie proper. The central story is about a young rich woman who is being compelled to marry a man she doesn't love, but falls for another man she meets on the Titanic, who spends his time hanging out with the people down in steerage. Sound familiar? Yeah...that's a little too coincidental. In fact, there's a scene at the beginning where the girl steps out of a car and lifts up her head, looking out from under a huge hat at the ship - sound familiar again? Basically imagine James Cameron's "Titanic" with little mice who help the man and woman meet each other. Add to that a convoluted subplot where the girl's fiancé owns a whaling company, and wants to marry the girl so that he can get the father's vessels for his own use.
At this point, some of you are probably wondering how the film goes when the Titanic gets hit by the iceberg. Well, throw away all the information you know from history books and get a load of these tidbits:
* Did you know the iceberg was actually a block of ice resting on the bottom of the ocean? Never mind that even two-year-olds know that ice FLOATS.
* Did you know that the iceberg was thrown by a giant octopus to win a bet with some sharks?
* Did you know that people started evacuating the Titanic as soon as it got hit? And that there were enough lifeboats? And that everyone was able to board with no one being turned away or deciding to stay?
* Did you know that a giant octopus held the ship together as it was splitting, presenting just enough time for everyone to leave?
* Did you know that Captain Smith survived, and it was because the giant octopus picked him and put him atop an orca? In fact, did you know that EVERYONE on the Titanic - including the captain, high ranking officers, and even the ships band - SURVIVED?
This was simply absurd to me, and quite frankly it was disrespectful to the subject matter. Permit me to use another tragedy to show just how insensitive this all is - I'm going to use the World Trade Center collapsing. Imagine if the reason the planes hit was because a big octopus threw them. Imagine if, as people were jumping out the windows, cartoon birds flew in and rescued them. Imagine if the film portrayed everyone in the WTC, as well as thousands of New York City firemen and policemen, surviving. Does that sound disrespectful? Does that get your blood boiling? Now imagine applying that to the RMS Titanic, and you got this movie.
Throwing all this out, the film still fails even as a film. Plot elements don't make sense (the girl speaks to dolphins after a tear lands on them and produces "magic," yet the villains can talk to sharks with no problem). The animation is a mixture of decent and choppy. The voice acting is abysmal, with the worst faux accents I've ever heard. Finally, the talking animals shtick is just seriously overdone. Dolphins, whales, octopuses, sharks, dogs, mice, birds...all animals talk in this movie, and there are animal characters galore. I don't dislike animal sidekicks, let alone talking animals, but this movie SERIOUSLY goes overboard.
As I said at the start of this review, it's entirely possible to deal with death and pain in a way that is suitable - even edifying - for children. However, if you don't want to portray a story about death and destruction, you should perhaps not choose a historical event KNOWN for its death and destruction.
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