When Aristomenis Tsirbas' 3-D CG feature won the grand prize for features at the Ottawa International Animation Festival over acclaimed films such as WALTZ WITH BASHIR and SITA SINGS THE BLUES, I was surprised and eagerly awaited a chance to see this indie production. I believe the Canadian crowd in September 2008 connected to the anti-Bush administration themes within the film. For certain, TERRA, as it was known then, has ambitions larger than a typical animated action flick, but does it rise above the trappings of a typical animated action flick? Yes and no.
Taking the premise of H.G. Wells' WAR OF THE WORLDS and flipping the roles, TERRA tells the story of a peaceful alien species that is about to be annihilated by an invading force of humans. Mala (Evan Rachel Wood, THE WRESTLER) is a young Terrian who likes adventure, but lives with her protective father Roven (Dennis Quaid, FAR FROM HEAVEN). When the humans invade, her father is abducted. To find answers, she saves the life of a crashed pilot named Jim Stanton (Luke Wilson, IDIOCRACY) and his loyal robot assistant Giddy (David Cross, GHOST WORLD). When they venture back to the human ship, Jim is lauded as a hero by General Hemmer (Brian Cox, X-MEN UNITED), whose resemblance to George W. Bush is about as subtle as a hammer. He is a warmonger who uses Jim's brother Stewart (Chris Evans, FANTASTIC FOUR) as a pawn to force Jim to choose between killing all the Terrians or dooming his own species.
On a simple level, TERRA works. Kids will respond to its message of cooperation. But TERRA isn't trying to be simple. One must praise it for making the effort to be something grander, but in taking the risk, it doesn't succeed 100%. The WAR OF THE WORLDS plot structure and the Bush administration critique don't always mesh. As an adult viewer, they became distracting. Too often the critique is played too simplistically. This would have worked if the story was simply a "lets all get along" message, but that's not what it is. TERRA addresses the "us against them" attitude of the Bush methods, but it doesn't work in connection with the grander issues of your entire species dying off. There are even minor critiques on torture that don't work in context. In the movie, it's easy to say that you shouldn't torture friendly beings, but in connection with the Bush administration the larger moral issue is whether we should torture the worst people in the world. The simplified view is fine for a simple black & white morality tale, but once you bring in Bush you make everything grey and nuance is needed to make it work.
BATTLE FOR TERRA has its heart in the right place. I think people respond to that. Just look at the stars that came on-board, which also include Rosanna Arquette, Beverly D'Angelo, James Garner, Danny Glover, David Krumholtz, Justin Long, Amanda Peet, Ron Perlman, and Danny Trejo. I think most people will respond positively to the film's message of cooperation instead of aggression, but that message only works on the simple level. It's larger adult level, however, is too simple to work, thus allowing it to be torn apart by the other side. In making its metaphor not an apples-to-apples comparison, the film's message looses its power and poignancy, opening it up to be ridiculed and disregarded by the opposition. A sounder metaphor can still be ridiculed, but it's harder to disregard. Once an audience member has disregarded your point of view, they will be looking for things to rip apart. So the religious right will be seeing sexual subversion in the Terrian's bulbous heads and undulating swimming patterns by the end.
If you want your kids to learn peace, love and understanding, take them to see BATTLE FOR TERRA. If you want to teach your kids that punching a kid in the nose for his lunch money when your hungry is okay, then don't take them to see BATTLE FOR TERRA. Adults who want to debate more nuanced socio-political opinions can gather in the lobby.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
