Terra with Meni Tsirbas
Saturday, 4:00 pm, The Paramount
Director: Meni Tsirbas
Writer: Evan Spiliotopoulos
Cinematographer: Meni Tsirbas
Cast (voice): Luke Wilson, Evan Rachel Wood, Dennis Quaid, Amanda Peet, David Cross
Running Time: 85 min
The animated feature Terra is a politically adept, computer-generated science fiction epic from Canadian digital effects expert Aristomenis Tsirbas, an expansion of his well-received short from several years ago. With Tsirbas’s skills, an audience is never conscious of the technology, and is instead immersed in the beauty and sweep of the brilliantly imagined world he has put on screen.
This world is a planet that humans have dubbed “Terra,” after the used-up planet that has now been destroyed in war between Earth and its former colonies on Mars and Venus. The peaceful tadpolelike denizens of the newly christened Terra are threatened by invading aliens known as Earthforce, the military arm of the remaining people from Earth, who need Terra for their new home.
One might take the big, sad, liquid eyes of the Terrans as a heavy-handed ploy to solicit pity, but Tsirbas creates for the Terrans a complex society with a dark past; they are sympathetic, but not perfect. They are peaceful spiritual beings, but their religion appears to be part of their problem. They mistake the humans for new gods and, disturbingly, beg to be abducted when Earthforce ships come to scout for Terran prisoners, assuming they will be taken to some spiritual paradise or ascend to a higher plane.
The greatest threat to the Terrans is the Terraformer, the giant machine that will force oxygen into the atmosphere—necessary for humans, but poisonous to Terrans. Smart and adventurous Mala (Evan Rachel Wood), a young Terran, rescues crashed Earthforce pilot Jim Stanton (Luke Wilson), partly because it is right to help him and partly because she sees him as the only way she can reach her father, Roven (Dennis Quaid), one of the initial Terran abductees. Aided by Jim’s robot assistant, Giddy (David Cross), who bridges the language barrier, Jim and Mala become friends. In a lesser film, such friendship might immediately bring peace and happiness to both sides; but in Terra, many Terrans and humans will die before coexistence becomes attainable.
At times, Terra evokes real terror, but it can also evoke awe. The oceanlike cloud banks and the air whales that fly/swim through them are inspiring. Terra represents a step forward in computer animation, not because of technical advances, but due to the maturity and complexity of its storytelling and imagery—at once whimsical and bold, yet beautiful and disturbing.
