Battle for Terra (2007)
"Terra" (original title)

A peaceful alien planet faces annihilation, as the homeless remainder of the human race sets its eyes on Terra. Mala, a rebellious Terrian teenager, will do everything she can to stop it.

Director:

Aristomenis Tsirbas

Writers:

Evan Spiliotopoulos (screenplay), Aristomenis Tsirbas (story)

Stars:

Evan Rachel Wood, Brian Cox, Luke Wilson

4 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Evan Rachel Wood	...	Mala (voice)
Brian Cox	...	General Hemmer (voice)
James Garner	...	Doron (voice)
Chris Evans	...	Stewart Stanton (voice)
Danny Glover	...	President Chen (voice)
Amanda Peet	...	Maria Montez (voice)
David Cross	...	Giddy (voice)
Dennis Quaid	...	Roven (voice)
Luke Wilson	...	Jim Stanton (voice)
Chad Allen	...	Terrian Scientist (voice)
Rosanna Arquette	...	Professor Lina (voice)
Bill Birch	...	Terrian 2 (voice)
Brooke Bloom	...	Technician Quinn (voice)
Tom Connolly	...	Technician Williams (voice)
Beverly D'Angelo	...	Interrogator Wright (voice)

Storyline

BATTLE for TERRA is a fantastic journey to worlds we have only dreamed of. It is a story of friendship, family, sacrifice and most importantly, the realization that all of our survival relies on our earth's precious natural resources.

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Plot Keywords:

battle | alien | planet | culture clash | terraforming | 

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Taglines:

They are coming

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and some thematic elements

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [kr]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 May 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Battle for Terra

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$1,082,362 (USA) (1 May 2009)

Gross:

$1,647,083 (USA) (4 September 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

MeniThings LLC, Snoot Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min 85 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally conceived as a film with live actors playing the human characters.

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Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: The Informers/The Soloist/Tyson (2009)

User Reviews

A really surprising tale.....

I took my son to see "Battle For Terra" on it's opening weekend here in NYC. I have to admit I didn't want to see it as much as I wanted to see "Wolverine" but I always defer to my 7 yr. old when there is animated fare to watch on the big screen.

Much to my surprise "Terra" is probably a much more mature, Involving & Emotional filmgoing experience than anything on the big screen right now. It might even bring a tear to some eyes out there.

The story as it is tells the tale of the inhabitants of the planet Terra (By the way, That's the name given to it by the humans. I don't think the actual name of the planet is mentioned). They are kinda like large upright tadpoles who swim through their atmosphere. The "Swimming" animation is really spot on & something different for a film of this type. The "Terrans" aren't your usual cutesy alien creatures. There are no stereotypical characters here. No "Goofy" alien, No "Evil" aliens, although the main alien protagonist "Mala" is very handy & invents things.

The Terrans are a peaceful race & seem to spend their days learning & studying their heritage. Their world is a wonderful amalgam of large mushroom like trees that they live in & they even have gliders that they travel around in. There are even large Whale like creatures that live in their atmosphere. Much like Blue whales cruise thru our oceans. All of them live in harmony.

That is until Earthlings arrive announcing that since they have devastated the resources on 3 planets & destroyed them in the process they have no choice but to "Terraform" the planet & change the atmosphere to suit what's left of mankind. The fact that this would kill the peaceful Terrans is of little concern to the humans.

I cannot go into the rest of the film without spoiling it but suffice it to say there is little to no humor in this film. That's not to say that kids won't enjoy it. They will. But this is not your typical kiddie flick. It is a sort of allegory about war & peace, Racism, Militarism & most of all love & harmony between those who might look at each other differently.

The animation is mostly superb & there are scenes where you actually feel like you're there on the planet thanks to some good 3-D visualization. By the way, The 3-D is more of the depth perception kind of 3-D not the pop out of the screen type although there are a couple of scenes of snow falling that make you just want to stick your tongue out & catch a snowflake.

All of the voice performances are good to great & the film never lags. As a matter of fact the battle scenes are quite rousing (Insert homage to George Lucas here) & while not graphic...characters do die in battle so you might want to keep an eye on the little ones if you're with one of them.

The saddest part of the experience to me is that when we arrived at the theatre (a 5-600 seater) there were exactly 4 people in there besides my son & myself. "Wolverine" & "Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past" steamrolled over this little gem & it pains me to think that people are missing out on a truly moving experience. It'll be gone from theatres in a week & that'll be it. I hope it finds it's audience on home video. It's a good movie that deserves to be seen.