The Legend of the Titanic

The Legend of the Titanic (Spanish: La leyenda del Titanic, Italian: La leggenda del Titanic) is a 1999 Italian animated film directed by Orlando Corradi and Kim J. Ok. The film is a very loose adaptation of the RMS Titanic sinking and featured several fantasy elements such as anthropomorphic animals.^[1]

The Legend of the Titanic was followed by a 2004 sequel titled Tentacolino.

Plot

In modern-day New York City an old mouse named Conners tells his grandchildren the supposedly "true" story of RMS Titanic.

In April 1912, Conners was a young sailor mouse on Titanic's maiden voyage from Southampton, United Kingdom to New York. He is in charge of taking account for the mice who are making the trip. A young mouse from Brazil named Ronny who enjoys playing soccer befriends Conners and Conners falls in love with Ronny's sister Stella.

Meanwhile, a rich aristocratic woman named Elizabeth and her family board the Titanic. Her father is a famous Duke and is very prominent in the whaling business. He and Elizabeth's stepmother have arranged for Elizabeth to marry Mr. Evarard Maltravers, a rich whaler. Unknown to the Duke, the marriage is actually a scheme concocted by his own stepwife and Maltravers to get certain whaling rights for themselves. Elizabeth is unhappy about the marriage. Elizabeth sees several gypsies dancing at the dock and happily watches them. A gypsy man named Don Juan is dancing with his dog Smiley. He notices Elizabeth and sends Smiley to see her. When Elizabeth takes off one of her gloves to pet Smiley, Smiley snatches it and takes it back to Juan. Juan looks at Elizabeth and the two instantly fall in love. The Titanic then sets off to sea from Southampton on her first, and only, voyage.

Conners and Ronny learn all about what's going on with Elizabeth by their observations during their trips throughout the ship's ventilation system. They are appalled by the way Elizabeth is being treated badly and decide to help her. When Elizabeth goes to the bow of the ship one night, some dolphins talk to her due to some magic moonbeams. The dolphins jump very high out of the water and seem to levitate. They tell her of Maltravers's evil scheme. Maltravers's manservant Geoffreys spies on Elizabeth's activities and uses a special whistle at the stern of the ship to call the criminal shark named Mr. Ice and use him for causing destruction.

Conners and Ronny introduce themselves to Elizabeth and offer to help her. Listening to their advice, Elizabeth tells her father she doesn't want to marry Maltravers. He listens to his daughter and tells her that he will never force her to do something she doesn't want to do. Meanwhile, Smiley tries to look for Elizabeth to cheer up Juan. After he unsuccessfully tries to find her in the ship's ballroom, he meets Conners and Ronny, who agree to help arrange a meeting and dance for Elizabeth and Juan. The meeting goes according to schedule and Elizabeth and Juan dance and kiss together.

Elizabeth tells her father that she wants to marry Juan, and he agrees, but Elizabeth's stepmother is furious. When Elizabeth tells her stepmother that she should marry Maltravers, she storms off in anger, despite the fact that they both flirt constantly (this might just be the fact that they're scheming together). Elizabeth's stepmother and Maltravers decide to do things drastically now, as it's clear that Elizabeth will not marry him. They decide to sink the Titanic using the help of Mr. Ice and his gang of criminal sharks. Maltravers prepares to send news to his whaling ships by telegraph, and the mice decide to chew apart the wires to stop it from being sent.

Ice and his gang of sharks decide to let an iceberg sink the Titanic. They fool an octopus named Tentacles with a dog's nose into heaving an iceberg to the surface of the ocean by concealing the plan in the form of a bet to see who can throw ice the farthest. On the Titanic, the Duke is forced to sign the whaling rights to Maltravers and his stepwife at gunpoint. Maltravers and his entourage escape the Titanic in a lifeboat.

The crew of the Titanic then see the iceberg and attempt to avoid it, but the Titanic hits the berg anyway, due to the sharks blocking the rudder. The Titanic then quickly begins to sink, and the dolphins berate Tentacles for endangering the hundreds of lives on board the Titanic, and then Tentacles runs to the Titanic in an attempt to stall for time for the passengers who were still on board the Titanic to escape the ship, including Captain Edward Smith.

The mice realize that because they have cut the telegraph wires, the ship can't send out a call for help. They enlist the help of another mouse friend of theirs, named Camembert, to help repair the wires. They are unable to do it, but Camembert gets the idea to attach the halves of the cut wire to his moustache. They do so, and Camembert somehow dies because of this.

Elizabeth and Juan manage to save her father, as he was tied up in a chair by Maltravers, and manage to put him on a lifeboat.

Tentacles notices that the Titanic is breaking in two and decides to rise out of the water, wrapping himself around the ship to keep it together. Several whales and dolphins arrive to help with the rescue. Elizabeth, Juan, Conners, Ronny, and Smiley jump off the now-perpendicular stern and jump into the water, and they are saved by a whale as well. Once everyone on the ship has been saved, the Titanic finally sinks, taking Tentacles with it and seemingly killing him, as he was still heroically holding on to it. In the morning, the passengers are taken aboard the RMS Carpathia. Conners mournfully remembers the heroes of the disaster, Camembert and Tentacles.

Maltravers and his entourage are seemingly lost at sea, without Mr. Ice to help them and without Maltravers message having been sent.

The Carpathia arrives in New York and disembarks the passengers. Elizabeth and Juan are married, as are Conners and Stella. Suddenly, everyone gets great news. Everyone runs to the Brooklyn Bridge and sees a huge flotilla of whales and dolphins in the harbor. It is revealed that the wonderful news and celebrating are because Tentacles and Camembert have both survived and are well. Everyone is happy and dances in the harbor, congratulating Tentacles for saving everyone in the disaster.

The film ends with old Conners and Stella back in modern-day New York and Conners telling his grandchildren that whales are still hunted. Stella says: "Your grandfather loves to tell stories, but like all sailors, you shouldn't take it too seriously."

Cast

• Gregory Snegoff – Maltravers / Mr. Ice
• Francis Pardeilhan – Don Juan
• Jane Alexander (British actress) – Elizabeth Camden
• Anna Mazzotti – Ronnie / Stella / Dolphin
• Sean Patrick Lovett – Top Connors / Camembert
• Teresa Pascarelli – Rachel
• Nick Alexander – Bob (uncredited)
• Frank von Kuegelgen – The Captain (uncredited)
• John Stone - (uncredited)
• Keith Scott - Geoffreys / Dolphin (uncredited)

Sequel

A sequel for the movie, Tentacolino, was made.

See also

• Titanic: The Legend Goes On, another animated film about the Titanic
• List of films about the RMS Titanic

References

External links

• The Legend of the Titanic at the Internet Movie Database
• The Legend of the Titanic at the Big Cartoon DataBase