Titanic: The Legend Goes On

Plot

The movie begins on a White Star Line chartered boat train, boarding passengers to the RMS Titanic. A poor girl named Angelica, treated as a servant by her wicked stepmother and two stepsisters, dreams of finding both love and her missing mother, with only a blue locket as a clue to the mother's identity. At the same time, an upper-class English man named William boards with his nanny who laments the loss of her daughter years ago, as well as his secretary Gaston. Other passengers include the gold-digging Winnie, a failing banker named Jeremy McFlannel, a jewel thief named Corynthia Meanstreak, her two henchmen Kirk and Dirk, a detective named Sam Bradbury who has been sent to pursue them and Molly, a gorgeous singer. Also boarding in the cargo hold are a group of animals, including a family of Yiddish mice, some geese, a dog named Fritz, a magpie named Hector, and a band of Mexican mice. Throughout the voyage, the various passengers meet and interact. William and Angelica fall in love at first sight, while Winnie and Jeremy fall for each other after Winnie's dog Flopsy trips him. Gaston meanwhile attempts to woo Molly with Angelica's locket, which he found after she unknowingly dropped it. Sam goes undercover to find Corynthia while Kirk and Dirk make several unsuccessful attempts to steal jewelry from Winnie, but are foiled by her dog.

The film reaches its climax at a reception held in honor of the passengers. Angelica is able to attend with William after her cabinmate Victoria loans her a suitable dress. Meanwhile, the Yiddish mouse child Maxie discovers that Angelica is missing her locket and recruits the other animals to help search for it, finding it in time for her to wear to the reception. Upon seeing the locket being worn by Angelica and hearing the correct implication from one of the ship's officers that it was stolen when she received it, Molly slaps Gaston and leaves him. When Gertrude, Bernice and Hortense attempt to break up Angelica and William, Maxie scares them off. Kirk and Dirk manage to successfully steal a pearl choker from Winnie, but learn that it is a fake, as Winnie is not rich and uses fake jewelry to infatuate wealthy men.

The Titanic hits an iceberg and begins to sink as the passengers rush for the lifeboats. All of the animals escape on floating crates, rescuing the ship's cook in the process and being led to safety by dolphins. Winnie chooses to stay behind with Jeremy, who reveals to her that he is not the rich man she thought he was – he was on his way to America to be bailed out after his bank failed. Despite learning this, Winnie still loves him and they remain on the ship to die together. Molly also chooses to remain behind on the ship, singing with the band, and dies along with them. As the ship breaks in half and goes under, William grabs a small child to protect as he falls overboard. He puts the child safely in a nearby boat but his foot is trapped in a rope from the ship's stern and he is dragged down with the ship, apparently dying. On one of the lifeboats, Angelica discovers that William's nanny is actually her mother and the two are reunited. They come across Sam in the water and pull him aboard. William surfaces (having somehow freed himself from the rope and staying alive underwater) alongside the boat and is reunited with Angelica. An epilogue reveals that the two were married and lived happily ever after, that Detective Sam Bradbury put Corynthia behind bars, Kirk and Dirk married Angelica's stepsisters and Gaston married a wealthy socialite hoping to live off her money but ended up in charge of her home's household chores.

Production and release

Titanic: The Legend Goes On was in production for three years. It was released to theaters on September 15, 2000 in its native Italy, and received a DVD premiere in Canada the following July.

American version

The American cut version features completely different plot, songs, and dialogues. Entire scenes were edited in different sequence, and others have been removed or re-used, such as the opening scene that was replaced with a flashback showing the sinking. Additional dialogue and various one-liners were added into originally silent scenes, along with new music scores and wacky cartoon sound effects. A notable example is the Fritz's song: in the English version he is an unnamed rapping dog who sings "Party Time", which is not present in the original version.

Linda Maria Koldau, author of The Titanic on Film: Myth versus Truth, described this version as being "a failed Disney imitation that excels in bad taste." In 2011, Total Film named it the 40th worst children's movie ever made, describing the film as being "widely considered one of the worst animated films ever made." Total Film later named Titanic: The Legend Goes On as the worst film ever made, after it topped a list of the 66 worst films ever in 2012. Screen Rant included it on a list of the twelve worst animated films of all time and it topped a cheatsheet.com list of the top ten worst animated films ever, with author Will Roberts commenting that "[any] list of the worst animated films of all time begins with ... Titanic: The Legend Goes On".