Titanic: The Legend Goes On

The film 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 maid 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 rapping dog, named Fritz, who sings a song called "Party Time", 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. William grabs a small child to protect as he falls overboard, when the ship breaks in half and sinks beneath the ocean. 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 maid is actually her mother and the two are reunited. They come across Sam in the water and pull him aboard. William surfaces (having 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.

Titanic: The Legend Goes On was in production for three years.[3] It was released to theaters on September 15, 2000 in its native Italy,[1] and received a DVD premiere in Canada the following July by Equinox Entertainment.[4] The Canadian VHS (titled Titanic: The Animated Movie) and DVD has since gone out of print, though it has been re-released in the United Kingdom by Third Millennium Distributions.

There are two English versions done with the same cast: an uncut dub, and a drastically cut and re-edited dub, which features an altered plot, along with different songs and dialogue. Entire scenes were edited in different sequence, and others have been removed, re-used, or placed before other scenes. Additional dialogue and various one-liners were added into originally silent scenes, along with new music scores and wacky cartoon sound effects. While the uncut version is 82-minutes long, this version was shortened to 58 minutes, plus 12 minutes of credits showing some deleted scenes, bringing the runtime to 70 minutes.

The edited version starts in medias res with the Titanic sinking, tells the rest of the story in flashback, and doesn't give an explanation for why Angelica has been abandoned by her parents. It also features a different music score by Matt McGuire and three songs which are not featured in the original version: "Holding Me", "Party Time" and "Mucho Gusto".[8]

The film was described by Linda Maria Koldau, author of The Titanic on Film: Myth versus Truth, as being "a failed Disney imitation that excels in bad taste."[9] Christopher Campbell of Indiewire wrote that the film was "inappropriate for children" and that "it’s so terribly written and drawn that it’s offensive to the Titanic’s memory."[10] Screen Rant included it on a list of the twelve worst animated films of all time.[11] Total Film named it as the worst film ever made, after it topped a list of the 66 worst films ever in 2012.[12]

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

• Titanic: The Legend Goes On at IMDb