[April 8, 2009] [New York] [Titan Annual Event]
Titan's largest auditorium had been transformed into something closer to an entertainment convention than a corporate presentation.
Thousands of fans filled the tiered seating while reporters occupied several designated sections near the front. Television cameras lined the aisles, photographers crowded around the stage barriers, and enormous screens stretched across the rear wall behind a polished black stage bearing the Titan logo.
The annual Titan event usually happened earlier in the year, although scheduling conflicts across the company had pushed the 2009 presentation into April. Nobody in attendance seemed particularly bothered by the delay.
If anything, anticipation had grown considerably.
Titan had spent the previous year releasing films, acquiring Disney Channel, expanding its publishing business, launching new animated properties, and teasing technology that had already caused arguments across the internet. Nobody knew how much Alex intended to reveal during one evening.
Jane stood near the backstage entrance with a headset over one ear while production staff moved around her.
"House is full, every major entertainment network has somebody inside, and the overflow rooms are already using the secondary feeds," she told Alex while checking the timing sheet. "You've also got people outside watching the exterior screens because they couldn't get tickets."
Alex adjusted the cuffs of his dark jacket and glanced toward the curtain as another wave of conversation rolled through the auditorium.
"That sounds about right for one of our quieter events," Alex replied with a smile before accepting the wireless microphone from an assistant.
Jane gave him an amused look. "You've got a very strange definition of quiet, because security counted more than six thousand people inside fifteen minutes ago."
The house lights gradually dimmed before the Titan logo appeared across the main screen.
The crowd immediately began cheering.
A short montage followed, showing clips from Titan's films, television productions, animation, publishing releases, and game projects. Spider-Man swung between skyscrapers, Supergirl flew through the collapsing remains of Krypton, Maleficent spread her wings across the screen, and several flashes from Mass Effect appeared before the montage ended.
The Titan logo returned as the stage lights came up.
Alex walked onto the stage.
The response became deafening.
He smiled as he crossed toward the center, raising one hand while the applause continued around him. Several fans shouted project names from the audience while others held posters above their heads.
Alex waited until the noise settled enough for him to speak.
"Good evening, New York. I know this event is arriving a little later than usual this year, so I figured the least we could do was make sure the wait was worth it."
The crowd cheered again while Alex turned toward the massive screen behind him.
"We've got a lot to talk about tonight, and I know some of you have spent the last few months trying to figure out what those two question marks from our Titan Youth announcement actually meant."
That immediately triggered louder reactions from several sections.
Someone near the front shouted, "TELL US!"
Alex laughed as he looked toward the voice. "We'll get there, because making you wait another ten minutes sounds entertaining."
A chorus of playful boos rolled through the auditorium.
Alex placed one hand over his chest with exaggerated offense. "Wow, apparently acquiring a television network doesn't buy patience anymore."
The audience laughed while the screen behind him changed.
A familiar green symbol appeared against complete darkness.
The Omnitrix.
The reaction was immediate.
Ben Tennyson appeared across the screen in several rapid cuts from the first season of Ben 10. Heatblast sent fire across a battlefield, XLR8 raced between vehicles, Four Arms smashed through concrete, Diamondhead raised enormous crystal formations, and Gwen shouted at Ben while Grandpa Max drove the Rust Bucket through another increasingly ridiculous disaster.
The montage ended with Ben slamming his hand against the Omnitrix.
Green light filled the screen.
Alex turned back toward the audience as the applause grew.
"How about we start with Ben 10 Season Two?"
Fans erupted before he could continue.
Alex smiled and pointed toward the screen as a date appeared beneath the logo.
MAY 1, 2009.
"Season Two premieres May first, and we're expanding almost everything we established during the first season. Bigger adventures, more alien mythology, more about the Omnitrix, more Vilgax, and several transformations Ben hasn't discovered yet."
The crowd reacted loudly when silhouettes of unfamiliar aliens briefly appeared behind the release date.
Alex glanced backward and laughed. "You're not getting names tonight, because I know exactly what'll happen if I give you those."
Several people immediately began taking photographs of the silhouettes anyway.
Alex shook his head with amusement. "You'll probably identify half of them before breakfast regardless, so I'm moving on before somebody zooms into a shadow and writes a forty-page theory."
The screen returned to the Titan Youth logo.
Two large boxes appeared underneath it.
Each carried a single glowing question mark.
The room changed instantly.
Phones and cameras rose across the audience.
Alex walked slowly toward the first box while pretending to inspect it.
"This one caused a lot of arguments after our Disney Channel announcement. I saw guesses ranging from completely reasonable possibilities to somebody insisting we'd secretly acquired Japanese animation studios and were preparing a twenty-series invasion."
Laughter moved through the hall.
Alex raised one hand toward the first mystery box.
"Unfortunately for that gentleman's very detailed internet theory, he was wrong."
He flicked his finger.
The box burst apart across the screen.
Darkness replaced it.
A familiar voice echoed through the auditorium as green energy slowly appeared against black.
Then Danny Fenton stepped into frame.
For approximately one second, the crowd seemed too surprised to react.
Danny's transformation rings passed across his body, changing him into Danny Phantom as the image exploded into a completely redesigned version of the familiar opening sequence.
The auditorium erupted.
People jumped from their seats while screams and applause overwhelmed the trailer audio.
The animation retained the recognizable character designs while dramatically improving movement, backgrounds, lighting, shadows, and action choreography. Danny flew between buildings as spectral energy illuminated windows beneath him. Sam and Tucker appeared during rapid cuts, followed by Jazz, Jack and Maddie Fenton, Valerie, Ember, Skulker, Technus, and Vlad.
The Ghost Zone looked larger and stranger than anything shown previously.
Floating structures moved across green storms while massive portals opened throughout the dimension. Danny fought several ghosts simultaneously before being thrown through the side of a building and recovering in midair.
Then the trailer suddenly became quieter.
Danny hovered above Amity Park at night while distant lights stretched beneath him.
Vlad's voice came through the darkness.
"You really believed everything ended there?"
Danny looked upward.
Green light reflected across his face.
The screen cut to black.
Three words slowly appeared.
DANNY PHANTOM: R
Nothing explained what the letter meant.
The audience completely lost control.
Alex stood beneath the screen laughing while hundreds of fans began shouting guesses at the stage.
"REVIVAL!"
"REBORN!"
"RETURN!"
"RESURRECTION!"
Alex lifted both hands until the crowd gradually quieted.
"I'm not telling you what the R means tonight, because watching everybody argue about it for the next few months sounds much more enjoyable."
More laughter and frustrated shouting followed.
Alex walked back toward center stage as images from the original series appeared behind him.
"Danny Phantom's original run ended before the story had finished telling everything it could. We've reached an agreement to bring the property into Titan Youth, and our continuation picks up from where the previous series ended."
That announcement earned another enormous cheer.
"We aren't erasing what came before, and we aren't starting over because somebody decided audiences suddenly need another origin story. The characters remember everything that happened, the relationships continue from where they were left, and the world moves forward."
The screen showed comparison images between original scenes and their newly reconstructed versions.
Alex gestured toward them while continuing. "We've also rebuilt the previous season using the new animation pipeline. Same story and performances, although we've cleaned up animation problems, restored several shortened sequences, improved backgrounds, remastered the audio, and corrected some continuity issues."
A Blu-ray case rotated onto the screen.
DANNY PHANTOM: THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL ADVENTURE.
"The remastered collection will be available on Blu-ray before Danny Phantom: R premieres, so new viewers can catch up without hunting through television reruns."
Applause filled the hall while Alex waited several moments before looking toward the remaining mystery box.
"One question mark remains."
The audience immediately became louder again.
Alex slowly walked toward the box and folded his arms.
"I'm curious how many people here are old enough to recognize this one before the title appears."
The lights dimmed.
The box disappeared.
Rain fell across a dark city.
A police helicopter crossed between towering buildings while emergency sirens echoed through narrow streets. The visual style carried a familiar exaggerated architecture, although the animation quality had been dramatically increased.
A radio transmission broke through the rain.
"Unidentified aircraft entering Megakat City airspace."
Several older audience members immediately began shouting.
The camera moved toward an abandoned salvage yard.
Inside a hidden hangar, lights activated one row at a time.
Two silhouettes walked toward an aircraft.
One was broad-shouldered and confident.
The other carried a helmet beneath one arm while checking a control tablet.
The hangar doors opened.
The Turbokat sat waiting.
The crowd exploded before either character's face had been shown.
T-Bone climbed into the forward cockpit while Razor entered behind him.
"Ready for another quiet night?" Razor asked as the systems illuminated around them.
T-Bone grinned while pushing the throttle forward. "You seriously had to say that?"
The Turbokat launched from the underground runway.
What followed looked nothing like a simple nostalgic revival.
Missiles streaked between skyscrapers as the Turbokat rolled through anti-aircraft fire. Enormous creatures attacked Megakat City. Dark Kat appeared briefly inside a command chamber, followed by Doctor Viper emerging from a ruined laboratory.
Commander Feral shouted orders from an Enforcer control center while Callie Briggs coordinated an evacuation downtown.
The trailer showed aerial combat moving between city towers, underground tunnels, mountain ranges, and a violent electrical storm. Razor fired specialized missiles while T-Bone pulled the Turbokat through maneuvers that pushed the aircraft almost vertically between collapsing buildings.
The fighter itself looked upgraded without losing its recognizable shape.
Mechanical sections shifted during combat while new systems deployed from beneath its wings.
The final sequence showed the Turbokat racing directly toward an enormous unidentified machine hanging above Megakat City.
Razor's voice came through the cockpit.
"You've got a plan, right?"
T-Bone tightened his grip on the controls.
"I was hoping you did."
The screen went black immediately before impact.
Then the logo appeared.
SWAT KATS.
The auditorium erupted again.
Alex waited through nearly a full minute of applause before continuing.
"Same T-Bone, same Razor, same Megakat City. We're keeping the characters and identity people loved, while giving the series the production scale it never had the opportunity to use."
Concept art appeared behind him.
"The Turbokat has been modernized, although we were very careful about preserving the original design language. The aerial combat is larger, the threats will affect the city in meaningful ways, and episodes will carry consequences forward instead of everything magically resetting the following week."
More artwork showed Commander Feral, Callie Briggs, Felina Feral, Dark Kat, Doctor Viper, and several new characters.
"We're strengthening the supporting cast, expanding the villains into longer story arcs, and building an actual continuity around Megakat City. Some episodes will still stand alone because that's part of the fun, although the characters will remember what happened and the city will change around them."
Alex looked across the audience while the SWAT Kats logo remained behind him.
"We didn't bring these shows back because nostalgia is easy to sell. We brought them back because somebody stopped telling their stories before they were finished."
The applause returned, spreading steadily across the entire auditorium.
Alex looked toward the enormous screen as Danny Phantom and the Turbokat appeared beside Ben 10 and Generator Rex.
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