Disney Movie Challenge: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Disney Movie Challenge

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021.

For some reason this movie is not one many people talk about.  When it first came out I remember it was marketed as a “boys” move. Like Disney was trying to prove it made more than just “Princess” movies.  I also feel like the title with the colon and subtitle made it feel like a sequel to a movie that didn’t exist.  For whatever reason the film didn’t do well when it first came out and feels like most people have forgotten it exists.  Which I find really unfortunate since it’s a good movie.  

The movie centers around Milo (Michael J. Fox), a linguist, who is book smart but lacking people skills.  His grandfather was a great adventurer who had searched for the lost city of Atlantis.  Milo wants to continue his grandfather’s search but no one will fund an expedition.  That is until a mysterious man says he found the lost book that will guide them to Atlantis and they need Milo to translate it.  A team is assembled lead by the gruff Commander Rourke (James Garner) who has ulterior motives.  Eventually the team gets to Atlantis where they meet Princess Kida (Cree Summer). They learn that the Atlantean culture is dying because the King (Leonard Nemoy) refuses to reveal the “Heart of Atlantis''.  Since Kida doesn’t know how to read Atlantian she asks Milo to translate some ancient texts so she can learn how to save her people.  It is then that Milo learns about the Heart of Atlantis and shortly after Commander Rourke reveals that his true intention is to steal the Heart of Atlantis to sell it for lots of money.  Milo knows that if the Heart of Atlantis is stolen everyone in the city will die. He must convince the rest of the crew and the Atlantians to stop Rourke.  

The movie was directed by Gary A. Trousdale and Kirk Wise who had previously done Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Moving away from the Musical format they wanted to do an action adventure movie.  They also took inspiration for the look of the film from comic books and hired Mike Mignola (Hellboy) to be part of the production design.  Famous linguist Marc Okrand was brought in to create the Atlantean language.  He had previously created the Klingon language for Star Trek. At the time this was also the most CG used in a hand drawn animation film.  The amount of thought and craft put into the film should have made it a must see film.  But, the  different direction from previous Disney films coupled with fully computer animated films taking over the animation landscape severely hurt the reception of this movie (didn’t help that it came out about a month after the juggernaut computer animated Shrek). And like I mentioned before the marketing of the movie wasn’t very good.  After a decade of producing hit musicals audiences just wanted more of the same. 

Maybe it’s because I love action adventure movies and it’s been 20 years since it’s release and a lot of the baggage surrounding the film has gone away, but I really enjoyed this film.  They set out to make a Jules Verne like action film and I think they succeeded.  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was one of my favorite Disney films growing up and Around the World in 80 Days was one of my favorite books.  So a Jules Verneesque film is my sweet spot.  I thought it was a fun movie with great characters.  There was some great banter back and forth between the characters which I loved, and the cast was perfect.  The score by James Newton Howard (his second film for Disney) was really good.  That’s not to say it’s a great movie.  The mythology of Atlantis and what the “Heart of Atlantis” and crystals  actually do is very convoluted and confusing.  Rumor has it that the original script was 155 pages.  So a lot of story was cut out which maybe could have helped clear things up.  But no one wants a 2 plus hour animated film.  What they did leave was a quick paced film that hit most of the action beats.  

Overall: A fun action movie that doesn’t do a great job of explaining the world it’s creating.  There is a bit more death in this film than one would normally expect in a Disney film but fits with the action genre.    

Random Facts:

While Disney had played in the realm of Fantasy this would be Disney’s first Sci-Fi film. 

Jim Varney’s final role. He played the check “Cookie” in the film.  He died in 2000 prior to the film being finished and never got to see the film. 

After the disappointing reaction to both The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire Gary A. Trousdale and Kirk Wise would never direct another animated feature film. This despite directing the first animated film to be nominated for an Oscar with Beauty and the Beast.