Atlantis: The Lost Empire
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| Story:
Tab Murphy
Kirk Wise
Gary Trousdale
Bryce Zabel
Jackie Zabel
Screenplay:
Tab Murphy |
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In 1914, Milo James Thatch (Michael J. Fox), an aspiring young linguist working in the boiler room at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., believes that an ancient manuscript known as the Shepherd's Journal will lead to the location of Atlantis, and upon learning of the Atlantean language, he deduces a theory that the journal can be located in Iceland. When his request to lead an expedition is denied by the Institution's board, he finds himself contacted by millionaire Preston B. Whitmore (John Mahoney), a friend of Milo's late grandfather, Thaddeus Thatch. The elder Thatch had already located the Journal, and asked Whitmore to give it to Milo “when he was ready.” Whitmore then asks Milo to become part of an expedition team to search for Atlantis, which happens to be the very same team that helped Milo's grandfather locate the Journal on Iceland. seizing his chance, Milo agrees to be part of the team. Milo and the team set for the expedition on a high-tech submarine led by Commander Rourke (James Garner) and his second-in-command Helga Sinclair (Claudia Christian). However, the team’s sub is sunk by the Leviathan, a huge, ancient mechanical lobster-like monster which is guarding the underwater entrance to Atlantis. Despite suffering many casualties, Milo and the team escape from the Leviathan's wrath and find the air pocket entrance to Atlantis, where they roam through huge caverns filled with crumbling relics of the lost civilization. Just before reaching Atlantis, Milo accidentally scares light green fireflies, causing them to set the team's camp on fire. This forces the crew and all their remaining vehicles to fall to the bottom of a dormant volcano that, though it is blocked up at the top, could provide a route to the surface. To their amazement, Milo is met by masked natives, and as he pursues them, the team finds another route that leads to the sunken city of Atlantis, which is still existent and thriving in a protected environment beneath the earth. The princess of Atlantis, Kidagakash 'Kida' Nedakh (Cree Summer) greets them and brings them to her father, King Kashekim Nedakh (Leonard Nimoy). The king initially refuses to let them stay, but eventually allows them to stay one night by Rourke's request, as the team needs to rest and resupply before leaving. Kida takes Milo on a tour of the city, and they explore an underwater mural which leads Milo to discover that the Heart of Atlantis, which he originally believed to be a crystal acting as a power source, is also what is keeping the whole city alive. However, he is unable to locate the Heart because of a missing page that has been cut off during the team's search to Atlantis. When they resurface from the mural, however, Milo finds out that Rourke and the crew intend to take the Heart of Atlantis to the surface and sell it; Rourke also reveals to have the missing page from the Journal with the picture of the crystal. Outraged, Milo refuses to work with them any further, but Rourke forces him to do so by threatening Kida’s life. Rourk and his crew (Highly resembling Nazis) storm the throne room, where Rourke fatally punches Kashekim and discovers the location of the crystal chamber. Rourke, Helga, Milo, and Kida enter the crystal chamber, where they find floating stone carvings of the past Atlantean kings circling around the Heart. To protect Atlantis, Kida offers herself to the Heart of Atlantis (much like her mother did), turning her into a living crystal creature and causing the power that kept the city alive to fail. Rourke contains the crystallized Kida inside a metal cell and prepares to bring her back to the surface. Milo, unable to stop this, berates Rouke and the crew for leaving an entire civilization to extinction, and taking this as an insult, Rourke punches Milo in the face. Seeing how Rourke has assaulted Milo, the crew abandons Rourke and join Milo and the Atlanteans. Rourke has his men open up the volcano with a missile and activate a balloon to reach the surface. As the balloon starts to take off, Milo, the crew, and the Atlantean warriors arrive and engage Rourke and his soldiers in battle. at first the rescuers are outmatched, but then the team's demolition expert Vinny Santorini (Don Novello) accidentally discovers that the fishmobiles can fire energy beams, enabling the other crew members and the Atlanteans warriors to fight back more efficiently. When the balloon is damaged by Milo and begins to lose altitude, the greedy Rourke betrays Helga and throws her off to “lighten the load”, but Milo grabs onto the balloon and fights with Rourke. Helga's final act is firing a flare into the zeppelin, causing it to plummet. Upon witnessing this, Rourke grabs an axe and tries to kill Milo, but smashes a glass window on Kida's crate. Milo uses a shard of the glass, charged with the crystal's power, to cut Rourke’s left arm, crystallizing the commander, who is then shattered by the balloon's propellers. - Michael J. Fox as Milo James Thatch: A linguist and cartographer who has studied the Atlantean culture and learned to translate the Atlantean language. In charecter, Milo is logical-minded, brave, timid, and always tries to do the right thing. He falls head over heels for Kida throughout the story making him the main protagonist of the film. Milo is voiced by James Arnold Taylor in the sequel Atlantis: Milo's Return.
- Cree Summer as Princess Kidagakash "Kida" Nedakh: The princess of Altantis. It is mentioned that she is over 8000 years old during the time when Milo discovered her city. Despite this, she has a beautiful, youthful appearance. She is concerned for the state of her people and cares for them up to the point of offering herself to the Heart. She holds affections for Milo.
- James Garner as Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke, an aging commander and the leader of the Atlantis expedition. He poses as the film's main antagonist, planning to sell the Heart and make a fortune.
- Corey Burton as Gaetan "Mole" Moliére, a 39-year-old French geologist. He always seems to have good senses of smell and taste for dirt, capable of examining samples of dirt, rock, and even fingerprints in a microscopic level. He is attracted to Kida at first, but their relationship does not deepen. In character, he is easily-excited, at his happiest when digging, and good-natured.
- Don Novello as Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini, an Italian demolition expert. He mentions that his family owns a flower shop, but he loves 'blowing things up' and always carries dynamite around.
- Phil Morris as Doctor Joshua Strongbear Sweet, an African-American/Native American medic. He is a kindly man with a friendly nature.
- Claudia Christian as Lieutenant Helga Katrina Sinclair, Rourke's blond, seductive second-in-command.
- Jacqueline Obradors as Audrey Rocio Ramirez, a teenage female Latina mechanic, and the youngest member of the expedition. She is a bit of a tomboy, but her tough attitude hides a caring, sweet personality.
- Leonard Nimoy as King Kashekim Nedakh, the king of Atlantis and Kida's father. It is implied that he is more than 8,800 years old and is in a very a frail state.
- John Mahoney as Preston B. Whitmore, a wealthy and kind millionaire who funds the expedition to Atlantis.
- Florence Stanley as Wilhelmina Bertha Packard, the elder and sarcastic radio operator.
- Jim Varney as Jebidiah Allerdyce "Cookie" Farnsworth, a Western-styled cook. This is also Varney's final film role.
- David Ogden Stiers as Fenton Q. Harcourt, Milo's former employer at the Smithsonian who doesn't believe in the existence of Atlantis.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire garnered mixed reviews from critics. On the Rotten Tomatoes cumulative review website, Atlantis: The Lost Empire earned a "rotten" rating of 46% from all reviewers.[6] Film critic Roger Ebert gave Atlantis three-and-half stars, indicating a very positive view of the film.[7] Ebert praised the animation's "clean bright visual look" and the "classic energy of the comic book style," and he credited this to the work of comic book artist Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy). Ebert especially noted Mignola's influence on the "spectacular closing sequence" which he felt stood "by itself as one of the great animated action sequences.".[7] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+ rating, writing that the movie had "gee-whiz formulaic character" and was "the essence of craft without dream."[8] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times noted the storyline and characterizations were "old-fashioned" and the movie had the retrograde look of a Saturday morning cartoon, but these deficiencies were offset by Atlantis's brisk frantic pace.[9] Some viewers noted that Atlantis bore striking similarities to the popular 1990s Japanese anime television show, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, along with the Studio Ghibli film Castle in the Sky. Similarities included character designs, story flow, and the background settings.[10] Although Kirk Wise, director of Atlantis, said that he and Trousdale were fans of anime,[11] he stated that he had not heard of Nadia when Atlantis was in production. Both the film and the TV show were inspired by the Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, yet, too many similarities can be found in plots that are not connected to the original novel to be sheer coincidence.[12] There are also many similarities to the 1994 film Stargate, loosely with plot and especially with Milo's characteristics being close to those of Daniel Jackson, the protagonist of the film and also main character from the spin-off series, Stargate SG-1, which, coincidentally, started it's own spin-off series named Stargate Atlantis[13].
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| | Gary Rydstrom, Michael Silvers, Mary Helen Leasman, John K. Carr, Shannon Mills, Ken Fischer, David C. Hughes, Susan Sanford | |
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| Nominated |
