Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a 2001 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was the first science-fiction entry to the Disney animated features canon. The sci-fi action film was written by Tab Murphy, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and produced by Don Hahn. The film was noted for using the simple artistic style of comic book artist Mike Mignola as well as continuing attempts by Disney to produce animated features without musical interludes.
Set in the year 1914 during the eve of World War I, the film tells the story of a young linguist who gains possession of a sacred book which he believes will guide him to the mythical city of Atlantis. He is enlisted by a band of archaeologists, excavators and mercenaries who also want to find the city, but their leader plans to sabotage the mission, in order to take the profit for himself.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire received mostly mixed reviews and performed modestly at the box office.[1][2] It marked the final film role for Jim Varney, who died in February 2000.
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.
Rourke, along with Helga and the rest of his men, leaves the city and blows up a bridge connecting Atlantis to the volcano, destroying the only entrance and exit to the city. The team's doctor Joshua Sweet (Phil Morris) calls Milo to the throne room, where Kashekim is dying from internal bleeding caused by Rourke's fatal punch. Kashekim explains the Heart’s powers and makes Milo swear to save the city and Kida, then dies. Milo uses the king’s crystal to power a fish-like flying vehicle (a process which he learned from Kida earlier), which the Atlantean armada had used prior to the city's submergence but not ever since, and shows the team and several Atlantean warriors how to do the same. The crew and the Atlantean warriors power up other fishmobiles and follow Milo into the volcano to get the crystal back.
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.
To prepare for the production, the filmmakers visited museums and toured old army installations. They also traveled 800 feet underground in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns to observe the subterranean trails that would serve as the model for the approach to Atlantis in the film. When it came to creating the look of the city of Atlantis, the filmmakers wanted to avoid the common conception of Atlantis being depicted as "Greek columns under the sea somewhere," says art director Dave Goetz. Instead, they modeled their Atlantis on the architecture of ancient civilizations in China, South America and the Middle East.
The film's production design style was based upon the personal style of comic book artist Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy.[3] Mignola was one of four production designers hired by the Disney studio to work on the film,[3] and provided style guides and preliminary character and background designs for the film.
Atlantis is notable as one of the few animated films shot in an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio; others include Lady And The Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, The Black Cauldron, and later Brother Bear. To prevent having to purchase and implement larger animation desks, longer animation paper, and so forth, the production team resorted to working within a smaller frame on the same paper and equipment used for the standard aspect ratio Disney animated films.
Some viewers have noted similarities between the Milo character and motion picture language consultant Dr. Marc Okrand, who developed the Atlantean language for this movie (Okrand has said that Milo's supervising animator, John Pomeroy, sketched him, claiming not to know what a linguist looked or behaved like). Pomeroy himself said that Milo "is the closest I've come to animating a self portrait!"[4]
The film's original prologue featured a Viking war party using the Shepherd's Journal to find Atlantis, and being swiftly dispatched by the Leviathan. This opening was replaced with a sequence depicting the destruction of Atlantis to introduce the film from the perspective of the Atlanteans and Princess Kida.[3] The original version of the opening is shown as an extra feature on the DVD release, as well as within the PC game Trial by Fire.
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].
The film was originally supposed to provide a springboard for an animated television series titled Team Atlantis, which would have detailed the further adventures of the characters from the film. However, because of its under-performance at the box office, the series was not produced. On May 20, 2003, Disney released a direct-to-video sequel called Atlantis: Milo's Return, which consisted mostly of stories originally planned for the aborted series.
Milo Thatch, Princess Kida, Wilhemina Packard and Commander Rourke were featured as guests in House of Mouse, an early 2000s ABC Saturday morning cartoon featuring Disney characters.
Originally, Disneyland Park was to revive its Submarine Voyage ride with an Atlantis theme by using elements from the movie. The ride was promoted with a meet and greet with the movie's characters. These plans were canceled after the film's under-performance at the box office, and the attraction was reopened in 2007 as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage instead, basing its theme around Pixar's 2003 film Finding Nemo.
Main articles: Atlantis The Lost Empire: Trial by Fire, Atlantis The Lost Empire: Search for the Journal, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (video game)
Two separate PC games based loosely on the film were released in 2001, Trial by Fire and Atlantis The Lost Empire: Search for the Journal. Both were developed by Zombie Studios and published by Buena Vista Games. Another game based on the film was developed for the PlayStation entitled Atlantis: The Lost Empire, by Disney Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment.
Soundtrack by James Newton Howard | |
The soundtrack to Atlantis: The Lost Empire was released on May 22, 2001. It consists primarily of James Newton Howard's score, and also includes the Diane Warren penned song, "Where the Dream Takes You", performed by Mýa.
- Where the Dream Takes You (w/ Mýa)
- The Submarine
- Milo's Turned Down
- Atlantis Is Waiting
- The Leviathan
- Bedding Down
- The Journey
- Fireflies
- Milo Meets Kida
- The City of Atlantis
- Milo and Kida's Questions
- Touring the City
- The Secret Swim
- The Crystal Chamber
- The King Dies / Going After Rourke
- Just Do It
- Kida Returns
- Atlantis
Gary Rydstrom, Michael Silvers, Mary Helen Leasman, John K. Carr, Shannon Mills, Ken Fischer, David C. Hughes, Susan Sanford | |||
Nominated |
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