20 years ago, Walt Disney Animation Studios released an interesting feature during a time when they were straying away from their usual musical fantasy formula. The film was Atlantis: the Lost Empire, an original project conceived by producer Don Hahn, screenwriter Tab Murphy and directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. While the feature was hyped upon its original release, it was met with mixed reactions and underperformed financially, not helped by the main factor of it losing over Shrek. However, it has remained one of the company's biggest cult hits amongst an underground fanbase. But just how deserving is its cult status?
Set in 1914, 8,000 years after the ancient city of Atlantis sank below the sea, the film tells the story of young linguist Milo Thatch. Upon gaining possession of a sacred book which he believes will guide him to the lost city of Atlantis, he pairs up with a crew of mercenaries in search of the civilization. From the setup, the feature definitely feels like it will offer a lot of thrills along its way, and to the filmmaker's credit, the proper motivations are all set up, and not just from Milo. The actual mercenaries he tags along with consist of a war hero like commander, a sardonic demolitions expert, a rapid fire medic with a big heart, a neurotic mole like geologist, a tough teenaged mechanic, an elderly cynical radio operator and plenty more. In addition to a very solid voice cast such as Michael J. Fox, James Garner, Don Novello, Phil Morris and many more, the main lead and side characters truly make the first half of the movie a spine tingling adventure. While the entire movie isn't all spent on the journey, unlike the original script, the character driven aesthetic shows a lot of promise for more to come.
However, the one fatal flaw that really holds the movie back is regarding its underdeveloped plot elements. A lot of thought and care was put into developing the world of Atlantis itself, down to famed linguist Marc Okrand creating a unique Atlantean language, but the movie itself ends up putting more emphasis on worldbuilding rather than much logic as to how the city survived for so long. Even with the vague preservation of ancient crystals, the film doesn't spend enough time establishing the world's essence to make for a concise second half. According to the film's story supervisor, John Sanford, the filmmakers chose to lead the function of Atlantis through more ambiguously to the point where even he believed they went too far. And all because George Lucas wanted to explain how the force worked in the Star Wars prequels too. It doesn't help that once the main antagonist is revealed, the movie ends up becoming too derivative of Dances with Wolves, if only not as preachy. In the end, we have a lost civilization that ends up creating more questions than answers once discovered.
To give more credit where credit is due, the cinematography and shot composition are truly breathtaking. As much of the film takes its time getting to Atlantis and then showing off the civilization itself, much of the pacing ends up feeling like a suspenseful journey through a newly discovered land that no one had ever ventured before. In addition, the art direction ranges from cold and grimey caves to a luscious albeit washed out city of blues and terrain, allowing for a very solid contrast between the lost world and what lies before said world, along with some wonderful cel shaded CG props as a bonus. As for the character designs and animation, given that Hellboy creator Mike Mignola was one of the film's production designers, the cast end up looking like a blend between Mignola's rough sketchy outlines and caricatured Disnefied design work. Thanks to the work from veterans such as John Pomeroy, Michael Surrey, Randy Haycock, Ron Husband, Dave Pruiksma, Shawn Keller and many more, the animators' finest work ended up keeping the film's weaker second half from getting too stale.
So while it does have all of the right pieces to make a wonderful action packed adventure, Atlantis doesn't quite hit the mark to truly stand out besides being the more action-packed Disney flick from a different time. That being said, the fact that the filmmakers were even allowed to go this far to try something different in the company is worth admiring, perhaps partially why its cult status is still going strong after 20 years. Of course it did get a failed TV spinoff that turned into a worthless sequel, but aside from that, it's great to see how a film that fell below the radar has now gotten the attention it almost never had before.
Set in 1914, 8,000 years after the ancient city of Atlantis sank below the sea, the film tells the story of young linguist Milo Thatch. Upon gaining possession of a sacred book which he believes will guide him to the lost city of Atlantis, he pairs up with a crew of mercenaries in search of the civilization. From the setup, the feature definitely feels like it will offer a lot of thrills along its way, and to the filmmaker's credit, the proper motivations are all set up, and not just from Milo. The actual mercenaries he tags along with consist of a war hero like commander, a sardonic demolitions expert, a rapid fire medic with a big heart, a neurotic mole like geologist, a tough teenaged mechanic, an elderly cynical radio operator and plenty more. In addition to a very solid voice cast such as Michael J. Fox, James Garner, Don Novello, Phil Morris and many more, the main lead and side characters truly make the first half of the movie a spine tingling adventure. While the entire movie isn't all spent on the journey, unlike the original script, the character driven aesthetic shows a lot of promise for more to come.
However, the one fatal flaw that really holds the movie back is regarding its underdeveloped plot elements. A lot of thought and care was put into developing the world of Atlantis itself, down to famed linguist Marc Okrand creating a unique Atlantean language, but the movie itself ends up putting more emphasis on worldbuilding rather than much logic as to how the city survived for so long. Even with the vague preservation of ancient crystals, the film doesn't spend enough time establishing the world's essence to make for a concise second half. According to the film's story supervisor, John Sanford, the filmmakers chose to lead the function of Atlantis through more ambiguously to the point where even he believed they went too far. And all because George Lucas wanted to explain how the force worked in the Star Wars prequels too. It doesn't help that once the main antagonist is revealed, the movie ends up becoming too derivative of Dances with Wolves, if only not as preachy. In the end, we have a lost civilization that ends up creating more questions than answers once discovered.
To give more credit where credit is due, the cinematography and shot composition are truly breathtaking. As much of the film takes its time getting to Atlantis and then showing off the civilization itself, much of the pacing ends up feeling like a suspenseful journey through a newly discovered land that no one had ever ventured before. In addition, the art direction ranges from cold and grimey caves to a luscious albeit washed out city of blues and terrain, allowing for a very solid contrast between the lost world and what lies before said world, along with some wonderful cel shaded CG props as a bonus. As for the character designs and animation, given that Hellboy creator Mike Mignola was one of the film's production designers, the cast end up looking like a blend between Mignola's rough sketchy outlines and caricatured Disnefied design work. Thanks to the work from veterans such as John Pomeroy, Michael Surrey, Randy Haycock, Ron Husband, Dave Pruiksma, Shawn Keller and many more, the animators' finest work ended up keeping the film's weaker second half from getting too stale.
So while it does have all of the right pieces to make a wonderful action packed adventure, Atlantis doesn't quite hit the mark to truly stand out besides being the more action-packed Disney flick from a different time. That being said, the fact that the filmmakers were even allowed to go this far to try something different in the company is worth admiring, perhaps partially why its cult status is still going strong after 20 years. Of course it did get a failed TV spinoff that turned into a worthless sequel, but aside from that, it's great to see how a film that fell below the radar has now gotten the attention it almost never had before.