Atlantis: The Lost Empire

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Directed by	Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise
Produced by	Don Hahn
Written by	Tab Murphy
Starring	Michael J. Fox Cree Summer James Garner Corey Burton Don Novello Phil Morris Claudia Christian Jacqueline Obradors Leonard Nimoy John Mahoney Florence Stanley Jim Varney David Ogden Stiers
Music by	James Newton Howard
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	June 15, 2001
Running time	96 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$120 million
Followed by	Atlantis: Milo's Return (2003)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire is the 41st Disney animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 15, 2001. The sci-fi action movie was written by Tab Murphy, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and produced by Don Hahn. 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 enlists a band of ragtag archaeologists and excavators to find the city, but struggles against mutineers who want to sabotage the mission for their own profit. The film was noted for the using the simple artistic style of comic book artist Mike Mignola as well as continuing the recent Disney attempts at producing animated features without musical interludes. Atlantis: The Lost Empire received mostly mixed reviews and achieved only modest success at the box-office.

This film was rated PG by the MPAA for "action violence", the first Disney animated feature since The Black Cauldron to earn that rating.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production notes 3 Voice cast 4 Crew 5 Reaction 5.1 Reviews 5.2 Box office 5.3 Controversy 6 Annie Awards 7 Home Video Release 8 Soundtrack 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links

Plot

In 1914, Milo Thatch, an aspiring cartographer/linguist/explorer working in the boiler room at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., believes he has found the secret to the location of Atlantis through a manuscript called the Sheppard's Journal. When his request to lead an expedition is denied by Institute's board, he finds himself contacted by Preston B. Whitmore, who reveals he was a friend of Milo's grandfather, Thaddeus Thatch, who had originally located the Journal. Whitmore requests that Milo become part of a team to search for Atlantis as their linguist expert, which Milo eagerly agrees too. Milo is introduced to the specialists on the team, led by Commander Lyle Rourke and his aide Helga Sinclair. The team includes Vincenzo 'Vinny' Sanrini, the crew's Italian demolitions expert; Gaetan 'Mole' Molière, a crazed French geologist; Dr. Joshua Sweet, the ship's medical officer; Audrey Ramirez, a teenaged tomboy mechanic; Jebidiah 'Cookie' Farnsworth, the ship's Western redneck cook; and Wilhelmina Packard, an elderly communications expert. The team initially teases and plays tricks on Milo but slowly warm up to him over the adventure, revealing their life stories to him.

The expedition quickly meets a fateful start when a robotic Leviathan destroys the main submarine, and most of the rest of the crew are killed during the evacuation, but Milo's team are able to find the underwater cavern described by the Journal that leads to Atlantis, and proceed with the exploration, unaware they are being watched. After misadventures with the local fauna and discovering the caves are resting on a dormant volcano, they find themselves at the outskirts of Atlantis. Kida, one of the Atlantians that had been tracking the group, invites the team to see her father, King Kashekim Nedakh. However, the King demands that the team leave immediately, but acquiesces when Commander Rourke asks to stay the night to recover and refresh supplies. While the others relax, Rourke orders his soldiers to arm themselves.

Kida discovers that Milo can read and speak the Atlantian language, something that her people have long forgotten, and enlists his help to transcript ancient murals. Diving near some of the city's ruins, Milo and Kida learn that the city is protected by the Heart of Atlantis, and that the strange blue gems that each Atlantian wears are connected to it. Kida recalls when her mother was taken away from her by the Heart in order to save the city from a giant tsunami. As they leave the ruins, they are caught by Rourke and his men, who have overheard their conversation. The armed men take Milo and Kida by force to the King, where Rourke forces him to reveal the location of the Heart. Rourke, Helga, Milo, and Kida travel to chamber below the King's quarters, finding the Heart to be a large blue crystal hanging in mid-air. Kida is drawn to the crystal and is infused with its power; as she walks away from the crystal, she tells Milo in Atlantian that he should not worry. Still under gunpoint, Rourke forces Kida into a metal chamber they will use to return to her to the surface, using her power for financial gain; however without the Heart, the city and its residents will soon die. The other team members quickly recognize Rourke's motive was not part of the mission and stand behind Milo in demanding him to release Kida. Rourke refuses, leaving the others stranded while he and his men leave the city. Milo, the other team members, and the Atlantians discover how to use ancient flying machines to give chase to Rourke, who is trying to launch the chamber with Kida in it on top of a volcano that has started to become active. A large battle ensues, and Rourke, Helga, and their soldiers are killed while Milo saves Kida, but the battle has caused the volcano to start to erupt, the lava threatening to destroy Atlantis. Milo returns Kida to the center of the city where she is taken once again by the Heart; her life force is used to activate giant stone guardians at the city's edge that form a protective barrier from the lava. After the city is saved, Kida is returned to Milo's arms from the Heart, no longer infused with its power.

The rest of the surface team prepares to return with vehicles full of treasure from the city, but Milo decides to stay behind, smitten in love for Kida, and passes a note to be given to Whitmore, with a blue life crystal as evidence he found the city and his thanks for the opportunity. The rest of the team, after returning to the surface, concoct a tale that they never found Atlantis, despite their new found wealth. Milo and Kida help to restore Atlantis back to its former glory.

Production notes

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 "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.

Atlantis is notable as one of the few animated films shot in the anamorphic widescreen process. 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 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 animator John Pomeroy sketched him, claiming not to know what a linguist looked or behaved like). Additionally, an interesting aspect of the film is that very few of the characters are under the age of 30, a rare component for a Disney animated feature. Also, Atlantis is the first animated Disney feature since 1995's Pocahontas to have a character of African descent, Dr. Joshua Sweet, in the roster of main characters. Atlantis was one of the last Disney films to include a smoking character, Packard, a minor character who consistently puffed a cigarette. According to co-directer Kirk Wise, the character of Moliere was originally very professorial, but one of the story artists changed the concept to that of a "horrible little burrowing creature with a wacky coat and strange headgear".^[1]

Not seen in the original film, but shown as an extra in the DVD release and the PC game, Atlantis: Trial By Fire, was a deleted scene that was intended to be an alternate beginning to the movie. This involves a Viking war party, in which the leader has the Shepherd's Journal, and is following the directions in order to find Atlantis and plunder it. However, the Vikings are swiftly dispatched by the Leviathan and the journal is thrown overboard.

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 disappointing box office intake, the series was scrapped. On May 20, 2003, Disney released a direct-to-video sequel called Atlantis: Milo's Return, which consisted mostly of stories originally produced for the aborted series.

Milo Thatch, Princess Kida, Wilhemina Packard and Commander Roark were featured as guests in House of Mouse.

In addition, several video games were released for various consoles of the time, most notably the PC game, Atlantis; Trial By Fire. There were two main "campaigns" the game; Search For The Journal, which events surrounded the expedition to Iceland in order to find the journal. This segment of the game places the player as one of Rourke's mercenaries (or as the game simply states "Storm Troopers") and must fight their way through various obstacles and enemies, which are called "The Keepers". The player remains in constant radio contact throughout the game, along with the voices of most of the actors in the movie. The "reward" for finding the Journal is a trailer of the movie, also, the player can pilot the Whitmore Wing, as seen in the movie, the aircraft Rourke's mercenaries would use in their attempts to fight off Milo's attack. The second "campaign" of the game; Trial By Fire, takes place during the events of the movie, and the player takes on the role of Milo Thatch. The game follows the movie very closely, and the player goes from finding Atlantis to defending it. Atlantis: Trial By Fire also had a multiplayer component, which featured modes like deathmatch, CTF, and air battles. It also included a 10 minute documentary on how the movie was made.

The weaponry used in the film is of the correct time period (1914) such as: the Lee Enfield, the Lewis Gun, the Broomhandle Mauser and a variant of the Luger. There are various models of Browning .30 Cal Machine Guns mounted to planes and other vehicles as well.

Voice cast

Actor	Role	Notes
Michael J. Fox	Milo James Thatch
Cree Summer	Kidagakash "Kida" Nedakh
James Garner	Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke
Corey Burton	Gaetan "Mole" Moliére
Don Novello	Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini
Phil Morris	Doctor Joshua Strongbear Sweet
Claudia Christian	Lieutenant Helga Katrina Sinclair
Jacqueline Obradors	Audrey Rocio Ramirez
Leonard Nimoy	King Kashekim Nedakh
John Mahoney	Preston B. Whitmore
Florence Stanley	Wilhelmina Bertha Packard
Jim Varney	Jedidiah Allardyce "Cookie" Farnsworth	Varney died during production, and several lines were spoken by a sound alike.
David Ogden Stiers	Fenton Q. Harcourt	This character's name is an obvious allusion to Star Trek: The Original Series recurring character "Harcourt Fenton Mudd," commonly known as "Harry".

Crew

Crew Position
Directed by	Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise
Produced by	Don Hahn
Original Story by	Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise Joss Whedon Bryce Zabel Jackie Zabel Tab Murphy
Screenplay by	Tab Murphy
Original Score by	James Newton Howard
Associate Producer	Kendra Haaland
Art Director	David Goetz
Production Design	Mike Mignola, Matt Codd, Ricardo Delgado, Jim E. Martin
Film Editor	Ellen Keneshea
Artistic Supervisors	John Sanford (Story supervisor) Ed Ghertner (Layout supervisor) Lisa Keene (Background supervisor) Marshall Toomey (Clean-up supervisor) Benjamin Stegemann (Animation supervisor) Marlon West (Effects supervisor) Kiran Bhakta Joshi (Computer Graphics supervisor)
Artistic Coordinator	Chris Jenkins
Supervising Animators	John Pomeroy (Milo) Michael Surrey (Rourke) Randy Haycock (Princess Kida) Russ Edmonds (Vinny) Ron Husband (Dr Sweet) Yoshimichi Tamura (Helga) Anne Marie Bardwell (Audrey) David Pruiksma (Mrs Packard/Mr Harcourt) Shawn Keller (Preston Whitmore/Cookie) Anthony DeRosa (Molière) Michael Cedeno (Atlantian King) Mike 'Moe' Merell (Leviathan)
Production Manager	Igor Khait

Reaction

Reviews

The film garnered mixed reviews from critics. On the Rotten Tomatoes cumulative review website, Atlantis: The Lost Empire earned a rating of 46% from all reviewers,^[2] and a rating of 38% from the "top" reviewers.^[3] The consensus stated that the film provided a fast-paced spectacle but lacked character development and a coherent plot.^[2] Film critic Roger Ebert gave Atlantis three-and-half stars, indicating a very positive view of the film.^[4] 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.".^[4] However, 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."^[5] 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.^[6]

Box office

Atlantis: The Lost Empire did moderately well at the US box office, making approximately $85 million dollars in its theatrical run,^[7] although this is below its production cost of $120 million. The film eventually grossed more than $186 million worldwide^[7] which covered the cost of the budget, however it was less successful than other Disney movies from around that time period.

Controversy

Some viewers noted that Atlantis bore striking similarities to the popular 1990s Japanese anime television show, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Similarities included character designs, story flow, and the background settings.^[8] Although Kirk Wise, director of Atlantis, said that he and Trousdale were fans of anime,^[9] 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 Journey to the Center of the Earth.^[10] However, the blond-haired hero with round glasses and a ribbon bow tie as well as the heroine with a crystal pendant and dark skins never appeared in the novel.

Annie Awards

Result	Award	Winner/Nominee Recipient(s)
NOMINATED	Individual Achievement in Directing	Gary Trousdale (Director) Kirk Wise (Director)
NOMINATED	Individual Achievement in Storyboarding	Chris Ure (Story Artist)
NOMINATED	Individual Achievement in Production Design	David Goetz (Art Director)
NOMINATED	Individual Achievement in Effects Animation	Marlon West (Effects Supervisor)
NOMINATED	Individual Achievement in Voice Acting - Female	Florence Stanley ("Mrs Packard")
NOMINATED	Individual Achievement in Voice Acting - Male	Leonard Nimoy ("King Nedakh")

Home Video Release

It was released on DVD on January 29, 2002 on a single-disc edition and a 2-Disc Collector's Edition but with more Bonus Features. The 2-Disc Collector's Edition is now discontinued.

Soundtrack

Main article: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (soundtrack)

References

Further reading

• Atlantis in art, literature and popular culture
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water

External links

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire at the Internet Movie Database
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire at Rotten Tomatoes
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire at Metacritic

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire at Box Office Mojo

v • d • e Disney theatrical animated features Official canon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) • Pinocchio (1940) • Fantasia (1940) • Dumbo (1941) • Bambi (1942) • Saludos Amigos (1942) • The Three Caballeros (1944) • Make Mine Music (1946) • Fun and Fancy Free (1947) • Melody Time (1948) • The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) • Cinderella (1950) • Alice in Wonderland (1951) • Peter Pan (1953) • Lady and the Tramp (1955) • Sleeping Beauty (1959) • One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) • The Sword in the Stone (1963) • The Jungle Book (1967) • The Aristocats (1970) • Robin Hood (1973) • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) • The Rescuers (1977) • The Fox and the Hound (1981) • The Black Cauldron (1985) • The Great Mouse Detective (1986) • Oliver & Company (1988) • The Little Mermaid (1989) • The Rescuers Down Under (1990) • Beauty and the Beast (1991) • Aladdin (1992) • The Lion King (1994) • Pocahontas (1995) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) • Hercules (1997) • Mulan (1998) • Tarzan (1999) • Fantasia 2000 (1999) • Dinosaur (2000) • The Emperor's New Groove (2000) • Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) • Lilo & Stitch (2002) • Treasure Planet (2002) • Brother Bear (2003) • Home on the Range (2004) • Chicken Little (2005) • Meet the Robinsons (2007) • Bolt (2008) • The Princess and the Frog (2009) • Rapunzel (2010) • King of the Elves (2012) Live-action films with animation The Reluctant Dragon (1941) • Victory Through Air Power (1943) • Song of the South (1946) • So Dear to My Heart (1949) • Mary Poppins (1964) • Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) • Pete's Dragon (1977) • Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) • Enchanted (2007) DisneyToon features DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990) • A Goofy Movie (1995) • Doug's 1st Movie (1999) • The Tigger Movie (2000) • Recess: School's Out (2001) • Return to Never Land (2002) • The Jungle Book 2 (2003) • Piglet's Big Movie (2003) • Teacher's Pet (2004) • Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005) Other The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) • James and the Giant Peach (1996) • A Christmas Carol (2009) • Alice in Wonderland (2010) See also Walt Disney Animation Studios • Pixar Animation Studios • DisneyToon Studios

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