Atlantis: The Lost Empire
| Atlantis: The Lost Empire | |
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| Directed by | Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise |
| Produced by | Don Hahn |
| Written by | Story: Tab Murphy Kirk Wise Gary Trousdale Bryce Zabel Jackie Zabel Screenplay: 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 |
| Editing by | Ellen Keneshea |
| Studio | Walt Disney Feature Animation |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures Buena Vista Distribution |
| Release date(s) | June 15, 2001 |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $120 million |
| Gross revenue | $230,053,725 |
| Followed by | Atlantis: Milo's Return |
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.
Contents |
Plot
Thousands of years ago, the island of Atlantis is threatened by a huge tidal wave that will destroy it. In order to protect the island, the queen of Atlantis offers herself as a sacrifice to the Heart of Atlantis, hovering above the capital. However, the Heart of Atlantis surrounds only the capital with a force field-like shield, protecting it against the tidal wave as the rest of the island is sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
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 that Journal can be located in Iceland. When his request to lead an expedition is denied by the Institution's board due to a schedule mix-up they've intentionally caused (as they don't believe in the existence of Atlantis), 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, and that happens to be the very same team that helped Milo's grandfather located the Journal from Iceland, proving Milo's theory correct. Knowing that this is for real, Milo agrees to be part of the team. With everything on schedule, 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 who is known to guard the air pocket entrance to Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean as described from the Journal. Despite so 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 remnants that were crumbled down since the great flood had sunken the island. Just before reaching Atlantis, Milo accidentally scare 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, they found another route inside the volcano that leads to the city of Atlantis, as it still survives in a bubble 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), who 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 by morning. 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 the Rourke and the crew intend to take the Heart of Atlantis to the surface and sell it (thinking that it is some sort of rich diamond); Rourke also reveals to have the missing page from the Journal with the picture of the crystal, which gives him interest. Knowing that it's not worth it, Milo refuses to work with them any further, but Rourke forces him to do so by threatening Kida’s life.
Rourk and his crew 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) to protect the city, turning her into a human shaped crystal, and causing the stone carvings to fall in to the water. Unfortunately, Rourke takes up the chance to contain the crystallized Kida inside a metal crate and prepare to bring her back to the surface, much to the Atlanteans' discomfort. Milo, unable to stop this, grudingly concedes defeat, berating Rouke and the crew for leaving an entire civilization in the face of danger out of greed, and taking this as an insult, Rourke punches Milo in the face and intentionally breaks his frame of the picture with his grandfather inside. Seeing how Rourke has assaulted Milo, the crew realizes that what they were doing is wrong and abandons Rourke to stand beside Milo and the Atlanteans. Rourke, along with Helga and most of Rourke's loyal men, leaves the city regardless and blows up a bridge connecting from Atlantis to a cliff adjacent 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 he sadly states Kashekim is suffering from internal bleeding caused by Rourke's fatal punch. Kashekim explains the Heart’s powers and makes Milo into swearing to save the city and Kida, then dies. Obliging to the king's word, Milo uses the king’s crystal to power a fish-like flying vehicle (which he learned from Kida earlier), which the Atlantean armada had used prior to the great flood that sunk the city, and shows the team and several Atlantean warriors how to do the same. With that knowledge, 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 hot-air zepplin to reach the surface while towing the metal crate carrying Kida inside. As the zepplin starts to take off, Milo, the crew, and the Atlantean warriors arrive and engage in a battle against Rourke and his soldiers. At first, they are unable to fight back as the Atlantean warriors' bows and arrows are badly outmatched by Rourke's men and their firearms. But later on, the team's demolition expert Vinny Santorini (Don Novello) figures out how to shoot crystallized bolts from his fishmobile and kills a truckload of soldiers, motivating the other crew members and the Atlanteans warriors to use the same method against the rest of Rourke's men. When the zepplin is damaged by Milo and begins to lose altitude, the greedy Rourke betrays Helga and throws her off to “lighten the load.” Milo grabs onto the zepplin and fights with Rourke, though badly outmatched. As she falls to her death, Helga redeems herself by firing a flare on the zeppelin, causing to lose even more altitude. Upon witnessing this, Rourke is driven insane, grabs an axe and tries to kill Milo. Eventually, he smashes a glass window on Kida's crate and Milo uses a shard of the glass to cut Rourke’s left arm, crystallizing the commander. Milo then pushes the crystallized Rourke into the propeller, shattering him into pieces. The zepplin, having lost power, falls to the ground, and the chain holding Kida’s crate to the balloon snaps and Milo pushes it away just before the zepplin lands and explodes. Despite Milo's effort, the battle triggered an eruption in the volcano. Using the chains holding the crate, Milo and the crew bring Kida back to Atlantis where, once freed, the Heart of Atlantis reawakens the stone carvings, which in turn, reawaken stone giants that create a shield around Atlantis, protecting it from the eruption. Once the danger has passed, the shield disappears and the part of the city that have remained submerged to this point, like the mural room, are drained when the shields lower, exposing buildings that have long since been forgotten.
With the city safe once again, the Heart of Atlantis returns Kida to her normal state. The crew prepares to return to the surface with riches given to them by the Atlanteans for their heroic actions, but Milo, who has fallen in love with Kida, chooses instead to stay behind in the city to help the Atlanteans return to their former glory. The team returns to the surface and along with Mr. Whitmore, they come up with an alternative story to protect Atlantis’s secret from letting it fall into the wrong hands. The team also gives Mr. Whitmore an Atlantean crystal, allowing him to be granted the same life extending force as the citizens of Atlantis.
Milo and Kida, now king and queen of Atlantis, carve a stone likeness of the late King, which then ascends to join the other stone carvings of the past kings circling the Heart of Atlantis (now once again open to the people of Atlantis, rather than hidden underground), and look upon the city as it begins to return to its former glory.
Cast
- Michael J. Fox as Milo James Thatch: A linguist and cartographer who has studied the Atlantean culture and learned to translate the Atlantean language. 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 8,800 years old during the time when Milo discovered her city.
- James Garner as Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke, an aging commander and the leader of the Atlantis expedition.
- Corey Burton as Gaetan "Mole" Moliére, a 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.
- Don Novello as Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini, an Italian demolition expert.
- Phil Morris as Doctor Joshua Strongbear Sweet, an African-American/Native American medic.
- 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.
- 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 before he died.
- David Ogden Stiers as Fenton Q. Harcourt, Milo's former employer at the Smithsonian who doesn't believe in the existence of Atlantis.
Production
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 character of Molière was originally intended to be very professorial, but story artist Chris Ure changed the concept to that of a "horrible little burrowing creature with a wacky coat and strange headgear".[3] Apparently, the character of Vinny was also changed during the course of production: the original character was more violent, more clumsy, and more prone to violent mood swings.[5]
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.
Reviews
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]
Controversy
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, many similarities can be found in plots that are not connected to the original novel to be coincidence.[12]
Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on January 29, 2002. Both a single-disc DVD edition and a 2-Disc Collector's Edition with expanded bonus features were made available.
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.
Video games
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.
Soundtrack
Awards and nominations
| Award | Category | Name | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29th Annie Awards | Individual Achievement in Directing | Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Nominated |
| Individual Achievement in Storyboarding | Chris Ure | Nominated | |
| Individual Achievement in Production Design | David Goetz | Nominated | |
| Individual Achievement in Effects Animation | Marlon West | Nominated | |
| Individual Achievement in Voice Acting - Female | Florence Stanley | Nominated | |
| Individual Achievement in Voice Acting - Male | Leonard Nimoy | Nominated | |
| 2003 DVD Exclusive Awards | Original Retrospective Documentary | Michael Pellerin | Nominated |
| 2002 Golden Reel Award | Best Sound Editing | Gary Rydstrom, Michael Silvers, Mary Helen Leasman, John K. Carr, Shannon Mills, Ken Fischer, David C. Hughes, Susan Sanford | Won |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards 2001 | Best Animated Feature | Nominated | |
| 2002 Political Film Society | Democracy | Nominated | |
| Peace | Nominated | ||
| World Soundtrack Awards | Best Original Song for Film | Diane Warren, James Newton Howard | Nominated |
| Young Artist Awards | Best Feature Family Film | Nominated |
See also
- Atlantis in art, literature and popular culture
References
- ↑ http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/atlantisce.php
- ↑ http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1209&p=s.htm
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Trousdale, Gary; Wise, Kirk; and Hahn, Don (2001). DVD audio commentary for Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Walt Disney Home Entertainment
- ↑ "Digging Up the Secrets of Atlantis". IGN. 2001-06-15. http://movies.ign.com/articles/300/300587p1.html. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
- ↑ Messier, Max (2001). "The Disney Industrial Complex and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire"". Filmcritic.com. http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/The-Disney-Industrial-Complex-and-Atlantis-The-Lost-Empire. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
- ↑ "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/atlantis_the_lost_empire/. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ebert, Roger. Atlantis: The Lost Empire. June 15, 2001.
- ↑ Gleiberman, Owen "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,129378~1~0~atlantislostempire,00.html. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ↑ Kenneth Turan. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". Los Angeles Times. http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-movie010607-7,0,6731630.story. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ↑ comparison could be found here, in Japanese. The chart is a translation of this English version though.
- ↑ Zion, Lee Probing the Atlantis mystery Anime News Network, May 15th 2001
- ↑ Nadia vs. Atlantis, Revisited! - Anime News Network So, having said all this, can we still suspect that the makers of Atlantis copied Nadia? Well, as I said earlier, there are too many similarities not connected with 20,000 Leagues for the whole thing to be coincidence. (The oversized round glasses of the hero in both stories, the fact that the dark-skinned heroine wears a jewel around her neck which is connected with the power source of Atlantis, and the similarities of 3 members of the Sub's crew).
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
- The lost Atlantis and other ethnographic studies
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