A Walt Disney Production: “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”

Die-hard Disney fans have a sort of go-to list of underrated animated movies, some of the most popular choices being The Black Cauldron, The Rescuers Down Under, and Treasure Planet, among several others. But the one with the most enthusiastic fanbase I’ve encountered is Atlantis: The Lost Empire, released in 2001 as Disney’s first animated science fiction film. The studio expected it to be far more successful than it ultimately was, planning a television series titled “Team Atlantis,” as well as a submarine ride at Disneyland, which would have essentially been a refurbishment of the pre-existing “Submarine Voyage,” which would now be themed around scenes from the film. While it didn’t completely bomb at the box office, it also wasn’t a big hit critically or financially, so both projects were scrapped. The submarine ride, which had closed in 1998, reopened in 2007 with a Finding Nemo theme, and the first three episodes of “Team Atlantis” were compiled into a direct-to-video sequel, Atlantis: Milo’s Return, which would have been fine as a TV pilot, but falls flat as a movie. In spite of all this, the original film has gained a cult following, though it still mostly flew under my radar. It came out during my childhood and I’ve always been vaguely familiar with it, but it’s not one that I grew up with, and has never been one of my favorites. Before I watched it for this article, it had been about four or five years since my last viewing of it and, as I mentioned at the end of my Emperor’s New Groove retrospective, being a film major has made me more watchful for movies’ strengths and weaknesses (not that you have to study it to notice these things). So, though I enjoyed it fine the last time I watched it, my thoughts on it became more complicated this time around.

Background

In the 1990s, coming off the success of Beauty and the Beast and, to a lesser extent, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the directing team of Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, with producer Don Hahn, met with each other and discussed the kinds of films they had enjoyed while growing up and might like to recreate with animation. Common answers between the three of them included Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, along with old westerns and live-action Disney films from the 1950s and 60s such as Swiss Family Robinson, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Treasure Island. They also shared a frustration for a scene in Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” in which the characters pass through the legendary lost civilization of Atlantis, now in ruins and uninhabited. They were unsatisfied with the brevity of Atlantis’ appearance in the book and wanted to write a story that presented a more thorough search for and exploration of Atlantis. Drawing inspiration from the aforementioned action/adventure films and the works of Verne, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, in addition to previously existing theories and lore surrounding Atlantis, they brought back the production crew from Hunchback for their next project.

Positives

Perhaps the biggest reason fans of Atlantis love it so much is that it’s an undeniably unique entry into Disney’s animated canon, combining elements from different genres and forms of media that had never been very closely associated with the company. Its cinematography is exciting and creative, with the Leviathan pursuit even being made to appear as though it is being filmed shakily with a handheld camera, and some other scenes employing dramatic high and low angles, beautiful landscapes, and use of lighting and shadow, all accented with a brilliant score by James Newton Howard. Rarely does the tone of a scene make any kind of awkward shift (though some scenes end abruptly); the movie generally flows smoothly in this regard. The action scenes are a lot of fun, and when the film needs to pause to present a mystery or a quiet, dramatic moment, it does so in a way that still keeps the viewer’s attention. The mystery of the events surrounding Atlantis’ sinking is set up in an intriguing prologue — told cleverly through the perspective of Princess Kida as a toddler, seeing the destruction happening around her but not fully understanding it — and the crisis facing its citizens is interesting and a largely new territory for an animated Disney film. It expands on Plato’s fable of Atlantis having angered the gods with its corruption and creates a culture with a storied past, even adding a fully constructed language and alphabet developed by Marc Okrand, the linguist who created the Klingon language for the “Star Trek” franchise. The setting of the film in 1914 was also a clever idea, adding the contrast between early 20th century technology against the far more advanced ancient technology of Atlantis, and the threat of the city’s resources being exploited by whichever world power is willing to pay the most for them as World War I approaches.

The crew’s love for classic cinema is evident all throughout the film; the action scenes are a fitting homage to the mid-century adventure films mentioned earlier, and some characters are based on archetypes of these films as well as film noir of the 1940s — Helga Sinclair acts as a femme fatale in the first act, but becomes a gunslinger along with the rest of the cast when the action picks up. Preston Whitmore only appears in a few scenes at the beginning and end of the film, but is entertaining in the role of the eccentric millionaire/robber baron who relishes in excess, but ultimately has a good heart and wants to help those who share his affinity for exploration. Even the scene transitions include these send-ups, using wipes similar to those used in silent films of the time period in which Atlantis is set.

In another effort to set Atlantis apart from the classic talking animal/singing princess films Disney is known for, the film features a diverse ensemble cast, and for the most part, the protagonists are likable and work well off of each other. Some aren’t entirely fleshed out, but they’re all well set up. Among these are Joshua Sweet, one of WDAS’ first African-American characters (also half Native American), and arguably the first to be directly involved with his film’s plot, and Audrey Ramirez, a Latina teenager voiced by Argentine actress Jacqueline Obradors. Both are enjoyable, with Audrey being a temperamental “little sister” to the group, and Sweet being portrayed through quick, comedic animation and dialogue. But the one who stands out the most in the supporting cast is Don Novello as Vinny. His deadpan deliveries, many of them ad-libbed, are gems in all of his scenes. My personal favorite is Kida, the Atlantean princess trying to revive her dying culture with the help of the film’s lead character, Milo Thatch. For a good amount of the second act, the two work together as equals to solve the mystery of why Atlantis endured the disaster nearly 10,000 years earlier and how it and its people are still alive, hidden from the outside world. Though a romance between them is present, it’s not the primary focus; both have far bigger issues that they’re dealing with.

Possibly the strongest element of Atlantis is its art direction. The computer-generated effects blend almost seamlessly with the hand-drawn animation, save for a few instances where it’s more obvious that this was still in the early days of CG, which the animators can’t really be faulted for. Comic book artist and “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola served as production designer on the film, giving the characters their stylized, angular appearance, that still isn’t too far removed from the classic Disney aesthetic. Though that resulted in a few weird facial expressions here and there, overall it’s greatly beneficial to the film. The designs within the titular city were influenced by several different styles of ancient architecture, including Mesoamerica, Egypt, India, and Rome, in addition to Plato’s description of it in his writings. In that same vein, the designs of the Atlanteans themselves were a mix of features from many different ethnicities, with the idea that they were a sort of mother race, with all other races being descended from them. It’s clear that a good amount of effort was put into creating this story and world, but sadly, there are some major elements that keep this movie from being the truly great Disney classic it could have been.

Negatives

The mystery surrounding Atlantis is pretty intriguing, but it can also be confusing. There is a scene in the third act in which the king explains his mistake that led to the fall of Atlantis, and although the reveal answers the questions that have been set up from the beginning, it happens quickly and isn’t delved into much. Kida spends the film concerned with her dying culture, but we see very little of what Atlantis was like in its prime, aside from Milo describing their technology. We know that they were scientifically advanced, but we don’t find out much about their culture, beliefs, or values. Aside from their language, the only thing unique about them that we see is their crystals, which isn’t a concept original to this film, but one lifted from the writings of Edgar Cayce, a twentieth century mystic who claimed to have gathered information regarding Atlantis’ history and future reemergence while in a psychic trance. On that note, I find it hard to believe that Kida is the only one trying to restore their lifestyle while the other citizens are content with the way things are. A few Atlanteans, Kida included, run by in silhouette a few times as the expedition nears the city, but this is hardly mysterious since we can easily predict what they’ll turn out to be. All that was needed was the scene just before Kida is revealed as an adult, when Milo is cornered by them and has a wound healed by one of their crystals. Another unneeded scene is the one immediately following the Leviathan chase, which begins with the remaining crew eulogizing the unnamed extras who have just been killed off, but this is hardly effective since we know nothing about the people who died, and the tone shifts quickly back to a more lighthearted tone. It could have been improved if this had been a point where some of them started to have second thoughts about continuing with the expedition, but it’s not even acknowledged in any way after this point.

Though the comedy works a decent amount of the time, there are still a good number of jokes that fall flat. Most of these come from Moliere, or “Mole,” a member of the expedition to Atlantis who is by far the most irritating character. Most of his jokes revolve around him being obnoxious and fascinated with dirt, and he does little to serve the story. Unfortunately, so does Cookie, who was the late Jim Varney’s final film role. He’s not as bad as Mole, but he is ultimately another unnecessary character. Both exemplify how the film suffers from having too large a supporting cast. Even the characters with backstories — Milo included — are still fairly two-dimensional, and those backstories don’t tie in that much to their actions. The reveal of the villains isn’t surprising in the least, and neither of them have any clear reasons why they’ve become this way. Not many Disney villains need any kind of backstory, but this is odd in a film where nearly every other character is given one.

Milo’s backstory, naturally, is the one given the most focus, but he still isn’t a particularly interesting lead. Unlike Aladar in Dinosaur, he at least has some personality quirks and funny mannerisms, but that’s not enough to get the audience invested in him. You understand why he wants to find Atlantis, and he has good intentions, but him being an underdog doesn’t suffice to make his arc all that compelling. In the audio commentary recorded for the DVD, a member of the producing team mentions that an earlier draft of the script had Milo bring his grandfather’s helmet along with him on his journey, with it acting as a symbol to remind him to do the right thing. This was cut, but, in my opinion, would have made Milo a little more relatable and his perspective more clear by keeping his grandfather as a constant presence throughout the movie rather than just mentioning him a few times. As he is, I don’t hate Milo, but his arc has some uncomfortable implications. His romantic subplot with Kida isn’t awful, but we don’t see much of them connecting on a personal level. There’s one instance where he empathizes with the loss of her mother, but this is cut short by his shocked response to her having been alive when Atlantis was sunk. Most of their interactions just consist of her showing him the city and him explaining how the crew found Atlantis, when he’s not explaining her own culture to her. This is explained away in-universe with the Atlanteans having forgotten their written language the same way Egyptians no longer use hieroglyphics, but this doesn’t quite work since a lot of them were alive when it was still in use, so it’s unclear why it died out. The most common criticism of the film, and one I fully agree with, is Milo’s fulfillment of the white savior trope. When an indigenous culture is threatened, he is the one chosen by its dying king to save it, since he knows far more about their technology and language than even they do (yet, for some reason, this linguistics expert can’t pronounce “Kidagakash”). He and the king hardly even interact, which makes this choice even more confusing. Maybe if Milo himself had been from an existing culture that had been forced to deal with imperialism and colonialism, this might make the message more effective.

The way I see it, this all could have been fixed by not only cutting out a few side characters, but zeroing in on a different lead: this being Kida. Her trauma and confusion at having witnessed the destruction of Atlantis and the loss of her mother is far more compelling than any of the other characters’ backstories. When her bond to the crystal’s energy is broken, the reveal of her holding the bracelet she had lost when her mother was called up to it is meant to imply that she had encountered her mother in some other realm, but we never see this. Instead, we only see the Atlanteans’ ancestors acting through her to protect the city; it seems she does none of this by her own volition. How much more impactful would it have been to see her meet her mother again and finally receive closure, then proceed to save her people using the strength given to her by her ancestors? The expedition from the surface could still have been included, just maybe introduced at a later point, with her excitement at finally having the means to learn more about her culture’s past from Milo’s journal being the primary focus until the city’s life force is threatened. Milo and his friends fighting the mercenaries could have been shown parallel to Kida’s point of view from within the crystal, but instead, she is robbed of all agency and needs to be rescued by Milo. Despite how determined and competent she is throughout the rest of the movie, she’s not allowed to stay that way when it matters most.

Final Thoughts

Atlantis is a fun time, but it can be pretty frustrating, too. There are too many characters and plot points for any of them to be as interesting as they were intended to be. Had a few side characters been cut and the focus been kept more on either the expedition or the problems within Atlantis itself rather than trying to balance both, this would have been a much stronger film, and likely a more successful one. From looking at the making-of featurette on the DVD, I know that they initially had even more story elements that didn’t work, and thus were rewritten or deleted. But even with these changes, there are still too many points of focus within the film. The ensemble cast can be fun, but it doesn’t work with the large-scale conflict facing them. There are some good lessons regarding the treatment of indigenous cultures and people, but the culture presented isn’t explored enough onscreen, and the people wind up needing a white man to show them their own history, which doesn’t make much sense even within the narrative. Its visual style, voice cast, and sound design are great, with all its technical elements meshing well together, and I appreciate the crew’s efforts to do something different. The script, on the other hand, is muddled and doesn’t quite know what story it wants to tell.

A lot of fans of this movie believe that it would be a good choice for another live-action remake from Disney, and I myself would be all for it. I doubt it will happen in the near future (if at all), since it’s not as widely recognizable as Beauty and the Beast or The Jungle Book, but it could potentially be a great movie as long as it wasn’t just the animated film translated into a different medium. It would be an opportunity to right some of this movie’s wrongs and put the special effects boasted in last year’s Beauty and the Beast remake to better use. Overall, Atlantis is fun to watch and clearly had a lot of hard work and cool ideas put into it, but it could have benefited from another rewrite to iron it out and really make it the movie it could have been.

Originally published at miseensense.wordpress.com on April 19, 2018.