Atlantis: The Lost Empire
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| Atlantis: The Lost Empire | |
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| Directed by | Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise |
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| 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) | Singapore: June 14, 2001 United States: June 15, 2001 |
| Running time | 96 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $120 million |
| Gross revenue | $186,053,725 |
| Followed by | Atlantis: Milo's Return |
Atlantis: The Lost Empire is the 41st Walt Disney Animated Classics 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.
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[edit] Plot
In 1914, Milo James Thatch (Michael J. Fox), an aspiring cartographer/linguist/explorer working in the boiler room at the Smithsonian Institution 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 (John Mahoney), 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 to. Milo is introduced to the specialists on the team, led by Commander Lyle Rourke (James Garner) and his second-in-command Helga Sinclair (Claudia Christian). The team includes Italian demolitions expert Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini (Don Novello), crazed French geologist Gaetan "Mole" Molière (Corey Burton), medical officer Dr. Joshua Sweet (Phil Morris), teenage tomboy mechanic Audrey Ramirez (Jacqueline Obradors), redneck cook Jebidiah Allerdyce "Cookie" Farnsworth (Jim Varney), and elderly cynical communications expert Wilhelmina Packard (Florence Stanley). The team initially teases and plays tricks on Milo but slowly warm up to him over the adventure.
The expedition quickly meets a fateful start when a robotic Leviathan destroys the main submarine, and most of the ship's 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 (Cree Summer), one of the Atlantians that had been tracking the group, invites the team to see her father, King Kashekim Nedakh (Leonard Nimoy). 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 Atlantean language, something that her people have long forgotten, and enlists his help to transcript ancient murals that can be used to save the city. 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 mega-tsunami. As they leave the ruins, they are caught by Rourke and the rest of the team, who have turned mercenary and are after the Heart. The armed men take Milo and Kida by force to the King. Rourke mortally wounds the King when he refuses to reveal the location of the Heart, but manages to deduce the location anyway from the clues in the Journal. 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 is walking towards 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. Before going in pursuit of Rourke, Milo sees the king for the last time. Sweet informs Milo that the king has internal bleeding caused by Rourke's attack. The king pleads to Milo for the return of his daughter and the survival of Atlantis. The king also adds that the Heart would choose a host of royal blood, like Kida and her mother before her, to protect itself and its people. It thrives on the collective emotions of previous hosts, in return the Crystal would grant them power, protection, and longevity. Through the years and ages that passed the Crystal began to develop a mind of its own. He attempted to use the Crystal as a weapon of war, but its power was too great to control, which lead to their destruction, so he hid the crystal beneath the city so that history wouldn't repeat itself. The king also warns that if Kida remains fused to the crystal for too much time, she would be lost forever, the same fate that Kida's mother suffered. The king in his last moments tells Milo that he will be gone and his daughter too, hands him the crystal he wore and tells him that it is up to him to save Atlantis. With those words, the king dies.
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 to the top of an extinguished volcano which leads right to the surface. A large battle ensues between the Atlanteans (with Milo and the expedition gang) and Rourke, Helga, and their soldiers. In an attempt to save Kida, Milo rams his vehicle into part of the balloon, Making it lose altitude. Rourke tells Helga to lighten the load, and throws Helga off as well, stopping at nothing to win. Milo finally makes it on board, and fights Rourke. Down below, Helga takes her last breaths and fires a round into the balloon, helping Milo to win. Milo, finding a shard of glass powered by the crystal, jabs it into Rourke, crystallizing him, and killing him. 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 as thanks from the city, but Milo decides to stay behind, smitten in love for Kida and determined to help preserve Atlantis to its former glory, and passes a note (using his picture of him and his grandfather) to be given to Whitmore, with a blue life crystal as evidence he found the city and his thanks for the opportunity. Whitmore is enlightened by this, and the rest of the team, after returning to the surface, concoct a tale for the public with Whitmore's cooperation that they never found Atlantis, despite their newfound wealth, and that Milo, Rourke and Helga went missing in action. The film ends with Milo and Kida creating a memorial for the dead King while going forward to help restore Atlantis back to its former glory.
[edit] Cast
- Michael J. Fox as Milo James Thatch: Milo James Thatch is the main protagonist in the film's Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis: Milo's Return. He is voiced by Michael J. Fox in the first film and by James Arnold Taylor in the sequel.
He is a young linguistics expert and cartographer who works in the boiler room of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. He also has a two-year-old Persian cat named Fluffy, who is now left in good care of Milo's grandfather's friend Preston B. Whitmore. His main aspiration has circled around finding Atlantis, following the footsteps of his grandfather Thaddeus Thatch, who was a notorious 19th Century explorer. But like his grandfather, faced ridicule and rejection from the Institution about their quest to find it.
His past character is only described of being in the care of his grandfather since Milo's biological parents died when he was very young. He took his grandfather as his idol and mentor, teaching him the legends of Atlantis and his fascination of exploration; when his grandfather died, he continued his work to become a famous explorer himself by finding Atlantis.
Throughout the journey, he is teased by the rest of the team due to him being a social outcast, but they slowly warm up to him when they realize that they have been hard on him when he has helped the journey quite greatly with their escape from the leviathan and with mechanical problems with the digger machine.
He meets Kida for the first time after the expedition convoy dropped down a deep chasm to the base of a volcano, where Milo went missing injured. He is approached by the Princess Kida with a group of Atlanteans that have been following him and the explorers. Kida heals his injuries and they both share a friendly smile before they flee when the expedition approaches. When both groups meet, Milo manages to speak to Kida and state their friendly intentions, and Kida eagerly wants to take them to see the king. After the meet Kida's father, Kida enlists Milo's help to teach and translate the Atlantean language for her as she shows him the city, they become fast friends; he seems to be attracted to the beautiful Kida by her being the only Atlantean who understands him and eager enough to hear about his passion and knowledge of the city and outside world. After he rescues her from Rourke and returns her to the city to save it from the volcanic eruption, she is released from the crystal and Milo catches her; Kida, now free of the crystal and seeing Atlantis saved from certain doom, Milo and Kida develop a romantic relationship. Milo chose to stay behind now that he has found Atlantis and will use his knowledge to help unlock the secrets of the crystal. The last scene shows him and Kida (now Queen of Atlantis, and possibly Milo's wife) carving her father's tombstone to be joined with the Heart of Atlantis, as it rises to the sky, Milo and Kida happily watch as the movie ends with Atlantis fully restored.
When Rourke and the expedition team turns mercenary, Milo is forced at gunpoint to find the Crystal of Atlantis, he refuses, saying that the Heart of Atlantis is the only thing keeping the civilization alive and is the crystal contains untold power that shouldn't used for financial gain, when Kida is possessed and infused with the crystal, she tells him in Atlantean not to worry, when Rourke asks what did she say, he lies to him. When the team prepares to leave, Milo is assaulted by Roarke as a final remark to his noncompliance with them, then the team learns of Rourke's intentions and they help Milo up and side with him.
Milo is shown to be physically weak, yet highly intelligent (something that Kida complements him on, though it sounded like an insult by the way she said it) and neurotic about his passion of finding the lost city, and apparently a social outcast by his team and peers. On the day he quits his job at the Smithsonian after being refused to have an expedition, he is seemingly giving up hope until he is contacted by Preston Whitmore.
- Cree Summer as Princess Kidagakash "Kida" Nedakh: Princess Kidagakash, better known as Kida, is one of the main characters in the films Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis 2: Milo's Return. She is voiced by Cree Summer in both films and by Natalie Strom when shown as a child.
Kida was only a child when Atlantis was sent under the sea. She was with her mother when the Heart of Atlantis took her so it could protect itself and Atlantis. As her mother was lifted away she took Kida's bracelet. Kida gets this back when the Heart takes her to protect itself, when she is released she finds it in her hand. The power of the crystals worn around the necks of all Atlantians grant them longevity. Kida herself is almost over 9000 years old while only looking in her early twenties/late teens. She leads the party that follow Milo and the team as they search for Atlantis. She heals him when he is injured from a long fall and the first one who talks to the strangers. She allows them into the city and present them to her father as she believes that things should change, due to Atlantis slowing dying, now separated from the power of the crystal.
As Kida gets to know Milo, she helps him to look for the Heart of Atlantis to find out for herself what the big light was in her memories. When she forced to go into the crystal chamber with Milo when they are attacked, the crystal takes her like it did her mother before her. After she is rescued by Milo and the others the crystal lets her go. With her father dead, killed by internal bleeding due to being punched, she becomes the Queen of Atlantis. She decides the crystal should remain in the open and this allows the progression of retrieving lost knowledge and technology and allowing Atlantis to start to return its former glory.
Kida is shown to be brave and very forward. Her father comments that a thousand years ago she would kill the intruders where they stood. This gives us the only idea of her past character. Now, keeping Atlantis alive and finding the bright light are her only main interests. She gets along best with Milo, finding him amusing from his awkwardness, and his knowledge of the city and the outside world, in the end she develops romantic feelings towards him.
- James Garner as Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke: Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke voiced by James Garner, is the leader of the Atlantis expedition, and the main antagonist of the film.
He is shown to be a respectable and disciplined US Army ranger in the start of the expedition. He turned out to be a ruthless mercenary in the quest of the Heart of Atlantis, with him believing its power will gain him unimaginable financial wealth, rather than leading an archeological expedition to find a lost civilization, a goal he kept secret ever since held the quest to find the Sheppard's journal with Milo's grandfather, Thaddeus; and totally bent on achieving that goal for only himself, including killing his own assistant to escape with the Crystal. He is killed in the final battle when Milo slashes him with a energy-embedded glass shard that transforms him into a crystallized monstrosity and is shredded into a million tiny shards by a zepplin's propellor. He is mentioned in the sequel only by Whitmore once, who is actually relieved of him and his plans for the Heart of Atlantis for being foiled.
He is tall, brawn built body of a soldier and strong for his middle age.
His past character is only known that he was with Milo's grandfather Thaddeus that led the same Iceland expedition team find the Sheppard's journal, years prior to the setting of 1914.
- Corey Burton as Gaetan "Mole" Moliére
- Don Novello as Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini
- Phil Morris as Doctor Joshua Strongbear Sweet
- Claudia Christian as Lieutenant Helga Katrina Sinclair
- Jacqueline Obradors as Audrey Rocio Ramirez
- Leonard Nimoy as King Kashekim Nedakh
- John Mahoney as Preston B. Whitmore
- Florence Stanley as Wilhelmina Bertha Packard
- Jim Varney as Jebidiah Allerdyce "Cookie" Farnsworth
- David Ogden Stiers as Fenton Q. Harcourt
[edit] 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. Other ones were 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 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). Pomeroy himself said that Milo "is the closest I've come to animating a self portrait!"[1] 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 Native American 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-director Kirk Wise, the character of Molière 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".[2]
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 Rourke 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.
[edit] Reaction
Atlantis: The Lost Empire did moderately well at the US box office, making approximately $85 million dollars in its theatrical run,[3] although this is below its production cost of $120 million. The film eventually grossed more than $186 million worldwide[3] which covered the cost of the budget, however it was less successful than other Disney movies from around that time period.
[edit] Reviews
Atlantis: The Lost Empire garnered mixed reviews from critics. On the Rotten Tomatoes cumulative review website, Atlantis: The Lost Empire earned a rating of 46% from all reviewers,[4] and a rating of 38% from the "top" reviewers.[5] The consensus stated that the film provided a fast-paced spectacle but lacked character development and a coherent plot.[4] Film critic Roger Ebert gave Atlantis three-and-half stars, indicating a very positive view of the film.[6] 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.".[6] 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."[7] 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.[8]
[edit] 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.[9] Although Kirk Wise, director of Atlantis, said that he and Trousdale were fans of anime,[10] 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.[11]
[edit] Home release
It was released on DVD on January 29, 2002 on a single-disc edition and a 2-Disc Collector's Edition with more Bonus Features.
[edit] 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 |
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] References
- ^ "Digging Up the Secrets of Atlantis". IGN. 2001-06-15. http://movies.ign.com/articles/300/300587p1.html. Retrieved on 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 on 2008-10-08.
- ^ a b Box Office Mojo "Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)". http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=atlantis.htm. Retrieved on 2008-06-26.
- ^ a b "Atlantis: The Lost Empire Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/atlantis_the_lost_empire/. Retrieved on 2008-06-26.
- ^ "Atlantis: The Lost Empire Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/atlantis_the_lost_empire/?critic=creamcrop. Retrieved on 2008-06-26.
- ^ a b 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 on 2008-06-26.
- ^ Turan, Kenneth "Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com". http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-movie010607-7,0,6731630.story. Retrieved on 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 mysteryAnime News Network, May 15th 2001
- ^ Nadia vs. Atlantis, Revisited! - Anime News Network
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Atlantis: The Lost Empire |
- 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
