BACKGROUND
Is Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire destined to be lost to time like the fabled city?
The 2000s were a difficult time for Disney Animation, as they sought to compete against the studios that were only making computer-animated movies, with their releases outshining any animated feature from Disney every time. I’m speaking mostly of Pixar, though DreamWorks would go some way with this medium in the early-2000s.
Disney were still holding on to their traditional 2D animation, and this time, they wanted to go against their usual formula of just making the fairytale or the musical; they wanted to make an action-adventure movie. So, in 2001, they released Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It failed to impress.
When I first watched Atlantis: The Lost Empire, I was quite young and not interested in adventure films. I wanted to watch princesses and their princes, and be able to sing along with them. So, it wasn’t for many years that I went back and rewatched it, I think because my sister wanted to watch it one day, and I actually found that I did like it. I had a similar experience with Treasure Planet (2002) around the same time, with both movies being quite similar in some aspects, like their genre and storyline. Despite Atlantis: The Lost Empire becoming somewhat of a “cult classic” in recent years, it is not remembered, fondly or not, by too many Disney fans.
Although the legend and mystery surrounding the Lost City of Atlantis continues to be revisited through either factual documentaries or fictional screen adaptations, the story and characters of Disney’s movie are slowly being forgotten. It’s about time that all Disney fans know about Milo Thatch, the heroic and brave explorer who discovered, and then saved, the city of Atlantis.
PLOT
Atlantis: The Lost Empire begins with a quote from the philosopher Plato, who said that the city of Atlantis disappeared into the sea all of a sudden one night. We then go that fateful day, in 6,800 BC, where we see the Atlantean Armada racing back to the city, trying to outrun the huge wave behind them. The citizens are in a panic, rushing to find shelter, including the King, Queen, and their daughter, the Princess. The Princess, Kida, is concerned by her teddy bear, but the Queen tells her to keep moving. Suddenly, the Queen is beamed up to an enormous light above. Kida is consoled by the King, who tells her to look away from the light. The light surrounds the city, as the wave crashes over, sinking the area.
Many years later, at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1914, we meet Milo Thatch, a linguist and cartographer at the museum. He is preparing a speech about his wish to fund an expedition to find Atlantis. He talks of a book called the Shepherd’s Journal, an artifact that should lead the way to the city. It talks of a power source that Milo thinks should be retrieved and brought to the surface. His meeting time arrives, however, unbeknownst to him, the time was changed. As Milo did not appear for the meeting, his request for funding was denied. He rushes out to find the board members of the museum, pleading with them to fund his mission, but they all thinks he’s crazy and decline.
Dejected, Milo returns home, only to find a woman in his house. She introduces herself as Helga Sinclair; she is there to take Milo to see her ‘employer’ who has requested a meeting with him. At the mansion of this entrepreneur/philanthropist, Milo meets Preston B. Whitmore. It turns out Whitmore was a friend of Milo’s grandfather, Thaddeus Thatch, who had found the Shepherd’s Journal and asked Whitmore to give it to Milo when he was ready. Milo is pleased to know that his calculations and research were correct, as the journal was found in Iceland, exactly where he thought it would be. Milo begins to plan an expedition to Atlantis, but Whitmore is one step ahead: he has assembled a crew, got a submarine, and paid for everything, after he bet the funding of an expedition if Thaddeus found the journal.
Milo meets all the members of the crew as he boards their submarine, The Ulysses. The team consists of: Commander Rourke; Lieutenant Helga, the same Helga who met with Milo at his house – well, broke into his house; demolitions expert Vinny; teenage mechanic Audrey; medical officer Dr. Joshua Sweet; geologist Molière, or Mole; radio operator Mrs. Packard; and chef Cookie, amongst other soldiers. Whilst presenting to the crew about what their path to Atlantis will look like, the crew hear a strange echoing sound. Milo had just mentioned the Leviathan, a mystical sea creature said to guard the gates of Atlantis, but he believes it is likely just a myth, and more likely to be some sort of carving. Well, he’s most definitely wrong, as the Ulysses is attacked by some sort of mechanical lobster. Despite firing at the creature, it cannot be stopped, and breaks the Ulysses in half, leading some crew to lose their lives. The others make it to dry land, and continue their journey on foot.
After much time, many wrong turns, thanks to Milo’s errors in translating the journal, multiple obstacles that either have to be blown up or dug through, a fire at their camp, and conflicts between Milo and the rest of the crew, they eventually arrive at Atlantis, making their way through a dominant volcano. Once there, they are found by a group of Atlanteans, who question the team’s reasons for being there. After an awkward, bumbling conversation between Milo and Princess Kida, they are welcomed to the city, which sits atop a huge waterfall, and taken to meet the King. The King is not happy about strange visitors finding their way to Atlantis, and is incredibly suspicious of them. Commander Rourke asks that they be able to stay for one night, before moving out the next morning. The King reluctantly agrees, but tells Kida in private that she should have slain them on sight. Kida is frustrated with the state of Atlantis, saying that their city is crumbling and way of life dying. Kida is hopeful that these visitors might be able to help them.
Milo is ordered by his crew to speak with Kida, to get some answers about Atlantis, specifically about their “power source”, but Kida gets to him first. As each of them has questions, they ask in turns. Kida first tells Milo of the day Atlantis flooded, with Milo being surprised that Kida was there as it happened almost 9,000 years ago – she looks good for an old lady! Milo then helps Kida get some of their vehicles to work as nobody in Atlantis can actually read their language. Later, Kida takes Milo to a mural underwater and asks him to translate it. It talks of a crystal, the Heart of Atlantis, the power source that Milo suspected was in Atlantis. As they come up to the surface, Rourke and the rest of the crew are ready to “greet” them. It turns out these guys aren’t explorers, they’re mercenaries, wanting to take the crystal back to the surface with them for money. Milo tells them if they take the crystal away, this whole city and its people will die. Rourke doesn’t care, and takes Kida and Milo as prison over to the King, where he tries to forcefully get the location of the crystal out of him. The King is elderly, and is injured in the attack, but he silently signals to the crystal being under the lake in his throne room. Rourke, Helga, Kida and Milo go down to it.
In the crystal chamber, Kida is summoned to the crystal, as it senses danger, mirroring the event that happened to her mother on the day of the Great Flood. She is brought down to the surface, but the crystal has bonded to her. Rourke imprisons Kida in a crate, with the crew about to set off for home. The majority of the crew feel guilty for their part in the soon-to-be destruction of Atlantis, and join forces with Milo, all except Rourke and Helga. Milo goes to see the King in his last dying minutes. The King asks Milo to save Atlantis and his daughter, giving him his crystal necklace, something all Atlanteans have. Milo uses the crystal to power one of the Atlantean vehicles and gets as many others as possible to join him. They follow Rourke to the dormant volcano. Rourke is about to escape with Kida in an airship, however, the Atlanteans and the crew start to fire at its balloons, making it lose altitude. Rourke throws Helga off the balloon, to “lighten the load”, where she falls. Just as she is about to die, she fires her gun at the airship, causing it to burst into flames. Rourke and Milo fight in amongst the mechanics of the ship, where Milo scratches Rourke’s arm with a piece of glass from Kida’s crate. It turns Rourke into a crystal monster. Crystal Rourke gets caught in the propellers of his ship, and shatters into millions of pieces.
These pieces free Kida’s crate from the airship and Milo attaches it to one of the vehicles, as it flies back to the city. With all the turmoil, the dormant volcano begins to erupt with lava hurrying towards Atlantis. At the city, Milo quickly opens up the crate, freeing Kida. With the crystal energy, she rises into the sky and awakens the ancient Stone Guardians, who appear from the flood waters. Together, they create a dome which protects the city from the lava. Once the lava has encased the city, it quickly hardens and breaks away. With the city back to its proper state, Kida is released from the crystal and is returned to the surface.
Milo decides to stay with Kida in Atlantis as they need “an expert in gibberish”. The others are rewarded for their heroism with some of the treasure of Atlantis and their own Atlantean crystal necklaces. On their return home, the now-rich crew review the trip with Whitmore, passing him the photographs from the journey that Packard had taken. Whitmore makes sure that all their stories are straight: that some of the crew died on the journey and others were lost, including Milo, and that they never found anything, to ensure that the secret of Atlantis is protected. Whitmore receives a gift from Milo, a crystal necklace as proof of their trip, wrapped up in the photograph Milo had of him and his grandfather. Back in Atlantis, Milo and Kida commemorate the death of the King with a giant stone structure, which is raised into the sky to join the past Kings which surround the crystal. The crystal is now residing above the city as it always used to, before the Great Flood, and Milo and Kida are happy together, ruling over the newly restored city of Atlantis.
CHARACTERS & CAST
Despite the awkward, geeky look of Milo Thatch, he is the hero of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. All of the museum board members pass him off as an eccentric kook, who should be using his brain to work on “real ideas”, not dreaming of finding some city that doesn’t exist. Even though this clearly bothers Milo, it does not deter him from his dream, as it was his grandfather who always wanted to find Atlantis, and he doesn’t want to let him down by not trying, no matter how many doors get slammed in his face – quite literally at times. Even the crew on the Ulysses don’t think much of Milo at first, especially Rourke. Milo is a linguist and cartographer, meaning he is the only person who can even read the Shepherd’s Journal and find the path to Atlantis, so he is incredibly intelligent. But this leads him to be isolated from the rest of the crew, who at first see him as annoying and a know-it-all. One night, they relent and feel that they had been treating him poorly by not speaking to him; this pleases Milo immensely who wanted to fit in with them from the start. Once Atlantis is threatened by Rourke, thanks to Milo’s heroism, bravery and fight for humanity, Atlantis and its people are saved. In a quote attributed to mathematician Alan Turing, rightly or wrongly, it states that “sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine”. I think that sums Milo Thatch up very well.
Supervising Animator for Milo, John Pomeroy, said that his character design for Milo felt very close to a portrait of himself, being a nerdy, intelligent, somewhat awkward guy, who sometimes gets things wrong! Pomeroy took ideas from different actors from movies he’d seen over the years, and eventually got to a design that the whole team liked. Michael J. Fox voices the role of Milo Thatch. Disney loved the youthful exuberance to his voice, and Fox was not afraid of getting the exact expression and emotion needed into every line. He felt it quite a freeing experience, voice acting, as he didn’t need to worry about what he looked like as he spoke the lines. Michael J. Fox is one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood, having starred in movies such as the Back to the Future trilogy (1985-1990), as well as voicing Stuart Little in all three films from 1999 to 2005. In television, Fox had great success on series such as Family Ties (1982-1989) and Spin City (1996-2001). He also recently released a documentary on his life and career to Apple TV+, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023), which I would highly recommend to anyone who has the means to watch it.
Princess Kida is Milo’s love interest in the movie, but don’t be fooled into thinking Kida is a typical Disney princess, because she is anything but! Kida is tough and strong-willed, with leadership qualities, as she will be the next ruler of Atlantis. She is respected in her city, and doesn’t tolerate fools gladly. At first, Kida is both fascinated and annoyed by Milo, teasing him quite often about his intellect and pale, weedy physique. I particularly like her line where she asks Milo: “You’re a scholar, are you not? Judging from your diminished physique and large forehead, you are suited for nothing else!”. It’s such a great line, and sums up her playful nature. Balancing that out, she can be very serious and passionate about saving her people at times, arguing with her father about what’s right for Atlantis and how they can heal their way of life. Kida is one of the earlier examples of a strong, brave woman in a Disney movie, after Mulan. For her design, Randy Haycock, Kida’s Supervising Animator, was inspired by one of the story ideas that the Atlanteans were a “mother race” that all others evolved from. So, Haycock used a mixture of characteristics from different cultures, such as Kida having white hair, full lips, and a wider nose. They didn’t want her to look like the girl-next-door, as many Disney princesses had done before her, but wanted her to be a tough warrior. The romance between Milo and Kida is a slow-burner, after their difficult introduction, but during the sequence of them discovering the mural and the history of Atlantis, they become much closer. Talented voiceover actress Cree Summer voices Kida. Summer was already known for her voice performance work at the time of her castling, as she had been the voice of Susie Carmichael in The Rugrats and All Growed Up and their spin-off movies from 1993 to 2008. Cree Summer also voiced the character of Miranda Killgallen in one of my favourite childhood TV series, As Told By Ginger (2000-04), amongst many other roles in Disney and non-Disney projects.
Commander Rourke was a different sort of villain for Disney at this point, as instead of being an obvious bad guy, inherently evil and wanting to destroy everyone, instead, Rourke is just greedy and the people of Atlantis unfortunately get in the way of his end goal of stealing the crystal and making a fortune. As Rourke says during the battle scene towards the end of the movie, “nothing personal!”. Rourke is just selfish and doesn’t really care about how his actions harm others. In this respect, he’s quite similar to Clayton from Tarzan (1999). Rourke starts off being quite charming, and generally only gets a little bit frustrated with Milo and his antics, but once it looks like Rourke will actually find Atlantis and its crystal, that’s when he goes crazy. Because of his experience in war and Western movies, James Garner was chosen to voice the part of Rourke. Garner’s career spanned numerous decades, with him being well-known for his roles as Flight Lieutenant Bob Hendley in The Great Escape (1963), as Bret Maverick in the Western series Maverick (1957-60), Old Noah in The Notebook (2004), and as Jim Egan, Cate’s father, in 8 Simple Rules (2003-05). Garner won various accolades throughout his long career, including multiple Golden Globes. In 2004, Garner received the Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1985 for his role as Murphy Jones in Murphy’s Romance (1985). Sadly, Garner died in 2014 at the age of 86.
Dr. Joshua Sweet is a cool doctor. He is very tall, but a gentle giant, and one of the first of the crew to go against Rourke. Joshua Sweet goes from being enthusiastic and happy to solemn and serious quite quickly, with barely any middle ground between the two emotional states, but he is a kind, caring figure to everyone on the crew, and looks out for Milo right from the start, even when the others do not. Sweet is one of the first African-American characters to feature in a Disney film, and was designed by one of the first African-American Supervising Animators at Disney, Ron Husband. Phil Morris voices the role of Dr. Joshua Sweet. Morris is no stranger to the world of voice acting, as he has voiced roles in numerous television series such as The Secret Saturdays (2008-10), American Dragon: Jake Long (2006-07) and Kim Possible (2003-07). In person, Morris has acted in television series such as Smallville (2006-10) as John Jones and most recently, as Silas Stone in Doom Patrol (2019-present).
Vinny Santorini is the Italian demolitions expert in the group. He is kind of sarcastic at times, and is one of the worst for tormenting Milo at the start of their mission, as he convinces Milo that he’s drunk nitro-glycerine and that he’ll likely explode. Nice. But Vinny is one of the key players in battling Rourke and his henchmen at the end of the movie, and actually has a soft side, as we learn when Vinny tells the group that after the expedition, he wants to start his own flower shop. Russ Edmonds, Supervising Animator for Vinny, looked to The Godfather movies (1972-90) to look at the specific gestures of Italian actors, such as their hand movements, so they could be incorporated into Vinny’s design. Don Novello was chosen to voice the part of Vinny, and much of his performance was improvised. Novello is perhaps best known for his performance of the character Father Guido Sarducci which he created in 1973 and debuted on Saturday Night Live (1975-present) in the 1970s. He continued to perform the role in other shows in the 1980s and 90s.
Lieutenant Helga Sinclair was designed to look like a mysterious femme fatale from old 1940s movies. But there is a slight difference here, as though Helga is meant to be sexy and seductive, and Whitmore’s graceful Personal Assistant, she then becomes a tough, strong, though still beautiful, second-in-command on the expedition. It’s quite a mixture of characteristics but it works so well. Helga is probably my favourite character in Atlantis: The Lost Empire for these reasons. I especially love how she still manages to get her own back on Rourke even as she lays dying on the ground. The character of Helga was actually both animated, by Yoshimichi Tamura, and cleaned-up at the Disney Animation Studios in Paris so the team had to make sure her design still fit in with all the other characters who had been designed in the US. Claudia Christian voices Helga. From her credits, such as Commander Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5 (1994-1998), Captain Maynard on 9-1-1 (2018-present) and Hera on Netflix anime series Blood of Zeus (2020), it’s quite clear Christian plays strong women very well.
Audrey is the youngest on the crew and is a teenage mechanic, who learnt everything she knows from her father. It was decided that the expedition team needed to have a character closer in age to Milo, so tomboy Audrey was created. Because of Audrey’s tough demeanour, she demands, and gets, respect from everyone on the team, despite her age. Audrey is voiced by Jacqueline Obradors, who is known for her role as Detective Rita Ortiz in NYPD Blue (2001-05), but more recently has featured in the 2020 movie Palm Springs, and as recurring character Lucia in the miniseries Daisy Jones & the Six (2023).
Packard is the communications expert, but she is looks incredibly miserable and would obviously rather spend her time gossiping on the phone with her friend, Margie, than actually do her job. Though, to be fair, she does spot the Leviathan coming when she picks up the echoing sound. Packard is funny, as she is very deadpan and cynical. She balances out the team well. Florence Stanley, who has performed roles on both screen and stage, such as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway from 1966 to 1971, voices Mrs. Packard.
Molière, or Mole, is the strangest one of the group. He is the geologist who likes digging, and looks almost like a rodent, which was a deliberate design choice by the animators, who wanted him to have buck teeth and a mouse’s mouth. He’s the comedy character of the movie, and is just so bizarre to everyone, not just the audience. Apparently, the animators used a profile of Charles de Gaulle for Mole’s face, and wanted him to have a bullet-shaped body and round head, so he’d look very different to the others. Apparently, Mole took ages to draw and clean up due to all the gadgets on his face and head. Corey Burton, arguably the king of Disney voice acting, is the voice of Mole. He has voiced characters such as Captain Hook and Ludwig von Drake for television and films, but has also voiced characters for Disney Park attractions, such as General Knowledge in now-defunct Epcot attraction Cranium Command, Figment in the current iteration of Epcot attraction Journey into Imagination with Figment, Doc Hudson in California Adventure’s Radiator Springs Racers, and so much more. Basically, any time Disney need a voice actor, Corey Burton might just be the man for the job!
Cookie is, oddly enough, the cook for the crew, though he has no concept of healthy eating, stating that the four basic food groups are beans, bacon, whiskey, and lard, and therefore, cooks food that pretty much everyone in the team absolutely hates. The team thought it would be fun to have a character who was old enough to have been involved in the settlement of the West and had worked for generals like Custer, basically creating a caricature of a Western sidekick. Cookie is a silly, wacky character, but good fun. Jim Farney voiced most of Cookie’s lines, but sadly died in February 2000 before the film was finished, though he did get to see some clips of what his animation was going to look like. Steven Barr provides the voice of Cookie in the final scene[1]. Jim Farney had voiced the character of Slinky Dog in Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999), and was well known for his comedic role as Ernest P. Worrell, who featured in television commercials, then television series, and finally films from 1980-1998.
So that’s all the crew on the Atlantis mission. They are quite an eclectic mix of characters and personalities, but they are also incredibly diverse in terms of their heritages and backgrounds, which was quite unique for a Disney movie at this time.
Preston B. Whitmore is that old eccentric man who has too much money. His backstory went along the lines of him having made his money from industry, potentially as a railroad tycoon and then had become a philanthropist, funding anything that took his fancy. In this case, Whitmore was fulfilling a lifelong promise to his friend, Thaddeus. Whitmore doesn’t feature too heavily in the movie; however, he is the one who makes the whole expedition happen, and is the person who ensures that the rest of the crew keep their whole journey and Atlantis a secret on their return, showing he wasn’t in it for anything other than to honour his friend. John Mahoney voices Whitmore, who found it very freeing to be as big and outrageous with his performance as he wanted. Mahoney had voice parts in both Antz (1998) and The Iron Giant (1999) before voicing Whitmore for Atlantis: The Lost Empire, but Mahoney is probably most known for his role as Martin Crane on the series Frasier (1993-2004), for which he was nominated for two Emmy awards. John Mahoney passed away in 2018 at the age of 77.
And last but not least, we have King Nedakh, the stoic, stubborn leader of Atlantis, who is wise and commanding, despite being old and nearing the end of his life. The King was the hardest character to design, according to the team at Disney, as he had lots of facial hair, tattoos all over his head, and a heavily designed robe. He also spoke in Atlantean for much of the movie, so the mouth movements had to fit this made-up language. Surprisingly, Leonard Nimoy, yes, that Leonard Nimoy, agreed to voice the role and was incredibly professional with his performance and mesmerised the Disney team[2]. Leonard Nimoy was famed for playing Spock in the Star Trek franchise (1966-2013), where his final film role was in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) in a cameo as Spock Prime.
PRODUCTION
At the Disney Studios, the directors, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, the producer, Don Hahn, and the screenwriter, Tab Murphy, had all worked together on Disney’s 1996 animated release The Hunchback of Notre Dame. After that movie was released, they went to a Burbank Mexican restaurant together to discuss a future project, as they wanted to get started on a new idea quite quickly to keep the whole team that worked on The Hunchback of Notre Dame together, as Trousdale, Wise, Hahn and Murphy liked the team they’d collaborated with. They began to talk about seeing the likes of Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) for the first time at the cinema, deciding that they “don’t make ‘em like they used to”. As this team had worked on two Disney animated musicals consecutively, the first being Beauty and the Beast (1991), they wanted to do something different, and decided to “head to Adventureland instead of Fantasyland” and make a movie like the live-action-adventure movies that they liked as young adults, and those of the 50s and 60s from Disney.
Therefore, the idea was to make a movie about explorers; no songs, just adventure. Originally, they looked at a more generic plot, about a group of explorers journeying to the centre of the Earth and finding a lost civilisation, before they then began to look into the mystery of the Lost City of Atlantis, which they felt would be a good storyline for their movie, especially as nobody knows whether or not Atlantis existed, or what may or may not have happened to it so the team at Disney could interpret the legend however they wanted[3].
Basing their story in a likely fictional place meant that the Disney animators and story team could have a lot of fun with the concept. They began by finding as much research as they could on Atlantis, from the scientifically sound to the craziest theories, to get inspiration for the story and the look and feel of Atlantis. The “Sleeping Prophet”, an American clairvoyant, claimed to have seen visions in the 1920s of crystals in Atlantis being some sort of energy. This gave the animators a focus for part of their Atlantean civilisation, thinking that crystal energy would look good on screen. The team also thought about the potential that within the hollow core of the Earth there could be lost areas underground that continue to thrive. With this in mind, they knew that Atlantis should be partly preserved underground. For more specific cultural elements of Atlantean culture, a whole dialect and language was created, both written and spoken. The creator of this Atlantean language was Marc Okrand, who also created Vulcan, Klingon and Romulan for the Star Trek universe[4]. The Shepherd’s Journal was another necessity for the movie, as Tab Murphy righty said that Milo needed to have a map to find Atlantis. Lots of development went into the idea for this journal, looking at binding and scrolls, before agreeing that it had to be a book that could be held. The team gave the journal its own history, that it had been fought over for centuries, with it travelling all over the world before ending up in Iceland, where Milo’s grandfather would find it[5].
The story took some time to organise. Tab Murphy crafted the concept and “spine of the story” before passing it over to the directors and story writers to flesh out further. One of the earliest visual images for the movie was of a pirate ship being taken down by mechanical tentacles that had popped out of the sea. This linked with an early story idea that Milo Thatch was going to be a descendent of Blackbeard and that he would be looking to discover his pirate heritage. But instead, the relationship with his grandfather and the explorer heritage was brought in, with the aim for Atlantis to be resurrected by Milo’s team.
At one point, they had two of the three “acts” ready to review, however, these two acts ran to roughly 80 minutes, so they had to make cuts. Characters were deleted, with the team being even larger at this point than the final film, where there are nine members of the expedition group! Other sequences, including many of strange creatures, such as squid bats and lava whales interrupting the group’s progress were also cut, as it was taking about an hour of the film to even get to Atlantis.
Another major story element that was changed was the original prologue. In the final movie, we see the sinking of Atlantis, however, initially there was going to be a prologue about Vikings. The Vikings would’ve had the Shepherd’s Journal and be on their way to discovering Atlantis in 997 AD, just off the coast of Iceland. But their progress was halted by stormy seas and a creature with huge tentacles pulling crew members into the ocean and drowning them, before sinking the ship. The journal would’ve been thrown into the sea. This may have given the audience an insight into the Shepherd’s Journal and how it came to be in Iceland, however, it was felt that, although the entire sequence had been fully cut into the movie and coloured, it wasn’t giving the viewer enough insight into Atlantis, potentially making them not care about the city and its people by the time they got there. Seeing Atlantis fall from Kida’s eyes not only showed what this traumatic event did to the people of Atlantis, but also showed the area as a thriving community, something that Milo and the team do not see when they first arrive.
The look at Atlantis: The Lost Empire is quite different to any other Disney animated movie, as one of the first things you’ll notice is the angular shapes and designs of the characters. Some of the best Disney animated movies had a unique artistic style that carried throughout the movie. In the case of Beauty and the Beast (1991), it was the storybook-look; for Sleeping Beauty (1959), it was the moving tapestry. For Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Disney wanted the movie to have a comic book design, hence the angular lines. Mike Mignola, known for the Hellboy comic series, and his creative style was a huge inspiration to the overall style of the movie, as Trousdale and Wise were already big fans of his, and were drawn to his high contrast, limited colour style. They actually went to Mignola to ask for his input on the movie and he willingly accepted the role as Production Designer on the film. Not only was he vital to the artistic design of the movie, but Mignola also had many ideas for the story. Disney animators were taught to draw in the style of Mignola.
The movie deals with two separate time periods and two distinct environments: the WWI industrial era and the magical, organic world of Atlantis. For the WWI scenes, the team were able to go inside submarines at harbours in Baltimore and LA, and travelled to Maryland to look at a large collection of armoured vehicles and tanks, giving realism to their vehicles and exploration details within the movie. For journeying through all the caverns and caves, the team went to Carlsbad Caverns as part of a research trip to get as close to the centre of the Earth as they could, seeing huge areas underground and thinking about how communities could be sustained there with the right resources.
Now that’s the easy part, recreating things that really existed. The difficult part, although more enjoyable, is creating something that we know nothing about! Trousdale and Wise knew that they wanted to avoid what they described as the “1950s idea of Atlantis”, that being crumbling Greek columns underwater. Instead, they asked their team to look at Mayan and Southeast Asian architecture, such as the Mayan pyramids and Cambodian temples, for the physical basis of Atlantis. Disney Artist Lisa Keene even went so far as to paint a whole concept of what their Atlantean ecosystem could look like, with Atlantis being a bubble sitting under the ocean, with the crystal being their power source. As Atlantis would be near to the centre of the Earth, it would be near magma and lava, with those being able to create steam as the heat came into contact with the water, which would water plants and provide oxygen. It was an intensive look into this fictional world, but this dedication to the project is plainly visible in the final film.
For the Visual Effects, Marlon West was asked by Don Hahn to work on Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It was initially a daunting prospect for West as it was going to be a big job for the Effects team, as he was shown images of lava, sea monsters, and fireflies setting tents on fire. There was also going to be lots of weapon fire, guns, and explosions, alongside the more natural elements like mist, bubbles, clouds and rain. Not only that but Atlantis: The Lost Empire contains more digital production than any other Disney animated movie that came before it. Kiran Joshi in the CGI department split these digital elements into four areas: digital characters, such as the Stone Giants at the end and the Leviathan; Vehicle Effects; Organic Effects; and CG environments. All of these digital elements and effects still had to fit within the Mignola comic book style of the movie. It was a lot of work, but it adds so much to the story and atmosphere of the environments that Atlantis: The Lost Empire would’ve felt empty without all this.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire was one of Disney’s first movies for a while to use CinemaScope, as many of the previous movies that had used it before, such as Sleeping Beauty (1959) had lost money because a larger screen meant larger drawings, and therefore more production costs. But Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a big action movie, an epic story, like Indiana Jones’ movies, and not only that but a comic-book style movie so it would suit a widescreen format well. To avoid the extra costs, although the scenes were 30% longer, they could cut from the top and bottom of the scenes, so they would end up a similar ratio to a non-widescreen production, and therefore didn’t end up being 30% more expensive.
After all that, did the supposed Lost City of Atlantis actually ever exist? Well, according to historians, it’s not very likely that it did. The location of the supposed Lost City of Atlantis is one of history’s big mysteries, as its disappearance has been theorised for years, with its legends of advanced technology and mythical monsters having been passed down for centuries. It is widely agreed now within historian circles that Atlantis did not exist, as there would’ve been earlier texts on the civilisation much before Plato wrote about it in 380 BC, almost 9,000 years after its supposed destruction. The Atlantis tale didn’t become mainstream until the late 19th century when Ignatius Donnelly wrote a book about it called The Antediluvian World. Despite these writings, in more modern times, it has been stated that an earthquake or flooding event would likely have not been able to sink an area as large as Atlantis is claimed to be, though 73,000 years ago, there was a potential event that sent 38 cubic miles of land into the ocean. It is likely that the myth of Atlantis from Plato is likely to have been a warning about the nature of the planet, and the volatility of our environments. It was also a morality tale about greed, as Plato’s writing stated that the destruction of Atlantis came about as a punishment form the gods for their greed. Though historians have found that many ancient civilisations were more technologically advanced than first thought, there would still have been some evidence of these technologies existing in a place like Atlantis[6]. So sadly, it looks like Atlantis isn’t real, but that won’t stop people from exploring the legend further and wanting to discover more about it, as can be seen from the “factual” television documentaries to the fiction movies and television series that continue to air today.
MUSIC
As Atlantis: The Lost Empire is not a musical, the bulk of the soundtrack comes from James Newton Howard’s score. Howard had worked on Dinosaur (2000) for Disney before working on Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and would then go on to compose the score for Treasure Planet. For the city of Atlantis, Howard referenced Indonesian orchestral sounds, using instruments like chimes, bells, and gongs to be a real contrast to the WWI era that the explorers have come from and the dirtiness and difficulty of their journey. The score not only had to accompany the action on the screen, with Atlantis: The Lost Empire moving from industrial travel, to magical scenery, to intense battle scenes throughout the plot of the movie, but it also had to speak for the movie when dialogue was not used to express the thoughts and emotions of the sequence. There are many big moments like this, such as Kida being bonded to the crystal, the first reveal of Atlantis to the explorers, and the finale[7].
I have a few pieces from the score that I particularly enjoy. I think that the music that plays during the opening prologue, “Atlantis Destroyed”, is a good way of bringing the viewer into the action and intense emotional moments that they’re going to experience throughout the movie. It’s a horrifying scene as the Atlantean people fear the loss of their home and their lives, with the score perfectly complimenting that. It also sets up some motifs that will be re-used later on in the score. “The Submarine” is another great piece, as it plays as the Ulysses is being launched. It signifies the excitement that Milo is feeling at the start of the expedition. “Just Do It” and “Kida Returns”, which play during the finale of the movie, when Atlantis is saved by Kida, is incredibly fitting for this climatic sequence. But the best number in the score is “The Crystal Chamber”, the point where Kida is summoned to the crystal to eventually save the city. With the choral sounds and foreboding drums, it just shows the importance of this moment, and the uncertainty of exactly what the audience is seeing at this point, as we don’t know what this all means; it’s weird and confusing, but still amazing.
There is just one song on the soundtrack called “Where the Dream Takes You”, performed by Mya, which is played during the End Credits. This was supposedly only included as per a request from the Disney Studios marketing department as every Disney movie’s credits apparently has to have a song! It’s not the best song, it’s just a generic pop ballad really, and not worth watching the credits for, though I’m sure it has its fans.
RECEPTION
Atlantis: The Lost Empire was released on 15th June 2001 in the US, after having its premiere at the El Capitan Theatre on 3rd June 2001. It received mixed reviews, with some critics being kinder than others. Some stated that after seeing what Pixar could do with CG animation, they felt that Disney was being left behind with their 2D animation. Others did not think much of the plot or the characters, and were confused by the animation style used in the movie, which is unlike the style that many Disney movie-goers would’ve been used to. There were some that liked the fact Disney were doing something a bit different by creating an action movie, but that they didn’t believe it would ever replace the musical style that the studio was most known for. Basically, it was just ok to many people. The “higher ups” at Disney had even dampened down some of the action scenes to try to appeal to families, but that was clearly not enough to save it.
The biggest issue was that Atlantis: The Lost Empire was Disney doing something completely different, and something that would not necessarily appeal to young children and their parents, and may or may not appeal to teenagers. DreamWorks’ computer-animated film Shrek (2001) had also been released just a month earlier, so there would’ve been competition and comparisons between the two films. Though they are nothing alike, Shrek definitely has more universal appeal, and is much less serious than Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Not only that but it was an odd time for everyone at the Disney Studios as Michael Eisner, then-CEO of the company, was feuding with Roy E. Disney during this time over control of the company, so that would’ve taken focus away from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, though it was clear that Eisner was a fan of the film’s concept.
The movie grossed $186 million worldwide against a budget of $120 million budget, so it was not a total flop, but it wasn’t enough to change Disney’s animation direction, and the potentially large marketing budget may not have been factored in here. The upcoming movie Treasure Planet (2002) was a very similar idea to Atlantis: The Lost Empire, with directors Ron Clements and John Musker being concerned for the fate of their movie after the reaction to Atlantis: The Lost Empire. They would’ve been right to be concerned…[8]
Atlantis: The Lost Empire only won one award, the 2002 Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Animated Feature Film. At the Annie Awards, it was nominated for a few categories, including Directing, Storyboard, Music Score, and Voice Acting for Leonard Nimoy and Florence Stanley, and went away with nothing. It was not even nominated for Best Animated Feature there, or at the Academy Awards; unsurprisingly, that award went to Shrek (2001), becoming the first movie ever to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2002.
LEGACY
Because of the film’s lack of success, every idea, concept, and spin-off planned for Atlantis: The Lost Empire was immediately shelved or cancelled. The only thing that did come out of Atlantis: The Lost Empire was a direct-to-video sequel titled Atlantis: Milo’s Return. (2003). The sequel is almost a “package feature” as it consists of three episodes originally created for the planned television series Team Atlantis, where the characters from the movie would investigate mysterious creatures and strange phenomena, including the Kraken. Some linking material was added to make the standalone episodes fit into a whole feature film[9]. I’ll be honest, it’s not a good direct-to-video sequel, and it is only too obvious that the stories were never meant to fit together. But on a positive note, the majority of the original voice cast did reprise their roles in this sequel. Milo Thatch was voiced by James Taylor, instead of Michael J. Fox. A theatrical sequel, Atlantis 2, was also promptly cancelled after the weak performance of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, despite some early story work being developed.
Princess Kida was not even allowed to be included in the official Disney Princess franchise, despite being an actual princess, unlike Mulan who is not a princess but is still included on the list, likely due to the failure of the film, which is incredibly unfair.
To further add to the disappointment of Disney Atlantis lovers everywhere, the attraction Submarine Voyage at Disneyland was going to be rethemed to Atlantis: The Lost Empire, with a poster even being made and put up in the park for its planned retheme to open in 2003. It was to be narrated by Preston B. Whitmore, and would’ve seen guests encounter the Leviathan. Instead, a few years later, the ride was closed and the lagoon drained in 2005 so that the attraction could be rethemed to Pixar’s Finding Nemo (2003). Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage opened in June 2007, and continues to operate today.
A rollercoaster called Fire Mountain was planned to be constructed at Walt Disney World Resort in Magic Kingdom’s Adventureland. It would’ve revolved around the story of Whitmore making expeditions to Atlantis available to the public – which would’ve gone completely against the film, as Whitmore wants the explorers to keep Atlantis a secret, but there you go! The ride system would’ve had guests suspended in hang-glider-type vehicles with the track overhead, with the vehicles going through a lava-filled volcano[10].
Still, if you want an Atlantis-inspired theme park attraction, you could always go to SeaWorld Orlando, San Diego or San Antonio and ride Journey to Atlantis, a rollercoaster-log flume hybrid. The one in Orlando is fun anyway, though it has absolutely nothing to do with the Disney movie, obviously.
As was standard for pretty much every Disney animated movie that has ever existed, a live-action version of Atlantis: The Lost Empire was announced in 2020, however, since that point, there has been no further official news on it. That’s not usual, as so many live-action adaptations were announced in that same year and went no further than that. In a way, Atlantis: The Lost Empire might have been a good option for a Disney live-action remake as it would perfectly fit the live-action format and, as it is not particularly well-remembered by Disney fans, they could’ve done a lot with the story.
Other than that, at the Disney Parks, there has been the occasional merchandise item to buy that features Atlantis: The Lost Empire and its characters, such as a MagicBand featuring Milo, Kida, Vinny, Mole and Audrey, however, that was released in 2021, presumably only for the 20th anniversary of the movie.
In terms of meet-and-greet opportunities, there are very few of these for the characters anymore. Around the time of the movie’s release in 2001, guests could meet Milo, Kida, and even Mole and Vinny, at the Magic of Disney Animation at Walt Disney World’s Disney-MGM Studios, now Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and at Disneyland. Milo and Kida were also a part of the Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade at Disney-MGM Studios for the first year of that parade, which makes sense as the parade debuted in 2001. The most recent sighting of Milo and Kida seems to have been at Disneyland, during their special event Disneyland After Dark: Sweethearts’ Nite in February 2022. Even Bernard and Bianca from The Rescuers (1977) were meeting that same night. At Disneyland Paris, Milo and Kida were last spotted at the park in 2018 as part of the Disney FanDaze event. I can’t find any evidence of Milo and Kida being seen at Walt Disney World recently, or ever being available to meet at the Disney Parks in Asia.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Going through all the behind-the-scenes footage from the team who worked on Atlantis: The Lost Empire and seeing their passion for the project, as well as their desire to experiment and try something different in Disney Animation, it just makes me feel all the more disappointed for them that Atlantis: The Lost Empire was not successful. The amount of effort and commitment that went into the movie is evident, not only in its characters and story, but in its design aesthetic, visual effects and sound.
Unfortunately, it was a risk and it ultimately did not pay off. But around the 20th anniversary of the movie in 2021, it was a surprise to all the filmmakers to find that Atlantis: The Lost Empire had found an extremely dedicated fan-base, and they were only too pleased to find that the movie had touched people, and been a part of their childhoods, with them still loving the film in adulthood.
If you’ve never watched Atlantis: The Lost Empire, completely missing out on it as a child, or you only watched it at a young age, I would encourage you to go back and give the movie another try. You might just find you actually enjoy it, and be able to understand why Atlantis: The Lost Empire is considered to be one of Disney’s most underrated treasures.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)’, pp. 121-123.
[2] Credit: Disney, The Making of Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2002).
[3] Credit: Disney, “The Journey Begins”, from Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) 1-Disc DVD (2002).
[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)’, pp. 121-123.
[5] Credit: Disney, “Creating Mythology”, from Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) 1-Disc DVD (2002).
[6] Credit: Cassidy Ward, ‘The Science Behind The Fiction: Is There Any Truth To The Myth Of Atlantis?’, Syfy.com, 16th June 2021.
[7] Credit: Disney, The Making of Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2002).
[8] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘How ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire’ Almost Changed Disney Forever’, Collider.com, 17th June 2020
[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)’, pp. 121-123.
[10] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘How ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire’ Almost Changed Disney Forever’, Collider.com, 17th June 2020
The Disney Purist 