Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Ok. Now that the chaotic week(s) are past, time to get this poor review blog back on track. Again. Here's the long overdue Atlantis review!


Atlantis is one of those odd Disney films for me. The year it came out, all of the kids in my year went on a trip to Vancouver for a few days, and one day we went to see this film in the big theater. Of course, everyone found it to be quite hilarious that our teacher was named Mr. Whitmore, just like the crazy gentleman in the film. I'm quite sure he didn't live that down the rest of the school year.

Anyways! Nostalgia aside, this is one of those films that takes place largely outside of Atlantis. We spend a fair portion of the film just getting to our destination, that when we do get there, it goes by all too fast. I found this to be quite the letdown. It's sort of like Christmas, when we wait all year for that one day to show up and, poof, it's all over in a matter of minutes. I would have loved to see more of the city and ruins, and to flesh out the idea of how the Atlanteans are slowly having their culture decay from its old prominence. Instead we get a very rushed feeling ending, in the form of a large action sequence. This is also worthy of note, is that for the second time in the Disney Classics, we get a PG rated film instead of the usual G rating. Another rarity for Disney, is the visual appearance of blood in one of their animated features, even if it is rather brief, and quite tame. As well, a lot of this film seems to be trying to appeal to the boys audience, and to fans of action as well. One line that also stands out to me, is when the crew are trying to escape the Leviathan machine, and one member yells "We're getting killed out here!" Not a line you might expect to hear in a Disney film.

Moving along, the animation suits the action oriented scenes with an almost comic-book like feeling to it with large blocky characters. The animation overall, however, feels kind of lacking. Our wide landscape shots of Atlantis can be pretty to look at, yet pale in comparison to similar shots from later films, such as Princess and the Frog. Meanwhile, some animation looks horribly off, one offender of this is the character Audrey, who has one scene where she almost appears to be a bit off-model, and a later scene with Cookie, where her face almost distorts into a rather weird look. Sadly, the animation here could have been up to Disney's standards in the same vein as the Lion King, or Beauty and the Beast, but winds up falling a bit flat.

The overall story arc isn't all that bad, it's great to see a lot of time be spent with our main characters so that we can get to know them over time. It is also nice to see how their relationship with Milo starts off rather rocky, but by the end of the film they have more than warmed up to him, and are willing to go into battle with him to help save the city. This aspect of the film works quite well, but another ten to twenty minutes exploring the city's story would have helped, in my opinion, quite a bit for fleshing out Kida's character, and that of her father.


All in all, Atlantis still remains one of those odd films for me. I love it for the nostalgia, for the fact it's about Atlantis, and for having a princess who is able to kick ass for a change. Despite these great bits, the film is still not quite in the Very Good range and earns a score of:

3/5