This is part of my series “Thoughts on Disney movies,” where I’ve gone back to watch all of the animated Disney features, starting with Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, and then share my thoughts on the blog.
Highlights: I really like Milo as a character, and Michael J. Fox’s voice work is of course wonderful. The concept of Atlantis is certainly interesting, and it’s fun to see Disney’s interpretation of it. This was certainly an action packed movie and I think it could keep people hooked. For some reason the first time I watched it several years ago I felt really invested, but on this re-watch I was just rather bored.
Low points: The plot was ambitious. I don’t necessarily know if there were plot holes, but there were definitely a few things that were tough to figure out – exactly how much time has passed since Atlantis disappeared? Why do they have this energy crystal that is basically their life force? It was a unique take on the Atlantis legend, though hard to follow at times. The characters were fun, but aside from Milo,Princess Kida, and maybe a few others, they were pretty much complete caricatures – almost bordering on stereotypes. Really over the top, and while it’s fun to have a few side characters like that, it maybe started to become a bit too much.
The Music: In the early 2000’s Disney produced a number of animated movies that were not musicals, like the ones preceding them (Hercules, Hunchback, etc.). If you’ve read other reviews on this blog you know I love a good musical, and I often feel that the animated Disney films without the characters singing just aren’t as good (Pixar aside). That being said, the soundtrack was fine for this and worked well with the film.
The Villain: Rourke fits the villain mold pretty darn well. He’s a tough guy, deceiving, and manages to trick Milo completely. He’s completely blind in the sense that all he cares about is himself and gaining money, and doesn’t care about the people that he’s murdering and the culture he’s destroying. After he reveals himself as the villain he definitely seems pretty insane, which is a fitting villain trait. Definitely up there on the evil scale.
Fun fact: This film put a lot of work into developing the Atlantean language. They hired Marc Okrand to create it, who also invented the Klingon language for Star Trek!
Where in the World: Is there anything about Atlantis is Disney World? I know a lot about Disney but I certainly can’t think of anything off of the top of my head. If you know of anything please comment so I can add it here! It wasn’t particularly popular or well loved, so it doesn’t really surprise me that the theme parks ignore it.
My rating: 5 out of 10. It’s just not my favorite and I don’t have a strong desire to watch it again.
Have you seen Atlantis? What do you think of it?
I like this one, I think partly because it has so much nerd cred. Leonard Nimoy (Spock) voices the Atlantean king; like you mentioned, Marc Okrand developed the language; Mike Mignola (Hellboy) did a lot of design work and you can tell that the movie has a more “comic book” look to it; and Claudia Christian (Ivanova on Babylon 5) voices Helga.
I love this movie, so much. The art is astonishing, and the fact that they don’t start singing randomly makes me love it even more! I saw in your review that you were not happy with the plotholes, they aren’t really plotholes and are explained throughout the movie if you pay close enough attention. Plus what would a hero’s journey adventure movie be without a mystery! Along with the “The characters and their tropes“, these are some of the more Original characters that Disney created! You need to see that this movie is not a fairytale with singsong and talking animals, it’s an high stakes adventure!
The nice thing about Disney is that they make different kinds of movies, so there is something for everyone – whether you like the exciting adventure-style film or the fairy tale musicals 🙂