When you live in a house with devoted Disney fans, it's hard to imagine that there are any animated features we have not seen.
Well, there are.
A few weeks ago, the family gathered here in the Fortress of Ineptitude to watch Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
This 2001 film had the temerity to not have any singing and no anthropomorphic comic side kicks. Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a straight up science-fantasy action-adventure flick that would be done as a quasi live action movie with a heaping helping of CGI and something for Dwayne Johnson to do.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire also has the audacity to be a mostly hand drawn affair even as the zeitgeist was driving animated films towards totally CGI productions.
The films opens with a prologue of epic proportions as a tide wave sinks Atlantis. Then we pick up with the year 1914 where in 1914, Milo Thatch is all hot and bothered to find the lost continent and thinks he has a way with The Shepherd's Journal, an ancient manuscript containing directions to the long lost island.
Rich dudes at the Smithsonian have their heads up their butts and won't pony up the dough. But Preston B. Whitmore, an eccentric millionaire and a friend of Milo's grandfather is ready and willing to fund this expedition.
Milo joins up with a team of specialists led by Commander Rourke and his crew:
Helga Sinclair, woman of mystery and danger
Vinny, demolitions expert
Mole, geologist
Dr. Sweet, medical officer
Audrey, mechanic
Mrs. Packard, a radio operator
Cookie, the mess cook.
Everyone's a bit shady.
They set out in the Ulysses, a massive submarine.
Don't get attached to it. The ship gets wrecked early on.
By a monstrous Leviathan, a giant robot lobster.
Yes, that's what I said: a giant robot lobster.
I should point out here that Atlantis: The Lost Empire has the highest death count of any Disney animated movie ever. Whoever drowned in the tidal wave that smashed into Atlantis and the majority of the crew on the Ulysses are all fatalities who will not get a toy action figure in a Happy Meal.
And we're just getting started.
After the destruction of the Ulysses, Milo and the surviving crew traverse a network of caves and tunnels and what all until they discover (Ta da!) Atlantis.
Milo befriends Kida of Atlantis who appears to be a young woman but is waaaaaay older than she looks. Milo helps Kida uncover the nature of the Heart of Atlantis, the source of power that keeps Atlantis safe underwater and contributes to the people's longevity.
And the reason Commander Rourke is there! Exploration? Discovery? Knowledge? Science? Screw all that! It's the Heart of Atlantis that's the big draw here. Something that powerful has got to be worth a hell of a lot of money to some damn body.
The shady crew was hoping to make some bucks of this deal but damn, Rourke is up to some bad shit. Taking the Heart of Atlantis will leave the secret city defenseless and it's inhabitants dead. So the shady crew opt to stand with Milo.
There's a big damn battle in a big damn volcano with a lot more deaths including Rourke.
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!"
The crew returns home except for Milo who stays behind in Atlantis to canoodle with Kida because, who can blame him?
And it seems like there's a lot going on, consider this: the initial draft was 155 pages with a projected running time of about 2 hours. Since the overage Disney animated film runs 90 minutes, there was a lot of cutting going on.
Which may explain why each one of Rourke's crew gets some specific quirks but very little time for actual character development. They're going to help Milo save Atlantis in lieu of big bucks? Well, yay for them but seriously, where did that come from?
The animation has a distinctive look based on the art of comic book artist Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy and the artist for the Victorian set Batman tale, Gotham By Gaslight.
The voice cast is very good with Michael J. Fox perfect for the role of Milo. James Garner as Rourke captures the commander's confidence/arrogance perfectly. Leonard Nimoy as Kida's father, the King of Atlantis, lends some gravitas to the proceedings.
It's was interesting to hear Don Novello provide the voice of Vinny; Novello is most famous for his persona as Father Guido Sarducci on Saturday Night Live during the 70s and 80s.
Another distinctive vocal presence in the movie is Florence Stanley as Packard. An elderly sarcastic chain-smoker, Packard is pretty much Florence. If you watch Atlantis: The Lost Empire on Disney+, there is a parental warning about smoking. This character is the reason for that warning.
Sadly, Jim Varney's role as Cookie was his last. Famous for his "Hey Vern" commercial character and as the voice of Slink-Dog in the first Toy Story movies, Varney passed away while the film was in production.
Overall, Atlantis: The Lost Empire is an epic tale of action, adventure and twisty plot that is a bit ahead of it's time and perhaps not suited to the Disney animation formula. But it is a fun movie and deserves better than being regarded a Disney failure or misstep.
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