Theo Cinema: ATLANTIS - THE LOST EMPIRE (WOEFULLY Bad)

[AndyDursin]

There's so much mediocrity there much of it rightly forgotten (I remember a couple of decent Menken songs in HOME ON THE RANGE but nothing else). And really it wasn't THAT long ago either.

Good call on TITAN A.E., I went looking for it a couple of weeks ago because I remember it being, at least, much better than ATLANTIS even though it was a big box-office letdown. No Blu-Ray means we'll never get one because of Disney, but there is a 1080p stream I was able to find (it's available for sale also).

[Paul MacLean]

There's so much mediocrity there much of it rightly forgotten (I remember a couple of decent Menken songs in HOME ON THE RANGE but nothing else). And really it wasn't THAT long ago either.

Is that the one where the guy hitches a ride on the submarine and then he's sold into slavery?

[BobaMike]

Hey, I like Atlantis. Sure the plot doesn't make much sense (why would the Atlanteans forget how to read, when the people who live there were alive when it sank? Nobody just forgets how to read as they get older.).

I love the character designs (well, most of them)- the bad guys have a cool angular look. The movie was designed by Mike Mignolia (spelling), of Hellboy fame. Too bad Disney watered it down a lot.

It also has a top 5 James Newton Howard score.

[TaranofPrydain]

ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE (2001)

Is this the singular most charmless Disney animated film of all-time? Wow, I scarcely recall watching this before -- and I know I did 20 years ago when it came out -- but sitting down this time around with Theo, all I could think of was what an awful, misconceived waste of a film ATLANTIS is. Drably drawn, the movie is so dark, and piled on top of it are cliched stereotypes -- and a TON of characters -- none of whom are remotely appealing or likeable. Coming around the same time as THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE (a movie that was far afield from its original intended concept) and TREASURE PLANET (another misfire), all I could think of was how Disney was forever meddling back then -- writing, rewriting, then rewriting so many animated films that the finished products were the result of a dozen cooks in the kitchen (or more), resulting in head scratchers that ended up dooming hand-drawn animation when they underperformed.

ATLANTIS comes off that way -- and the final result is befuddling. There's no magic in this film, no joy -- it's absolutely dreadful.

Theo did sit through it, but I could tell he was never really into it, and certainly didn't talk about it again after it was over!

I'm on another film website and this film came up, with some really praising it. I saw it in the theatre back then (the film broke in the middle of the screening on opening weekend, prompting a 15 minute break before they finished splicing it), but hadn't seen it much since. So I took a look at it today. It might be Disney's most infuriating film. There are several astonishing scenes in this film involving effects animation that are chilling and masterful (the opening destruction of Atlantis, the crystal transformation, the explosion filled finale), and the background work is impressive. James Newton Howard gives it all he's got. But, with the exception of the two main characters (Milo and Kida) all of the characters in this film are two-faced and slithery, and the angular design of the characters themselves looks really cheap compared to the rest of the way the film looks. And the film is so very cold-blooded. The Black Cauldron has always had a lot of flack, but it genuinely had humor and charm whenever the Horned King wasn't around. But this film has all the charm of an ice cube.