Summer Cinema: ‘Atlantis the Lost Empire’
Hi my name is Jared and I have a problem. I’m a Disneyholic. I admit it freely. I own every Disney animated flick on video and was holding my breath in hopeful anticipation for Disney’s latest animated creation “Atlantis the Lost Empire.” Boy was I disappointed.
“Atlantis” was a definite dive for Disney. The animation was tired, the characters fit every cliché imaginable and the plot left gaping holes that never satisfied the audience.
“Atlantis” tells the story of Milo James Thatch (Michael J. Fox), a hopeful adventurer obsessed with finding the lost continent of Atlantis. After a mysterious meeting with millionaire Preston B. Whitmore (John Mahoney), he is given a book called the Shepherd’s Journal which outlines the steps to reaching the lost continent.
Whitmore finances the entire trip complete with submarine and crew to help Thatch on his quest. That crew includes Commander Rourke (James Garner), Lieutenant Helga Sinclair (Claudia Christian) and a band of ethnic clichés including a Turk who likes to blow things up, a poor Hispanic engineer, a chain-smoking communications officer, a western cook (for him cooking involves lard, beans and bacon grease) and a Frenchman named Mole who lives endlessly with dirt.
The group is shipwrecked after being attacked by a mechanical monster and end up in Atlantis only to find it inhabited by the very people who sunk underneath the sea with it.
Perhaps I was disappointed with the movie because it is so different from any Disney animated film the company has ever produced (except maybe “The Black Cauldron”). The film is rated PG for animated violence (and there is a lot) but also for some humor that was definitely not intended for children. In fact the intense nature of the film may make it unsuitable for small children. How’s that for an animated Disney flick.
I think the biggest disappointment however is that the film doesn’t fill the expectations put on it by the trailers. The action sequences are tired, the character (there are so many) are never developed to the point where they are likable and the campy dialog is very predictable.
Maybe I’m biased after watching “Shrek,” but the animation in “Atlantis” was, well, boring. We’ve seen the same things since “The Little Mermaid.” There were improvement along the way (see the ballroom scene in “Beauty and the Beast” and the tree surfing in “Tarzan”), but the Disney animators seem to have given up on innovation in this and “The Emperor’s New Groove” and quickly pushed out two very lackluster films.
Clearly Disney need to make some changes if they hope to survive in the animation arena much longer. Overall you’d be better off waiting for “Atlantis” to hit the cheap theater.
Grade: C