Atlantis: The Lost Empire was another sign of Disney’s eventual sway to the side of 3D animated movies as opposed to its traditional hand-drawn 2D style. Coming out in 2001, it was made during a time when Disney wasn’t doing as well and this led to a lot of decent but overall underwhelming 2D films that didn’t make the box office back that Disney was hoping for, with Atlantis not helping them change that mindset with its lackluster box office and mediocre to negative critical and audience reception. A young adventure by the name of Milo Thatch (voiced by Michael J Fox) wishes to search for the lost sunken city of Atlantis, but is constantly put down and called insane for believing it in. Meeting up with an old friend of his explorer grandfather, Milo is gifted a journal that holds the key to finding Atlantis along with a crew preparing to dive into the depths and find the lost city. Upon arriving, they find not a centuries-old ruined city, but a thriving civilization that still holds life and advance technology. The princess of Atlantis, Kida (voiced by Cree Summer) wishes to learn from Milo her city’s history as the remaining Atlanteans have lost any memory of their culture, being alive for thousands of years having eventually wiped it out. But after a treacherous plot is discover, Milo and his team have to find a way to save Atlantis from being buried for good this time when their life force is taken away from them. This movie, though coming out at a pretty underwhelming era, is surprisingly enjoyable and offers up some pretty cool and different stuff. The film unfortunately peaks to early as it’s the last act that really drags this film down and ruins an otherwise pretty cool and unique Disney film.

This movie takes a very different direction from the usual Disney formula and goes for something a lot more gritty, realistic, and more adult compared to its other properties even during the same time period. With heavy inspiration from Jules Verne’s ‘’A Journey to the Centre of the Earth’’, it adapted a  stronger focus on technology and ancient culture rather than magic and fantasy elements. This does take away from Disney’s ‘’for everybody’’ way of creating movies, as it’s a film that definitely deserves its PG rating with a surprisingly high death count along with some pretty intense imagery. Though restricted by real life and what the censors would allow them to get away with for a kids movie, the first two thirds of this movie are surprisingly engaging; the pace is nice and quick, the characters are very likeable and well set-up, and the culture of the Atlanteans is creative and interesting. Mixing a bunch of real-life cultures and combining them into one creating the Atlantean culture sounds kinda basic but works really effectively. The idea of a civilization forgetting its culture and being saved by a modern eye is a nice touch to this story and gives the film a lot of chances to show off its culture in a fun visually memorable way. While most of this story seems pretty solid, the final act of the film is where things go from good to bad; taking a story that had enough pros to cover ups its dated standard direction and luring it right back to every treasure hunting movie that came out during the 90s and early 2000s. Even the tone goes drastically different; with the majority having a nice blend of Disney-esque charm and Indiana Jones adventure styling being replaced with a square focus on the boring adventuring clichés.

Most of the characters in the film again feel very inspired by the type of characters that would come from the Jules Verne’s story; with that nice blend of quirky charm but still mostly grounded realism where they feel like normal people, and that’s made even stronger with Disney’s ability to create memorably designed and voiced characters as well. Michael J Fox is a decent lead, Kida is a pretty good love interest (even being a forgotten Disney princess) and the two work off each other nicely as well. It is not a film where the romance is even given full attention (they do not even kiss by the end, only a hug) but they help each other grow together and it’s a genuinely nice relationship. All the crew members are also really likeable, sporting fun designs, personalities, and voice actors. Contributing to the last third’s problems, the villain is really dull and boring; being every stock evil treasure hunter  from movies of this film’s type back then; with a personality and motivation just about as interesting. The film didn’t even require a bad guy with the direction it was going in, but if it needed to have one for a climax, it could have put in a bit more effort than what it gave. Even the twist that happens during the middle of the film doesn’t  work because it’s already pretty obvious, and the change doesn’t work for half the characters.

The film’s animation style was adopted from famous comic book creator, Mike Mignola who is best known for writing Hellboy and other supernatural based comics. This leaves the characters of the film looking less round and smooth like previous Disney films, and coming out pointier and more detailed with stronger lines and more strokes made to textures. While this style does have to be an acquired taste as it does sometimes leave the characters looking flat and somewhat (ironically) ‘’comic-panel’’ like, other times the animation can look amazing especially when it comes to its backgrounds, its colors and its scale. The movie also features a lot more CGI, remaining as one of the few to have been shot in anamorphic format, a camera technique that shoots a widescreen picture on non-widescreen native aspect ratios, which somehow still allows the film to get across some nice environment shots that still feel grand and epic. The music by James Newton Howard is good at being both atmospheric and soft while also being grandiose and big, much like a majority of his previous work. The fact that this movie wanted to be an action-adventure film instead of a musical was one of the key demerits when it came to critics flaws with the film, feeling that mixed with the film’s harsher tone would shy away from its traditionally kid friendly image. The film does handle its different tone in a smart way though, still featuring a lot of colorful characters and environments to offset the darker tone, giving kids something to latch onto and not be overwhelmed.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a pleasant surprise from the lower Disney period; producing something different, creative, interesting, and surprisingly adult for the time. The film’s closing act is what really stops it from being an even greater product; taking something that was being interesting yet simple and reducing it back to every standard treasure hunting film of the time. If that were removed and the film was given more of a chance to explore and delve into its own culture and backstory, this movie could have been even better than it turned out to be. Probably won’t give you the same levels of amazing feats that the classics from Disney can give you, but for something a little more unpopular and not largely talked about, Atlantis is a surprisingly underrated Disney movie that thankfully, due to its cult following, hasn’t completely sunk away yet.