Review of Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) by Harry W — 29 Dec 2013

Atlantis: The Lost Empire has its ups and downs.

Mostly ups though, although certain things may throw viewers off.

One element is that the pace is very fast, and it delves off into its subject matter really quick and even a little too quick. Although waiting would be no better, it just spearheads through a lot of its mythological Atlantis story dynamics without stopping for a second for viewers to really understand what has happened or what is happening. And for such a trivially complex story, you'd need a second to stomach it. You'd sooner find yourself having it leave your system suddenly, then attempting to Re-examine it to understand it again, but it's not worth it because sometimes the story just gets out of hand and hides it's shortcomings behind visuals. It may hide well for some, but really its plot is a little too much to try and understand sometimes.

And it's so overloaded with characters that it only really has time to develop two of them, Milo James Thatch and Kidagakash "Kida" Nedakh, and even then they don't really go far. You've just got a diverse bunch of characters that aren't really understandable for their motives, except that they are brought down to simply wanting monetary gain. But I do like the diversity of the characters at least. And the characters do have interesting anecdotes to them, such as how they aren't all modelled to be perfect in every way, but rather more realistic, such as the fact that the film's protagonist is a determined nerd whose strongest quality is his sense of knowledge instead of physical domination. Plus the characters Mole and Doctor Joshua Strongbear Sweet both supply their own moments of quirky humour to the film.

And I will say that I really loved the animation quality of Atlantis: The Lost Empire because it has the quality of a comic book animated to have movements between story frames, and it's a visual treat as well as a first for Disney. The solid CGI venture is powerfully colourful and has an electric visual quality to it which makes it an energetic and stimulating adventure for viewers more used to Disney's hand-drawn animated films.

And the voice acting is strong, with the standouts being Michael J. Fox and Leonard Nimoy for their charismatic work in characterising their figures.

So Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a fast and oddly plotted film, but it's strongly animated and an interesting experience.