Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I've never seen reactions as all over the map as this. Some people are loving ATLANTIS, and others say it's just more of the disappointing same from Disney Feature Animation. I think the trailers are cool, and I'll definitely give it a chance when it comes out. Still... some of the condemnation sounds like it's the Maus up to old tricks.
A deeply paranoid KATNIP had this to say, provided I didn't look directly at him/her and didn't attempt to follow them after the review hand-off.
First observations and thoughts: ATLANTIS-THE LOST EMPIRE is the most disappointing Disney feature I¹ve seen since... well, I suppose since THE FOX & THE HOUND (but I remember how starved we all were for full animation back in those days, so then I gave that film some slack). Now I know how everyone who was let down by HERCULES felt (I loved that film but everyone around me seemed to hate it). I've optimistically enjoyed just about every Disney feature for the last 20 years. I even saw past the problems of HUNCHBACK and actually appreciated MULAN, TARZAN and EMPEROR¹S NEW GROOVE for what they were.
This film is a throwback to the kind of live action "adventure" films Walt Disney produced in the 1950s & 60s (20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS) but it most reminded me of the awful Ron Miller production THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD (1974). Artificial adventure, cardboard stereotyped characters, been there-done that.
ATLANTIS was produced in wide screen format (as was ANASTASIA, BUGS LIFE, and TITAN A.E. in recent years). The film begins with its best sequence - Atlantis exploding and engulfed by the sea. There is an anime feel to this sequence - the giant wave, the fast moving vehicles, the subtitles as the characters speak in Atlantean.
This switches to the flat 101 Dalmatians look of the city (Not sure which one, New York?) where nerdy linguist Milo (a good job by Michael J. Fox) is rehearsing his speech on his research on Atlantis. None of the gags here work - but the animation is lively in a Ludwig Von Drake-sort-of-way.
In quick succession, too quick, Milo is introduced to his dream. A millionaire ex-friend of his father is bank-rolling, immediately-right-now-this-second, a trip to ATLANTIS and they need Milo's expert language-translating skills and the rare Atlantis guide book his father left him with said-eccentric.
We are immediately introduced to the crew of the Nautilus-like submarine - Mercenary Commander Rourke (Voiced by James Garner), latino engineer Audrey Ramirez, a black doctor, an eccentric French geologist & tunneling expert who¹s a mole-like character named (get this)... "Mole", the Gabby Hayes-like cook (Jim Varney) and the Euro bomb expert (with that annoying Guido Sarducci Don Novello voice). I¹ve had a problem in the past with diverse character designs that don't look like they belong in the same universe (or same movie), but this crew is all over the place. Milo is angular in a 50s Disney way, the square jawed Captain looks like Chester Gould designed him. For the doctor they reused the JOHN HENRY model sheet, and least-but-not-last, the female latino engineer is the worst looking character in a Disney film... ever (I'm hard pressed to think of any worse). The film has at least three comedy relief characters (none of them funny): The Peter Lorre-esque mole-guy is pure cartoon zany, the chain-smoking old broad who¹s supposed to be a communication expert is way too nonchalant and wise-cracking to be taken seriously, and the Bomb Guy is just annoying. The giant hands and squared off fingers each character has becomes distracting and annoying. Everyone is a stereotype, everyone¹s got 21st Century attitude.
Cliches have a field day.
On the plus side: the sneering female second-in-command, named Helga, looks great - everyone should have been designed around her take. The Atlanteans are designed OK - in the recent Mulan, Tarzan mold. Quickly enough Milo learns of the crew¹s true intentions and soon it's him and the Atlanteans versus the Captain and his greedy crew. There are a few nice action sequences - a battle versus a giant mechanical lobster and an attack by some literal fire-flies. By the time we reach the climatic escape, too little has happen, too late to care.
The climax was similar to THE ROAD TO EL DORADO, a film superior to this (but one I didn¹t care for myself). The problem is, once again, Disney's reliance on formula to create these films. They NEED to have comic relief, they NEED to have a Princess, they NEED to have a happy ending. What they "need" is a compelling story, which this film sadly lacks.
How disappointed was I at ATLANTIS? I liked EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE better. I liked TITAN A.E. better.
SHREK is going to kick ATLANTIS' ass at the box office this summer. I can see the media stories now - "Katzenberg Wins!"
What will this do to the Disney bean counter mentality? And morale at Feature animation. Forget about the Oscar for this one. ATLANTIS scares me. We are watching first hand the change from traditional hand-drawn cartoon features to CGI - I don't want to sound so doom & gloom, but SHREK'S success and ATLANTIS' failure will be a turning point for Disney, Dreamworks and animated features in general.
Then there was this quickie from the Son of Gadzookie. Like I said... night and day.
If this ends up getting printed, I'm probably going to be labled some kind of Disney whore shill, but what the hell. I got to see a preview of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" today, and I think it might be the best thing to come out of Disney since Walt died. It plays off more like a 60s action film, like The Magnificent Seven, then what you would usually think would come out of Disney animation.
The animation itself wasn't all that impressive, nothing we haven't seen before. What made this film work was an adult attitude combined with some characters that actually have some depth. The voice cast was amazing, specifically James Garner and Don Novello. Novello had some of the best one liners this side of Bruce Campbell.
The plot was a little predictable. Good guys win, bad guys lose. It's a little "Stargate-ish" at times, but like Stargate wasn't ripped off from other films anyways. There actually is a plot twist, something foreign to Disney cartoons, and while it is fairly transparent to anyone who has seen a movie in the past 10 years, I don't quite feel like spoiling it. One little tidbit though, at least 194 deaths in the film. Who would have figured that the second most death filled movie this summer (I'm just guessing Pearl Harbor has more) would be a cartoon?
Best thing though: NO SONGS! Just some amazing score work by James Howard. Even better: NO STUPID ANIMALS! Just great voice work, characterization, and animation. This one ranks up there with "Iron Giant." Yeah, that good. No, really.
