Hey folks, Harry here with a look at ATLANTIS from the scourge of Chicago... Capone. When Capone was off in Florida trying to escape Ness and his men, he spent some time with a soagy stogie searching for the fabled sunken city. Alas, to no avail. But even with that disappointment, he was able to look at Disney's ATLANTIS with a fresh look and find one of the only films of 2001 that he actually liked! OHMYGOD!!! Capone likes it... It must be... BRILLIANT? STUNNING? We'll see this Friday!
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here. I know that ATLANTIS has been covered on this esteemed site plenty, but I figured I'd throw in my two cents because, frankly, I wanted to finally be able to review a decent movie for your audience in 2001. I'll make certain to free up some memory in my e-mail's In Box so I can accommodate the barrage of "You're a Disney plant!" messages. Well, I'm not; I just happened to like the hell out of this movie. Here's my review…
I have to admit that if a little more effort has been put into the script of the new Disney animation adventure ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE, I might have declared it one of Disney’s finest of all time. Despite stories of budget cuts while this film was animated, I saw nothing lacking in the look of the film. In fact, it’s phenomenal. But it was overall lack of story that bothered me. Apparently it takes seven writers (according to the credits) to put together a story that consists of: Let’s get from Point A to Point B (Atlantis); endanger the lives of the inhabitants of Point B; and save Point B. Not too creative.
Still, I’m willing to declare ATLANTIS a fantastic work based primarily on the quality of the animation and the originality of the visuals. First off, I should tell you that ATLANTIS is not a kids’ movie. It’s, at times, very scary, bloodlessly violent, and characters actually die. One character even chain smokes, which I can’t believe Disney let slide, but I’m glad they did. There are no songs in this film (AMEN!), so you don’t have to worry about Phil Collins or Elton John or Sting or Randy Newman stealing an Oscar from a more worthy song next year. The story follows a young language expert named Milo Thatch (voiced with great enthusiasm by Michael J. Fox), who grew up on stories of the fabled lost city of Atlantis thanks to his late explorer grandfather. Unfortunately, Milo can’t convince the esteemed professors at the research institute where he works to believe him let alone fund an expedition to find the city. But an old and very rich friend of his grandfather’s, Preston (John Mahoney), does believe him and decides to fund the expedition privately and provide Milo with a crew to accompany him. The crew consists of characters voiced by the likes of James Garner, Claudia Christian, Don Novello, and the late Jim Varney.
Once the explorers get their amazingly designed submarine underwater, the movie just explodes with visuals. First up is the robotic guardian of the entrance way to Atlantis, which looks something like a big, scary lobster but is far more terrifying than that big fish in THE PHANTOM MENACE. The chase scenes in ATLANTIS are great, whether they be underwater or on foot. There’s something the animators have done (presumably with computers) to make the perspective look so real and believable, and it makes all the difference.
Not surprisingly, our heroes make it to ATLANTIS after losing most of their 200-person crew to various attacks. The inhabitants, led by King Nedakh (Leonard Nimoy), are at first prepared to kill the explorers. Thankfully, the king’s daughter, Princess Kida (Cree Summer) believes that they can help the lost city survive a horrible demise from lack of resources. By the way, Princess Kida is a hottie. There's even a wonderful scene of her basically stripping down into a bikini that certainly got some animation going in my pants. And Cree Summer's accent is just exotic enough to really make Kida sexy. (Mrs. Kida Capone...Mrs. Kida Capone...Mrs. Kida Capone...)
Um, yeah...Anyway...the city seems to be powered by some sort of life-force (which each native Atlantian possesses in the form of a small blue crystal around their necks. I don’t want to give away what new danger Milo inadvertently brings to the peaceful Atlantians, but the resulting rescue of the city enters into the realm of the slightly new agey, while still maintaining its overall coolness. I saw Roger Ebert review this film last weekend, and he said that this is the closest Disney has come to embracing the Japanese anime style, and he’s probably right. ATLANTIS not only embraces the much more sophisticated visual style but also much of the mythical storytelling as well: lot of bright lights, fire, flying ships of war, and giant robots. ATLANTIS is such a step in the right direction of Disney; all it needs now are some solid and more complex storylines and I’ll be in animation heaven without having to rely on Japanese masters to come out with a new film every 17 years.
Capone
Buffalospeedway.Net (click on Steve@theMovies)
