Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Number Rolled: 30

Movie Name/Year: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Genre: Children & Family

Length: 95 minutes

Rating: PG

Director: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise

Writer: Tab Murphy, Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale, Joss Whedon, Bryce Zabel, Jackie Zabel, David Reynolds, Plato

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Corey Burton, Claudia Christian, James Garner, John Mahoney, Phil Morris, Leonard Nimoy, Don Novello, Jacqueline Obradors, Florence Stanley, David Ogden Stiers, Natalie Strom, Cree Summer, Jim Varney

Milo takes after his grandfather; he’s a go-nowhere professor with dreams of finding the fabled Atlantis. Labeled a kook by his university and refused a grant for expedition, Milo begins to give up hope that he will ever get there. Just when he thinks the only option he has left is to quit, a benefactor from his grandfather’s pasts offers him the chance to prove himself. He, and the team offered to him, then begin their search for the lost city.

I always feel a little let down when a Disney cartoon doesn’t have singing in it. I’m spoiled! I grew up with singing crabs and lyrical book worms. So, I’m instantly a little harsher with non-musical Disney movies. That being said, this anti-musical gem turned out to be one of my favorites.

I read through a lot of reviews for “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” and they were very mixed. What bothers me is that a lot of people claimed to dislike it because there were no singing animals. I mean, really? Is that what people base their opinions off of? Whether or not a mouse starts randomly singing about doing work? I mean, yeah, I usually prefer my cartoons to have a musical tone, but I’m not going to care if it’s coming out of an elephant with huge ears or a hunchback in a bell tower. Further-more, that attitude is just insulting. I’ve been around a lot of kids and there’s never been a single one that complained because Ariel was on screen instead of Flounder or that Aladdin and Jasmine were singing a Whole New World without her tiger. So, in my mind, every critic that had that complaint, about there not being any singing animals, is basically saying that every child of Disney would be incapable of understanding human components.

Sorry for the rant, those comments simply pissed me off.

I thought “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” was fantastic. It was little more grown up than most Disney movies, but its grasp on the base plot and the depth of the characters involved was amazing. This was truly a family centric movie; kids would enjoy it because of its cartoon/slap-sticky quality, but adults could definitely enjoy the Verne-class plot and well-written script.

Overall Opinion – 5/5