Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Review by Cosette
Film:
DVD:
Soundtrack:

Directed by Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise
Written by Tab Murphy, based on a story by Murphy, Trousdale, Joss Whedon, Wise, Bryce Zabel & Jackie Zabel
Starring Michael J. Fox, James Garner, Cree Summer, Don Novello, Phil Morris

Features:

• Running audio commentary and break-in visual commentary from producer Don Hahn, Trousdale & Wise
  
• DisneyPedia - Atlantis: Fact or Fiction?
  
• Multiple Platform Navigation System (3-D Menus)
  
• - Explore Mode: Tour the 3-D Enviroment of the Ulysses Submarine and Select Menu Options
  
• - Tour Mode: Enjoy All the Bonus Features as One Continous program
  
• - Files Mode: Lists All Features In Sequential Order
  
• Whitmore Industries Industrial Film
  
• History section: "The Journey Begins," "Creating Mythology," history of The Shepherd's Journal, "How to Speak Atlantean"
  
• Story and Editorial section: "Finding the Story," deleted scenes, and original treatment
  
• Art Direction section: "Designing Atlantis," "Explorers' World Gallery," "Atlantis Design Gallery," "Mike Mignola Design Gallery," "Style Guide"
  
• Animation Production section: "Setting the Scene," "Layouts and Backgrounds," "The Voices of Atlantis," "Creating the Characters," "Character Designs and Animation Tests"
  
• Digital Production section: "Digital Production," "Digital Production Tests," "Vehicles," "Vehice Size Comparison," "Digital Characters"
  
• Music and Sound section
  
• Publicity section
  

Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Own It.

This film is becoming one of my Disney favorites, precisely because it is a bit un-Disney-like. Breaking the traditions of decades of their other animated films, there are no songs, no cute animal sidekicks, and it is a bit more intense than your average kids’ flick. As an early production T-shirt put it: “Atlantis: fewer songs, more explosions.” The film also masterfully combines hand-drawn animation and CGI, giving it a fresh look.

Also contributing to the new look of the film were new freelance artists outside of the Disney family known for their work in comic books and live action film genres. The result is a beautifully crafted amalgamation of talent. In addition to the new look, the research that went into creating the history and ecosystem of Atlantis is very evident and quite impressive, giving everything else a nice home in which to work.

The reason I know all of these spiffy, behind-the-scenes facts about Atlantis is because there is a quite spiffy, behind-the-scenes documentary. Clocking in at two hours long, it’s longer than the film itself. Found on disc 2, it comprises the “tour” mode of the program, and can also be found on the “explore” mode in its individual pieces. This documentary impressed me because it takes you beyond the usual laundry list display of who does what in each step of the process and delves into the more complex creative process behind all of those steps. The members of the team discuss in detail the hard decisions that had to be made through the life of the film and how the movement away from some traditional Disney conventions shaped the entire process and feeling of the film. It comes across very honest—for example, the cleanup artists’ supervisor talks about how he never wants to have to work on another character with tattoos as long as he lives because it was so difficult.

Some of the other highlights on disc 2 include the old newsreel-style introduction and a crash course in “How to Speak Atlantean” with the guy who created the language for the film. One of my favorite features was the history of the fictional Shepherd’s Journal, an ancient text which guides the explorers in the film. It traces the “history” of the book through its possession by, among others, Leif Erickson, Leonardo da Vinci, and Benjamin Franklin. It also claims that the illustrations in the book were the inspiration for architectural styles around the world. The entire history of the Journal was highly amusing. The deleted scenes were also really neat, including a prologue that had been fully animated before getting dumped.

The running commentary on this set was pretty good, and would be less than remarkable except that they did something new with the concept. In addition to an audio commentary with the directors and producer, it has a visual commentary as well. This video commentary can run in tandem with the audio, breaking in to explain details about a specific part of the film, and then returning to the film where you left off. Suffice to say, I thought this was very cool.

No DVD is without flaws, however, and this one had a few. First of all, I have a couple of blanket Disney DVD gripes. I have noticed on this and other discs by Disney that when you put the disc in, it automatically starts with coming attractions advertisements which you have to turn off with the menu button. I know that you would get the same thing on VHS tapes that you couldn't escape with just the touch of a button, but it just bugs me. I can't help it. The other picky thing that annoys me about Disney DVDs is that the clasps in the center of the cases are nearly impossible to maneuver.

Okay, now on to this set specifically. First, the DisneyPedia Fact or Fiction feature—it had some good points, but in my opinion, failed to actually explore the different theories about Atlantis. It glosses over actual historical and archaelogical theories, such as Plato’s writings, so quickly that kids are not going to remember them, and then goes on to give false information, such as that Egyptian hieroglyphics are not a language, but just symbols (wrong!) or that the study of dinosaur fossils is called archaeology (not, apparently, paleontology). Considering the depth with which some of the research on Atlantis is covered in the documentary in the DVD, I would have expected more from this kids’ feature. I know that it’s necessary to simplify things a bit so kids will get it, but they’re not stupid, and giving them such a quick, dumbed-down version of the information is rather insulting to their audience, in my opinion. The other little thing that bothered me is that in the galleries (of which there are many), in order to flip through all of the images, you have to go through one “page” and then go back and manually flip to the next one, rather than having the option for all of the images to keep going in order. Since there are so many of these galleries, some of which have as many as 17 pages’ worth of images, a sequential viewing would have been much more practical.

The music in the film is quite well done and skillfully incorporated into the story. And because the film is full of “look, isn’t this neat” shots of caverns and the city of Atlantis and numerous other wonders, the music gets some time to itself rather than having to fight with dialogue and other sound effects. Perhaps because so much of the music had to live up to all of its star time on screen, the soundtrack is lovely and a wonderful one to have in the background at home (I listened to it while cooking dinner). The first track is a standard end-credits forgettable song with lyrics, but the rest of the tracks mirror the excitement and wonder in the film very nicely.

The sheer volume of information in the documentary and the galleries, as well as the other features, is amazing. I am quite pleased that a lot of the hard work that went into the film, especially all of the renderings and ideas that never made it into the finished product, able to be seen here and appreciated. The film is unique and beautiful and the set is packed with features. I enjoyed it immensely.