ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE |
|
ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE |
Rating -
Cast & Crew info: |
Written by DAVID KEYES
It’s always hard to assume anything when it comes to Disney
animation, but the department’s latest feature, “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,”
takes such a tremendous departure from the studio’s routine method of storytelling,
not even those who knew of its existence could have foreseen it. Stretching
the fabric to a rim only reached once before by “The Black Cauldron,” the
movie is an intense risk of subject matter, challenging and fresh, with
little to no focus on cutesy characters and catchy songs and more of a direct
concern with narrative intricacies and human drama. Children could be easily
turned off by hearing a description about the Disney film, but this really
isn’t solely intended for little tykes, anyway. The elusive “PG” rating
attatched to the film, only the second time a Disney cartoon has ever received
one, might even turn parents on to an increasingly popular theory: no one,
not even the mouse house, can ignore animations’ new-found maturity.
But instead of simply teasing us with growth, Disney pulls a full throttle,
diving into the concept so vigorously that the movie even has the courage
to borrow resources from Japanese Anime: hard edges outlining the characters,
and angles of view that turn ordinary action into free-flowing excitement.
There is even a point in the picture when it seems like the screenplay
has lapsed into Hollywood epic territory—you know, the moment in which
the plot introduces all of its important players just minutes before a
disaster halts the excitement of the situation. These notations might
seem like quibbles (who wants too much familiarity from anything?), but
for Disney, a studio that has spent the last ten years redoing the same
old song and dance in feature cartoons, it should at bare minimum be praised
from distracting them from more obvious cliches. What matters most, in
any case, is that the story is fascinating, the characters are offbeat
and the animation is courageous.
Don’t look at this as a new beginning, however. No, not because it is
expected of the studio to revert back to its musical comedy formula, but
because (in case you didn’t notice) there was a little animated feature
Disney released last December called “The Emperor’s New Groove.” That
film could be credited for being Disney’s first venture into new territory,
although many saw it as more of an amusing distraction rather than a classic
Disney comedy, making its existence much less known to the general public.
What makes “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” perhaps more known and appealing
to the public is its broad subject matter. The movie deals with the legend
of the lost city of Atlantis—an advanced civilization that “disappeared
into the depths of the sea” hundreds of years ago—and the efforts of one
brave individual to uncover its mysterious past and, hopefully, its current
whereabouts. The main characters is Milo James Thatch (Michael J. Fox),
a boiler technitian at an elite museum of history and art whose penchant
for details stimulates his hope in finding evidence of the existence of
Atlantis. Cracking the written language of the ancient civilization, Milo
believes that a lost book containing all of the secrets of this world
is buried somewhere in Iceland—that is, until he sees it for himself just
a few miles away, in the hands of billionaire Preston Whitmore. Before
he even knows what hits him, Thatch is recruited to serve as a guide for
Whitmore’s expedition into the Atlantic ocean in search of the lost city
itself, allowing him to fulfill his dream of finding its secret location
as well as honoring the memory of his adventurous grandfather.
Borrowing plot devices from close animated comptetitors, Disney twists
the story into a remarkable adventure tale with excitement, discovery,
conspiracy and irony woven into the mix. Oh yeah, and there’s also several
vibrant characterizations used here, too, the majority of them very different
compared to those in the recent Disney cartoons. For instance: there’s
Mole (Corey Burton), an offbeat but humorous digging expert who would
rather spend his time surrounded in dirt than talking to any of his comerades;
Vinni (Don Novello), a man who uses explosives to conquer most of his
obstacles; Cookie (the late Jim Varney), an old-timer whose idea of a
good meal includes lots of grease; and Mrs. Packard (Florence Stanley),
some kind of communications expert who smokes incessantly and announces
without emotion at several points, “we’re all going to die.” Of course
the picture contains its obligatory players—the naive and manipulated
hero and the cloaked, merciless villain—but writer Tab Murphy does an
impressive job with the situation, writing them to fit the subject matter
itself rather than the typical Disney mold. Another shocker: the women
characters are all strong-willed and have backbones, unlike many of the
recent heroines in the studio’s animated endeavors.
Visually, the picture doesn’t push any boundaries, but that’s perfectly
fine, especially since there is currently a debate going on between us
as moviegoers about the future of animation: whether there will always
be a market for the familiar techniques utilized in annual Disney cartoons,
or if it will just die out and get replaced by the more modern forms of
cartoonic expression now being seen in the mainstream. Enthusiasm for
these new techniques, after all, is high right now, especially after the
success of “Shrek” and recent release of “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.”
But regardless of the advancements that are made with the genre, moviegoers
will continue to have a soft spot for the simpler approaches because,
well, that’s what they started with. We were raised on the basic visual
structures of the early Disney classics, not the dazzling computer spectacles
established most recently. Having said that, “Atlantis” is both nostalgic
and fresh, a film that occupies a style both memorable and familiar and
utilizes effective storytelling rarely seen in cartoons.
|
Publicity Shots:
All the above images are linked to the Internet Movie Database. |
