Movie Thoughts: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

• Released: 15 June 2001
• Directed by: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
• Running time: 1 h 35 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A band of researchers sets out to find the lost city of Atlantis.

Overall my thoughts on this movie is that it's fine. Not perfect, it's just mostly fine. Good in some aspects, great even, but also lacking in others.

My main thing about this movie I like is the visuals and characters. The story itself is just not very engaging and I honestly don't care much for the Atlantis part of the movie itself. I enjoy the characters much more than the actual story, is what I'm trying to say. From our lead Milo and his Atlantian love interest Kida to the quirky side characters such as Sweet, Cookie, Audrey and Mole that are along for the ride.

The animation also looks great. It once more has this more angular art style that is unlike many of the Disney Renaissance movies, but it looks fantastic and the movement itself is just amazing. It also has some great CGI blending with the 2D, at least for the time. 

My main gripe with the movie would have to be the twist villain. I don't inherently hate twist villains, they most certainly can be done right, but I'm just wary of the trope with how overused it has become these days. Granted, it might've still been a new thing for Disney when this was happening in 2001, but it did perhaps start the trend that would be happening in the Revival era. And it didn't do it very well. Roarke is such a boring obvious villain that has so little to him. His death wasn't even that interesting. He's just some shitty capitalist who wants to reap Atlantis' resources for money regardless of what ends up happening to its in habitants.

Still, I'd say overall this is a pretty strong movie. Maybe not in the story and villain departments, but definitely in the visual and character aspects. I don't think it's among the strongest of the Experimental era, but good nonetheless.