Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Short description
In 1914, a museum cartographer and linguistics expert named Milo Thatch follows clues left by his grandfather to locate the lost continent of Atlantis. An eccentric millionaire who knew his grandfather funds an expedition, and Milo joins a crew of specialists aboard the submarine Ulysses. The group reaches the sunken city and finds it still inhabited, but their mission turns from exploration to protection when the expedition's leader pursues the kingdom's power for himself.
The film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, who had previously worked together on Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame; this was their third feature as a directing team. Tab Murphy wrote the screenplay, Don Hahn produced, and the voice cast includes Michael J. Fox as Milo, Cree Summer as Princess Kida, James Garner as Rourke, Claudia Christian as Helga, Corey Burton and Phil Morris. It was released in 2001 and runs 95 minutes.
The budget of 120 million dollars was large for an animated feature of its time, and the worldwide gross of 186 million dollars left it short of that outlay. On IMDb it holds 6.9 out of 10 from about 147,000 votes, on TMDB 7 out of 10 from roughly 5,000 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 6.1 out of 10 from 144 reviews, so audiences have rated it somewhat more warmly than critics did.
What's left behind the scenes
- Vincenzo Santorini, also known as Vinny, says that when he opens his own flower shop, he will take a whole month off in August. In Italy, it is customary to close everything for a month in August.
- The written language of the Atlanteans was to be read as follows: the first line from left to right, the second from right to left, and then this pattern repeated throughout the text. It was created by Marc Okrand (an American linguist known for creating languages for fictional cinematic civilizations; he developed, in particular, the languages of the Vulcans and Klingons from the Star Trek franchise). Okrand attempted to make the language fluid, like water.
- Screenwriter Tab Murphy conceived and introduced a character voiced by Claudia Christian, who served as a tribute to the femme fatales of 1940s film noir.
- The project's creators admitted that they drew a significant portion of their information about Atlantis from the Internet. They had to carefully analyze the data they found, separating fact from fiction to highlight important details that would help unfold the plot and support the mythology of the world they were creating.
- The beads on Kid's bracelet change color to the opposite one (pink to lavender and vice versa).
- It was originally intended that the decisive battle would take place on the ground, but to add more drama to the on-screen action, it was moved to the airspace.
- The original concept of the project included several characters and animals that were ultimately not included in the animated film. For example, the main character had a pet rat named Plato, and Rourke's team had another crew member—a sorcerer named Zoltan the Magnificent. Certain adventures and monsters from the original script also did not make it into the film.
- The project's creators intended to make an adventure action film, and as a result, everyone working on it wore t-shirts that read 'Atlantis – fewer songs, more explosions.'
- Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise did not want Atlantis in the animated film to look too 'Greek.' According to artist David Getz, the directors took into account that the Atlantean civilization is considered the mother culture to all the world's civilizations. Therefore, they began searching for unusual architectural techniques in Southeast Asia, specifically in Cambodia, and in South America, particularly within the Mayan civilization. Artist Mike Mignola played a significant role in refining the Atlantean culture shown in the film.
- The final shot of the animated film (the reborn Atlantis) was a combination of literally hundreds of drawings joined together into one massive canvas over 400 meters long. Each drawing was executed with meticulous care. The planes were depicted so smoothly that it seemed like one continuous canvas rather than hundreds of individual drawings.
- According to directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, they invited Michael J. Fox to voice Milo Thatch because they believed he could make the character believable and bring his own unique traits to the role. At the time, Fox had also been offered a role in Don Bluth and Gary Goldman's sci-fi animated film 'Titan A.E.' (2000). The actor asked his son to choose which project he should participate in, and the boy chose 'Atlantis...'
- Lloyd Bridges was originally cast to voice Whitmore, but he passed away before the project was completed. After his death, Whitmore was re-recorded by John Mahoney.
- During the preparatory period, the filmmakers traveled to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southeastern New Mexico, USA, to better understand what it was like to live underground. This trip also helped the animators create the caves through which Whitmore's expedition passed on their way to Atlantis.
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