Review - Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) & Treasure Planet (2002)

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and to kick off the month of April, I wanted to take a look at two Disney animated films that weren't box office hits for the studio upon initial release in theaters, but are being celebrated twenty years later as films that everyone got wrong the first time, and are now enjoying fanbases that weren't really as massive then as they are now. And those movies are Atlantis: The Lost Empire, directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, and Treasure Planet, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. Released one year apart from each other, these were attempts from veteran animation directors to do something different for Disney. In the case of Atlantis, it was to tell an epic Jules Verne esque adventure with the artist style of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, and with Treasure Planet, it was to take Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of Treasure Island and tell it as a sci-fi adventure. 

       So, let's start off with Atlantis. Atlantis opens with a prologue in 6,800 B.C. where, after a weapon test gone wrong, a massive tidal wave approaches the city of Atlantis. The source of power for Atlantis, a massive sentient crystal called the Heart of Atlantis, takes the Queen into itself for protection, bonding with her whilst separating her from her husband and their child, Kida. The Stone Guardians form a massive shield that protects the palace and city center, sinking it deep beneath the surface, while the rest of Atlantis is wiped away by the water. 

        Years later, in 1914 A.D., we meet linguist Milo Thatch, who is essentially mocked by academia for his beliefs in Atlantis, as well as an ancient tome called the Shepherd's Journal, which is key to finding Atlantis, and is hidden somewhere on the coast of Iceland. Milo, after basically quitting his museum job, is approached by a woman named Helga Sinclair, who takes him to the estate of the millionaire Preston Whitmore, who has a gift for Milo from his grandfather, Thaddeus. The gift is none other than the Shepherd's Journal, which makes Milo excited. Whitmore, it seems,.made a bet with Milo's grandfather to finance the expedition to Atlantis if the Journal was successfully recovered. 

         So, it's here where we meet the crew for the expedition, which includes Helga, Commander Rourke, Doc Sweet, Vinnie the demolition expert, Audrey the mechanic, Cookie the chef, Mrs. Packard the comms officer, and Moliere the geologist. Moliere, or Mole for short, is easily the movie's most annoying character. But, I definitely enjoyed Corey Burton's performance in the role. 

       Anyway, the expedition crew boards the submarine, the Ulysses, and they head off into the ocean depths, seeking the entrance to Atlantis. The entrance is guarded by a giant mechanical monster called the Leviathan, which destroys the sub, and takes out a number of small craft like Sub-Pods and Carrier Craft. Rourke and co. memorialize the fallen crew members, and following the maps in the Journal, the make their way closer and closer to Atlantis. After the lengthy journey, the expedition crew stops very close to the way to Atlantis, but their camp is set ablaze when Milo unintentionally angers a nest of fireflies, and the crew is sent into the bowels of a dormant volcano. Milo,. following some masked warriors, makes his way to an open area where Atlantis is located. The crew catches up, and they are confronted by the masked warriors, who turn out to be Atlanteans. The leader of their party, who turns out to be a grown up Princess Kida, guides them into the city to meet her father, who reluctantly allows them to stay for the evening. 

        Milo and Kida begin to bond, as she shows him the entirety of Atlantis, and he helps her with translations that she needs help with, including a massive submerged mural of the Heart of Atlantis. Unfortunately, it turns out that Rourke and co. are after the crystal as a means of getting rich, and they find the entrance to a secret chamber housing the crystal in the King's throne room. After the crystal senses a threat, Kida is chosen to bond with it as her mother was millennia ago, in easily the most epic scene of the movie. Seriously, the animation of the scene, combined with the impressive music score by James Newton Howard, is absolutely fantastic. After Kida and the crystal are bonded, Rourke and his men box her in a metal crate to be taken to the surface, leaving the Atlantean people to die. Milo is knocked down by Rourke, and Audrey, Cookie, Mole, Vinnie, and Packard all turn on Rourke. 

        Rourke, Helga, and the others get away, and Sweet calls for Milo, as the King of Atlantis is dying from internal bleeding. Before he dies, the King tells Milo the story of the crystal, and how he attempted to use it as a weapon for war, but its power couldn't be controlled, and Atlantis fell as a result. This explains why the King hid the crystal, as a means of preventing history from reoccurring. The King hands his personal crystal to Milo, and begs him to save Kida and Atlantis. Milo decides to stop Rourke and bring Kida and the crystal back to the city. And, of course, Sweet, Audrey, Mole, Vinnie, and Cookie join Milo on his mission, as do several Atlantean warriors. 

       The ensuing battle scene is pretty epic, and it does show just how much of an asshole Rourke really is when he turns on Helga. Rourke is, ultimately, defeated when Milo scratches him with a charged piece of glass, mutating him into a crystalline being, only to be shattered and destroyed. Milo and co. hurry Kida back to Atlantis, all while being chased by a flow of lava from the reawakening volcano. Kida causes the stone carvings of the Kings of the Past, reawakens the Stone Guardians, and the power of the crystal leads the Guardians to activate a shield to protect Atlantis from the flow of lava. The crystal unbinds itself from Kida, returning her to normal. 

        So, the remaining expedition crew returns to the surface with crystals and gold, with each of them being sworn to secrecy by Whitmore, who opens a package from Milo containing a crystal for him. Milo, who chose to remain in Atlantis, finishes carving a stone carving of Kida's father, which rises into the sky and joins the other Kings of the Past in circling around the crystal. Kida, now Queen of Atlantis, and Milo, her new husband, witness as Atlantis begins to rebuild itself into the bountiful empire it once was, ending the movie. 

      Honestly, I enjoyed this movie as a kid, and I enjoy it even more as an adult. As a kid, I enjoyed the action and the humor, as well as the characters. As an adult, I enjoy the visual aesthetic and the background design. One thing that I've learned in more recent years is that the creators wanted to avoid the traditional cliches of Atlantis, which are broken Greek columns underwater. Instead, the opted to base the overall look of Atlantis on both Mayan and Cambodian cultures, just to name a couple. Add on to that that the linguist Marc Okrand, who famously created the Klingon language for Star Trek, created the Atlantean language for this movie. Cool. 

      The voice cast, what's there to say? Everyone is fantastic. Michael J. Fox as Milo, Cree Summer as Kida, Jim Varney as Cookie, Phil Morris as Doc Sweet, James Garner as Rourke, Leonard Nimoy as the King of Atlantis, Don Novello as Vinnie, and the aforementioned Corey Burton as Mole, all of them were fantastic. Sadly, this movie would mark the final performance of Jim Varney, as he would pass away shortly before the film's release. But, easily, Cree Summer as Kida is my favorite performance of this movie. It's a shame she's not an official Disney Princess, as she would easily be my personal favorite. I should also point out that, for the character of Vinnie, the bulk of Don Novello's dialogue was completely improvised, as he would read the scripted lines once, and then improv something much funnier, which is what the filmmakers would ultimately go with. 

         Now, what's actually interesting is that the filmmakers created an entirely different opening sequence from what ended up in the movie, called "the Viking Prologue." In this version, a group of Vikings were using the Shepherd's Journal to find the gate to Atlantis, only to be attacked by the Leviathan. It's really cool, especially to have the Vikings actually speaking in Icelandic. However, it presented another problem, which was pointed out by one of the story writers on the movie. According to him, this prologue made it so that the audience wouldn't see Atlantis or the Atlanteans until roughly an hour into the movie, thus costing any reason to care about them. Now, while the Viking Prologue is cool, and one might argue that it gives Atlantis and the Atlanteans an air of mystique, I do think that the theatrical prologue with the destruction of Atlantis is much better, and makes the movie stronger. 

        Overall, this movie is the kind of epic that was rare for Disney at the time. Heck it's the kind of James Cameron esque adventure that film fans like me absolutely enjoy. I'm glad this movie finally has an audience and a fanbases, because it definitely deserves it. I'm giving Atlantis: The Lost Empire a rating of 5/5. 

         About a year and a half later, Disney would release Treasure Planet. The story is pretty much the exact plot of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, so you're probably familiar with it. Jim Hawkins is a young, rebellious teen who, after being given a map by a dying Billy Bones, ends up on an epic quest to find Captain Flint's treasure, which is hidden on the mythical Treasure Planet. So, along with a family friend named Dr. Doppler, Jim heads off on an interstellar journey aboard the RLS Legacy, which is captained by Captain Amelia, who is joined by her loyal first mate Mr. Arrow. Others on the ship are a band of marauding pirates led by a cyborg cook named John Silver, who is accompanied by a little pink blob called Morph.

          The journey goes as expected, as Mr. Arrow is lost on the way, but the ship does make it to Treasure Planet, and of course Silver and his men turn on Captain Amelia and the others, leading them to make their way to the planet below. On the planet, we meet an annoying robot named B.E.N. B.E.N., it turns out, was left on the planet by Captain Flint himself, but without his memory chip. Using the starmap, Jim learns that Flint used a gateway to traverse to different places to steal his treasure and return to Treasure Planet in an instant. And where did he hide it? In the middle of the planet itself, accessible through the gate. As Silver and the pirates celebrate finding the treasure, Jim finds the memory chip belonging to B.E.N. and returns it to him, which reminds him of Flint's booby trap. Apparently, Flint didn't want anyone else nabbing his treasure, so he rigged the planet to blow and thus destroy the treasure. Jim, Captain Amelia, Doppler, Silver, the pirates (who've been captured), and B.E.N. manage to escape by Jim setting the gate to the spaceport near his home planet Montressor. For his actions, Amelia recommends Jim to the Interstellar Academy. Silver takes off to avoid going to prison, and leaves Jim with Morph, and a handful of Flint's treasure so his mother can rebuild the Benbow Inn, which was destroyed by the pirates earlier in the movie. 

        Sometime later, the Benbow is rebuilt and reopened, Jim is an interstellar cadet, and Amelia and Doppler are a couple with children. Happy ending for everyone. 

        Okay, so unlike Atlantis, Treasure Planet's story plays it a little too safe. I think that has to do with the fact that with Atlantis, screenwriter Tab Murphy and the team of story creatives, including Joss Whedon, were crafting the story and the world of Atlantis from the ground up. With Treasure Planet, it's very much still the story of Treasure Island, just with a sci-fi makeover. And the reason I'm not calling it Treasure Island in space, despite that description being used by everyone, is because technically the movie isn't set in space. In fact, what could be viewed as space is actually called the Ethereum in this movie, which allows for such things as day/night cycles and being able to breath make a bit more sense, but also explain the need for artificial gravity generators. So, simmer down for a sec, Neill DeGrasse Tyson. This movie isn't actually set in space, it's basically an interstellar version of the open sea. And seeing space whales in this movie is pretty cool. 

       Speaking of which, I think that it's really the visual style that makes Treasure Planet so unique. The movie combines the attire and ship designs of the seventeenth century with a combination of two sci-fi forms: cyberpunk and steampunk. The idea of a high seas vessel with rocket engines and solar sails is absolutely fantastic, and of course the scene of Jim flying around in an industrial steampunk setting on a solar surfboard is one of the coolest moments in animation. And, I gotta point out that the Deep Canvas software used for Tarzan was also used for Treasure Planet, but much more extensively, and the scenery that was painted with Deep Canvas is incredible to look at. 

        The voice cast was also incredible, with the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jim, Brian Murray as Silver, Emma Thompson as Captain Amelia, David Hyde Pierce as Doppler, Michael Wincott as Scroop, Laurie Metcalf as Jim's mother, and a bit of early narration by Tony Jay all being memorable. And as much as I enjoy Martin Short, he could be really annoying at times as B.E.N. And, honestly, that's just a matter of writing, but I'm sure younger viewers will find him hilarious. 

      And, of course there's the music in this movie, and I'm not just referring to the song "I'm Still Here" by John Rzeznik. Although, admittedly, it's honestly one of my favorite songs featured in a Disney movie, as just hearing an angst-ridden power ballad during a sequence that showcases Jim's growing bond with Silver, interspersed with flashbacks of his childhood where we see his father just up and left him and his mother behind is one of the most memorable moments in Treasure Planet. And while we're on that subject, let's dive into it. It's a running joke in Disney films that the protagonist is the child of a single parent because the other one died off screen. Ariel and her sisters raised by King Triton. Belle raised by Maurice. Bambi brought up by his father after his mother is killed by hunters. But in Jim's case in this movie, that doesn't happen. We see that the marriage between Jim's parents fell apart because his father just gave up and left his family behind, which is all the more tragic. It's really amazing that Disney actually went that route, and I gotta commend them for it. 

      But, there's also the music score. Much like with Atlantis, the music in Treasure Planet is composed by James Newton Howard, and it's fantastic. Same with his work on Atlantis the more I think about it. Now, while the music score for Atlantis has an epic feel of adventure and exploring the unknown, as well as just an overall scale of being massive, the music score for Treasure Planet has a feel of a high seas adventure, just set in the stars. And, it has equal amounts of epicness and more somber, intimate moments. Honestly, James Newton Howard is a master of music score, and definitely deserves a lot of credit for.his works on both of these movies. 

         Now, I really enjoy Treasure Planet, but unlike Atlantis, where I was a fan from the very beginning, Treasure Planet took a while to get in to. But, I still enjoy it for it's visual style and it's music, and I definitely think it's one of the more underrated Disney projects by Ron Clements and John Musker. I'm giving Treasure Planet a rating of 4.5/5. 

         Alright, so a big part of why I reviewed these movies together is because, despite being made by different teams and having completely different stories and art styles, both Atlantis and Treasure Planet have more in common with each other than one might think. Both were released around the same timeframe, the early 2000's, and both underperformed at the box office. While Atlantis did turn a profit, it wasn't the massive hit Disney was looking for. And Treasure Planet, unfortunately, bombed big time. And yet, none of that is due to a declining interest in hand-drawn animation. Really, it was poor marketing material and being released in proximity to movies that had much bigger payouts that led to both movies underperforming. Atlantis was released around the same time as such films as Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie, and of course Shrek, which was all the rage in 2001. As for Treasure Planet? It's biggest competition was the Bond film Die Another Day, the second Harry Potter film, Chamber of Secrets, and Disney's own film The Santa Clause 2. Simply put, there was just too much competition for it to really thrive. 

       This led to several planned projects, such as a spin-off series called Team Atlantis, a potential Treasure Planet follow-up, and attempts to rebrand the Yellow Submarine ride at the Disney parks to both Atlantis and Treasure Planet. Eventually, the ride would be themed around the Pixar film Finding Nemo. Three episodes of the planned Team Atlantis series would be packaged together in a direct to DVD sequel called Atlantis: Milo's Return, but it was average at best. 

        Luckily, both Treasure Planet and Atlantis have gotten major cult followings, and Atlantis has even been reevaluated as a mistreated classic. I'm glad both of these movies have a fandom now, as both really deserve it, and bot are a testament to Disney trying to break from the normal routine of animated musicals and going with something different. I enjoy both of these movies, but if I had to choose which of the two I prefer, I gotta go with Atlantis, because it felt like the bigger risk between the two. It took more chances, it built both a world and a story completely of its own, and I really love it for that. Plus, anything that combines Mike Mignola and Joss Whedon is definitely doing something right. 

      Now, what's actually funny is that in the midst of the barrage of Disney remaking their animated films in live-action, fans are demanding for both Atlantis AND Treasure Planet to get remade. And, while I don't want either of them to get remade, I do see the appeal, as both are underrated classics that deserve more love. And hell, if he's got some free time once his Avatar sequels are finished, I would love to see James Cameron take a crack at a remake of Atlantis. Hell, a lot of people already compare Avatar and Atlantis to each other, so I definitely get it. But, I really think that the best way to get more people watching Atlantis and Treasure Planet is to just have watch parties for both movies and stream them on Disney+. No need to remake them, just get more people watching the originals and find out what they've been missing this entire time. 

       Anyway guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time.