Product Details

• Actors: Michael J. Fox, Jim Varney, Corey Burton, Claudia Christian, James Garner
• Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
• Writers: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Bryce Zabel, David Reynolds, Jackie Zabel
• Format: Animated, Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Walt Disney Video
• VHS Release Date: January 29, 2002
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (359 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005RDWG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,517 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Disney Studio was built on innovation in animation, so it seems ironic that Atlantis is both a bold departure and highly derivative, borrowing heavily from anime, video games, and graphic novels. Instead of songs and fuzzy little animals, the artists offer an action-adventure set in 1914: nerdy linguist Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox) believes he's found the location of the legendary Lost Continent. An eccentric zillionaire sends Milo out to test his hypothesis with an anachronistic crew that includes tough Puerto Rican mechanic Audrey (Jacqueline Obradors), demolition expert Vinnie (Don Novello), and butt-kicking blond adventurer Helga (Claudia Christian). When they find Atlantis, its culture is dying because the people can no longer read the runes that explain their mysterious power source--but Milo can. Nasty Commander Rourke (James Garner) attempts to steal that power source, leading to the requisite all-out battle.

Atlantis offers some nifty battle scenes, including an attack on a Jules Verne-esque submarine by a giant robotic trilobite and fishlike flying cars. But the film suffers from major story problems. If Princess Kida (Cree Summer) remembers her civilization at its height, why can't she read the runes? Why doesn't Milo's crew notice that the Atlanteans live for centuries? The angular designs are based on the work of comic book artist Mike Mignola (Hellboy), and the artists struggle with the characters' stubby hands, skinny limbs, and pointed jaws. The result is a film that will appeal more to 10-year-old boys than to family audiences.

Suitable for ages 8 and up: violence, scary imagery, tobacco use, and a difficult-to-follow story. --Charles Solomon

From The New Yorker

This animated feature adds little to Disney's tradition of technical virtuosity, but it does subtract one thing: the songs. Presumably this was done to make the movie more palatable to adults driven mad by ten thousand replays of "Be My Guest." The story also has some grownup elements, like characters who die, though they do so mostly offscreen or in blinding flashes of white light. An inventor named Milo (voiced by Michael J. Fox) gets plucked from the boiler room to lead a mission to discover Atlantis. The story won't surprise you, but in a bleak summer season it at least has the merit of being coherent. Some of the sequences have an epic grandeur, especially the battle with the supersized lobster that guards the underwater city's entrance. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME!, June 16, 2001

By 

JM Yoda (Nebraska, United States) - See all my reviews

I saw ATLANTIS last night, accompanied by my 65 year-old mother, and we both had a great time. No, it's no LION KING or BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, but it's not meant to be either; it's meant to be something different for Disney, and it is. The action scenes are amazing, sometimes evoking for me images from the STAR WARS movies. The dialogue is often sharp, fast and hilarious (maybe a little too fast to follow for younger kids), and lots of our fellow adult audience members were laughing out loud. The voice talent is, as always with Disney, fantastic; Michael J. Fox does a terrific job as Milo, Leonard Nimoy is perfect as the aged Atlantean king, Cree Summer is proud, intelligent and earnest as Princess Kida, and Milo's fellow adventurers are all equally well done. I didn't find the storyline at all difficult to follow, and while the concept of the giant crystal that keeps Atlantis alive is a bit "new-age", I don't think kids will have a problem with it. It's sci-fi, it's fantasy, it's adventure - it's awesome! It's also a whole lot more than what you've seen in the previews and commercials, so go see the movie TODAY! You'll have a great time, and it might just spark your interest in the search for the real (hey, there is intriguing evidence) Atlantis. Adventure lives!

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Vision, Fun and Action, But a Confusing Plot, August 2, 2002

By 

Sir Charles Panther "Life is hard. It's hard... (Alexandria, Virginny, USandA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Atlantis - The Lost Empire (Walt Disney Pictures Presents) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Overall, this is good fun. It's an exciting film, highly imaginative, and visually spectacular, with a story that moves very quickly albeit thoroughly confusingly. I happily recommend it for family viewing.

Compared to recent Disney releases such as Cinderella II - Dreams Come True (Special Edition), 101 Dalmatians 2, and all of the other poorly done and profit-driven knockoffs, this film is an original gem. The animation is excellent, the characters are interesting and fun to watch, and the overall story is compelling, as well as very fast-paced. The movie certainly is suitable for kids as young as three or four, despite some of the more esoteric, non-sensical plot twists. We've got spectacular scenery, gadgets, battles, action, and explosions and fire, more than enough to keep the little ones fully engaged throughout. No sex, no drugs, no profanity, and only a little bit of blood (although the bad guys most certainly do get killed, neither graphically nor gloatingly).

Most impressive in this film is the artistic vision. Atlantis provides a fantastic opportunity to be creative, and the animators do not disappoint. The relatively modern (1907) setting allows some technical and scientific freedom for the animators, which was taken full advantage of. Everything is huge, massive in scale, from the steamship and its submarine, to the Leviathan guardian, to the tunnels and artifacts of Atlantis. For me, this is the most enjoyable part of the film, simply looking at the landscapes and backgrounds the animators have provided as backdrops for the action. This is excellent work, truly spectacular.

The cast is wonderfully diverse, ethnically, physically, and in terms of education, abilities, and hygiene. It's a really truly honestly and genuinely wonderful rainbow of diversity and teamwork, because, you know, it's only when we let go of our prejudices and overlook stereotypes that we can triumph over adversity. That being said, the strangest and filthiest member of the crew is the non-stop butt of jokes, derision, and less than thoughtful treatment by the rest of the team.

There's a minor problem, though. As dad to a six- and three-year-old, I've seen this film maybe 60 times in the past three months. As many times as I've watched it, I still don't grasp the entire concept of the Atlantean power crystal, how it "chooses" a host, what the crystal-host does, what exactly becomes physically of the crystal-host, and how the chosen individual interacts with it. Sure, the impossible-to-miss end-state is a human-interfaced and -generated automatic defensive system which protects the entire city, but all of the story elements don't make it clear how this all comes together. This is a bit anal, I know, but it just doesn't make sense.

Violence, yeah, there's enough of it, but precious little blood, and no gore. It's family-friendly violence, where the bad guys disappear neatly and completely in spectacular swirling, spiraling balls of beautifully rendered, parti-colored fire, with no suffering depicted. Early on we see an entire submarine and crew go down, and a little memorial service to commemorate the loss of 200-odd folks. There is also some good explosions during the final battle, with ball-of-fire ends to both bad guys and much fewer non-star Atlantaean good guys. None of the bad guys make it out alive, and the two bad-guy leaders die more or less visibly, but again, without blood or gore. The one, probably most direct instance of violence, is the bad-guy leader punching the enfeebled king of the Atlanteans in the stomach. The king later dies of his (internal) injuries, but the time-separation between the act and its results lessens the impact of the killing.

The uplifting aspects are just as powerful, and in the end the focus of the story. We have the love story between the leads, as well as a totally predictable yet nonetheless powerful shift in alliance from the established team members to that of the Atlanteans when it comes time to do the right thing. We see love and sacrifice, traits my six-year-old picked up on with no prompting from me.

All in all, this is a very enjoyable film. I dwell on the violence to inform only, so don't take it to mean that the film is full of violence; it is not. Overall, it's about adventure, the excitement and wonder of discovery, and what can be done when you choose the hard right over the easy wrong.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Skillfully made, but doesn't quite work (great DVD edition!), April 1, 2002

By 

Craig MACKINNON (Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2-Disc Collector's Edition) (DVD)

Milo, a mild-mannered linguist, is recruited by a reclusive billionaire to participate on a quest to find the lost continent of Atlantis. Joining him on the trek are a motley assortment of colourful characters, and together they battle subterrainian monsters and eventually find the lost continent. However, not all the characters have noble motivations..... This film was meant to be a departure from the standard song-and-dance musicals that we are used to from Disney; instead, Atlantis offers up a Japanimation vision and an action-packed thrill ride that never quite comes together.

The film is visually fantastic, seamlessly blending traditional 2-D hand-drawn main characters with 3-D computer-generated vehicles and landscapes. For any given scene, you can't tell the difference, showing the skill of the animators (and the directors for getting everyone on the same page). In addition, the sound and score are flawless. Unfortunately, the story and characters don't quite live up to the visuals and sound. The secondary characters get equal screen time, and Milo never develops a comraderie with most of them. This becomes glaringly obvious when it comes time to choose up sides for the confrontation between the noble explorers and the greedy plunderers. The motivation of the characters seems driven by the plot instead of vice versa.

This Special 2-DVD Edition has everything you could ever want to know. There are numerous little documentaries covering all aspects of the filming. The most interesting are those covering the voice actors (it's always interesting to see the real faces behind the voices). In addition, there are some cut scenes (most of which are crudely drawn and never finished) and over 1000 (!) storyboards and concept drawings covering all aspects of the development of the film. There is a directors' commentary voiced-over the film iteself, along with cut-aways showing development aspects that blend into the film. That the extras on disc 2 rarely duplicate the extras spliced into the directors' commentary is a testament to the care with which this DVD edition was put together.

Thus, although the film is a treat to watch and listen to, I found it a little contrived and it never quite worked for me. As a child, I never liked musical numbers in animated films, but Atlantis seems to be missing its soul because of the lack of songs. This Special Edition DVD is better than the film deserves, I think, and anyone interested in the creative process behind making a Disney animated feature will find a lot in the extra features.