If all the other elements are good quality, can a good movie come out of a terrible screenplay? 2001's Atlantis: The Lost Empire at least succeeds at being a decent movie if not a great one. The 41st film in the Disney animated canon, it follows in the footsteps of The Rescuers Down Under to be more of an action adventure film than one typically expects from Disney's animated films. It belongs to a category of explorer adventure films I rather like and I warmed to it early on. Like Lost Horizon or King Solomon's Mines, it's about a motley group of adventurers making their way through uncharted territory. Characters are perfectly cast and interesting, featuring voice work from Michael J. Fox and James Garner among others. Mike Mignola worked on the designs and a consistent style throughout the film is combined with complex details thoughout for Atlantean culture to make a lush, intriguing mise-en-scene. There are plenty of problems with the writing from the beginning but the movie doesn't become truly bad until the characters reach Atlantis, at which point the screenplay defaults back to the Pocahontas/Tarzan story, and forces the characters to act against their previously established personalities to do it.
Milo Thatch (Fox) is a linguist and cartographer who works at the Smithsonian in 1914. No-one respects him and most of his work entails taking care of the boiler. He's obsessed with finding Atlantis, which was the passion of his late beloved grandfather. After his latest plea for funding an expedition has been rebuffed, a dejected Milo goes home to find a sexy femme fatale waiting for him.
At this point, I was so onboard with this movie. Her animation is deliciously sexy. Her voice was familiar and I thought for a moment I was hearing Kathleen Turner--the character, Helga, is almost a version of Jessica Rabbit--but actually she's voiced by Claudia Christian, a.k.a. most of the Nord women in Skyrim. At this point she was best known for Babylon 5.
Helga is great, silkily strutting and drowsily sneering, there's nothing like the promise of poisonous sex to start an adventure. It's a perfect way to add to the ominous nature of Milo being taken to a strange mansion, the design of which contributes to the atmosphere, too.
He meets his grandfather's friend, voiced by John Mahoney, who's almost a human version of Scrooge McDuck. But he doesn't accompany the expedition--instead it's led by James Garner, who at this point in the film is both amiable, canny, and firm. The motley crew of the submarine--which unabashedly apes the Nautilus from Disney's own 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea--are a fascinating assemblage. A sexy Puerto Rican teenage girl is the engineer (Jacqueline Obradors), a big African American man with an intriguing backstory is the medic (Phil Morris), a laconic and very funny Italian man is the demolitions expert (Don Novello), the communications officer is a burnt out old American white lady (Florence Stanley). Two more amusing characters voiced by Corey Burton and Jim Varney round out the crew. The best scene in the film is an underground camp scene where they all talk about their pasts.
But I like the Atlantean princess, Kida (Cree Summer), introduced in the weak part of the film. She shows up wearing a big mask and fur reminiscent of San's in Princess Mononoke but she's much sexier than San. Yes, this movie has three sexy women, which I think is a record for Disney, unless you count the mermaids in Peter Pan. Atlantis has three sexy named female characters, I should say. Kida's a little more sarcastic than Pocahontas but she's basically Pocahontas. Her father, voiced by Leonard Nimoy, is even closer to Pocahontas' father, disapproving of the foreigners and his daughter's interest in them.
At this point, James Garner abruptly turns into a maniac and wants to rob the Atlanteans of their big power crystal, which, for vague reasons, either provides them with electricity or has allowed them to be immortal. Despite everyone in the city being the same inhabitants that lived in the city when it was displaced thousands of years ago, they've forgotten the written language and need Milo to explain it to them. Despite forming a bond with Milo, the crew have no initial hesitation about helping James Garner steal the life source of Atlantis. And there's a lot more that doesn't make sense, I won't give you the laundry list. It's enough to be seriously distracting.
Movies like Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid really don't need to have totally logical plots but it's kind of a problem in an adventure movie of the kind Atlantis is trying to be. In this case it leads to a weak sense of character motivations, though this is mitigated a lot by Michael J. Fox's performance as well as the performances from the supporting cast. The only character who really works from beginning to end, though, is Helga and her role is ultimately pretty small. Still, the animation is always good and at times the film manages a real sense of awe. It's certainly better than The Emperor's New Groove.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire is available on Disney+.
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This is part of a series of posts I'm writing on the Disney animated canon.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Dumbo
Bambi
Saludos Amigos
The Three Caballeros
Make Mine Music
Fun and Fancy Free
Melody Time
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Cinderella
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
101 Dalmatians
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
The Aristocats
Robin Hood
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Rescuers
The Fox and the Hound
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Oliver & Company
The Little Mermaid
The Rescuers Down Under
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan
Fantasia 2000
Dinosaur
The Emperor's New Groove
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