I liked Atlantis: The Lost Empire when it was originally released in theaters back in 2001. I enjoyed the fact it was a “ripping adventure” in the style of perhaps Indiana Jones or 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. It made money, but was not the blockbuster the studio was hoping for. Critically it got mixed reviews, perhaps because people expected it to be a musical, like the previous year’s Emperor’s New Groove, or other recent Disney releases (or, actually, almost all of them).
Rated “PG” Atlantis: The Lost Empire isn’t for the youngest of kids, and the only reason it isn’t rated “PG-13” is because it is animated. Not all of the crew make it to Atlantis, and that’s not even a half hour into the film.
The voice cast is fantastic, with Michael J. Fox in the lead role of Milo Thatch, grandson of a famous explorer who was on the trail of finding the lost civilization of Atlantis. Milo has made it his life’s work to vindicate his grandfather’s work. There’s James garner as expedition captain Rourke, Claudia Christian as his second in command, and other greats including Jim Varney, Don Novello, Florence Stanley, John Mahoney, Corey Burton, Leonard Nimoy and more.
As for the style, there’s a mixture of some computer graphics, but it’s mostly hand drawn. The style fits with the general “adventure” style of the story. It looks good on Blu-ray with great visual clarity and the sound really pops.
Really, I think Atlantis: The Lost Empire is an underrated film, adventure, family, animated, or whatever category you want to put it under.
Then there is Atlantis: Milo’s Return, a direct to video sequel that was released a couple of years later. Because the film wasn’t as successful as planned a theatrical sequel and television series were scrubbed. Instead the development and preproduction for both projects was wrapped up and we get this.
Most of the cast of secondary characters return to their voice roles, with the addition of Clancy Brown as a possible antagonist and James Arnold Taylor filling in for Michael J. Fox. the animation isn’t as good, the pacing is off and the character development is almost absent. Really, it does feel like three episodes of a television series strung together.
This 2-movie collection is a bit odd, as with other recent Disney offerings there’s the 2 films on a single Blu-ray, then the two films come on separate DVDs, making this a 3 disc package, but not in the manner one might think.
Most of the special features for Atlantis: The Lost Empire make the transition to the Blu-ray. Lost is the visual commentary, but the audio commentary is there. Originally on a separate DVD, the bulk of the special features are present in a newly reorganized format.
I fired up the DVD copy of the film and noticed it was a master from a decade ago. Literally. The previews, commercials and trailers that ran before the film all featured stuff that was “coming new to DVD” or “coming to theaters” a decade ago.
And there were the special features. Audio commentary, music video. While not as complete as on the 2 DVD collector’s edition, there’s a lot there. Why were these special features not place on the Blu-ray? Why spend so little effort on the DVDs to not even update the trailers?
Only a deleted scene for the second film. I would have been interested in an audio commentary to hear how this movie was shaped by events at Disney.
This Blu-ray release falls very short of the mark, but at least it fares much better than The Emperor’s New Groove and Lilo & Stitch. Buy it, but keep a hold of that 2 disc DVD release if you still have it.