The Unique Visual Aesthetic
In the early years of the new millennium, Disney animation was turning away from the lavish musical spectacles which put the studio back on top in the early 90s. After the relatively disappointing box office results of films like Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame, studio executives pushed their creative team to deliver unique projects to help stave off the uprising of both Pixar and DreamWorks. While Disney animated films were still naturally performing well with family audiences, few teenagers would be caught dead in the line for the studio’s latest animated title. Desperate to tap into the teen market, Eisner went looking for an animated project he could easily sell to teenagers who grew up with Disney films but had outgrown love stories and talking animals. And he would turn to the team responsible for one of the most successful Disney animated films of all time.
In October 96, directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, producer Don Hahn and screenwriter Tab Murphy got together to toast the release of Hunchback of Notre Dame. After the staggering heights of Beauty and the Beast, they were al hopeful their next film would be equally successful. After a smooth production run, they were keen to keep their team together for the next film.
After crafting two animated musicals, the group were interested in attempting something radically different, with their sights firmly set on producing an action-adventure inspired by Jules Verne’s classic 1864 sci-fi novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth. The team were keen to produce an action-heavy animated film set in the mythological lost city of Atlantis, which Verne’s work had only briefly touched upon. Trousdale soon approached Eisner with the pitch for Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which was greenlit on the spot, with the pair in agreement the film would not be a musical.
With a desire to craft a film that fully explored the city, the team heavily researched the mythology of Atlantis through various sources and were frustrated the city was consistently depicted or described as a mess of crumbled columns underwater. Trousdale and Wise made the decision to depict the city as a spectacular civilisation of the future with advanced technology powered by the “Heart of Atlantis,” a powerful crystal which also protected the city. The mystical crystal also provided the city’s citizens with healing powers and longevity of life, which was inspired by the work of Edgar Cayce, a late 19th-century clairvoyant.
THE PLOT
In 1914 New York, Milo Thatch is a young, ambitious Smithsonian cartographer and linguist who believes he has found the directions to Atlantis. But the museum board rejects his proposal of an expedition, and instead he calls upon an eccentric millionaire who not only funds it but finds Milo a team of specialists to accompany him.
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In a bid to truly depict Atlantis as its own unique civilisation, Trousdale and Wise were insistent on creating an entire spoken and written language for the Atlanteans. They turned to American linguistics expert Marc Okrand, the man responsible for developing the Klingon language for the Star Trek television series and its subsequent feature films. Okrand employed an Indo-European word stock for the Atlantean language with its own individual grammatical structure. Okrand worked for months on the language with a determination to create words that sounded nothing like any known language in existence.
The written components were designed by John Emerson, who crafted hundreds of random sketches of individual letters from which the directors chose those that best represented the vision for the language they had. The final designs generally featured swirled lines and dots to depict the Atlanteans close connection to the ocean and the earth. All written components were boustrophedon aka designed to be read left-to-right on the first line, then right-to-left on the second, and so on. This continual zigzag pattern was created to simulate the organic flow of water.
Trousdale and Wise yearned for the film’s visual aesthetic to be unlike anything Disney had done thus far, with the goal of creating something that truly looked like an animated comic book. So they approached Mike Mignola, creator and artist of Hellboy. At first, Mignola was stunned to be approached to work on a Disney animated feature, but leapt at the opportunity after meeting with Trousdale and Wise, who described their bold vision for the film.
Mignola was hired to be one of four production designers, providing detailed style guides, character and background designs, and even working closely with Murphy on story ideas including the creation of mechanical flying-fish machines for the film’s conclusion. His influence over the entire production was immeasurable, with every visual element of the final film reflecting his unique style with sharp angular edges and deep lines, which mirrored the artwork of comic books.
At the height of its production, over 350 animators, artists, and technicians were working on the film. The services of Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, Disney Feature Animation Florida, and Disney Animation France were employed, with designs either faxed, couriered, or digitally shared between the three studios to allow for consistency in the aesthetic. With more CGI than any other film thus far, Atlantis: The Lost Empire would ultimately include over 360 digital-effects shots that took more than three years to craft. Computer software was utilised to seamlessly join the 2D animation with artwork and object created in 3D, particularly in sequences involving the Ulysses submarine. The directors were also able to use a groundbreaking “virtual camera” which allowed the camera to effortlessly glide through a digital wire-frame set, with the background and details drawn over the frames in post-production.
MY VERDICT
Truthfully, I remember few things about this film. I remember the king of Atlantis, voiced by the late Leonard Nimoy who brings weight and gravitas to almost anything he does. The animation and visuals are incredible. And a few of the characters are memorably funny. But, the main hero is unbelievably flat and the main villain is monumentally cliched, the story is very dull and boring, since it’s another case of heroic young man coming to save the beautiful princess. In this case, in fact, the princess probably should have not only been named the hero of the whole film, but probably also added to the Disney Princess lineup at some point, though the studio seems determined to avoid that. Understandable, given the film’s poor box office performance. In short, this is another example of style over substance. It makes bold advances in animation, but the plot leaves much to be desired.
Is Atlantis the Lost Empire a Disney Classic? For all the film’s incredible artistry, the screenplay has issues that ultimately create a very dull film. Attaining cult status with some fans does not make a Disney Classic.
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