Personal advisory note: while admittedly my appreciation for some of the more recent animated movies has decreased quite drastically and I have not lived my childhood watching the classical Disney Cartoons (or knowing by heart any of the songs), in my opinion the movie I want to explore today has passed under the radar and is fairly underrated.
In its 20th anniversary, it is worthwhile to make resurface from the depths of the early 2001 Atlantis: the Lost Empire (see what I did there?).
The first thing to mention is that unlike other disneyesque productions, its animation has a unique touch to it given that it was inspired by the style of Mike Mignola (the very same artist that created Hellboy). While it is true that CGI is used, this only slightly hinders just some of the scenes. Other than the art style, it is also worth mentioning that linguist Marc Okrand (the creator of the Klingon language) was hired to invent the language used by the natives of Atlantis.
On to other more interesting details: given that I already wrote about Jules Verne in other articles, the French writer makes his return here. His works somewhat inspired Atlantis: the Lost Empire. Not only is it possible to see a submarine similar to the Nautilus, but also other depictions of his narrative were employed. In his Twenty thousand leagues under the sea (1870) it is captain Nemo who finds the remainders of an ancient civilization on the bottom of the ocean floor. While this is certainly not the first example of the fictitious Atlantis in literature (considering that Plato had written about it quite a long time before), it was certainly not the last; many writers along the years have used this myth as a source of inspiration to re-envision stories and worlds and contribute to its legend. I will not start to make a list about the many, many, many times Atlantis has been used in such a way, just a scroll on a Wikipedia page is enough to understand how important it was for literature; not to mention for comic-books and manga. One note that I do however want to add is that Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (the very same novel that roughly inspired the first BioShock game), in spite of its title, does not actually refer to a sunken city and it is rather a metaphor – it is a very good book nonetheless and some of her descriptions are simply sublime.
One last thing that is worth sharing about Atlantis: the Lost Empire is a quote, simple yet effective, and it is how I want to end this brief article:
“Our lives are remembered by the gifts we leave our children”.
I would give this movie a nostalgic 7 out of 10 Hearts of Atlantis.
PS: There is no sequel.