This next one is a real doozy. One of us had seen it before, but forgot it almost immediately after and the other one was less than enthusiastic to watch the animation. It could be said that Disney's offerings for most of the 2000's tried to copy Pixar, which itself copied anime and especially Miayazaki. Atlantis: The Lost Empire is no exception.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Painfully directionless and the paper thin characters didn't help. But we'll delve more into those aspects down below.
Characters
It is nigh impossible to make this, because none of the characters differ from each other significantly. They try to establish the base line for the characters but you come out of this movie remembering absolutely nothing of the people in the film. So this'll be very "bare bones" character outlines.
Milo: He's an explorer. They hired Michael J. Fox as his voioce, so that we'd automatically connect the character with sense of adventure, naivety and youthful curiosity. The problem is, the voice alone does not a character make - you actually have to write one. The dude also has no character arc to speak of, so for once Disney did to a male main character what they've always done to their female characters. Progress?
Kida: She's even worse than the main
character, so we guess the progress is thus nullified. Kida is there to
be the dark-skinned excotic object of romance. Her role as the saviour
of her people is also basically anime's "magical girl" powers, except it
isn't even her but a blob of power she has morphed into that does all
the saving. There is no evidence that she was ever concious while the
blob did the whole saviour stuff. Also, Kida is probably the most
egregious example of Disney sexualizing their women, she doesn't even
get pants like Jasmine, a long skirt like Esmeralda or a one-piece like
Pocahontas. All she gets is shreds of clothes to show as much skin as
possible.
The crew: They're pretty forgettable but also they're the only ones with any kind of character arc and purpose when they turn against their villainous leader. Other than that, they're basically indistinguishable and they've clearly been modeled after Miyazaki's pirates but without their humour and hearts of gold. And the villain is a ridiculously bland "surprise baddie", he doesn't even get Clayton's obvious villain vibes that make him somewhat entertaining. This film basically started Disney's villainous characters' downfall - as in they become bland as fuck, there is no pizzazz, charisma, entertainment or humour in any of them.
Story
Atlantis: The Lost Empire has somewhat similar themes to Pocahontas - discovering a new world, greedy mercenary wants to take advantage of the culture's technology and the main character is fascinated by the new culture and it's female member. Except this movie manages to be even more offensive than Pochahontas - it's the white main character who teaches Atlantis' natives how to read their own language and use their technology. You couldn't be more white saviour if you tried. We suppose that's why the filmmakers had Kida save the city in the end, but as said previously, it wasn't really her who saved the people, it was an unconcious mass of power. Since we do not care one iota of the characters, the plot feels incredibly draggy and the finale's deus ex machina does not make the story any better - at least anime's magical girl's usually use their powers of their own will and are concious when doing it and if not, that usually means something is terribly wrong which the story then explores. None of that here, Kida is just a vessel and nothing more. Also, the fact that the main character has more chemistry with a damn teenager tells how half-assed the romance really is.
Miscellanous
The CGI is incredibly distracting. A lot of the designs are cool and quite unique but the horrible hamfisted CGI either distracts you from them or outright blots them out. Music is also rather forgettable. There is a reason Disney movies are remembered for their music - it is a way to tell a story without dialogue and memorable songs that are used in the background as themes was the longest time Disney's bread and butter. Once you take the songs away there is only a skeleton left. The colours still look great and yes, we prefer 2D animation infinitely more than CGI, even when it is an abject failure like this one.
