The original post: /r/movies by /u/simondufresne on 2025-01-01 17:18:05.
Watched this one for the Disney movie project and while it was definitely a little sloppy, I walked away enjoying the majority of it.
The cast of characters are vivid and diverse, the story and themes are dark and mature, and the animation is top tier - some of the best I've seen. It's so easy to see why THIS one is the Disney movie that people want a live action movie out of (but also please be careful what you wish for, they'd likely botch it)
I wanted to look into possible reasons it might have flopped when it came out and laughed - very little research was needed. As a more mature animated movie aiming at a Teen Audience, Atlantis released in the summer of 2001 and was up against....
Shrek.
Atlantis was never going to do well.
And on the live action side we had movies like Lara Croft Tomb Raider (I was a huge fan of this one) and The Fast and the Furious (didn't catch this one until I saw the series when Furious....8? came out)
Either way the competition in Atlantis's target audience was way too strong and there was no way it was ever going to find a home in theaters. I'm glad it's found a cult following though as it definitely deserves it. How the movie deals with it's dark themes, all of that death, and the relationships between the crew and Milo all make it a high tier Disney movie for me.
Are y'all fans of the movie, do you think it's underrated or do you think it earned it's box office flop by being "meh"?
I made a video with my thoughts and a look into the making of the movie if you're interested in diving deeper
Atlantis The Lost Empire Video
Also I didn't mention it in there but the SCORE on this one is incredible. James Newton Howard really went all out and delivered an epic score that I would put up there with Hans Zimmer's Lion King score. Not Better than LK, but up there.