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A DVD Review of...
  
Images (C) Disney |
Genre: Animated/Adventure
Cast (Voices): Michael J. Fox, James Garner, Cree Summer, Claudia Christian, Leonard Nimoy
Synopsis: An inexperienced young adventurer becomes the key to unraveling an ancient mystery when he joins up with a group of daredevil explorers to find the legendary lost empire of Atlantis. At the center of Disney’s exciting new animated feature is naïve-but-determined museum cartographer Milo Thatch (voice of MICHAEL J. FOX), who dreams of completing the quest begun by his late Grandfather, a famous explorer. When a long lost journal surfaces, providing new clues to the location, and an eccentric billionaire agrees to fund an expedition, the action shifts into high gear. Milo ultimately leads Captain Rourke (voice of JAMES GARNER) and his team to the elusive undersea kingdom, but what they find there defies their expectations and triggers an explosive series of events that only Milo can resolve..
Film Review: Disney's latest animated effort is a light, fun and imaginative adventure tale that's sadly a failed masterpiece. The bare bones of a truly epic story is there but its not executed very well and comes across as an enjoyable but very forgettable tale. Initially things run at hyper speed establishing the destruction of the famed continent and then moves to a very familiar feeling of stock Disney characters (a little darker than usual) being thrown together. Most aren't very memorable except for maybe the gritty female adventurer 'Helga'. From there it has the feeling of an animated Mummy or Indiana Jones film but without the charm & humour whilst the subject matter isn't as interesting. Nevertheless it has its moments which are very family friendly and whilst the traditional animation isn't particularly breathtaking there are moments where its quite spectacular. Its fun for hardcore Disney fans and family audiences but "Shrek" is easily a superior film. - Garth Franklin
"Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Collector's Special Edition"
DVD Details In Brief (Region 1)
Rating: PG
Runtime: 96mins
Versions: 16:9 Enhanced Widescreen, 4:3 Letterboxed
Aspect Ratio: 2.35: 1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Language & Sub-Titles: English
Commentaries: Audio/Video Commentary Track by Directors Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise, Producer Don Hahn
Documentaries: Eleven Featurettes on the Film's Making
Clips: Deleted Scenes, Animation Tests, Trailers
Other: Extensive Artwork/Still Galleries, Character Sketches & Dossiers, 3D Graphic Models, Original Treatment, Animation Style Guide, "Disney Pedia" Interactive Encyclopedia
Region 1 vs. Region 4: No Region 4 Available. |
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DVD Review: Disney always breaks new ground with each of their Animated Collector Editions and this is no exception. Once again this is a direct digital transfer and it shows - colors & blacks are rich, edges perfect, etc. though at moments I swore I could've seen bits of grain (don't ask me how but there's something off about it though its barely noticeable). The audio tracks are also excellent with great use of music and sound effects especially on both tracks - the score, which I never really noticed in the theatre, really shines through here. Also on the first disc is a commentary track with Directors Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise along with Producer Don Hahn. As commentaries go this is quite a serious one - the occasional laugh but for the most part its more just a slick presentation of information about the four years of hard work that went into the film's making. One thing which makes the track interesting is the ability to play a "Visual Commentary" track meaning that at certain points in the film the filmmakers will stop it and the trio in a recording studio will present video material relevant to the movie (making of, deleted scenes, etc.). Capping off Disc 1 is "DisneyPedia" - a sort of encyclopedia for kids on various topics like Atlantis and submarines, and sneak peeks for various direct-to-video titles like the "Cinderella" sequel.
The second disc starts off with an old fashioned early 20th century news reel combining old news footage, animation and behind the scenes Disney stuff. You can explore the second disc in one of three ways - "Files" contains an entire list of the contents allowing you to access each single segment directly. 'Explore' breaks it down into its main segments to give us a more user friendly menu, and finally 'Tour' is a sort of guided highlights version.
"History" starts with two featurettes (just under 10 mins each) on how the project got started and the use of mythology in the movie There's three sections on the Shepherd's Journal including an English text version of Atlantis' fate, rough sketch designs and a beautiful CG animated gallery allowing you to look at every page within. The section finished with a B&W 2.5 minute bit on "How to Speak Atlantean". "Story and Editorial" includes the original treatment, a featurette on the story and script, and four deleted scenes. These deleted sequences include the highlight of the disc - the 2-minute prologue sequence hinted at in the trailers but cut from the final print - the sequence itself involves a group of Vikings with the journal seeking Atlantis before they're all killed by sea monsters and what looks like a nuclear explosion. The other three deleted scenes are storyboards (with voices) for abandoned sequences like the 'Squid Bats' (Jellyfish who float and hate light), 'Lava Whales' (Whales who live in hot sulfur), and 'The Land Beast' (Milo encounters a giant pseudo-scorpion).
"Art Direction" is three sections with a featurette about the design, mostly the hiring of people not usually involved with Disney animation to help create a comic book feel to this world. Eight galleries of sketches from these various artists for different sections of the movie (artwork which looks very different and much more darker/adult than the final product), and finally a "Style Guide" with notes on various sketches about the drawing of certain things.
"Animation Production" is easily the biggest section on the disc and is split into six different sections. "The Voices of Atlantis" is of course about the recording of the actors voices and John Mahoney seems to be having great fun (though Claudia Christian is the most fun interview), "Creating the Characters" is a 25-minute look at the design of the film and how the various character looks were recorded, "Setting the Scene" is 12 minute segment on creating the layouts and the elaborate background world, "Color Script Gallery" is artistic drawings of every picturesque scene in the film, whilst "Layouts and Backgrounds" is hand drawn artwork (both line and colored drawings) of pretty much every 'set' in the movie. Finally comes "The Characters" which includes a dossier, a still gallery of various stages of design and an animation test for practically every character in the movie. 'Vinny' misses out on the animation test whilst 'Milo' gets an extra "Production Progression" bit about one scene shown in three different formats. Minor characters and the Atlanteans (aside from Kida) are relegated still galleries only.
"Digital Production" is a big section kicking off with a ten minute featurette on the film's use of digital production staff, a great six minute bit on Digital Production tests (incl. 3D CG environments and early tests of the creatures/vehicles). From there it splits up into looks at around a dozen vehicles and three characters (Leviathan, Stone Giants, Digital Extras). With each of these you get a still gallery showing the design of the creature/vehicle at different stages from rough sketches to artwork to final shots. Nearly all of these also include a 'turnaround' function which gives us a 'floating camera' view as we sweep around the three dimensional model (some complete, others at early stages of development) - watch out for a pretty cool "Vehicle Size Comparison" one.
"Atlantis Found" is a 7.5 minute featurette of the crew members looking back about how they've been changed by working on this production - quite a sweet little short, whilst "Music and Sound" is an 8.5 minute look at the use of sound effects for the various creatures/vehicles/ambient noises. To end it is the publicity gallery with the four trailers (the last one being the best) and an artwork gallery - all trailers presented in high quality widescreen. Extensive, exhaustive and impressive. Right up there with their "A Bug's Life" and "Dinosaur" DVD sets in terms of extras, its a shame the film wasn't as good. - Garth Franklin
Video/Audio Score: 
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