Verbal Diorama - Episode 289 - Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Verbal Diorama

Episode 289

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Published on: 20th February, 2025

This podcast is now six! And to celebrate, some post-Renaissance Disney.

If Atlantis really existed, no one wrote about it until Plato, who did so 9,000 years after its destruction. Atlantis: The Lost Empire draws from Plato's original Atlantis myth, as well as classic adventures stories like Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), Victorian-era adventure fiction and steampunk, various New Age interpretations of Atlantis, and elements from Edgar Cayce's "readings" about Atlantis.

This movie's interpretation of the Atlantis myth is firmly rooted in a technologically advanced civilization, with its own language (a language that only Milo Thatch can read!), and visually inspired by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola; everything about Atlantis: The Lost Empire was huge, in both style and scope.

It remains one of the most beautiful and epic movies of Disney’s animated back catalogue. Despite its lacklustre box office, it's grown into a true cult classic and fan favourite in the years since its release, but it has also been accused of white saviour tropes, clichéd characters and plagiarism...

I would love to hear your thoughts on Atlantis: The Lost Empire !

Verbal Diorama is now an award-winning podcast! I won the Best Movie Podcast in the inaugural Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards recently. I am beyond thrilled, and hugely grateful to the Ear Worthy team. It means so much to me to be recognised by a fellow indie outlet, and congratulations to all the other winners!

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Transcript
Em:

Hi, everyone. I'm Em and welcome to verbal diorama, episode 289, Atlantis, the Lost Empire.

This is the podcast all about the history and legacy of movies, you know and movies you don't that knows the difference between the ciphers for R and C. As always, a huge welcome to Verbal Diorama. Whether you're a brand new listener, whether you're a regular returning listener, welcome back.

If you are, thank you for being here. Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast. I am, as always, so happy to have you here for the history and legacy of Atlantis, the Lost Empire.

And this is the final episode of animation season. It's also the final episode of the three episode birthday extravaganza for Verbal Diorama.

odcast started in February of:

ned, this is Animation Season:

However, I have ever so slightly overdone it and I have actually ran out of time to do another episode. But I'm going to try and plan the episode in in a few months time. So don't worry.

There will be another animated movie coming on Verbal Diorama very soon and it is an absolutely outstanding movie as well.

I just couldn't quite fit it in because as it turns out, having a podcast and trying to do three episodes to be released in a one week period when you don't take any time off work to do them is really hard. So. So yeah, I've had to unfortunately finish animation season a little bit earlier, but hopefully finishing it in style.

This is the fifth annual animation season and it's just a huge celebration of everything to do with animation from all the animation studios that you know and the ones that you don't as well. Animation, it's not just for children. I think this movie proves that animation is not a genre, Animation is just an incredible art form.

And Animation Season is here to highlight those incredible animated films that you may have discounted for whatever reason, but you really shouldn't be discounting movies just because they're animated. As I mentioned, this podcast is now six years old.

And just a huge thank you to everyone who has supported this podcast over the last six years who has supported me doing this podcast over the last six years. This podcast is genuinely one of the biggest joys of my life.

And being able to go on this podcast, to produce this podcast, to research stuff for this podcast genuinely brings me so much joy. And considering I've been doing it for six years, you'd think I'd be pretty tired of it by now, but I'm actually not. I.

I genuinely love everything that I do for this podcast and I am so grateful for you listening to this podcast. Even if this is your first episode, hopefully you'll want to listen to some others.

But from the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting me for supporting this podcast for the last six years and hopefully for another six years. I'LL still be here. And I'll still be talking about the histories and legacies of the movies. That are just miracles and fascinating and wonderful.

naissance officially ended in:

I'm especially fond of the Emperor's New Groove. I've done an episode on that. This episode, Owned at 90, that is also a fascinating story.

But the start of the new millennium was a traditional time for Disney. An attempt to do something different, to broaden its horizons. And to do a movie on one of the most famous lost civilizations of all time.

From last episode's myth of Hercules. Now to the myth of Atlantis. Or is it a myth? Here's the trailer for Atlantis, the Lost Empire.

Em:

In:

His dreams are realized when he's given a spot in an expedition financed by a friend of his grandfather. To go in search of Atlantis. Following Milo's guide, the Shepherd's Journal. The intrepid crew find Atlantis. And a whole indigenous population.

Who live by powerful crystal energy. But some members of the crew want to steal the powerful crystal energy for themselves. Let's run through the cast of this movie. We have Michael J.

Fox as Milo Thatch, James Garner as Commander Rourke Kreesommer as Keeda, Don Novello as Vinnie, Phil Morris as Sweet Claudia Christian as Helga, Jacqueline Obradors as Audrey, Florence Stanley as Packard, John Mahoney as Preston B.

Whitmore, Jim Varney as Cookie, Corey Burton as Mole and Leonard Nimoy as Kashikim, the King of Atlantis Atlantis the Lost Empire has a screenplay by Tab Murphy, a story by Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale, Joss Whedon, Bruce Zabel, Jackie Zabel and Tab Murphy, and was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. If Atlantis really existed, no one wrote about it until Plato, who did so 9,000 years after its destruction.

Which does beg the question of why no one else wrote about Atlantis. Plato's Atlantis myth appears in two of his dialogues, Tinius and crotius, written around 360 BC.

According to Plato, Atlantis was a powerful island civilization beyond the pillars of Hercules, the modern Strait of Gibraltar.

Originally created by Poseidon, who fell in love with a mortal woman named Cleto, Atlantis was rich in natural resources, including a precious metal called orichalcum. It was highly advanced and protected by massive walls plated with bronze, tin and orichalcum.

The Atlantean Empire attempted to conquer Europe and Asia. Athens then led the resistance against Atlantis and succeeded in defeating them.

Shortly afterward, a natural disaster struck Atlantis with floods and earthquakes and the island sank into the sea in a single day and night.

the center of the Earth from:

first started over a lunch in:

The idea was to draw inspiration from Jules Verne's Journey to the center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, set around the legendary city of Atlantis, Having a movie set within an Adventureland setting rather than a Fantasyland setting, with Adventureland and Fantasyland both being Disney theme Park areas.

The team were keen to produce an action heavy animated film set in the mythological lost city of Atlantis, which Verne's work had briefly touched upon. Trousdale soon approached Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner with the pitch for Atlantis, the Lost Empire.

Eisner was a big supporter of Wise and Trousdale. They directed Beauty and the Beast and at the time Eisner was feuding with Roy E.

Disney, Watts nephew and a powerful member of the board for control of the company.

Executive Peter Schneider, the president of Walt Disney Feature Animation and Thomas Schumacher, Disney Studios President, were focusing more of their attention on Disney Theatrical, the stage play and musicals divisions, basically the Broadway versions.

Because of all of these factors, Atlantis didn't just get an immediate green light, but senior management trusted Trousdale and Wise to do what they needed to do. Eisner was distracted and this would lead to very little executive medley.

Trousdale and Wise were in agreement that the film they were making would not be musical.

Eisner just happened to be the executive at Paramount who'd given the green light to a little movie called Raiders at the Lost Ark and he wanted a similar action adventure vibe for the Lost Empire. Famously, the production crew wore T shirts to work that read Atlantis. Fewer songs, more explosions.

Trousdale and Wise disliked that the city of Atlantis was often portrayed as just a mess of collapsed columns underwater. So they extensively investigated the legend of Atlantis from various sources in order to create a movie that thoroughly examined the civilization.

Trousdale and Wise chose to portray the city as a magnificent futuristic metropolis with cutting edge technology driven by the heart of Atlantis, a powerful crystal that also served as the city's protector.

This was partially inspired by the writings of late 19th century Clairvoyant Edgar Cayce, with the magical crystal also giving the city's residents longevity and healing abilities. Cayce was a self proclaimed psychic who gave numerous readings about Atlantis while in trance states.

He described Atlanteans using powerful crystals for energy and technology as well as having healing and life extending properties. He spoke of Atlantis having advanced technology beyond what existed in his time.

The film depicts Atlantis as having highly advanced technology including flying vehicles and energy based weapons powered by the crystal energy. Casey also described Atlantis being destroyed due to the misuse of its crystal technology.

The film's backstory involves Atlantis being submerged due to a catastrophic event related to crystal power.

You'll notice I mentioned the name Joss Whedon when I was mentioning the story credits and Joss Whedon is credited for the story, but his involvement was actually non existent. He had been briefly involved with a Marco Polo musical when he worked at Disney Animation, and elements of his work included references to Atlantis.

The final film contains none of Whedon's work, but he received a credit anyway, mostly due to the advice of Disney's legal team.

wrote the screenplay, set in:

Milo teams up with an eccentric millionaire and friend of his late grandfather who offers to finance the mission and send a team of experts to help Milo in his ambitious quest.

After the museum's board rejects his proposed mission, Charles, Dale and Wise insisted on developing a whole spoken and written language for the Atlanteans in an effort to accurately portray Atlantis as its own distinct civilization. They hired Mark Akrund, an American linguist who created the Klingon language for the Star Trek TV series and its follow up movies.

For the Atlantean language, Okrand used an Indo European word stock with a unique grammatical framework in order to generate words that sounded completely different from any language that was known to exist. Okrand spent months developing the spoken language.

Coincidentally, Leonard Nimoy also stars in this movie, and obviously he's most famous for playing Spock in Star Trek.

John Emerson created the written Atlantean language by drawing hundreds of random drawings of individual letters from which the filmmakers selected the ones that best reflected their own concept for the language in order to illustrate the Atlantean's intimate ties to the land and ocean. The finished patterns typically included swirling lines and dots.

All of the text was boustropheden, meaning the first line should be read from left to right, the second from right to left, and so on. The purpose of this continuous zigzag design was to mimic the natural flow of water.

And of course, a major plot point in the movie is that the Atlanteans have forgotten to read their own language, and the only person who can is Milo Thatch. The filmmakers wanted Atlantis, the Lost Empire, to have a distinct look and feel from what came before it.

The primary source of inspiration for Wise and Trousdale was the comic book artwork of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

They were inspired by the Hercules team's experience working with renowned illustrator Gerald Scarfe, and then hired Mignola to contribute character designs, work on design features like the Atlantean temples, and work on story ideas, including the creation of steampunk elements and mechanical flying fish machines. For the film's Conclusion.

Every visual element of the final film reflected Mignola's unique style, with sharp angular edges and deep lines, which mirrored the artwork of comic books. To further differentiate the movie from anything that had come before it, they had the idea to film in CinemaScope 70mm widescreen format.

Executives were initially concerned about the required paper size because the format increased the cost of notable Disney flops, Sleeping Beauty and the Blue Cauldron to viewing a test sequence in the 70 mm format. Eisner approved the change in production method from here.

Charleston and Weiss were inspired by filmmakers who had used the format in the past, particularly Steven Spielberg, David Lean and Akira Kurosawa, with Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark consistently used as a reference point for the production team.

The animators who worked on Sleeping Beauty were sketching on bed sheet sized paper, and there were discussions about relocating the whole Atlantis crew to a new facility with dedicated larger workstations. However, this would have cost a fortune, so a compromise was made.

The figures and backgrounds would be smaller and it would therefore fit on a normal sized piece of paper, which was effective because of how stylized it all was. Everything about Atlantis the Lost Empire, though, was huge in style and scope. The first two acts were storyboarded and ran over two hours.

A number of characters were removed from the script, including a phony mystic that joins them on the journey, Mr. Whitmore's nephew and Milo's pet rat, Plato. There goes the cute animal sidekick.

A number of action sequences and monster attacks were dramatically pared down, with the journey to Atlantis becoming shorter and less eventful and the parts in Atlantis receiving more focus.

But with this removal of huge chunks of the movie came a reduction in budget, which led to tough choices on what to focus their attention on and what to skimp on. A lavish original prologue featuring a group of Vikings using the same ancient manuscript to find Atlantis cost $5 million to produce.

It was fully animated and color timed, but late in the production they realized it wasn't working. That prologue was also scrapped and changed up for the destruction of Atlantis to show why it's now below the water and to introduce Keda.

Artistic supervisor for story, John Sanford, pitched the new idea to Don Hard and Wise, and Trousdale agreed the new idea was better. It was storyboarded overnight and pitched to Disney executives the next day.

But this was still a Disney movie, and as the production scaled back, so did some of the edge. In the original screenplay, there's still a character smoking, but this was before Disney removed smoking from all productions.

But characters still brandish guns and there are still gunfights. Then during production, Columbine happened. At the time, it was the second most fatal school shooting in American history. It's now the sixth.

After this, questions were asked on depiction of guns or gunplay in films and TV shows.

Episodes of TV shows containing guns in schools was postponed, such as an episode of Buffy called Earshot, and Disney decided to also scale the guns back in Atlantis in response to the massacre. When it came to casting, Michael J. Fox had the choice to star in Atlantis or Titan ae.

Titan AE being the very first episode of this podcast, of course. So Fox gave the choice to his young son, who chose Atlantis. Kree Summer, a prolific voice actor at the time, was cast as Kida.

Her personality and demeanor were also written into how Keeda reacts to Milo. And is Kida actually the first black Disney princess? The fans certainly think so.

refreshing to see in an early:

ed of lung cancer in February:

Supplementary dialogue for Cookie was recorded by Stephen Barr. Atlantis, the Lost Empire utilized more than 350 animators, artists and technicians at its peak.

In order to maintain consistency in the look, the film used the services of Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, California, Disney Feature Animation, Florida, and Disney Animation, France. Designs were either faxed, couriered or shared digitally between the three studios.

The movie would eventually feature over 360 digital effects shots which took more than three years to create and featured more computer generated imagery than any other Disney animated feature film to date.

Computer software was used to smoothly integrate 3D created objects and artwork with the 2D animation, especially in scenes involving the Ulysses submarine.

The directors also made use of a revolutionary virtual camera which made it possible for the camera to move fluidly through a digital wireframe set while post production added details and background. Only two sequences in Atlantis, the Lost Empire have no 3D elements in one sequence.

Milo, who is obviously a hand drawn character, is chased through lava tubes that lead to Atlantis. Background painters used deep canvas software to paint the tubes. However, the lava following Milo through the tubes was drawn by hand.

In the effects department, one of the most complex effects created digitally was the crystal, the power source for Atlantis, which looks like a tube of light surrounded by rotating stone shields. There were three levels of different color membranes emitting a three dimensional kind of light.

Animating these crystals traditionally would have been impossible to do. The Leviathan had 100 moving parts and animating it used traditional techniques Adapted for digital 3D creation.

The backgrounds for these shots were painted digitally. The Leviathan creature, the main submarine and the mini subs are all 3D models.

The 3D team rendered tens of thousands of layers to create individual pieces of art for the lines, tone and paint.

The film's final shot, a pull out shot reminiscent of the closing shot in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which the animators initially felt was too straightforward and wanted to elaborate on, begins with a close up of Milo drawn on a 40.5 centimeter piece of paper. It then pulls out to reveal Atlantis in all its splendor. And this is drawn on a massive 45-720-centimeter piece of paper.

It's often cited as the most difficult shot in Disney's history.

At the same time, Aladdin and Hercules directors Ron Clements and John Muska were finally getting to work on their passion project, Treasure Planet, which was due out the following year after Atlantis the Lost Empire. Treasure Planet and Atlantis share similar aesthetics, a mix of hand drawn animation and cutting edge CG animation as well as a steampunk style.

It was another new avenue for Disney animation and everyone was waiting with bated breath to see how Atlantis the Lost Empire would be received. Speaking of new avenues.

Or at least the opposite of new avenues because this is nothing new, it's time for the obligature Keanu reference of this episode. And this is a part of the podcast where I try and link every movie that I feature with Keanu Reeves for no reason other than he is the best of men.

And originally I thought there was no way I would be able to link Keanu Reeves to Atlantis Thanos Empire. Until I googled Keanu Atlantis thinking something's gotta be there. And it was literally straight away.

The Keanu Reeves is associated with the character B from the comic book Berserker, and the character Bee is an immortal warrior who protects Atlantis, theoretically the same version of Atlantis that Mino and the team visit in this movie. So that is the easiest and best and most brilliant way that I can link Keanu Reeves to Atlantis the Lost Empire.

So while Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale agreed that Atlantis the Lost Empire would not be a musical, the studio's marketing department insisted that at least one song be featured during the film's end credits.

And this was mostly to adhere to tradition they enlisted Oscar nominated songwriter Diane Warren to write a track entitled where the Dream Takes yous and Grammy Award winning singer Mhi'ya was hired to record the song.

Maya was riding on a bit of a high at the time, having just been part of the Lady Marmalade collaboration with Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim and Missy Elliot.

song Reflection for Mulan in:

And if you're wondering why you've never heard of where the Dream Takes you, it's because it flopped pretty hard, both commercially and critically Transferred and wise approached composer James Newton Howard, who'd recently finished Dinosaur score for the movie's instrumental score.

Since there would be no dialogue in a number of the film's pivotal scenes, Howard collaborated closely with the directors to create a moving soundtrack that reflected the emotional meaning of each scene.

In order to create distinct musical themes for the surface world and Atlantis, Newton Howard used an Indonesian orchestral style for the Atlantean theme. Now I've mentioned this was obviously a completely new avenue for Disney to go down. This was a completely new type of movie. There would be no songs.

It would have a more grown up feel than other Disney animated movies.

And in the fledgling Internet era, Disney did try to utilize Internet marketing for Atlantis, including a website with mini games, three mobile phone networks for mobile games. McDonald's also did the traditional Happy Meal promotions with toys elsewhere at Disney, though plans were afoot. Big plans.

They had already envisioned Atlantis as an Adventureland style movie taking inspiration from Disney's theme parks.

attraction that had opened in:

Rebrand it with Disney's next big animated adventure. Disney saw franchise material for Atlantis. An Atlantean encounter, as it was set to be known, was going to be narrated by Preston B.

ere to open the attraction in:

So this particular attraction is now Finding Nemo's Submarine Voyage.

That wasn't the only project planned for Disney Parks though also planned was Fire Mountain, the latest mountain to add to Space Mountains, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Expedition Everest Forbidden Mountain.

This attraction for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida planned an epic roller coaster where guests hung like a hand glider, emulating the final part of the movie, taking you through an exploding volcano.

Fire Mountain had originally been planned 20,000 leagues under the Sea but was scrapped and again, having a brand new ride for Disney's brand new big movie made a lot of sense at the time. But just like Atlantis itself, theme park ride plans also just disappeared, becoming myths in their own lore.

June:

Destination Atlantis was on display at the premiere, featuring behind the scenes props from the film and information of the legend of Atlantis with video games, displays, laser tag and other attractions.

June:

Swordfish went to number one that week. Shrek was second being out five weeks at that point. And yes, there is a reason I'm mentioning Shrek in Atlantis.

Second week it opened wide and jumped up to second place after brand new release Lana Croft Tomb Raider Shrek was at third the following week Atlantis fell to fourth, Shrek was fifth with only a few million dollars in between the two movies. The next week Lantis fell to fifth and Shrek to sixth, this time only $87,000 between the two in revenue.

The next week Atlantis fell to ninth, Shrek was eighth earning $1.5 million more. Shrek had been out nine weeks at this point to Atlantis's five weeks. The following week Atlantis was out at the top 10, but Shrek was not.

And it's easy to blame Shrek for the failure of Atlantis the Lost Empire. However, they were very different movies. One was very bright, very colorful, very funny and clearly aimed at a more family market.

Atlantis was something completely different. Shrek was the new kid on the block.

Everyone was talking about Shrek and it unfortunately just pushed Atlantis the Lost Empire out of the limelight a little bit.

On his $120 million budget, Atlantis The Lost Empire grossed $84.1 million domestically in the US and $102 million internationally for a total worldwide gross of $186.1 million, which was a huge financial loss for Disney. In recent years, the studio has ironically all but buried Atlantis.

It's available on Disney, but there's no merchandising or characters in promotional material.

It also has a disappointing 48% of rotten tomatoes, with the consensus reading Atlantis provides a fast paced spectacle but stints on such things as character development and a coherent plot.

While some critics like Roger Ebert praised the film as rousing in an old pulp science fiction sort of way, and the New York Times declared it a monumental treat, Variety called the film all talking, no singing, no dancing, and in the end no fun, and the Washington Post panned it as a new fashioned but old fangled hash for the 74th Academy Awards.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally recognized animated feature films with a new category thanks to the growth of animation studios like Pixar and DreamWorks.

Ten years after beauty and the Beast had been nominated for Best picture at the 64th Academy Awards, Disney were presumably confident that Atlantis would be in with a shot.

Not only was rival animation studio DreamWorks Shrek the inaugural Best Animated Feature winner, Atlantis the Lost Empire was not even nominated for the award, which further exacerbated its box office losses and Disney's overall feelings towards it. Atlantis deserved better though. In what world is Ginny Neutron Boy Genius better than this?

Just like the proposed attractions for Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the planned animated series, which was going to be Disney Television's answer to the X Files, was also quietly canceled. The series, called Team Atlantis, was going to be hugely ambitious, investigating otherworldly phenomena and ancient cultures.

Every week the first three episodes of the TV series were cobbled together and packaged as a direct to video sequel called Atlantis Milo's Return, released almost two years after the original film. Now there are no other sequels and there is no remake of Atlantis the Lost Empire.

of Blue Water, which aired in:

Both Japanese and American viewers recognized similarities which were so strong that the film's production company, Gainax, was recommended to sue for plagiarism. Gainax refused to sue citing Disney's strong legal team and the potential for reprisals.

The:

Nadia being the rightful heir to the throne of Atlantis, just like Kira, Gene being a spirited wide eyed adventurer just like Mino and the magic blue crystal based technology in both both start on land tradition to an American boat before descending underwater via submarine featuring a patriarchal captain, a blonde second in command, and a cast of international figures as well as the crew combating a nautical creature.

I'm not saying it's exactly like Nadia, but I'm not not saying that either because the evidence would suggest that it is very, very similar, allegedly. Because obviously Gainax have never filed any legal suit against Disney for plagiarism. So allegedly Nadia and Atlantis are very similar.

Had Atlantis the Lost Empire been a box office success, it could have easily revolutionized Disney.

It would have opened up a whole new world, pun intended for animation, with Treasure Planet following suit, pushing the limits of theatrical and television animation while taking the studio's cherished animated production in a daring new direction and possibly prolonging the life of 2D hand drawn animation. Unfortunately, it was a pipe dream and that was not meant to be. But it's not all doom and gloom for the Lost Empire.

It remains one of the most beautiful and epic movies of Disney's animated back catalog. It's also gained something many Disney movies never do. Atlantis the Lost Empire has grown into a true cult classic in the years since its release.

It has a fervent fan base who adore the movie and its lore. People cosplay as the entire crew of the Ulysses.

There are fan petitions to make Keeda an official Disney princess, although let's be honest, she's kinda cooler without that label. It has a diverse cast and it's just unfortunate that we never got to see more from this world.

The movie squeezes in the brief experimental period between the Disney renaissance and what is popularly referred to as the Disney Revival, where the studio was experimenting with genres and styles in the 2D animated world world.

And while there might have been changes made and corners cut, there is nothing that looks or feels like Atlantis the Lost Empire in the history of Disney animation. The filmmakers took the lack of oversight from Disney executives and used it to their full advantage.

Its striking visual style is genuinely unlike anything Disney had produced to that point or even to this day. It's little wonder the film has a passionate fan base and is considered to be an underrated cult classic.

nd crew livestream reunion in:

It doesn't have songs or a cuddly animal sidekick, it's a true homage to pulp action adventure films. And with Indiana Jones movie seemingly running out of steam, it seems like the ideal opportunity for Disney to embrace Atlantis.

You can fix the plot weaknesses and cliched characters, give Kida more agency, make it a true period piece, and Disney don't even need to bill it as a live action remake because the fans who know will love it and those that don't will want to see a fun, well made action adventure. Timothee Chalamet would make a great Milo Thatch Tell me it's not just me who sees it and Michael J.

Fox is retired from acting now, but how amazing would it be to see a little Easter egg, a book on Milo's shelf written by Michael J.

Fox, something to call back to Fox and how much he brings to the character of Milo, who's written quite flat, but Fox brings him to life with his always energetic performance. Similarly, though, it's not all roses for this movie either.

This movie does have glaring issues too, most notably the white savior narrative and the fact that a genuinely fascinating story of indigenous peoples and their culture and background is overshadowed by the story of the explorers and the obvious betrayal of Roark. Keda should have been the savior of her own people.

The idea that a white American kid knew more about the language than the people did is just baffling logic. The story and characters is where this movie just struggles.

As interesting as Kida is, and I genuinely think she's got huge potential to be such a terrific character in Disney history, even without being an official princess. I want to know more about Atlantean culture, the crystals, what it all means. But what does it all mean though? Why does she start floating?

I really have no idea. And this movie makes no sense. Even in the background.

Disney were quietly retiring hand drawn animation, making huge layoffs in their animation department and salary cutbacks, but what saves this movie is the stunning animation. Mike Mignola's art style is something so different to what came before the Lost Empire.

Like Hercules before it looks so unique and unusual and underappreciated. It feels like the rare Disney movie. Not made for merchandising, not made for toys or fast food tie ins.

It was made purely for the love of adventure movies. It didn't cater to children. It was made more for teenagers and adults.

It's ardent fans love it because it exposed them to archaeology and linguistics subjects. Other animated films just don't even touch on Atlantis.

The Lost Empire may have its flaws, but it's also one of Disney's most unique treasures, like a diamond or indeed a crystal. Thank you for listening. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on Atlantis, the Lost Empire.

And thank you for your continued support of this podcast. If you want to get involved and help this podcast, you could tell your friends and family about this podcast.

You could leave a rating or review wherever you found this podcast. Or you can find me. I'm at Verbal Diorama on all major social media platforms.

You can like posts, you can share posts, you can comment on posts, you can do anything you want with posts. Or you can just send me a message on one of the social medias. But either way you can follow Verbal Diorama. It all helps with visibility.

Now, as I mentioned, this is the final episode of animation season. However, it is not the final episode of Verbal Diorama. I am not quitting yet.

And the next month on Verbal Diorama is going to be celebrating International Women's Day and Women's History Month. And all of the movies that I feature in the month of March are going to be focused on true stories featuring women.

can kingdom of dahomey in the:

It is the story of the Agoji and it is the movie the Woman King. I am so excited to be talking about the Woman King. I hope you will join me next episode for the history and legacy of the Woman King.

Now I always like to say that this podcast is free and it always will be free. There will never be any charge to listen to this podcast.

However, it is not free to make a podcast and I rely on some exceptionally generous people to help fund Verbal Diorama and secure the future of Verbal Diorama as well. Now you're under no obligation to join those people. You can continue to listen for free forever.

However, if you enjoy what I do and you get value out of what I do, and you want to support an indie creator who does all of this on her own, then you can. You can do that in one of two ways. You can go to verbaldiorama.com tips and give a one off tip.

Or you can go to verbaldiorama dot com patreon and you can join the amazing patrons of this podcast. They are Claudia, Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas.

So, Kev, Pete, Heather, Danny, Ali, Stu, Brett, Philip M, Michelle, Zenos, Sean, Rhino, Philip K, Adam, Elaine, Kyle and Aaron. If you want to get in touch, you can email verbal dioramail.com you can also fill out the little contact form@verbaldiorama.com as well.

You can also find bits that I do@filmstories.co.uk articles and magazines and such like. But mostly, thank you for being with this podcast for six years. And here's to the next six. And finally.

Em:

Bye.

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About the Podcast

Verbal Diorama
The podcast on the history and legacy of movies you know, and movies you don't.
Are you interested in how movies are made? Do you wonder how a film went from conception to completion? If so, Verbal Diorama, hosted by Em, is the award-winning(!) podcast for you!

Movies are tough to make, and Verbal Diorama is here to celebrate the coming together of teams of extraordinary cast and crew, bringing us movies that inspire us, delight us, make us laugh, make us cry and frighten us. This podcast discovers the stories behind the scenes, and proves how amazing it is that movies actually exist!

Welcome to Verbal Diorama. The podcast all about the history and legacy of movies you know, and movies you don't! Subscribe on your favourite podcast app, and enjoy new episodes every week. Winner of the 2024 Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards for Best Movie Podcast.
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About your host

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Em .

Hi! I'm Em. I created Verbal Diorama in 2018, and launched the podcast in February 2019 to rapturous applause and acclaim.... from my cat Jess.

The modus operandi of Verbal Diorama is simple: movies are tough to make! The coming together of a team of people from all walks of life to make something to entertain, delight and educate us for 90+ mins is not an easy task, and yet so many succeed at it. That must be something to celebrate.

I'm here to do just that - to celebrate movies. Their history and legacy, and why they remain so special to so many of us.

Episodes are audibly book ended by Jess. She sadly passed away in March 2022, aged almost 18. She featured in many episodes of the podcast, and that's why you can hear her at the end of every episode. The role of official feline producer is now held by the comparatively quieter Evie and Peggy.

I love podcasts, and listen to many, but never my own.

I unashamedly love The Mummy (1999) and Grease 2. I'm still looking for a cool rider.