Atlantis: The Lost Empire

A wonderful animated adventure.

Atlantis is a wonderful afternoon adventure movie. The pacing is excellent. The action is plentiful. And the artistry is wonderful to stare at.

Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox), a linguist in ancient languages, joins a group of adventurers, led by Rourke, James Garner, in search of the lost civilization. They ride in submarines. They burrow through the earth and they even fly on ancient fish like planes.

Where as the adventure is fun the movie lacks greatly in the humor area. Other than a chain smoking, complaining old bag (smoking in a kids movie?) and a man nick named Mole who collects dirt, their really is very little humor. Especially for younger children who laugh at pratfalls and slapstick. Which leads me to ask the question, who is the target audience for this movie? My 5 year old wanted to see this movie due to the marketing blitz, but squirmed and practically fell asleep during it. My 7 year old liked it much better. I saw no teenagers in the theatre so I am left with the conclusion that this movie is meant for 7-12 year olds. That is quite a narrow target. Titan AE had pretty much the same audience and it failed to break any box office records. Memo to Disney; one cute, clumsy side kick can go a long way to add to a 5 year olds enjoyment of a movie.

Except for one teensy plot twist, the movie is fairly predictable. However, the history and depth to the imagined society of Atlantis is quite amazing. Kudos to the imaginations of the people who made this movie.