|
|
Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"What we end up with here is an animated feature drawn in a PG-13 comic book style for the pre-teen age group, yet watered down for the G-rated, single-digit age group. Both age groups will probably just steer clear of this paradox." ---from the review -----------------
Also reviewed Elsewhere: Disney's Atlantis: Trial By Fire for PC computers! ----------------- Sidebar :: ------------- Musicians please come to the audio booth, please...hey, where'd they go? Have I griped enough about no major music to tap your toes to in this film...? This happens all the time; every time Disney hires some new blood, there's some T-W-I-T who thinks that the most modern concept is a Disney cartoon with no songs sung by the characters, nor any songs in the background, nor any memorable musical scores throughout the film (except during the credits, which don't count). This was the case with a few of the least popular, lackluster Disney films in the past; all of which failed miserably. Meanwhile, we have Beauty & the Beast, winner of the Golden Globe for Best Musical Comedy of the Year, and nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Gee, could that be because of the music? Two guesses...
------------------ Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Disney's Atlantis:The Lost Empire
Click pictures to order either DVD.
A Techtite ReviewThe Film: I'm not one to ask my mom how to review a film. However, when it comes to Disney --the parks, the cartoons, the characters-- she's a major fangirl of it all. So, when I tell her I'm about to see the latest Disney film to review it on my web site, only to hear her tell me she already saw it, and did not like it at all...I was pretty shocked. Then she tells me she doesn't even want to rent it on video, and...well, that's almost like Disney saying they ran out of pixie dust. After seeing Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire myself, I'm thinking maybe they have. I hesitate to mention the story first, because the story is pretty cool, and this may draw people into the typical question, "What could've possibly gone wrong?" So allow me to concentrate on the answer to that question first; the animation. If this film didn't have Disney in the title, you'd think this was done by someone else...allow me to be blunt; someone not Disney quality. Though some characters seem drawn in a style not unlike MTV's Aeon Flux or perhaps Heavy Metal, the animators forgot the truth of such underground comic animation styles; if it wasn't for the PG-13, risqué nature of these comics, there's no way a 13 year old would tolerate the horribly shoddy artwork! The problem is: this is a "Disney film," a group which had the boldness to attempt a different animation style (albeit a poorer one), yet didn't have the guts to make it more risqué. What we end up with here is an animated feature drawn in a PG-13 comic book style for the pre-teen age group, yet watered down for the G-rated, single-digit age group. Both age groups will probably just steer clear of this paradox. That's a shame, because the story is pretty cool. Milo Thatch (voice of Michael J. Fox) wishes to tell the college board his ideas to find the lost city of Atlantis...a theory they find ludicrous. In comes a mysterious woman named Helga Sinclair (Babylon 5's Claudia Christian), who invites Milo to talk to an old, wealthy friend of his father's, who is funding an expedition to find Atlantis! Joining Milo on this journey is a hired team of experts, including demolitionist Vinny (Don Novello), drilling expert Dayton "the mole" Molliere (Corey Burton), mechanics expert Audrey Ramirez (Jacqueline Obradors), medical expert Dr. Sweet (Phil Morris), and the leaders of the expedition, Helga and Roarke (James Garner). Of course, the militant Roarke and Helga have other plans for the trip, which they reveal around the time Milo falls in love with Atlantis' Princess Kida (Kree Summer), and...well, you probably can guess the rest. Yes, this is a nice story. It's got nice voice acting, too, especially from such veteran actors as Michael J. Fox, James Garner, and the like. Yet this is an animated film, and the animation flaws keep piling up. In fact; they're often contradictory! The animators responsible for Helga seem to have been drawing in a style totally unlike the other characters: a 1920's-style, film-noir comic book character surrounded by "modern" style cartoon characters . This results in a visual conflict for every scene she's in. Similar conflicts can be seen with the not-so-fluidly integrated computer imagery, with uninspired submarine models and a way too cheesy giant "Leviathan" monster, which makes this intended "gripping" action movie sequence unintentionally humorous. Indeed; a paragraph should be made to remark on what Disney is selling this picture as: the premiere of ethnic lead characters in a Disney film. Yet how great of a gesture is this, when they decide to make the film so shoddily animated at the same time? It's almost like someone were to say: "Okay; this film has ethnic characters. Let's put the Beauty and the Beat animators on a separate project and give this one to the crappy animators." Phil Morris doesn't seem to be a worse voice actor than Samuel E. Wright, really, and yet I defy anyone to say that Dr. Sweet has half as much life as The Little Mermaid's Sebastian the crab. At least Dr. Sweet is somewhat likeable, however; a compliment I cannot make for the Hispanic character, Audrey, whose "That's two for flinching!" buzz phrase is not only the stupidest attempt at a buzz phrase I ever saw in a film; it's actually pretty annoying, from the very first time she says it. The end result is a film that seems like a rush job. I felt that way as it is with the game based on the film, though this is almost as bad. While the drawing style is blasé, the animation is often non-existent! There's a good reason why most scenes look like they're from a comic book; the scenes are practically still pictures. Animation in some close-ups is as simplistic as the character blinking or raising an eyebrow; I've seen teenagers do better with animated .GIF cartoons. From Disney, we all expect far more. The DVD: As with all new animated film releases from Disney lately, there is a regular DVD edition, and a collector's edition. The regular is a single DVD, with amusing features. The collector's edition is this first disc, plus an additional disc of bonus footage. I'll cover the regular disc first... The most major draw for the DVD (both versions) is the singular deleted scene; a "Viking Prologue." However, I for one enjoyed the cryptic nature of how they left the end of Atlantis a generic message against war, and feel that any prologue involving other tribes of humans at the time (i.e., Vikings) is a good choice for deletion. There's an audio commentary by the filmmakers, which is a "visual commentary" not unlike the new types of audio-video DVDs have had recently, such as The Goonies. Producer Don Hahn and Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise are on hand, and when a major key sequence comes around, you can get additional perspectives as to how that scene was performed. This addition makes it look like they worked so hard to make this film happen, it almost makes me feel like I was too harsh on my comments about this animation...then I saw a similar behind-the-scenes special for a film like The Little Mermaid --whose animators had no CGI to lean on-- and my opinion stands. Sorry, guys. There are also a few added bytes to amuse the kids. The first of these is "How to Speak Atlantean," which sounds like a way to teach kids how to make up gibberish to me. A "DisneyPedia" sounds slightly like what it is; an encyclopedia, Disney-style. Most fun of all is a Virtual Tour of the CGI models, like the Ulysses submarine, and the Leviathan that attacks it. The disc also claims to include both full screen and widescreen formats, though as always, widescreen is merely a cropped version of full screen, not "the way it appeared in theaters." I mention this in the "to amuse the kids" paragraph because, with widescreen only worthwhile to "fill all the edges" of a widescreen TV, only kids should be interested. As for the collector's edition, you get all the above, plus a second disc, complete with 3D animated menus. This disc can be seen in three modes. Explore mode allows you to tour the Ulysses sub to find menu options yourself (in an effect sort of like Myst). Tour Mode allows you to see all the bonus features as a continuous program. Files Mode allows you to see the bonuses as-is, in a menu. Personally, I prefer the old fashioned menu approach, though the "Myst" approach is amusing. As for the bonus material in question, it includes some history of both the film and Atlantis itself, plus both a story and an editorial. On a technical level, character designs, abandoned sequences, music and sound designs, animation production, and art direction are all covered. For those not accustomed to Disney collector's edition DVDs; please note that although "abandoned sequences" sounds like a deleted film reel, as a rule such scenes never passed the rough animated sketch phase, making them pencil drawings or just storyboard slide shows. These don't qualify as "deleted scenes" to me, so I won't bother listing them. Here's the worst part
of any DVD sales pitch: even in the two disc collector's edition, the best
bonus material for kids is even included on the VHS tapes for this film! This includes a sneak
peek at Lilo & Stitch plus a
trailer for their direct-to-video sequel of Cinderella
2 and other similar releases for 2002. If your kids simply
must have the latest Disney feature, you'd miss little to own only the VHS
version. However, I'd rent this DVD for a look...even though I am not
buying it; a first for me, in the many years of recent Disney animation.
Click pictures to order either DVD.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
Also
available on VHS: 