Atlantis: The Lost Empire

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire

PG

2001

1h 35m

Kids & Family

Fantasy

Sci-Fi

Action

Adventure

Animation

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

48%

Tomatometer

144 Reviews

55%

Popcornmeter

250,000+ Ratings

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. A naive-but-determined museum cartographer Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox), dreams of completing the quest begun by his late grandfather, a famous explorer. When a journal surfaces, an eccentric billionaire funds an expedition and the action shifts to high gear.

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Critics Consensus

Atlantis provides a fast-paced spectacle, but stints on such things as character development and a coherent plot.

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Lisa Alspector

Chicago Reader

01/25/2011

Visually imaginative and even persuasively spiritual, this animated adventure has some unusually complex villains and heroes, and some of the plot and dialogue transcends what's typical in movies intended for a broad or youthful audience.

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

12/22/2010

3/5

Entertaining but intense adventure for tweens and up.

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Todd McCarthy

Variety

08/07/2008

This blandly conceived and executed attempt at a juve-style Indiana Jones with Jules Verne trappings recycles familiar adventure and cartoon devices with minimal wit and flair.

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Michael D. Reid

Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)

04/30/2024

2.5/5

Disney's summer animation entry, mercifully bereft of cloying musical numbers, falls into the "good enough" category.

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Dan DiNicola

The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY)

04/30/2024

C

This feature plays more like the best Disney animated film of 1981 than 2001. The unfortunate retrograde look of this cartoon is further hindered by the conventional nature of the characters and weak dialogue.

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Carson Timar

ButteredPopcorn

01/20/2023

While the style and technical ability of Atlantis: The Lost Empire is clear, the bland storytelling and the overused emotional beats cause the film to ultimately become forgettable and dull.

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Clay B.

@cbrown157 Jun 1

Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a fun spectacle but lacks substance in its characters and plot. The idea is great. A struggling academic whose family legacy is finding Atlantis gets the opportunity his grandfather never did. It was a fun adventure, but you could’ve replaced the characters with anyone else and it would’ve felt roughly the same. The story of each character could be a sentence long. Audrey is one of two rugged daughters, her dad wanted sons, and she is on the expedition to help open a second shop. Vinny loves explosives and needs money to open a flower shop. We get most of this information from an exposition dump right before they find Atlantis or when we meet the characters. They are all strictly in it for the money. So when Rourke (I assume a comment on American imperialism and colonialism) steals the crystal and they switch to Milo’s side, it just makes no sense. All of the characters are shallow which leaves several questionable moments in the story. Fun watch, tho.

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Matteo Q

@Matteo59 Apr 25

Un po noioso non è un film memorabile

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Ham H

@StickilySweet Apr 6

I don't know what these negative reviews are smoking. I rewatched this last night and it was a 10 out of 10. Just as good as I remember it when I was a kid, if not better. For the limited runtime of a Disney animation film with such a large cast, the complaints about a lack of character development and coherent plot are nit-picking. Just watch it.

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Sarah S.

@Braxton188 Mar 10

This excellent cast is better suited for television than film.

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Noah S

@movieguy101571 Mar 7

the best movie ever it has an amazing story and such good animation

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Tyler L

@Tyler131 Mar 3

Another example of an underrated Disney movie, I like how it’s set in 1914 with really good animation, a solid story and overall fun to watch.

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Gary Trousdale

Director

Kirk Wise

Director

Michael J. Fox

Milo Thatch

James Garner

Commander Rourke

Cree Summer

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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. A naive-but-determined museum cartographer Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox), dreams of completing the quest begun by his late grandfather, a famous explorer. When a journal surfaces, an eccentric billionaire funds an expedition and the action shifts to high gear.

Director: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Producer: Don Hahn
Screenwriter: Tab Murphy, Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale, Joss Whedon, Bryce Zabel, Jackie Zabel, Tab Murphy
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Production Co: Walt Disney Productions
Rating: PG (Action/Violence)
Genre: Kids & Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure, Animation
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 15, 2001, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2014
Runtime: 1h 35m
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby A, SDDS, DTS, Surround, Dolby Digital, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)