[FILM] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) came out during the era when CGI animation was becoming ever popular, while Atlantis wasn't a box office failure, it did not make a fraction of what Dreamworks' Shrek (2001) and Pixar's Monsters INC (2001) made. Because of the considerable success of these Computer Generated animated features, people were getting the perception that hand-drawn animation was becoming more and more outdated. However, I do not think this is necessarily true, I think the downfall of Atlantis was because of something purely different; the film is that it's one of the very few Disney films that I didn't really consider for children, the film's target audience did not seem clear to me. There was a theme of anti-capitalism going throughout, people were dying throughout the film and there was many violent themes that I wouldn't have considered suitable for children. This was possibly the first animated feature films created by Disney to have an absence of songs, which I feel lightens the mood of any film which has dark subjects, for example; The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1996). Even the script which was wrote by Tab Murphy, who also wrote the script for Tarzan (1999) seemed to lack excitement, it had witty dialogue here and there however it was nothing amazing.

There were many reasons as to why the film wasn't successful, however I didn't feel that the animation was one of those reasons. In fact, the art style was very pleasant, Disney paired with animator Mike Mignola, the artist for the Hellboy comics, known for his bold designs and uses of shadow and silhouettes, I think the style suited the film and was different from other Disney films from the past. Disney even went out of their way to seek out Marc Okland to create a whole new language for the Atlantians, whose previous work was to create languages for alien races in Star Trek. 

The only thing that brought the film down was the story. and I feel because of this, people will blame the animation when films like Shrek and Monsters INC are more successful, even now when we compare Winnie the Pooh (2011), the last traditionally hand-drawn film to Puss in Boots (2011) and Rio (2011), which came out in the same year, there was a significant difference in the Box Office indicating that the CGI films were more successful than the traditional film, but again, it isn't the animation medium, people would rather see a fresh new story, not a story that has had over 27 films about it.

“We get good hand drawn animated films just as much as we get good computer animated films and vice versa. The technique is not what makes a film superior but rather the story, characters and themes that make the film relatable to the audience. How that film is put together is secondary. The problem comes when the people in charge of a film compare and contrast what is popular at the time to what works. This is nothing new in the film making industry as it happens almost all the time.” (Burbank)

Burbank, Moriah. "Is Hand Drawn Animation Dead?". The Silver Petticoat Review. N.p., 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.