'Atlantis' makes for eye-popping entertainment

By Joko E.H. Anwar

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (***1/2 out of ****); Animated/Adventure, 90 minutes; Voice by Michael J. Fox, Jim Varney, Cree Summer, James Garner, Corey Burton, Leonard Nimoy; Directed by Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise; A Walt Disney Pictures Presentation

JAKARTA (JP): This is not the usual song-and-dance entry we have come to expect as a Disney animated film. This imaginative, action-packed underwater epic is guaranteed to have you drop your jaw and will entertain you all the way, even though it offers you nothing to sing along to.

Let's admit that adults have had to release their inner child to enjoy most of Disney's earlier animated films, but with Atlantis: The Lost Empire they really have something their size to chew on.

In fact, adults will be likely to enjoy the film more than children since it is filled with more grown-up sensitivity than, for instance, The Emperor's New Groove. Some of the characters even have serious sensuality, which is quite different than that of Princess Jasmine in Disney's Aladdin.

We get the feeling that we are watching a live-action movie, in the tradition of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Raiders of the Lost Ark in the form of animated film which fully takes advantage of its nature to give us maximum effect.

And let's admit, after a series of 3-D computer-generated entries such as A Bug's Life and Shrek (not that there is anything wrong with them) we have been longing for the hand- painted animation.

Atlantis will not exactly please purists since it still uses a blend of digital and hand-drawn special effects, but we get much of the authentic feeling of a classic animated film.

Besides, who can resist a movie with a story as interesting as the ancient city of Atlantis, which after a great disaster sank into the ocean, taking a far more advanced culture with it.

While UFOs have had their chance of appearing numerous times on films, Atlantis enthusiasts have been patient even after a couple of none-too-successful entries on the subject.

Atlantis: The Lost City is set in 1914 and tells the story of a nerdy cartographer and linguistics expert named Milo James Thatch (voiced by Fox).

Milo inherited his late grandfather's belief in the existence of Atlantis, but because of his obsession with this lost city, he is considered an outcast by his colleagues at the museum he works.

One day an old man tells Milo that an ancient book called the Shepherd's Journal exists somewhere and it could provide the key to finding Atlantis.

But when Milo almost gives up his dream of finding the legendary place, an eccentric billionaire (John Mahoney) recruits him in his secret expedition to find the lost city.

The billionaire does not only provide the team a state-of-the art submarine full of high-tech gadgets, he also gives Milo the mysterious Shepherd's Journal as a guide.

The team is led by a military commander, Rourke (Garner), and his sexy but seemingly lethal assistant Helga (Claudia Christian).

The other assorted characters in the team include tomboy mechanic Audrey Ramirez (Jacqueline Obradors), demolition expert Vinny Santorini (Don Novello), chain-smoking communications officer Mrs. Packard (Florence Stanley), sweet Dr. Sweet (Phil Morris), dirt-loving Mole (Corey Burton) and a cook named cookie (the late Varney).

As soon as the craft dives deep into the ocean, the team must fight off a Crustacean-like monster (or is it?) called the Leviathan, which guards and hides the entrance to Atlantis.

As Milo guides his colleagues to find the city using the journal, they face never-ending obstacles which tear the team apart (please note that people die in this film, unlike in many other Disney pics).

Not to give away too much of its story, the explorers succeed in entering an underwater channel to discover the lost civilization. However, Milo also has to face the sour reality of betrayal despite his grand discovery.

To add to the credibility of the lost civilization, the filmmakers brought in a linguist from the Smithsonian to invent a speakable language used by the lost race.

Initial disappointment at this being an animation instead of a live-action blockbuster (imagine it with The X-Files sensitivity) quickly subsided when watching this fast-paced, highly entertaining movie.

The animation of the lost continent itself is pretty impressive on the wide screen (one more reason to go to the cinema instead of watching the film from a bootlegged VCD).

Word has it that the person most responsible for the film's daring animation is a popular comic book artist named Mike Mignola. There is also hot talk on the Internet about how the film allegedly copies a Japanese animation titled Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, released in 1990, but that is for others to decide.

Directors Tousdale and Wise, whose earlier works include Disney's Beauty and the Beast, succeed in pleasing the audience with action sequences instead of tunes.

The final battle sequence is definitely a wow, not to mention several more exciting sequences. In short, this is the kind of fast, eye-popping entertainment we expect from Hollywood's summer attractions.