Jim on Film
Page 8 of 9

In watching Atlantis: The Lost Empire again, it seems to have been a very daring experiment on the part of the artists because it is not only groundbreaking in content but also in style. First of all, making a scrawny, dorky linguist a lead character in an action film in the era of Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, and Ben Affleck was a great risk. Even in animation, up to this point, with the exception of Kuzco, there had been Tarzan, Shang, Hercules, Phoebus, and others who had better fit into the male lead category. But while Milo may be non-traditional, he is a very rich character. He’s lots of fun and is an endearing young fellow.

Visually, the film is stunning, but it achieves its effect in an unusual way. Whereas the other recent Disney films depend on beautiful visuals and rich details, the comic book influences in the style of Atlantis: The Lost Empire don’t allow for detail. When Kida and Milo stand atop the stone statue and look upon Atlantis, the music swells to Milo’s emotions, but there are no stunningly detailed visuals to look upon because the art direction doesn’t allow for it.

Instead, for beauty, it has an amazing use of colors (there’s something awesome about a Disney film bathed in blue), but the overall design of the film is amazing to look at, from its stylized characters to the beautiful 1914 design look. Add to that rich character animation, astounding meshing of computer-generated effects and traditional animation, exciting layouts, and many spectacular special effects, it makes for a beautiful film.

As mentioned earlier, Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a very funny movie, but it doesn’t use animals to provide the humor, instead finding comedy in the rich human characters, from Milo, Dr. Sweet, and Audrey to the zanier Mole, Vinny, Cookie, and, of course, Mrs. Packard. The humor comes from rich character development and great voice casting.

As first rediscovered in Tarzan and used further in The Emperor’s New Groove, the style of acting is another broad step away from reality. Like in many Disney films, the characters are very realistic, but they create a sense of realism rather than duplicate it. A good example of this is when Helga is trying to move the release lever in the submarine. Most of the characters have moments such as that, and several characters are rooted in that style. While each film calls for its own style for animation, this more caricatured step frees the animators to try new methods of expression that highlights what animation does best-a caricature of reality.

Created under increasing budget cuts, there are some scenes that recall animation and staging from other Disney films. In the scene where Kida and Milo are climbing up the stone statue and Kida reaches down to help Milo, the layout recalls what Terk does for Tarzan. And when Kida swims, it looks inspired by the perspectives and staging used in Hercules, which itself was hinted at in Aladdin. This would carry into Lilo and Stitch in which Stitch’s semi would appear, for a brief moment, like McLeach’s truck in The Rescuers Down Under.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire is really an exciting film. It has some awesome action scenes, and even two years after seeing it in the theaters, the memory of watching the Leviathan chase for the first time in the theater is still a highlight for me. It is truly nail-biting and exciting. The only element that really works against the film is the complexity of the crystal mythology. It’s mostly explained throughout the film, but there’s so much to process, it takes repeated viewings to fully understand what exactly is happening in the last portion of the film.

With Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, The Emperor’s New Groove, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Disney was stretching into exciting new directions. Like so many of the films before them, the artists met the challenges before them and presented to the public another series of films that are practically perfect in every way.

Yet again, Lilo and Stitch was another bold move forward for the studio. In its colors, it’s an interesting response to the color-saturated features surrounding it. The watercolor backgrounds are beautiful, but they push the style away from the modern computer-generated feel that became popular at the time. It also doesn’t have the benefit of backgrounds created on the computer that allow for movement within the setting, and yet, these exciting technological advances are not missed because the story never calls for them. However, because the colors are inspired by the watercolors of the backgrounds, the animated elements rendered on the computer are easier to identify. Unlike in Fantasia 2000, where the saturating colors helped hide the computer textures, Lilo and Stitch doesn’t have that.

Lilo and Stitch also returns to the emotional darkness of the early films in the canon, something not deeply explored since The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The scene with Nani and Lilo screaming at each other is a difficult scene to watch because both sisters have been put into a place where they are stuck, a place where they shouldn’t have to be. Because of this, and the obvious love between the sisters, it makes the scene at night where Nani sings to Lilo very touching.

Similarly, when Stitch begins to long for the family and past he never had and calls out into the night sky, "I’m lost," it’s a very moving moment. But because these characters go through such difficult times, the ending of the film where all our favorite characters are together is even happier.

There’s also some interesting character development in the movie. First of all, both Lilo and Stitch are fresh characters, so rich and fun. Nani is particularly interesting because she’s really not all that bright. As she continually puts herself in the place of trying to be something she’s not, such as a mature concierge, she illustrates her own immaturity because she acts so desperate, she can’t communicate the impressions she should be communicating. Lilo, on the other hand, is more aware of what she’s communicating, but she can’t seem to control it. She’s a very bright child and she knows it’s wrong to hit, but she chooses to do it. Instead of taking the easy route in developing these characters, the filmmakers created characters who are richly developed, with complexity and with interesting relationships between them.

In addition to these elements, Lilo and Stitch is very funny. Much of this is derived from the rich development of the characters. Since the characters are so unusual, the humor is fresh and unique as well. Lines such as "That’s from my blue period" or "The manager’s a vampire, and he wants me to join his legion of the undead" are so atypical, but because they fit the unique characters so well, they are very funny.

While this is an excellent movie, there has always been one thing that seemed out of place. The climax always seemed too big for the problems at hand. The ending should be between Lilo, Nani, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley because the heart of the story is centered on Lilo and Stitch and these are the characters who have been connected to the two of them up to this point. Gantu coming in makes everything too big and too out there. Nani is crying her heart out because Lilo’s gone after an incredibly large creature has just taken her in a spacecraft . . . It doesn’t quite seem to fit with the concern about losing custody of her sister. Also, Gantu is so large; it stretches any willing suspension of disbelief because there’s no way he would not be seen roaming on earth. Everything works until Gantu is pulled into the mix.