I don’t remember when exactly it was, or what movie it was attached to, but in late 2000, early 2001, I went to the movies to see a Disney movie with my parents. The Emperor’s New Groove or Dinosaur. Again, I’m not exactly sure if it was either, but I know I went to see them in theaters. Anyway, there was a trailer for an upcoming Disney movie attached to it, Atlantis: the Lost Empire, and it was just mindblowing. Like nothing that I had ever seen before in my life up to that point. I had never even heard of the name “Atlantis” before that moment, so my mom explained to me how it was this legendary city that was lost a long, long time ago. And I knew right away that I wanted to go see that movie.

A few months later, one or both of my parents took me to the movie theater to see Atlantis: the Lost Empire. By that point, I had been exposed to all the commercials with the toys and the video games. I even tried to play the PS1 tie-in game, but was so scared of the Leviathan that I could never get past the first level. The point is that, from my six-year-old perspective, Atlantis was this magical, otherworldly experience.

This wasn’t just because I was young, either; the film had gone out of its way to create this fantastic world that blended mythology with what I could come to know as steampunk. It was like watching Indiana Jones before I even knew who that was. I loved it. Sadly, not enough people loved it back. Fast forward twenty-five years, though, and many agree that Atlantis: the Lost Empire is an underrated classic and one of Disney’s most unique films ever.

But why though?

Why Atlantis? And why at this point?

Let’s start with the obvious part: Atlantis. Ever since Plato first mentioned in his writings some 2,300 years ago, people have been fascinated by this supposed lost civilization. People questioned how it is Plato knew about it: did he make it up, or did he hear about it from someone else? Where was it supposed to be located? Was he talking about some real-life calamity? People have spent thousands of years wondering about this. Some have even tried to find it, but so far, nothing has come of it. So either it was a myth or was destroyed so completely that it’s still impossible to find. But that hasn’t stopped it from influencing our culture over the centuries. Thus, sometime in the 1990s, some people at Disney got together and decided to make a movie about Atlantis.

Keep in mind, Disney was coming out of the era now known as its Renaissance. It was moving away from musical films and getting experimental, trying to see what could work and what wouldn’t. The year before Atlantis hit theaters, they had already released two movies that broke from the traditional musicals they were known for making. One, Dinosaur, was the first time the company ditched traditional animation in favor of CG, which was still in its infancy. Full disclosure: kid me loved it. The other, The Emperor’s New Groove, ditched musical numbers (except for the start) in favor of full-blown comedy. That movie is now seen as one of the funniest Disney’s ever made and has achieved memetic immortality. Combine the CGI with the 2D animation and lack of musical numbers, and you get Atlantis: the Lost Empire.

But Disney didn’t stop there. They took things even further.

Like stepping into another world

Given how Atlantis is a Greek legend, most depictions of it have it look Greek. However, the people who made Atlantis didn’t want to do that. They wanted to make something that was truly unique; something that could genuinely feel ancient and otherworldly. So they decided to build their version of Atlantis from the ground up.

When you watch the film, the first thing you’ll notice is how familiar yet alien Atlantean architecture is. Mayan, Indian, Tibetan, Far Eastern; there are elements of the building styles from civilizations across the world that the filmmakers used for their Atlantis. This gives it its own unique aesthetic that makes it feel like it could’ve been a real civilization. In-universe, though, it was meant to be a hint at how civilizations that followed were subtly influenced by Atlantis, even if they had forgotten it.

The coolest part, though, was the Atlantean language. They got Marc Okrand, the linguist who created the Klingon language for the Star Trek franchise, to create the Atlantean alphabet and language, and he went above and beyond. There’s an entire page on Wikipedia about it and how it works as like this root dialect that all languages originate from.

Seriously, look it up on the Disney Wiki

And then we have the Atlanteans themselves, trapped underground for thousands of years. With their white hair and dark skin, they’re meant to evoke the feeling of elves. And much like elves in fantasy, their lives are measured not in decades, but tens of thousands of years. All of it thanks to the crystal they call the Heart of Atlantis. In the film’s bible, it crashed to earth eons ago, with the Atlanteans using it to build a civilization that even modern civilizations are only now catching up to. But much like how we could destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons, the Atlanteans nearly did so with the Heart of Atlantis. It’s meant to be a warning about how some powers in the world are too dangerous to be controlled. And that’s only one example of the mature themes in the film.

On the side of the cast born in the modern-day, the film leans heavily into the sci-fi steampunk aesthetics. The vehicles that the team looking for Atlantis is said to be inspired by the works of Jules Verne, and it’s more advanced than what was actually possible in 1914. Well, at least the submarine and the digger were. The rest of the vehicles were pretty much what you would expect from that time period.

And then we had the explorers themselves. It wasn’t shown in the movie, but if you go on the Disney Wiki, you’ll find the people who made the movie gave the main cast these really detailed backstories. It explains who they are and how they all came to be a part of this expedition. It’s a sign of how much they wanted to put into this film, because they had plans that went beyond it.

Solid Voice Cast

I should also mention that the voice cast is also pretty solid. Milo Thatch is voiced by Michael J. Fox, who many know as Marty McFly. Princess Kida was voiced by Cree Summer. And for bonus Star Trek points, they got Leonard Nimoy to play the king of Atlantis.

I loved Atlantis: the Lost Empire

So, after hearing all of that, it’s safe to say that when I went to see Atlantis: the Lost Empire in theaters, it was one of those movies that stuck with me. The adventure of finding a lost civilization; the fusion of 2D animation with the CG of the vehicles. Not to mention how drop-dead gorgeous the artwork is! Some of it is good enough to be hung in an art gallery! It was just such an amazing film. And it didn’t stop there. Disney had plans to make it into a TV show. The heroes of the film would journey the world, looking for strange artifacts and uncover ancient mysteries to make sure they didn’t fall into the wrong hands. Alas it wasn’t meant to be.

Keep in mind, this was when Disney was in the middle of its experimental phase after its Renaissance. It was trying its best to recapture the success of the 90s, but things weren’t the same. They were starting to face stiff competition, and between that and how different the film was from previous flicks, Atlantis didn’t do well enough. So the whole franchise got canned, with the show reduced to a direct-to-video movie, and that was that. And it is a darn shame, because the Mouse had no idea what they had.

This movie would have raked in big in the streaming era

In the years since the movie came out, the people who watched it as kids have grown up, and thus are able to look back on the film with an adult perspective. And while, yes, the film does have its flaws (pacing, mostly), it’s still a good movie. It was unique, bold, and different; those aren’t exactly words we associate with Disney these days. Maybe if it had gotten made today, in a world where streaming exists and shows like Gravity Falls and Amphibia have introduced more people to these grand adventures, Atlantis would have done better for itself. However, there’s no point in wondering what could have been. I liked the movie, I still like it, and I think that the Atlantean alphabet is cool.