Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) on Netflix
PG20011h 35mActionAdventureAnimation
In 1914, linguist Milo Thatch is mocked for insisting Atlantis was real. Preston B. Whitmore, a friend of his late grandfather, funds an expedition and gives him an ancient manuscript.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.9/10150,283 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes48%
Trailer
Plot summary
Milo Thatch works at the Smithsonian as a linguist in 1914 and cannot convince his employers that Atlantis was a real place. Preston B. Whitmore, an eccentric millionaire who was a friend of Milo's late grandfather, has uncovered the Shepherd's Journal, an Atlantean manuscript that points the way to the lost city, and he recruits Milo to read it. The expedition sails in the submarine Ulysses with a crew of specialists and mercenaries under Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke, among them Lieutenant Helga Sinclair, mechanic Audrey Ramirez, medic Joshua Sweet, geologist Gaetan Molière, demolitions man Vincenzo Santorini, and radio operator Wilhelmina Packard. A giant robotic leviathan wrecks the Ulysses at a cave entrance. Milo and the survivors take smaller craft deeper inside, where ancient ruins wait.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Atlantis' box-office failure led Disney to scrap a planned spin-off series called Team Atlantis, a proposed underwater Disneyland attraction, and a volcano-themed ride for the Magic Kingdom that were all built around the film.
- Linguist Marc Okrand, the same person who invented the Klingon language for Star Trek, was hired to construct an entirely original Atlantean language for the film.
- Lloyd Bridges was originally cast as Whitmore and had recorded the part, but he died before completing the film. Mahoney's zest and vigor then led to Whitmore's personality being reworked for the film.
- Jim Varney, the voice of Jebidiah Allardyce “Cookie” Farnsworth, died of lung cancer in February 2000 and never saw the finished film. Producer Don Hahn said Varney had been shown clips of his character's performance during his sessions and said, “He loved it.”
- The initial draft of the script ran to 155 pages, much longer than a typical Disney film script, which usually runs about 90 pages.
- The Viking prologue was already finished and altering it would cost extra time and money, but the directors agreed it had to go. Trousdale went home, visited a strip club, and boarded the replacement sequence on a napkin that evening.
- Viewers in Japan and America noticed that Atlantis resembled the 1990-91 anime Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water in character design, setting and story. Gainax was called on to sue for plagiarism, but member Yasuhiro Takeda said they refrained because the decision belonged to parent companies NHK and Toho.
- Sound designer Rydstrom was recording at the side of a highway when a semi-truck drove past at high speed; sped up on his computer it sounded organic, so he used it in the film. He made the Heart of Atlantis chime by rubbing a finger along the edge of a champagne flute.
