“… in a single day and night of misfortune, the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea.” — Plato, 360 B.C.
I couldn’t wait for the Disney movie “Atlantis” to come out.
Some people believe that Atlantis was a place that disappeared into the ocean a long time ago. Others believe that Atlantis was a myth. Thanks to Disney, people can see what Atlantis and the people who lived there may have been like.
“Atlantis” is set in 1914 and directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise use CinemaScope, a wide-screen format rarely used for cartoons that increases the movie screen by 30 percent.
The movie starts with a man trying to tell people what Atlantis was like. Milo James Thatch (Michael J. Fox) always talks about the people in Atlantis having electricity and other great things they had.
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Milo knows how to read the writing of Atlantis and wants to search for the lost island, but he can’t get anyone to help him because they don’t believe him.
A friend of Milo’s grandfather, Preston Whitmore (John Mahoney), gives him a journal that Milo’s grandfather discovered. It turns out that it has the directions to Atlantis. Whitmore sees that Milo really wants to find Atlantis and shows him his giant submarine that can take him there.
Whitmore also has a lot of other people help him in his journey. Commander Rourke (James Garner), is in charge of the crew, Dr. Sweet (Phil Morris) is a very big, sweet guy who is the medical officer, Audrey (Jacqueline Obradors) is a teenager who is the mechanic, Vinny (Don Novello) is the explosions expert and Moliere (Corey Burton) is the geologist (he is always dirty and digging into the ground to sleep). A whole bunch of other people who looked like soldiers also come along.
The journey begins when Milo sees the ship, which is huge and has a lot of windows. Milo warns the crew members that they would see a giant monster, the Leviathan, and that it would be guarding the entrance to Atlantis. All of a sudden, they see the thing and it is a machine. It tries to make them crash but they get away (this part might be too scary for little kids).
Then, the group comes to a big cave and camp there. They are attacked by bugs that catch things on fire and when they are trying to escape, they fall into a volcano.
When they are in the volcano, Milo sees some people wearing glowing masks and one of them heals him with a crystal. He chases them and sees Atlantis.
The one that healed him turns out to be Princess Kida (Cree Summer). She can speak all sorts of languages, including English.
When the group gets to Atlantis, they meet the island’s king (Leonard Nimoy) but he wants them to leave. Princess Kida doesn’t want them to leave though because she wants to discover why the island sank. She follows Milo and discovers that he can read Atlantean. Together they find the secrets of the lost island.
I don’t want to give away any more of the movie, but I will say that it was very good. I kept picturing Stuart Little when Milo was talking. Also, this movie was rated PG, so I don’t know if little kids should see it. It was kind of scary in parts, but very exciting.
Stone Triplehorn-Gonzales is seven-years-old and will be in the second grade at Longfellow Elementary School this fall. He agreed to review ‘Atlantis’ for the New Mexico Daily Lobo.
