MOVIE: Atlantis – Milo’s Return (2003)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Atlantis: Milo's ReturnYear: 2003Rating: GLength: 70 minutes / 1.17 hours Back before movies went straight to streaming instead of having a theatrical release, Disney leaned into “Direct-to-Video” sequels of some of their famous films. While this was mostly something that happened during the VHS era of the 1990s, Atlantis: Milo’s Return (2003) certainly seems to fit that bill. The real problem with these slapdash sequels is the quality, but Milo’s Return is even worse than that in the sense that it’s not even a movie as much as it is three TV episodes in a trench-coat. The ‘80s and ‘90s were full of Saturday morning cartoon tie-ins to big movies. Even if movies like Ghostbusters (1984) and RoboCop (1987) weren’t appropriate for children, they still pumped out TV shows for kids to watch. This made more sense for Disney, with shows from their ‘90s renaissance being the perfect match for kids to watch at home on TV. But when Atlantis: The Lost...
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MOVIE: Atlantis – The Lost Empire (2001)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Atlantis: The Lost Empire Year: 2001 Rating: PG Length: 96 minutes / 1.60 hours I can appreciate that Disney was trying to do new and interesting things at the beginning of the millennium. There seemed to be a trend of more male-focused movies with Treasure Planet (2002) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). That these were leaning into science fiction instead of fantasy was also a nice change of pace. Of course, in this era of Disney trying to find its identity in a post-Toy Story (1995) world, I can see why movies like Atlantis have since (ironically) been forgotten. While Treasure Planet was an adaptation of Treasure Island, Atlantis was an original story. Granted, some of the key elements felt like Stargate (1994), but that’s mostly because ancient tech stories have similar story beats and characters. The 1910s aesthetic and archetypes of the explorers was something new to Disney animation and were in a brown-coded contrast to the blue world of Atlantis. Of course,...
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