A lot of fun.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire follows the small but smart Milo (Michael J. Fox), he's struggling to get any funds to cover his proposed search for the lost city of Atlantis. He is recruited for a mission to do just that. He embarks on a journey of perils, discovery and betrayal.For some reason that I can't figure out Atlantis was heavily bashed by critics when it was first released. I recall going to see this movie when I was 7 at a drive-in theater. I found this movie to fun and enthralling. Now 17 years later I find to still be a thrilling adventure, one that does not deserve the negativity it has received from some.The animation is perfect, the voice-cast is great! The characters are fun, diverse and likeable. It's not a musical but the movies soundtrack is still wonderful. The action scenes are exciting and memorable. The jokes are funny!Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a must in the Walt Disney Animated Studios canon

A young adventurer named Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox) joins an intrepid group of explorers to find the mysterious lost continent of Atlantis.The film has the makings of a cult classic. Joss Whedon was the first writer to be involved with the film but soon left to work on other Disney projects. According to him, he "had not a shred" in the movie, which is a shame. The artistic style comes from the same hand as the creator of "Hellboy", which probably attracted a certain audience. And the protagonist is a descendant of the the legendary Blackbeard, which opened up some interesting world-building possibilities.But the story is not as good as it could be, and the idea of different languages is cool but simplistic. The idea that a language an be translated letter by letter in nonsense, on top of the fact that "Iceland" and "Ireland" would both be in English... that is a bit silly.

After the Disney Renaissance came this film, that tried to use the legend of Atlantis as a springboard for a good animated film.And while it has it's moments, I don't think it ranks in anywhere near the same league as classics like 'Snow White' or even 'Beauty and the Beast'.The voice cast all do good jobs, and there are some nice action sequences, but this is Disney painting by numbers, and trying desperately to get a hit. And it doesn't quite pan out the way they'd have liked it to.A solid, yet unspectacular film.

Wow, I've not seen Disney go out on a limb like this since the original TRON or "The Black Cauldron", both from many years back, and both of which really breached convention in traditional Disney offerings.Atlantis is no different, and, true to Disney, offers a unique take on an old tale, only here we actually don't have any tale upon which Disney is basing its new film, just some off handed mythology as described by Plato to many a disciple. We do not have a Perseus, nor an Odysseus, nor an Icarus with son Daedalus, nor any Greek gods nor demigods, just a loose and embellished description of a physical place that allegedly had some miraculous technological achievements. Disney takes Milo (voiced by Michael J. Fox) with an all star cast of characters to the much mythologized lost continent after a wealthy patron decides to fund his best friend's son's research.Disney Studios mixes in a bit of Pocahontas, a bit of Treasure Island, a bit of Star Wars (before it bought the product) and one or two other films or classic stories to bring the tale of a band of turn of the century adventurers to a lost realm of mystery.There's action, there's adventure, there's romance, there's young love, there's traditional animation mixed in with CGI, there's submarines, and even a cute kitten. The one thing this film doesn't have is the myth origin of Atlantis as told by Plato, but that's nitpicking.The DVD has a cut Viking intro sequence, has some audio explanations as to what Plato said, but, at the time both film and DVD were released, the latest research regarding how Atlantis might have been referencing Troy or Carthage hadn't made the popular history circuit.All in all it's a fine adventure film, and one of the few Disney films that I actually just like having on in the background. Oh sure, I love the super-majority of Disney films, but when I put a Disney film into my player of choice, it's usually an event where I have to sit and actually watch the film with some snack in hand. For some reason, for me at least, Disney's take on Atlantis hearkens back to classic George Pal fare, where on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, on some UHF channel in the 1970s or early 1980s, one might see one of Pal's films like "Atlantis" or "The Time Machine" or "First Men in the Moon" or one of his other fantasy extravaganzas. But Atlantis has more than just an off handed nostalgia reference quality to it, it also is a high budgeted adventure film with a top name cast, including the late James Garner playing the heavy in the film. Marry that to other well noted actors, and with Disney's top notch production values in terms of both visuals and music, and you have one excellent film.See it by yourself, with a date, or even with the family. You will not be disappointed.An excellent film. Enjoy.