Anti-colonialism and diversity in Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001).

The Greek philosopher Plato first wrote of The Legend of Atlantis. Per Plato, it was a civilisation that lived on a landmass in the Atlantic Ocean, that fell into corruption because of its prosperity and was destroyed by the Greek gods. Plato’s account of Atlantis was intended to be a social commentary on the perils of a society that gives into its lust for power and luxury. For generations now, Plato’s account of Atlantis has been a spectacle of people’s imagination, some believing it a true story.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a film about a team of explorers (/ colonisers) on the search for Atlantis. The film falls under the Steampunk subgenre (Steampunk is a film subgenre that blends the aesthetics of the Victorian era with gadgets based in the Industrial Revolution, with technology that's ahead of its time) from a period in Disney animation history called the Experimental era. Lilo and Stich and The Emperor’s New Groove were also born out of this period, and are unquestionably loved across my generation. Atlantis, though often forgotten, is such a brilliant movie, and Disney’s ‘Experiment’ paid off (though not so much at the box office, as it should have).

Atlantis is a brilliant example of mixed CGI and 2D animation. The aesthetic of the 2D and mixed 2D animation – hard edges and sharp angles in the character design, block colour – is incredibly aesthetically pleasing. 3D animation has got to the point now where it looks almost too realistic, why create an animation movie for it to look like real life? Yes, the talent and technology that goes into it are insane (shout out to the water in Moana and Luca) but there is nothing like classic flat 2D animation. The power of animation is in the art. The mix of 2D and CGI lends itself to the notion that these are ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances.

Atlantis was also a unique film, especially for Disney at the time, because it had an ethnically diverse cast of characters and anti-colonialism themes throughout the film (and it passes the Bechdel score). The second-in-command to Rourke is a femme fatale; a Latina teenager is the chief mechanic, and the head medic is a Black Native American. The anti-colonialism themes can be illuminated in just one line from the film: “If you return every stolen artefact in a museum, you’d be left with an empty building.”

So, a quick summary: the expedition of misfit Westerners go to Atlantis expecting to find artefacts, including the legendary Crystal. However, it turns out that there are still living Atlantian’s in the ruins and that they are being kept alive by the Crystal. Therefore, stealing the Crystal would not just be theft but genocide. As Milo, our nerdy protagonist who has dedicated his life to the study of Atlantis, says to Rourke, the expedition leader: “You think it’s some kind of diamond. I thought it was some kind of battery. But we’re both wrong. It’s their life force.” Milo’s original intention for the Crystal was to bring it to the surface to study. However, when the Atlantean princess Kidagakash takes him to the sunken mural, he reads about the Crystal in the context of the history of Atlantis and he has a dramatic paradigm shift. At the peak of the film, he and the gang steal back the Crystal because it is their moral imperative.

Colonialisation isn’t exclusive to the Westerners in this film, in the Atlantian king’s confession to Milo: “In my arrogance, I sought to use [the Crystal] as a weapon of war”, we hear a confession to colonialism. In Milo’s Return, Kida has a line that also sheds some light on this issue. Kida states that her father “used the magic and science of the Crystal to expand the borders of Atlantis. That war nearly destroyed the world.” Therefore, Atlantis fell because of its thirst for conquest, and in the story, it comes close to falling victim to the colonial ambitions of outsiders. History repeats itself. Disney stayed true to Plato’s original tale; in Plato’s account, Atlantis meets its downfall partly due to its imperial ambitions. The filmmakers clearly did their research.

Due to the clear social justice overtone, I wonder if I would not like the film as much if it was new today. However, at the time of release, it was almost unheard of for movies to take such an overt stance on progressive issues, especially a children’s animation. Atlantis still comes across as a sincere film – whereas, with today’s Disney films, I always have this sense of distrust in the back of my mind because I’m painfully aware of the agenda driving the story. Although I love it, I’m thinking of Frozen 2 and sisterhood.

When Milo talks to Kida about her home, she points out that the Atlantis she has grown up in is vastly different from what it was before the catastrophe. There’s no literacy and no more flying vehicles, (which doesn’t make sense and seems to be forced in by the writers so that Milo could have a purpose and save the day) they had lost what was once the epitome of being Atlantians: futuristic tech and a higher being. Milo and Kida’s romance is similar to that of John Smith and Pocahontas’. But more alike Tarzan, this movie liberates the love-story-from-two-different-worlds trope. Dissimilar to the plot of Pocahontas, where John Smith mansplains Pocahontas’s own culture to her, Milo is eager to learn about Kida’s culture from Kida directly, furthermore, he doesn’t act as though he is an ‘expert’ even though he has devoted his life to studying Atlantis.

It is still somewhat perplexing that Milo must ‘rescue’ the Atlantians by teaching them to read their own language and drive their own vehicles. As I pointed out earlier, there is a lack of explanation for why the Atlantians could no longer read. It simply does not make sense — if people could read before the fall of Atlantis, and the same people were still alive after the fall of Atlantis, then why did the ones who could read forget how? Yes, Kida was perhaps young enough to be unable to read when Atlantis fell, but all the adults around her could have taught her to read. It does not make sense to have a culture that is fluent in hundreds of languages and yet has ‘forgotten’ how to read its own. Overall it seems to act as a suitable excuse to let Milo ‘save’ Atlantis, which is somewhat annoying.

Though Atlantis was progressive for its time, this film is not without its flaws. My biggest annoyance comes in when Milo asks the female protagonist (Kidagakisha/ Kida) for her name, he mispronounces it (quite ridiculously) and asks for a nickname. This sends a harmful message. People should take the time to learn and pronounce names correctly, so that those with said names do not feel uncomfortable or a nuisance just for existing and having a name.

Disney ignores its early 2000s films because they didn’t make them as much money. Poignantly, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, and to some extent The Emperor’s New Groove, stressed that there are things more valuable in life than riches, marrying a prince and recognition. Telling a sincere, well-crafted story is more important at the end of the day than ticket sales (and social justice). For a company as powerful as Disney I don’t see why that’s a problem, unless, of course, they want to continue to build their power exponentially.

Although the film lacks the Disney music I adore and parts of the plot are somewhat questionable, it makes up for it in the stunning animation, racially diverse cast (plus a passing Bechdel score), and the handsome geeky protagonist.