Before I get carried away and forget, Vince and prberk, you guys are totally right. This is what Atlantis should have been, and this movie has HEART, something that Disney has added to their Pixar films but seems to have forgotten for their own.
Now, on to my belated review. The movie just opened down here this weekend. We caught a mid-afternoon screening and it wasn't really busy. Many small children, many make-out couples. I was taking this with a huge boulder of salt, I just felt it was gonna be another Atlantis, and later I found out that Julia had it even worse than I did, she was just going because she knew I wanted to. Right here, I have to say: Disney did a TERRIBLE job marketing this movie. Whoever watches the trailers for this get thrown off-course so badly, no wonder it flopped in the US (not to mention opening with Potter and Santa Clause... Talk about a dumb move
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Anyways, agreeing with everybody, it does have a slow start, and the kids were chattering their tongues off throughout the first 20 to 30 minutes. Well, it didn't take much after the board the Legacy for them to stop.
This movie is GORGEOUS, and the story flows along nicely. If you ask me, even the slow start has its place in the story, to get you immersed and ready for the action that follows.
Characters ARE characters, as usual on a DIsney film. Many might disagree, but I also think Atlantis had characters. The only problem with it is that it had TOO MANY of them. And they wanted to push too much information about them AND about the storyline at the same time. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if Disney had made Atlantis a bit longer, it'd have worked a lot better. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. Freak, you said Silver is the best villain you've seen in a while. I don't think so. I just can't throw him in as a villain. I know Disney itself considers him so, but I can't. Hook, Cruella, the Evil Queen, Maleficent, those are VILLAINS. Silver is so deep a character it's hard to classify him. Morph is great, Ben is great.
Great graphics, great tension, great movie. I was surprised when it was over, the lights came on, I looked to Julia and said "This movie was great." and she said "Yeah, I thought it was too. Weird!" And it wasn't supposed to be weird. It was simply because of the crappy marketing job Disney pulled on this one. I'm definately getting it when it comes out on DVD, and I think it's right up there with Lilo & Stitch. Disney has its ups and downs. Talking about the Modern Age you have Mermaid, B&B, Aladdin, Lion King, then down to Pocahontas, Hinchback, than up again to Hercules, then down to Mulan, up to Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, ENG, down to Atlantis, and, to me, it's been up ever since, with Return to Neverland, Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet. Now, these are my personal opinions, and I'm not taking into consideration Pixar stuff and DTV, of which I like many.
Bottom line, Disney is doing fine. Grizz, I know you've said you were gonna wait for the DVD. DON'T. Go see this one. I'll mail you the money for the admission if you don't like it. I doubt it you won't. It has a powerful message, like a Disney movie should have, that goes right along those on L&S, Tarzan and Pinocchio. It's not a sci-fi movie, it's a movie about family, plain and simple.
P.S: Julia asked me this and she stumped me, I didn't know the answer. Is this the first Disney animated film to deal directly with broken families, but in the sense of the human flaw and not death and such, like Bambi? Cause I know Andy in Toy Story apparently doesn't have a father and there have been orphans (The Rescuers and Mowgli), but it seems to me this was the first case of one openly leaving his or her family.
