Atlantis: Milo's Return

Plot synopsis:
After the decline in Atlantean culture following the sinking, Kida (Cree Summer), now Queen, and married to Milo Thatch (James Arnold Taylor), is using the heart of Atlantis to restore her city's former glory. Suddenly, Milo's comrades and Mr. Whitmore (John Mahoney) arrive in Atlantis; while their arrival is unexpected, the Atlanteans welcome their old friends. Unfortunately, they have come to inform them of a mysterious creature causing trouble on the surface. They arrive in Norway and discover that the mysterious problem is actually the creature known as the Kraken, which had been attacking shipping freighters and taking their cargo to a cliffside village. At first they presume it to be an ancient Atlantean war machine gone rogue (like the Leviathan from the previous film), but they discover that the town magistrate, Edgar Volgud (Clancy Brown), seems to be controlling the Kraken. They soon learn, though, that the Kraken itself is the master, having made a deal with Volgud. When they blow up the Kraken, the man disintegrates and restores the spirit of the village.
All the while, Kida is learning about the outside world and is adapting well. However, she still feels guilty, as there could still be other Atlantean war machines in the world causing problems, like the Leviathan. Their next mystery is in the Southwestern United States, involving coyote spirits opposing them. They later find a hidden city in Arizona that contains a statue that greatly resembles Atlantean architecture. Unfortunately, a very sly shop owner, Ashton Carnaby (Thomas F. Wilson), intends to pillage the place for its valuables, but the spirits then turn him into one of them. A Native American man named Chakashi (Floyd Red Crow Westerman), who is a Native American wind spirit, trusts them with the knowledge of their sanctuary and informs Kida that she can choose Atlantis' destiny.
Returning home, the adventurers discover that one of Whitmore's old competitors Erik Hellstrom (W. Morgan Sheppard), believing himself to be the Norse god Odin, stole one of his possessions, an ancient spear called the Gungnir, presumably an artifact of Atlantean origin. When they track him down in the frigid Nordic Mountains, he presumes Kida to be his long lost daughter and kidnaps her. His intentions are to end the world in Ragnarok. He creates a lava beast and then an ice beast to destroy the world, but well-placed explosives used by Vinny distract the monsters long enough for Kida to retrieve the spear and vanquish the beasts. During these escapades, Kida comes into a greater understanding of just how powerful the Atlantean Crystal is, and that she must choose between hiding it and sharing it with the rest of mankind.
Having retrieved the spear, Kida realizes her father was wrong to hide the Crystal from mankind. She combines the Spear with the Heart Crystal and lifts Atlantis to the surface. Two fishermen are shocked when they suddenly see an entire continent rise before them. In the end, we see Atlantis above the water for the first time in over nine-thousand years. Mr. Whitmore narrates that from then on, the world was a better place.

Tags: sci-fi

Review:
If you've seen Atlantis 1, then you'd know that what made that film truly great was brilliant animation and a good script.
The only good thing about this movie is that our favorite characters from "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" are back.
Several of the bad things about this movie are that it has horrible characters, it has horrible comedy, horrible animation, and James Arnold Taylor trying to copy the wonderful, one and only Michael J.
The reasons for my criticisms are that all the characters are changed into something that they never were, and never should be, animation that has been downgraded to the lowest extent possible, and finally, why would somebody who did wonderful voice-over work for Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Clone Wars" want to copy Michael J.
I was hoping that this movie would contain some of the strong-points of the first movie: Awsome animation, good flowing story, excellent voice cast, funny comedy and a kick-ass soundtrack.
The following paragraph will be directed to those who have seen the first movie, and who enjoyed it primarily for the points mentioned.When the first scene appears, your in for a shock if you just picked Atlantis: Milo's Return from the display-case at your local videoshop (or whatever), and had the expectations I had.
The music feels as a bad imitation of the first movie, and the voice cast has been replaced by a not so fitting one.
The storyline is also pretty weak, as its more like three episodes of Schooby-Doo than the single adventurous story we got the last time.
I didnt laugh a single time, although I might have sniggered once or twice.To the audience who haven't seen the first movie, or don't especially care for a similar sequel, here is a fast review of this movie as a stand-alone product: If you liked schooby-doo, you might like this movie.
And I suspect it might be a good kids movie, but I wouldn't know.
i wish i could find some good things to say about this animated sequel(but not really a sequel)to "Atlantis:The Lost Empire"but this would be a very short comment.the magic that the first one had is nowhere to be found here.the animation is pretty poor all over,the characters themselves are not very well drawn.the backgrounds and the foregrounds are also not good.there's very little attention to detail here.and instead of a compelling and engaging story,we have 3 short stories which are boring and don't make a lot of sense.i swear,even the characters sounded like they were bored,and would rather be somewhere else.which says that the voice actors were bored and wanted to be someplace else,at least that's the impression.some of the same actors return for this dismal effort,but an integral par of the success of the first one was Michael J.Fox as the main hero, Milo Thatch.i get the distinct impression this movie was just thrown together to capitalize on the success of the first one,without much thought or care.but at least Cree Summer returns as the voice of "Kida".that's probably the only good thing about this movie,and even she doesn't seem to have her heart completely in it.mind you,i guess you couldn't blame any of the cast for not giving their all,considering what they had to work with.or rather not work with.this is a straight to video movie(and i use the term loosely)which should have went straight to the nearest landfill.anyway,shame on Disney.consumers deserve much better than this.this one gets a 0/10 and a well deserved one at that.p.u. Disney disappoints....again!.
I haven't seen 'Atlantis' but when I got the DVD of this one, I didn't think it would be as bad, in spite of being skeptical.
'Atlantis: Milo's Return' hugely disappoints.
It doesn't even look like a Disney film to begin with.
Disney sequels have hardly been memorable and 'Atlantis: Milo's Return' is certainly forgettable..
The way I look at it, it's more like three mediocre day-time Disney cartoon episodes strung loosely together to make a single video that pretends to be the sequel to the first Atlantis movie, which was way more well-made and enjoyable.
After the film's over i still don't know why Milo has returned and how the incidents occur in the three small stories are related to each other or to Atlantis itself.
The characters feel wooden and lack personality, and the drawings look a lot different than that in the first.
As the DVD played on, i found myself caring less and less about what might happen to the characters and just hoping the film would end soon.
Besides the story and the characters mentioned above, the picture quality is poor in this one too, probably one of the worst in those direct-to-video products that Disney has ever released.
As a fan of the the original Atlantis: the lost empire, I couldn't be more disappointed in Milo's return, which is a total waste of time and money.
I am finding that I get less and less excited about Disney's sequels to movies.
The animation is sloppy, the story lines resemble Saturday morning cartoons, and not all of the original voices are there.
It was so glaringly obvious that the person doing Milo's voice was trying to sound like Fox, but didn't come close to succeeding.
I never rent or bought a Disney-sequel of what movie however.
But "Atlantis: Milo's Return" was aired today on TV in Germany and so i watch it.
Flaw animation, primitive color-rotation, simple characters, some unsuccessful tries to simulate the famous Multiplane-Camera with CGI, mediocre music and a patchwork of different, simple stories.
that aired every day on TV for children.My first reaction after showing this crap, was to load "Bambi" in my DVD-Player, to see Disney's immortal magic, depth, spirit and charm again, to see Disney on its climax again, to see the awesome art of handmade animation again.
It was like watching a marathon of bad scooby doo movies!
The reason so many people love the first movie is because of its diverse characters and interesting story!
Some basic info: I am 21 and decided to watch this movie with my girlfriend out of nostalgia for the original Atlantis I watched as a kid.
While I love watching the characters doing what they do, the story line had very little to do with the original and actually broke away entirely from the story line and the ending of the original (which did not make any sense).
The animation was not nearly as good as the original and the characters, outfits, and scenery were much more poorly drawn.
When watching this movie, I felt as though I was watching Scooby Doo. The illustrations and animations were comparable and the way the entire movie is laid out was exactly the same as watching several episodes of ScoobyDoo (for those who do not know, it was about a mystery solving group of friends).
If you watched the original, do not watch this movie for it will absolutely kill the story line for you.
Because Disney more often than not, ignores the animation quality and a need for a good plot in their sequels, this was actually a nice surprise.
The graphics quality is always inferior; no backgrounds worthy of the name Disney, inane plots, and worse dialog, with little or no attention given to the actual story, and the caricature drawings are almost always worse than Saturday morning cartoons in detail and quality.The animation quality is still poor when compared to Disney originals, and the dialog is quite trite, the story line and overall execution was really quite enjoyable.
It is also a shame that Michael J.Fox didn't voice Milo, he did such a good job, and James Arnold Taylor wasn't sure whether he was supposed to sound like Milo or Aladdin.
However, there was some nice music, and good voice talents from John Mahoney, Cree Summer, Clancy Brown and Tom Wilson, that saved the film from total disaster.
All in all, a disappointing sequel to a surprisingly good film.
Then there's the other side of Disney where it acts as a sellout / cash cow that churns out Direct-to-DVD sequels of their various popular films.
Of the early 2000's, Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) was one of them.
Thus, this sequel feels more episodic in storytelling than a movie.Directed Victor Cook, Tad Stones and Toby Shelton (who have all worked on various Disney DVD sequels) and penned by six writers from various TV shows and genres, this sequel is okay but that's all that it is.
Although the title suggests it's "Milo's return", the story is actually about Milo's original crew having him come back to the surface in order to understand and resolve strange occurrences happening with no reason in the country.
Characters like Vinny and Sweet disappear at times with no notice and don't come back until another story finishes.
Parts of it show up for certain sections of backgrounds, while other times it's as simple as animating characters' mouths when clearly there's voice over work being played.
It's just okay.Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) was one of those Disney films that didn't need a sequel.
7/8/9 out of ten, you people have something wrong with you in fact if you gave it above 3 something ain't right The voices were so far off, 2 years after the masterpiece that was 1 and we get this It is scoobydoo like The opening almost gives you hope, look is not the same but think, this could be good Then BOOM Milo's voice Cute...they went cute...thats enough to throw it away, the first had impact, brilliantly placed humor that felt real, emotional trips This was an insult to the creators of the first movie.
Colours, animation my god they were good, 13 years later,and still wonderful to watch.
It does not feel like it was made for 4 year olds Atlantis 2 feels like it's a kids movie, real little kids who cant remember a plot anyway so why bother with one.
This "sequel" was just plain awful, the story was boring, and I definitely noticed something weird about Milo's voice.
Not to mention I had no idea Milo was originally voiced by Michael J.
I also had no clue that Disney linked 3 different planned episode stories together, and they had the nerve to call it a movie.
The stories in this "film" are really boring, and out of any Disney direct-to-video sequel, this one has the 2nd worst animation(behind "Hunchback of Notre Dame 2"), and just as with every Disney production like this one, It will never recapture the magic and beautiful animation of the original theatrical film.
I miss the old days when they used to produce good movies like the Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Cinderella, The Aristocats, and Robin Hood.
Where's the touch of magic Disney studio's used to have with every movie they made?
In every Disney/Pixar movie they seem to need to show toys laying around from Toy Story.
And every new movie has the repeating thing of Simba in The Lion KIng. As for the video's and all the sequels, this is the last one I have bought.
All these numbers II, I will ignore from now on when I walk through the store.Milo's return is nothing more than 3 short stories, which misses the charm of the first movie Atlantis.
The only reason to make such sequels seems to me to get some money easily out of the pockets of ignorant parents who are willing to buy anything 'disney' for their spoiled kids, without even thinking about quality.
There are numerous stories around the world that have the magic Disney used to bring to us in it's classics.I will always be a Disneyfan in heart and soul, but at the moment it only means that I play the old classics over and over again, eagerly waiting for the day that Disney 'comes back to it's senses' instead of bringing us such bad sequels as 'Pocahontas II', 'Hunchback of Notre Dame II' and 'Cinderella II'..
I watched the first part when it came out, and I don't remember having left such a bad impression on me as this one.First, the animation is choppy, wooden, not worked on, lacks naturality - I understand the drawing style was to be of some 'atlantean' kind, but, it could be done with the usual Disney finesse...
If I didn't see the DISNEY logo in the beginning, I would never say it was a Disney movie.Second, the plot was more like a PC game style, like a good old quest.
I would say it was improper, but it just fits the whole scene with the plot and animation...Overall, I think this was some kind of an amusement, just by-the-way kind of project by several apprentice animators, just to fill in the count for Disney movies.
I began to watch this second movie and immediately noticed the change of voice actors for Milo Thatcher.
It is enough to ruin the amazing classic film by switching out the main character's voice, completely screwing over his character, but then the film continues to disappoint with poor humor, a scatterbrained plot and cheesy animation and music.
It was as if the film was composed in six months without a tenth of the time, effort, or money that was put into the original Atlantis, which is one of my favorite Disney animated films growing up.
Of all the disappointing Disney sequels, I definitely would have to say that this one was the worst..
The drawing/animation quality is much worse than in the original movie.The story feels set up and is not convincing.
*end spoiler* Considering the already (in my opinion) moderate original movie it's no wonder why this didn't make it to the cinemas.At least you only have to endure 70 minutes of repetitive events, poor graphics and shameless rip-offs.And now you know why Disney is a multi-billion dollar company....
There's a lot of good one liners like, the lizard dashes into the fire and Milo "um Kida." he points at it.
Nicely animate like the first one, thou i missed the great sound effect like the one at the beginning of Atlantis 1..
Atlantis: Milo's Return is definitely not as good as the original Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
I didn't the first time I watched it; but I found it pretty good the second time.Milo's Return is an amalgamation of 3 of the episodes of the cancelled TV series "Team Atlantis", and the boundaries between the episodes can still be seen clearly.
The animation isn't as good as in the first film, but I frankly didn't notice that until others pointed it out.
James Arnold Taylor doesn't do Milo's voice as well as Michael J Fox, but Taylor's performance doesn't really affect the film's quality.
The sequel to the Disney "flop" is a direct to video that seems more like three episodes of the never produced series more than a movie.
The animation is on the whole a bit better of than the normal TV fare with moments of sheer brilliance.That said the movie is a much better than average adventure that would have been classic had it not been flawed by the episodic structure and the fact that it was abandoned by Disney and left to rot in the video backwaters and so had many hands writing the story.This is not the disaster that many have claimed.
I saw this movie because i loved the first atlantis movie, and i hoped that this would be a sequel worthy to the first film.
But as so many sequels made by Disney this was just a try to make more money, and fast.
The screenplay is also worse and you dont get in any way the feeling that it is really really dangerous and they fear to die or if there just hanging on the edge of a cliff like its an everyday thing.I will know talk about what happens in the film and you might be disappointed if you keep on reading.What i think that they should have done with this "movie" is they should have divided the three different missions and put them on the disney channel were it would be much moore fun to watch one at a time and make more episodes(the drawings actually kind of look like there made for a cartoon series like "tarzan" or "spiderman")instead of just making three episodes and calling it a movie.This movie get **1/2 of *****.
That's why it's one of my favorite Disney Movies.
Atlantis - Milo's Return takes everything we liked about the first Movie and smashes it.
The Animation is awful, the Characters are Parodies of themselves and the Story is so lazy written it's unbelievable.
There are Animals SWIMMING in MAGMA, 100 Seconds into this and the Movie already lost me.
The Team from the first Movie visits Milo and Kida, to ask them for help dealing with a Sea Monster called the Kraken.
It feels More like a Pilot for an Atlantis: The Lost Empire TV-Show, a bad TV-Show.
They got almost everything about those Characters wrong, as if they did't see the first movie.
Felt nothing like the first movie.
This felt more like a Scooby Doo movie than Atlantis.
The different animation type also just made it feel too different from the first movie.
They find themselves going up against vicious coyote specters, a vengeful spirit, and a madman who believes he's the god Odin."Atlantis: Milo's Return" suffers from being a compilation of the three episodes finished for a television series which was scrapped after the first movie didn't perform as well as Disney expected.
Ultimately, they fall short of living up to the greatness of their predecessor.The animation for "Atlantis: Milo's Return" is way below that of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." It resembles the Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the late 1990s / early 2000s, which isn't bad.