2000s Disney Movies

Today, I'm gonna do something a little different and talk about three different Disney movies from the 2000s. This was called Disney's Experimental Era, and the internet has lots of opinions on them. In general, I think these movies weren't box office hits, and/or were not rated very highly. Some people, however, have lately suggested these were some of Disney's overlooked gems. My youngest has started asking to watch a show every day, and since I still have some power over what we watch, I thought I'd try out a few of these movies I haven't seen since I was a teenager and let you know the results.

First, I watched Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Budgeted at around $90–120 million, Atlantis grossed over $186 million worldwide. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 48% on the tomatometer, and 55% on the popcornmeter.

I had high expectations for this because it feels like the internet is in love with it. I see posts with clips from the movie, or explanations about some of the easter eggs, or rants about why it is one of Disney's best at least once a week, I swear. When it came out, I think I had high expectations as well.

Which is maybe why, both times, I was set up for disappointment.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good movie. There's lots of action, some hilarious quotes, and it is definitely something different from Disney's usual formula. But it is so confusing, especially in the second half. The explanation of how Atlantis fell is so fast, I'm not sure it even makes sense. The king used their crystals to create weapons but that led to the weapons... turning on them? Is that right? And then the living crystal power thing chose Kida's mother to be its vessel so it could save the city, submerging it beneath the ocean and even beneath the crust of the earth. Yet somehow they have a day/night cycle in the city. 

I still don't really get where the city is. Where are these clouds coming from?

And there are so many plot holes. Kida, who is over 8,000 years old, says that her people's way of life is dying because they don't remember so much of their culture. But if she's 8,000, surely her father is as old as humanity itself. Why doesn't he remember how to read their language? Why doesn't anyone in their city remember all the stuff from before Atlantis was submerged? I would honestly understand if it had been hundreds of generations ago, but everyone in Atlantis was alive when it fell. It's like me saying, "Man I wish I could remember the 90's," even though I'm a 90's kid.

Also, even after Kida, having merged with the crystal life force power thing, was locked in a box for who knows how long, and then saved the city from the lava stuff, she got out of it unscathed but her mother was merged for too long and so was lost within the life fore power thing... even though her mother immediately saved the city as the vessel and wasn't first locked in a box for a while... Kida's the one that made it out.

I think I'm probably in the minority, but I have to say, I understand why this movie didn't do amazing at the box office. Overall, this movie probably could have used a little more time to develop the second half. There's also so many characters, and they are mostly there for comedic effect, not to actually further the story. You could have wrapped up all the rag tag bunch of friends Milo makes into one or two characters and it would have had a similar effect, and cut down a ton on time. The hype around this movie definitely didn't help. I remember being so excited to see this as a twelve-year old, and coming out of the theater feeling, "Meh." I stand by that feeling.

Again, it's a good movie. It's beautifully made, and quotable, and unique, but I honestly don't think I'd call it underrated. At this point I might even say some overrate it.

Next up, Treasure Planet

This was originally a box office dud. It had a budget of $140 million and grossed just over $109 million worldwide. However, it has a better Rotten Tomatoes score than Atlantis, 69% on the tomatometer and 72% on the popcornmeter.

I didn't remember much about this movie at all, and it doesn't seem to get the attention that Atlantis gets, at least on any of my feeds. I don't think I cared for it much. But my husband said he loved it as a teen, so I went in with hesitant optimism.

Guys, I loved this movie. I loved the animation, the story, the jokes, the voice acting, the characters, and the sci-fi adaptation of Stevenson's classic novel. I can see why my husband loved it. In a sea of Disney Princess movies, this is one of the few adventure stories with a male lead that probably would have spoken to him. 

I can also see why I as a teenager wasn't super excited about it. I was getting into my anime phase and probably wouldn't have liked the weird aliens depicted when I had pretty bishonen boys on my mind. I probably also couldn't help comparing it to Muppet Treasure Island from a few years previous and disliked 1) the lack of musical numbers and 2) the lack of muppets. In fact even watching this as an adult I kept thinking, I gotta go rewatch Muppet Treasure Island now. 

But that doesn't change the fact that I thought this was excellent. Can we talk some more about the voice acting? Martin Short heightens Ben's character to perfect comedic relief, and every line from David Hyde Pierce's Dr. Doppler is *chef's kiss*. I'm still quoting in my head, "Did you actually aim for that?" "You know, actually, I did?!" Of course you also have Emma Thompson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Brian Murray does such a great job with Long John Silver's rough but soft-hearted pirate voice. Combined with the art and the story, by the end I really loved these characters.

I do wish Doppler and Amelia's babies at the end didn't follow the formula, "the girls look like Mom and the boys look like Dad." This whole movie was full of unique life forms, why couldn't they have made babies with dog ears but cat noses or dog faces with cat eyes and coloring? 

Other than that, it was good fun, and a cool way to tell the Treasure Island story. I think it's definitely underrated.

Finally, I watched Chicken Little

This one is sort of Treasure Planet's opposite, in that it did well at the box office but poorly in the ratings. It scores a 37% on the tomatometer and 47% on the popcornmeter, yet it grossed $314 million worldwide with a budget of $150 million. 

I actually seem to remember liking this one as a teen, and feeling that it was judged too harshly. My feeling now is... maybe less kind, but I still don't think it's necessarily terrible.

I did enjoy the physical comedy near the beginning with Chicken Little trying to get to school as a, well, little chicken. But I found myself second-screening after he arrived. While the movie is funny, it's much less quotable than the other two.

It's also not nearly as beautiful. This was Disney Animation's first foray into 3D computer animation (everything by Pixar up to that point doesn't count because Pixar was not yet owned by Disney), and they were definitely still figuring things out. Foxy Loxy in particular looks like the inspiration behind the monsters of Five Nights at Freddie's.

Haunting

The story itself is fine. The twist on the original Chicken Little folk tale with aliens is fun, but as an alien invasion movie with a strained parent-child relationship, it's nothing special. The moral of the story is also rather trite. In fact at a certain point I thought, "Yes, we get it, he's a bad parent, he needs to be more supportive, he can stop saying it now."

Still, as far as kids' movies go, this isn't the worst I've ever seen. It was cute, and honestly very nostalgic. Today's kids may not find it nearly as charming as my generation because they won't understand why everyone is calling each other on their phones when the teacher leaves the room (not even texting! Forget social media!) or what a phone line is, or all the 2000s references.

So much nostalgia in one picture

Overall, no, it's not underrated. It's probably rated just right.

You may wonder why I picked these three movies in particular to re-watch. Well, all three are movies I only saw once when they came out in theaters and then never again. I've seen Lilo and Stitch and Emperor's New Groove a hundred times, and I didn't see Brother Bear until years after its initial release. These three are movies from my childhood (er, teenhood?) that I wanted to revisit and see if time had changed my mind. As you can see above, my opinions have changed in some areas, and haven't in others.

Maybe watching a movie from your childhood you haven't seen in forever, especially with your kid, could be a fun experiment in your home. See what you think, and what your kids think, too!