Development to get a sense of the underground spaces depicted in the film. The idea for
Atlantis: The Lost Empire was conceived in October 1996 when
Don Hahn,
Gary Trousdale,
Kirk Wise, and
Tab Murphy lunched at a Mexican restaurant in
Burbank, California. Having recently completed
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the producer, directors and screenwriter wanted to keep the
Hunchback crew together for another film with an "
Adventureland" setting rather than a "
Fantasyland" setting. Drawing inspiration from
Jules Verne's
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) and
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), they set out to make a film which would fully explore
Atlantis (compared to the brief visit depicted in Verne's novel). While primarily utilizing the Internet to research the mythology of Atlantis, the filmmakers became interested in the
clairvoyant readings of
Edgar Cayce and decided to incorporate some of his ideas—notably that of a mother-crystal which provides power, healing, and longevity to the Atlanteans—into the story. They also visited museums and old army installations to study the technology of the early 20th century (the film's time period), and traveled underground in
New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns to view the subterranean trails which would serve as a model for the approach to Atlantis in the film. The filmmakers wanted to avoid the common depiction of Atlantis as "crumbled Greek columns underwater", said Wise. "From the get-go, we were committed to designing it top to bottom. Let's get the architectural style, clothing, heritage, customs, how they would sleep, and how they would speak. So we brought people on board who would help us develop those ideas." Art director David Goetz stated, "We looked at
Mayan architecture, styles of ancient, unusual architecture from around the world, and the directors really liked the look of Southeast Asian architecture." The team later took ideas from other architectural forms, including
Cambodian,
Indian, and
Tibetan works. Hahn added, "If you take and deconstruct architecture from around the world into one architectural vocabulary, that's what our Atlantis looks like." The overall design and
circular layout of Atlantis were also based on the writings of
Plato, was influential from the beginning of production.
Language Marc Okrand, who developed the
Klingon language for the
Star Trek television and theatrical productions, was hired to devise the Atlantean language for
Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Guided by the directors' initial concept for it to be a "
mother-language", Okrand employed an
Indo-European word stock with its own
grammatical structure. He would change the words if they began to sound too much like an actual, spoken language. The written language was
boustrophedon: designed to be read left-to-right on the first line, then right-to-left on the second, continuing in a zigzag pattern to simulate the flow of water.
Tab Murphy completed the screenplay, stating that the time from initially discussing the story to producing a script that satisfied the film crew was "about three to four months". The initial draft was 155 pages, much longer than a typical Disney film script (which usually runs 90 pages). When the first two acts were timed at 120 minutes, the directors cut characters and sequences and focused more on Milo. Murphy said that he created the centuries-old ''Shepherd's Journal'' because he needed a map for the characters to follow throughout their journey. A revised version of the script eliminated the trials encountered by the explorers as they navigated the caves to Atlantis. This gave the film a faster pace because Atlantis is discovered earlier in the story. The character of Milo J. Thatch was originally supposed to be a descendant of Edward Teach, otherwise known as
Blackbeard the pirate. The directors later related him to an explorer so he would discover his inner talent for exploration. The character of Molière was originally intended to be "professorial" but Chris Ure, a story artist, changed the concept to that of a "horrible little burrowing creature with a wacky coat and strange headgear with extending eyeballs", said Wise. Don Hahn pointed out that the absence of songs presented a challenge for a team accustomed to animating musicals, as action scenes alone would have to carry the film. Kirk Wise said it gave the team an opportunity for more on-screen character development: "We had more screen time available to do a scene like where Milo and the explorers are camping out and learning about one another's histories. An entire sequence is devoted to having dinner and going to bed. That is not typically something we would have the luxury of doing." The opening was replaced by a sequence depicting the destruction of Atlantis, which introduced the film from the perspective of the Atlanteans and Princess Kida. The Viking prologue is included as an extra feature on the
DVD release.
Casting Kirk Wise, one of the directors, said that they chose
Michael J. Fox for the role of Milo because they felt he gave his characters his own personality and made them more believable on screen. Fox said that voice acting was much easier than his past experience with live action because he did not have to worry about what he looked like in front of a camera while delivering his lines. The directors mentioned that Fox was also offered a role for
Titan A.E.; he allowed his son to choose which film he would work on, and he chose
Atlantis. Viewers have noted similarities between Milo and the film's language consultant,
Marc Okrand, who developed the
Atlantean language used in the film. Okrand stated that Milo's supervising animator,
John Pomeroy, sketched him, claiming not to know how a linguist looked or acted. Kida's supervising animator, Randy Haycock, stated that her actress,
Cree Summer, was very "intimidating" when he first met her; this influenced how he wanted Kida to look and act on screen when she meets Milo. Wise chose
James Garner for the role of Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke because of his previous experience with
action films, especially
war and
Western films, and said the role "fits him like a glove". When asked if he would be interested in the role, Garner replied: "I'd do it in a heartbeat." Producer Don Hahn was saddened that
Jim Varney, the voice of Jebidiah Allardyce "Cookie" Farnsworth, never saw the finished film before he died of lung cancer in February 2000, but mentioned that he was shown clips of his character's performance during his site sessions and said, "He loved it." Shawn Keller, supervising animator for Cookie, stated, "It was kind of a sad fact that [Varney] knew that he was not going to be able to see this film before he passed away. He did a bang-up job doing the voice work, knowing the fact that he was never gonna see his last performance."
Steven Barr recorded supplemental dialogue for Cookie.
John Mahoney, who voiced Preston Whitmore, stated that doing voice work was "freeing" and allowed him to be "big" and "outrageous" with his character. Dr. Joshua Sweet's supervising animator,
Ron Husband, indicated that one of the challenges was animating Sweet in sync with
Phil Morris' rapid line delivery while keeping him believable. Morris stated that this character was extreme, with "no middle ground"; he mentioned, "When he was happy, he was
really happy, and when he's solemn, he's
real solemn."
Claudia Christian described her character, Lieutenant Helga Katrina Sinclair, as "sensual" and "striking", and was relieved when she finally saw what her character looked like, joking, "I'd hate to, you know, go through all this and find out my character is a toad."
Jacqueline Obradors said her character, Audrey Rocio Ramirez, made her "feel like a little kid again" and she always hoped her sessions would last longer.
Florence Stanley felt that her character, Wilhelmina Bertha Packard, was very "cynical" and "secure": "She does her job, and when she is not busy, she does anything she wants."
Corey Burton mentioned that finding his performance as Gaetan "Mole" Molière was by allowing the character to "leap out" of him while making funny voices. To get into character during his recording sessions, he stated that he would "throw myself into the scene and feel like I'm in this make-believe world". Kirk Wise and
Russ Edmonds, supervising animator for Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini, noted Vinny's actor
Don Novello's unique ability to
improvise dialogue while voicing the role. Edmonds recalled, "[Novello] would look at the sheet, and he would read the line that was written once, and he would never read it again! And we never used a written line, it was improvs, the whole movie." Michael Cedeno, supervising animator for King Kashekim Nedakh, was astounded at
Leonard Nimoy's voice talent in the role, stating that he had "so much rich character" in his performance. As he spoke his lines, Cedeno said the crew would sit there and watch Nimoy in astonishment.
Animation At the peak of its production, 350 animators, artists and technicians were working on
Atlantis at all three Disney animation studios:
Walt Disney Feature Animation (
Burbank, California),
Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida (
Orlando), and
Disney Animation France (Paris). The film was one of the few Disney animated features produced and shot in
35mm anamorphic format. The directors felt that a widescreen image was crucial, as a nostalgic reference to old action-adventure films presented in the
CinemaScope format (2.35:1), noting
Raiders of the Lost Ark as an inspiration. Layout supervisor Ed Ghertner wrote a guide to the widescreen format for use by the layout artists and mentioned that one advantage of widescreen was that he could keep characters in scenes longer because of additional space to walk within the frame. Wise drew further inspiration for the format from filmmakers
David Lean and
Akira Kurosawa. "Mignola's graphic, the angular style was a key influence on the 'look' of the characters," stated Wise. Mignola was surprised when first contacted by the studio to work on
Atlantis. The final pull-out shot of the movie, immediately before the end-title card, was described by the directors as the most difficult shot in the history of Disney animation. They said that the pull-out attempt on their prior film,
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, "struggled" and "lacked depth"; however, after making advances in the process of
multiplaning, they tried the technique again in
Atlantis. The shot begins with one piece of paper showing a close-up of Milo and Kida. As the camera pulls away from them to reveal the newly restored Atlantis, it reaches the equivalent of an piece of paper composed of many individual pieces of paper ( or smaller). Each piece was carefully drawn and combined with animated vehicles simultaneously flying across the scene to make the viewer see a complete, integrated image. At the time of its release,
Atlantis: The Lost Empire was notable for using more
computer-generated imagery (CGI) than any other Disney traditionally animated feature. To increase productivity, the directors had the digital artists work with the
traditional animators throughout the production. Several important scenes required heavy use of digital animation: the Leviathan, the
Ulysses submarine and sub-pods, the Heart of Atlantis, and the Stone Giants. During production, after Matt Codd and Jim Martin designed the
Ulysses on paper, Greg Aronowitz was hired to build a scale model of the submarine, to be used as a reference for drawing the 3D
Ulysses. One scene that took advantage of this was the "sub-drop" scene, where the 3D
Ulysses was dropped from its docking bay into the water. As the camera floated toward it, a 2D Milo was drawn to appear inside, tracking the camera. The crew noted that it was challenging to keep the audience from noticing the difference between the 2D and 3D drawings when they were merged. The digital production also gave the directors a unique "
virtual camera" for complicated shots within the film. With the ability to operate in the z-plane, this camera moved through a digital
wire-frame set; the background and details were later hand-drawn over the wireframes. This was used in the opening flight scene through Atlantis and the submarine chase through the undersea cavern with the Leviathan in pursuit.
Music and sound Since the film would not feature any songs, the directors hired
James Newton Howard to compose the
score after they heard his music on
Dinosaur. Approaching it as a live-action film, Howard decided to have different musical themes for the cultures of the surface world and Atlantis. In the case of Atlantis, Howard chose an
Indonesian orchestral sound incorporating chimes, bells, and gongs. The directors told Howard that the film would have a number of key scenes without dialogue; the score would need to convey emotionally what the viewer was seeing on screen.
Gary Rydstrom and his team at
Skywalker Sound were hired for the film's
sound production. Like Howard, Rydstrom employed different sounds for the two cultures. Focusing on the machine and mechanical sounds of the early industrial era for the explorers, he felt that the Atlanteans should have a "more organic" sound utilizing ceramics and pottery. The sound made by the Atlantean flying-fish vehicles posed a particular challenge. Rydstrom revealed that he was sitting at the side of a highway recording one day when a
semi-truck drove by at high speed. When the recording was sped up on his computer, he felt it sounded very organic, and decided to use it in the film. Rydstrom created the
harmonic chiming of the Heart of Atlantis by rubbing his finger along the edge of a champagne flute, the sound of sub-pods moving through the water with a
water pick, while a ceramic pot from a garden store was used for the sounds of the movement of the Giant stone guardians. ==Release==