Under the Sea

 

By Terry Tang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Much like the crew of explorers searching for the underwater
civilization of Atlantis, the team behind Disney’s latest
full-length cartoon feature represents the best and the brightest
in its field. The same trio behind Mouse House hits such as
“Beauty and the Beast” and “The Hunchback of
Notre Dame” are also navigating an expedition away from the
typical Disney formula.

“Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” slated to open in
theaters on June 15, follows a tenacious troupe of explorers in
1914. Summoned by rich philanthropist Preston Whitmore, Milo Thatch
(voiced by Michael J. Fox), a bookish cartographer and linguistics
expert, gets his wish to search for the lost city of Atlantis. But
the team must contend with fierce forces of nature to get to the
ancient empire.

A sci-fi epic similar to a Jules Verne story,
“Atlantis” eschews normal Disney conventions.

For example, no clear-cut archetypes ““ the cackling
villain, the wise-cracking sidekick, the damsel in distress
““are found here. In fact, with a submarine crew of nine
eccentric characters, the film marks one of the largest ensemble
casts for a Disney movie.

Aside from being a big group, the characters also encompass a
diverse range of ages and ethnicities. The ship’s expert crew
include chief mechanic Audrey Ramirez, a young, spunky Latina,
communications officer Mrs. Packard, an elderly, crusty telephone
operator, and the gentle Dr. Sweet, who happens to be African
American.

  While some eyes may roll at what appears to be a
far-reaching attempt by Disney to be politically correct, executive
producer Don Hahn said the diversity was a story-dictated
decision.

“Preston Whitmore is (a) wealthy philanthropist,”
said Hahn at a press conference in Century City. “If
he’s a forward-thinking kind of guy like he has to be in this
story, to be able to mount this expedition and take these people to
Atlantis, he’s going to cast a broad net regardless of
gender, regardless of race. That gave us justification to find the
variety that we have in those times.”

Although Hahn and the film’s two directors, Gary Trousdale
and Kirk Wise, had dozens of conversations about how
“disgustingly PC” their cast would look to critics,
they also knew that, from an animator’s point-of-view,
diversity was a must.

“The flip side is, “˜Let’s cast it with a bunch
of 30-year-old white guys,'” Hahn said.
“That’s inappropriate because we live in 2001. Our
voice cast for animation needs variety. So you go out and try to
find variety in your cast, and for us, that meant variety in
types.”

The brawny and compassionate Dr. Sweet is the first animated
African American in a high-profile Disney film. Phil Morris, who
voices the good doctor and is also African American, has no qualms
about voicing an African American who gets respect equal to all his
colleagues in a 1914 setting.

“I’m very happy Disney used an African American in a
prominent role,” said Morris, best known as brash lawyer
Jackie Chiles on “Seinfeld.” “This is just a
movie about a team of explorers. I’m willing to suspend my
disbelief about the time period.”

Casting for cartoons is no easier than casting for
flesh-and-blood roles. In the world of voice-overs, the directors
forbid themselves from looking at the actors who audition. Instead,
they focus on a preliminary drawing of the character they want to
bring to life.

“We’ll sit there and kind of shield our eyes so we
can’t see the actor and we’ll look at the
drawing,” Trousdale said. “What we’re looking for
is, obviously, the acting ability. But we wanna know if that voice
we’re hearing up there can come out of this drawing in front
of us.”

Whether the actor is a household name or not, Wise said the
animators need to focus on the voice, not the on-screen
presence.

But giving Milo the voice of Michael J. Fox was an easy choice.
Wise briefly worked with the “Spin City” star when Fox
provided his voice in the 1993 live-action, cat-and-dog adventure,
“Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.” At that time,
he actually thought of Fox as a possible Disney cartoon hero.

“He did all of his vocal work just over like two days in
New York,” Wise said. “Always in the back of my head, I
thought one of these days, we’re gonna have a character that
Michael J. Fox would be perfect for. And this happened to be
it.”

Fox first came on board the project in February of 1998. John
Pomeroy, supervising animator of Milo, enjoyed capturing
Fox’s facial nuances and gestures. He also asserted that
Fox’s Parkinson’s Disease never marred the
actor’s work.

“He didn’t give a cartoon performance,”
Pomeroy said. “He gave a live action performance. I think the
little subtleties in the character’s loneliness in the
beginning of the film, the optimism that is felt in Milo, is
reflected in that performance that Michael J. Fox gave
us.”

The special effects-laden movie, which will be screened in a
wide-screened format, also shows a high-tech marriage of 3-D and
2-D animation. Using “deep canvas,” a digital method of
painting backgrounds with depth that was created for
“Tarzan,” the film shows off computerized volcanoes and
waves alongside hand-painted imagery. Meanwhile, artist Mike
Mignola, who oversaw “Hellboy,” an official comic
adaptation of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” inspired
the film’s simple comic book style.

Although 20th Century Fox’s animated sci-fi epic
“Titan A.E.” bombed commercially last year, Disney
animators aren’t worried about lacking an audience.

“It’s the same reason people make action movies
after “˜Battlefield Earth’ or any other film,”
said Hahn, referring to the John Travolta stinker of last summer.
“We all come out again and have the belief that we can tell a
compelling story with our characters that the audience has never
seen before. I definitely have that belief in
“˜Atlantis.'”

Another unique aspect of “Atlantis” is the absence
of Broadway-esque show tunes. The Disney animators and the
directors all agreed that having the crew break into song would
have felt out of place. However, the lack of tunes doesn’t
mean Disney is retiring the musical comedy format.

In fact, Trousdale, Wise and Hahn will be revisiting one of
their first animated musicals. The three artists are currently
readying “Beauty and the Beast” for an IMAX re-release.
Slated for

Jan. 1 of next year, Disney’s take on the tale as old as
time will also include a song called “Human Again.”
Although the number made it to the Broadway incarnation, it was
originally cut from the movie. Disney also has a few musicals in
development, proving that “Atlantis” is not necessarily
the start of a trend.

“It’s not a harbinger of things to come,” Hahn
said. “We’re making musicals in the future, we always
will. Kirk, Gary and I love it.”

FILM: “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”
opens at theaters nationwide June 15 and at the El Capitan Theatre
Friday. For tickets, call (800) 347-6396 or visit www.disney.go.com.