Atlantis: Milo's Return

Atlantis: Milo's Return
DVD release poster.
Directed by	Victor Cook Toby Shelton Tad Stones
Written by	Thomas Hart Henry Gilroy
Starring	James Arnold Taylor Cree Summer John Mahoney Jacqueline Obradors Don Novello Corey Burton Phil Morris Florence Stanley Frank Welker Steve Barr Clancy Brown Jean Gilpin Kai Rune Larsen Bill Fagerbakke Thomas F. Wilson Floyd Westerman Jeff Bennett William Morgan Sheppard
Music by	Don Harper
Editing by	John Royer
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Release date(s)	May 20, 2003
Running time	80 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Preceded by	Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Atlantis: Milo's Return, released in 2003, is Disney's twentieth animated direct-to-video sequel to the film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Originally, Disney was developing a sequel entitled Shards of Chaos; it was abandoned once the movie was less than successful. The released "sequel" consists of three animated shorts, originally meant to be three episodes of a series that was never completed called Team Atlantis. Some additional animation was done to link the stories more closely.

Cree Summer (Kida), Corey Burton (Mole), Don Novello (Vinny), Phil Morris (Dr. Sweet), Jacqueline Obradors (Audrey), John Mahoney (Whitmore), and Florence Stanley (Wilhelmina) all reprise their roles from the first film, with James Arnold Taylor replacing Michael J. Fox as Milo and Steve Barr replacing the deceased Jim Varney as Cookie.

This is also Florence Stanley's final film; she died months after production ended.

Plot

After the decline in Atlantean culture following the sinking, Kida (Kidagakash), now Queen, and married to Milo Thatch, is using the heart of Atlantis to restore her city's former glory. Suddenly, Milo's comrades and Mr. Whitmore arrive in Atlantis; while their arrival is unexpected the Atlanteans welcome their old friends. Unfortunately, they have come to inform them of mysterious forces causing trouble on the surface. At first they presume it to be an ancient Atlantean defense mechanism gone rogue (like the Leviathan from the previous film). But when they arrive at Newfoundland, they discover it is actually a creature known as the Kraken, which had been attacking ships and taking their cargo to a cliffside village, which is devoid of spirits. They later discover that the town leader, Volgud, seems to be controlling the Kraken, but soon learn 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 (NOTE: when Milo says it's up to people like Inger to raise there little ones in peace, a deleted scene shows that Inger's child has Kraken tentacles, implying it's not over.).

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 Southwest, involving coyote spirits opposing them. They later find a hidden city in Arizona contains a statue that greatly resembles Atlantean architecture. Unfortunately, a very sly shop owner, Ashton Carnaby, intends to pillage the place for its valuables, but the spirits then turn him into one of them. A Native-American man, who was a median between the spirits, trusts them with the knowledge of their sanctuary and informs Kida that she can choose Atlantis' destiny.

The third mystery that needed to be solved was from Whitmore's cabinet. An old competitor Erik Hellstrom stole a possession of his (believing himself to be the Norse god, Odin), an artifact called the Spear of Destiny, presumably an Atlantean artifact of 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 and ice beasts to destroy the world, but well-placed explosives used by Vinnie annihilate the monsters. During these escapades, Kida comes into a greater understanding of just how powerful the Atlantean Crystal is, and 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 9000 years.

As the movie comes to an end, Mr. Whitmore narrates that from then on, the world was a better place.

Cast and crew

Directed by

• Victor Cook
• Toby Shelton
• Tad Stones

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)

• Henry Gilroy
• Thomas Hart

Voice Cast

• James Arnold Taylor .... Milo James Thatch
• Cree Summer .... Queen Kidagakash (Kida)
• John Mahoney .... Whitmore
• Jacqueline Obradors .... Audrey/Nurse
• Don Novello .... Vinny
• Corey Burton .... Mole
• Phil Morris .... Dr. Sweet
• Florence Stanley .... Mrs. Packard
• Frank Welker .... Obby/Mantell
• Steve Barr .... Cookie
• Clancy Brown .... Edgar Volgud
• Jean Gilpin .... Inger
• Kai Rune Larsen .... Seaman/Gunnar
• Bill Fagerbakke .... Sven
• Thomas F. Wilson .... Ashton Carnaby
• Floyd Red Crow Westerman .... Chakashi
• Jeff Bennett .... Sam McKeane
• William Morgan Sheppard .... Erik Hellstrom

Voice Director

• Greg Weisman

Original Music

• Don Harper

Film Editing

• John Royer]

Art Department

• Nathan Chew .... storyboard artist

Sound Department

• Elliot Anders .... dialogue editor
• Joshua Chase .... sound effects editor
• Steve Dierkens .... music recordist
• Arnold Geher .... adr engineer
• Marilyn Graf .... foley mixer
• Eric Lewis .... assistant dialogue editor and assistant dialogue recording engineer

Other crew

• Joshua P. Edwards .... script coordinator
• Carin-Anne Greco .... animation storyboard artist
• Don Harper .... conductor
• Dave Metzger .... orchestrator

DVD Features

• Game: "Search for the Spear of Destiny"
• Random course generator
• Matching correct artifacts with the lost city you learn about how to recover the Spear and save the city
• Deleted scene OR alternate ending
• Interactive Menus
• Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound
• English, French, and Spanish tracks on DVD
• 80 min long.
• Widescreen.

Team Atlantis Series

Unmade episodes

The series would feature episodes with different legends incorporated, such as Puck, The Loch Ness Monster and The Terracotta Warriors.[1]

The Last

One of the episodes of Team Atlantis that was never animated featured an appearance by Demona from Gargoyles. It introduced the hunter known as Fiona Canmore, known friend to Dr. Sweet. The episode would have Demona using the Praying Gargoyle statue to bring Gargoyle statues in Paris alive to kill the local humans.

Scripts and voice recording of the episode can be seen at The Gathering conventions. Marina Sirtis reprises her role as Demona, and Fiona Canmore is voiced by Sheena Easton. Greg Weisman, who wrote the episode, planned to use the story for the Gargoyles comic book series.^[1] He said if he is unable to use the Atlantis characters, then he will use analogues for the story.^[2]

Greg has mentioned that while the episode itself is canon in the Gargoyles universe, the entire series Team Atlantis is not. In fact, the Team Atlantis interpretations of The Loch Ness Monster and Puck differ from those seen in Gargoyles (notably, the Loch Ness Monster in Gargoyles actually is a surviving Plesiosaur belonging to a colony, like the common depiction).

References

External links

• Atlantis: Milo's Return at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Atlantis: Milo's Return at the Internet Movie Database
• Milo's Return at Disney DVD & Video