When you hear the name, Disney, do you think of treasure hunts? Eradication of civilizations? Pupilless monarchs? Marty McFly? If so, you’ll probably love the movie of today’s focus: “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”!
Released in 2001, Disney’s 41st animated feature took Disney down the road of science fiction rather than the road of heartwarming musicals. The film features a young cartographer and linguist named Milo Thatch,
who believes that he has proof of the existence of the mythical land of Atlantis! And as you can imagine, nobody believes him!
But with the help of a rich financier,
and a group of…very…interesting…
ok, mostly, weird characters,
he goes on a quest to find this sunken city and help restore its inhabitants to glory once again.
There really is nothing else to mention about this movie, well maybe besides the fact that this is another Disney movie that features a princess who’s not officially recognized as a Disney princess.
Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand: the forgotten/minor character of this film. And the one that I’ve chosen for this film is Mr. Harcourt!
No, HARCOURT, not HAUTECOURT!
Anyway, he’s one of the board members of the museum that Milo works at. And like the others, he doesn’t believe that Atlantis actually exists!
He tries his hardest to discourage Milo and to convince him to face reality and not strive after a far-fetched dream!
He’s never seen again afterwards, but he’s voiced by David Ogden Stiers, so that alone gives him good reason to be recognized!
I guess a more forgotten/minor character would be Mr. Harcourt’s driver, Heinz, but I couldn’t think of anything to say about him.
So, let’s just stick with Mr. Fenton Q. Harcourt!
The Animation Commendation 
I semi-forgot about him. I watched Atlantis again last year, so he was sort of at the back of my mind because of that. But great post!
With a name like Fenton Q. Harcourt, I had to write about him, lol!
Not really a forgotten one for me, mostly because this tends to be the part of the movie I remember the most….mostly because I always think “That’s exactly like Stargate”.
His name was just too good for me to overlook him.
So I am assuming that you just think the movie is weird? Anyways, I dislike the movie. I think it is so sloppy in so many ways, and is pretty damn close to style over substance. The characters are kind of thin and don’t develop. Great post though.
I think the characters are weird…for the most part. And I actually don’t dislike this film. I like it, but not too much.
Your illusions to the Aristocats lawyer made me laugh. I was expecting to hate this but actually really enjoyed it. I thought it was a lot of fun. Go figure!
Thanks!
Did you mean “allusions”?
You are right! 🙂
I personally like ATLANTIS, but even I have to admit, there are some major flaws with the film. For one thing, the villain is doesn’t have the most original motivations, but more importantly, it’s the way that the story was handled; the filmmakers can’t seem to decide on a central theme. In his book THE ART OF WALT DISNEY, Christopher Finch states that the film was doomed to failure due to the story team’s “inability to make sense of disparate and unrelated plot elements […] The film falls apart for lack of thematic structure.”
Still, you can’t say that they didn’t try…
Yeah, it’s not a horrible film, but I can’t say I’m in love with it either.