Toon Talk: Atlantis: The Lost Empire Collector's Edition DVD - Jan 29, 2002

Toon Talk: Atlantis: The Lost Empire Collector's Edition DVD
Page 6 of 7

The Characters:

Design Galleries for all the characters (The Whitmore Expedition and The Atlanteans), showing their evolution from initial concept to final character leads. Some characters also have brief Animation Tests and each of the explorers has their own "Dossier Files", extensive biographical files as seen in the film. These are a lot of fun, but unfortunately no explanations of Moliere are ... unearthed.

milo.jpg (17210 bytes)
(c) Disney

Leading man Milo gets the full treatment here, including a Production Progression where you can toggle back and forth through the three stages of animation of his scene where he comes to grips with what he has done to Atlantis by bringing Rourke there.

In the Miscellaneous Characters section, one can glimpse such deleted characters as Zolton, a turbaned mystic who was originally part of the expedition, and the Vikings.

DIGITAL PRODUCTION:
Digital Production was used in Atlantis: The Lost Empire more then any other Disney film, with the use of digital characters, vehicle effects, organic effects and 3-D environments. All of these were combined for the groundbreaking final shot of the film, the most difficult in Disney animated history.

Digital Production Tests:
Several animation tests were done to see how well the new digital technology would look combined with traditional animation. Test footage of the Leviathan, the Ulysses and the City of Atlantis are shown, and two Disney characters make surprise cameos.

Digital Vehicles and Characters Galleries:
Since all of the vehicles (The Wentworth Expedition and The Atlantean Armada) were done digitally, an extra feature has been added to the galleries: the Turn-Around, which slowly rotates the vehicle so you can view it from every angle. The Ulysses page also includes a Progression shot, showing the sub evolve from initial pencil drawing to final form.

ship.jpg (18111 bytes)
(c) Disney

The digital character galleries also include the turn around feature for the Leviathan, the Stone Giants and the digital extras (who look like action figures in this form).

Also included is a separate section showing a digital Vehicle Size Comparison.