The Little Things (2021)

The Little Things (2021)

4/10

Starring

Denzel Washington

Rami Malek

Jared Leto

Directed by John Lee Hancock

The Little Things is very unsatisfying. The movie reminds you of a lot of cool psychological thrillers, then you get to the new guy inviting the old guy to his house and you place that psychological thriller. This movie is a bad Seven (1995) wannabe. Seven stars Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt and this movie feels like someone saw Seven and wanted to make his own movie with the same dark feel.

In this here movie we have an old detective (Denzel Washington as Deke) leading the new guy (Rami Malek as Jim) around. The movie wastes so much time and mystery going over the old guys past than it does investigating. Hell, I got so tired of the flashbacks and references to what happened in the past that I wondered if the present situation mattered at all. For the sake of the time I had invested into this movie I had to stay attentive so I do not lose sight of the present situation.

Allow this amateur reviewer to speak more about this movie, you see in the end the movie just glazes over the needed investigating by these so called bad-ass detectives. Then it links up Deke’s past with Jim’s future, then the movie ends not satisfying any need of seeing it.

The movie starts with a lady getting away from a man we suspect is out to hurt her. Then we jump ahead to Deke trying to get some evidence in a situation that looks like everyone he speaks with wants him to leave. Soon Deke gets a running with the new detective filling the space he left behind, Jim. It so happens Deke used to be a detective a really good one, until a series of murders got him obsessed and ruined his life. He had to step down from the job and take another as a deputy sheriff elsewhere. He and Jim did not hit it off at first, but a string of murders similar to the one Deke was obsessing about in the past brought them to the same plate.

The movie then takes deeper dives into Deke’s past and we get to know why he is so obsessed with the case. Then they find a suspect a certain man named Sparma (Jared Leto) who is so weird and strange that he ticks all the box. The two become so glued on Sparma that it turns to something else, what that is, I will advise you read the spoiler and stop there.

One good thing the movie has are three lead characters who played to their strengths. Denzel played the old guy who has seen it all, Rami played the annoying new guy who is ready to work with anyone to get the job done. Then there is Leto who played the psycho who makes you feel creepy inside.

Written, produced and directed by John Lee Hancock this is a movie I will not be recommending to anyone to see, even die hard fans of Denzel or the other two.

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

8/10

 Starring the voices of

Anika Noni Rose

Bruno Campos

Keith David

Michael-Leon Wooley

Jim Cummings

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

I have to say, I enjoyed this animation more than I expected to and what I did recall when I saw it when it was released was how much I did not like it, but I must have been biased. My bias must have been towards wanting CGI instead of the traditional animation. That said this is one of the good animations which I will be seeing a second time. Their spin on the The Frog Princess story is beautiful. Another thing wonderful about this flick is the setting, this is set in New Orleans in America and we have numerous black folks everywhere.

This animated musical fantasy romantic comedy is Disney's 49th animated feature film. The film is loosely based on the novel The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker (which in turn is based of Brothers Grimm’s The Frog Prince). When the voodoo man sings, you will listen, because it is so good. It has been a long time since I have seen a Disney music have my attention and this one did with its, "I got friends from the other side." The movie has beautiful voice casting with singer actress Anika Noni Rose being the voice of Tiana and the movie is set in New Orleans with a lot of black casting.

The plot here has many people involved, we have the Prince who has been cut off by his parents because of his reckless living. He comes to New Orleans and there he meets the shadow man who promises to help him get what he wants, which is more money. The Shadow man on the other hand makes a deal with the Prince’s butler who wants to be a prince with money and influence. The Shadow man and the butler’s deal had the Prince turned to a frog, and they use his blood to turn the butler into an image of the Prince so he can marry a lady with money.

The lady with money in question Lottie, is a friend to Tiana and they have known each other since they were children. Tiana has a dream of opening her own restaurant and she has been working her butts off to raise money for it. It so happens Lottie’s father invited the prince to their home with Lottie’s plan was to woe and marry the Prince (who is the butler). The real prince who is a frog escapes his capture and finds his way to Tiana, she was freaked out by a talking frog, but he was able to get her to believe he was the prince and if she kisses him, he will become a prince back. She kisses him and she turns into a frog too. Now the duo must find a way to get themselves back to be humans. While the Shadow man is looking for the prince to capture him, as they need more of his blood to keep the butler’s transformation going.

The movie has some stolen elements from All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989) which is very obvious. Remember in All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989) when Charlie and the little girl Anne-Marie were to be eaten by a crocodile, but were saved when Charlie hit a high note? The crocodile could not bear to eat anything that could sing like Charlie. Well, they stole that.

The movie is written and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. These two have been working in Disney for years and they both worked on Disney classics like, The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Bolt (2008), Zootopia (2016) and many more.

The movie was a critical success and a mild box office hit, but it would have turned a profit with the home video sales. It is worth seeing and having the children by your side when you do.

Brother Bear (2003)

Brother Bear (2003)

6/10

Starring the voices of

Joaquin Phoenix

Jeremy Suarez

Rick Moranis

Dave Thomas

Directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker

Brother Bear is one of those Disney animated movies, that is cool to see with a very nice soundtrack. The animation is a total emotional ride with a certain aim to get the viewer feeling they could do the same thing if there were in the shoes of the lead, which in reality – hell no.

The story is not bad and the animation is good, this is Disney’s 44^th animated feature film and the genre is adventure comedy-drama. It is also the last huge theatrical success of the studio using traditional animation, before they finally moved to CGI for their productions. After this the other three traditional animations they did were not as successful. In fact Home on the Range (2004) and Winnie the Pooh (2011) were box office duds, the last traditional animation The Princess and the Frog (2009), more of broke even at the box office.

Alright, back to this flick. Seeing this for the second time after my viewing back in 2003, I have a less appreciation of it. The story is set in a post-ice age Alaska where the people believe that the great spirits are responsible for the creation of all creatures. Their believe is that the aurora is where the spirit lives.

In a festival the people in the town when they come of age are given totems which are supposed to help shape them into men. In a trio of brothers Kenai is the youngest, followed by Denahi and Sitka is the eldest Kenai got his totem as the brothers before him has. His totem is that of love symbolized as a bear. He was upset by it wondering how focusing on love will lead him to become a man and fulfill his calling. On getting back home, Kenai failed to keep their food out of reach of bears and a bear ran away with their food. Kenai decided to go get it back and faced up with a bear for no reason. This led to his brothers coming to his aid which led to the death of Sitka. Kenai was in rage and did not listen to Denahi who told him to let it go and not anger the spirits by pursuing revenge. Kenai went to seek and kill the bear which angered the spirits and he was turned into a bear.

Denahi went looking for his brother and sees a bear in his place with Kenai’s clothes ripped. Not knowing it was Kenai, but thinking the bear had killed Kenai – he was now in rage and also sort revenge. Now Kenai must get to the place where the aurora is at its brightest so he can get the spirits to change him back, but to aid him was a younger bear, Koda. Koda was also heading in that direction to seek his mother, as they lost one another a while back. A weird relationship develops as these two head towards their destination.

The musical soundtrack has Phil Collins on it, even though he did not sing all the songs like he did in Tarzan.

The animation is not bad and the story is captivating. The animation has a long singing scene which was just not needed. It is done well enough for children to watch anytime and enjoy. For an adult the movie will be classified as ok, but not exciting.

The movie got some mixed reviews and box office wise the movie budget $46 million, brought in over $250 million and like half of that more from home video sales. The movie was nominated for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Finding Nemo. A direct-to-DVD sequel Brother Bear 2 was released in 2006, not worth seeing.

Sword of the Stranger (2006)

Sword of the Stranger (2006)

8/10

Starring the voices

Tomoya Nagase

Yuri Chinen

Naoto Takenaka

Kōichi Yamadera

Directed by Masahiko Minami

Sword of the Stranger is one of those classy viewing experience that leaves you wondering why such a classy anime has not had a live action remake. This is a blood thirsty, sword wielding samurai action film that not only pleases with its action sequences, but also it’s story.

Here is a story that is easy to follow and does not waste time in some form of mystery. I like how the animation had many strings that you feel needed to be explored, but just left it. It felt like Bones the production studio/director was like – leave it who cares where all these lead.

No point trying to make a deep story of were Nanashi is from or why Kotaro’s fate which led him to be a chosen vessel to be sacrificed, instead they left all that for a succinct story with enough engaging action scenes.

The story takes place in Japan during I believe the Sengoku period where many warring factions are fighting for control. Well, that has nothing to do with this story, because our story starts with a young boy named Kataro and his dog who are being led away by a man as we come to realise they are being chased. The man tells Kataro to run and head to a temple, giving him a jewel and ask him to sell it in case he needs money.

We see the young boy some time later, stealing to feed as he journeys his way to the temple to which he was sent. We then meet some Chinese warriors being led by some Japanese who are looking for the boy. Out of the Chinese men one of them is a foreigner with blond hair and blue eyes, who was a bad ass as we see him kill a ton of men who attacked their party on his own.

We come to realise the Chinese crew have paid for land in Japan and are building some sort of thing, and the boy is needed for their structure to fulfill its intent. The young boy is now seen trying to cook the fish he just stole, when he sees a man (Nanashi) resting in his present hideout. He tells the man that he does not plan to share his food with him, but his dog took a liking to Nanashi and the two ate together. The two were attacked and Nanashi saved the boy from his attackers. The young boy promises his jewel if Nanashi helps him find the temple they were going.

Nanashi took the offer and their journey had many mishaps, fighting and some very insightful understanding of everything happening.

This animation was rated as one of the best animation at the time of its release and I for one believe regardless of when, this is one of the best things you can see.

Wicked City (1987)

Wicked City (1987)

7/10

Starring the voices of

Yūsaku Yara

Toshiko Fujita

Ichirō Nagai

Takeshi Aono

Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Are you down for some neo-noir feel flick with some dark fantasy? Well, everything about this movie just boils the spirit in those genre. The art with its plot is somewhat deep at the start, but midway it gave way to some unneeded erotica. The anime is about a world where humans and demons exist together another sad thing about this flick is the ending, it is sort of lame and anticlimactic.

What you will love in this anime movie is the pellets of suspense it leaves behind as you watch. It is like the movie wants you to have a notepad to note down things or have in mind to give the film a re-watch. So you can catch where the pellets of suspense are, where they are pointed and to be sure you did not miss anything. The anime is written in a linear manner which makes it easy to follow and those suspense pellets soon add up.

There is but to note, the movie has a lot of erotica. It seems to have a misogynistic theme which is not subtle. Even though the lead's partner is supposed to be a bad-ass, she is not free of this sort of abuse, which to me were parts in the movie I felt it did not need.

The movie starts with the lead Taki kind of telling us a story, then the anime moves from him telling us a story to him explaining things as we watch. He does not get to talk often so don’t worry. Taki is a secret agent here in this world where the demon world and the human world has made a treaty. They will both live without fighting or causing harm to one another. Taki’s job is to keep the rogue demons under strong watch, which mostly include fighting and killing them.

The treaty that was signed was running out and needed to be resigned, Taki was told that a certain man is needed for the resigning and he is to guard the man. He was to get a partner a demon girl named Makie. The old man they were supposed to guard turns out to be a pervert, and the two had their job cut out for them as the demons were ready to do anything to kill the three of them.

In the end, I still say this is a good animation mostly because of the linear way the plot is set. Even though I liked this flick, I did not fancy the constant misogyny and believe this movie would have been better received if it wasn't present. So much unnecessary erotica that did not add up to anything.

Ninja Scroll (1993)

 Ninja Scroll (1993)

8/10 

Starring the voices of

Kōichi Yamadera
Emi Shinohara
Takeshi Aono
Daisuke Gōri

Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Ninja Scroll is one of the first (if not the first) anime I saw when I was a child. It took an old friend to remind me of its existence before I can even recall that I saw an anime as such. This is one of those classics that live up to the hype. The story is very engaging and the mystery is held up so you have to be fully invested before you can get what is going on and why.

This anime does not play for the children, this is adult based with nudity, sexual molestation, killings, blood and some gore.

I want to believe done back in 1993, this is one of the few that made it easy for others to follow suits.

The animation is well crafted and the fight scenes are not overly glorified. This is a man (a ninja) with a girl trying to stop a whole team of ninjas known as demons where each has some sort of special powers.

The gap between the ninjas with special powers and the real people is much, but then the skill of the lead character Jubei made up for the distance between the demon ninjas and him. Then as you would expect the final battle was everything you would expect from such a movie as this.

The plot of Ninja Scroll starts with us meeting Jubei as he kills some men with skills that I felt were setup to show off the kind of person he is.

From there we see the powers of these demon ninjas, there are eight of them and they have killed everyone in a town and made it as so that these people were killed by a plague.

We see their ability to manipulate corpses, some have the ability of not being able to be pierced and some can even manipulate the surroundings before you.

Kagero is a lady ninja and part of a clan of ninjas that were sent to investigate what had happened in the city. On their way there, all of the ninjas were killed, except her. She was taken as a token of one of the eight demons. He took her to a place so he can rape her and he had already begun when Jubei showed up to interrupt.

The fight was brief and Jubei and Kagero were able to escape. The demon chased them still and got himself killed.

Jubei and Kagero part, with Kagero reporting the mater to her superiors who ask her to further investigate. Jubei was approached by an old man who tells him to work for him for a hundred pieces of gold. Jubei turns down the offer and soon he was attacked by another of the eight. This time this one wanted revenge, Jubei was able to escape thanks to the old man, who then went on to poison him. Now he had a problem, the old man had the antidote to the poison and was not willing to give it until Jubei helps him.

The man wants Jubei’s help to kill the remaining seven demons, while he investigates what happened to the people of that town. Their paths cross again with Kagero who then joins the group, as we see them fight their way with the remaining seven to get to the bottom of the case and Jubei faces up with a ghost from his past.

Ninja Scroll is one of the best things you can see when it comes to anime or animation.

Akira (1988)

Akira (1988)

 4/10

Starring the voices of

Mitsuo Iwata

Nozomu Sasaki

Mami Koyama

Taro Ishida

 

Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo

 

How this is regarded as one of the best animated sci-fi movies ever is beyond me. I say that with all the needed respect to those who rate it as so and I am being literal when I say this is beyond my understanding why anyone will say so.

The pacing was not so great, not a huge fan of the animated and there were parts in the movie where they just dragged on and on about something that, when it finally happened it was anticlimactic to see.

Akira is 1988 Japanese animated post-apocalyptic cyberpunk action film that has become a sort after pop culture and regarded as one of those animes you have to just see. I want to greatly disagree with that. It is not that I did not enjoy the action in the last act of the movie, because I did. I was taken by the way everyone transcends thing, but before all that led to this were boring discussions and sparks of actions here and there.

Akira takes place in the year 2019 at a time when corruption, anti-government protests, terrorism and gang violence was at its peak. This future we are witnessing is a rebuilt Tokyo called Neo-Tokyo. All this takes place after Tokyo was destroyed by an event which we are told later as we watch.

We are focused on a vigilante bike gang which is lead by a kid named Kaneda. We also meet one of his friend Tetsuo who seems smaller and is shelved when the bike gang go rampaging.

Tetsuo always wanting to prove himself stole a bike and was being chased by rival gang, when he had an accident as he almost collided with an odd-looking child. That child had escaped from a secret government facility.

The accident awakened Tetsuo’s psychic powers and he was captured, by the same facility which the child he almost hit ran into was from. It is from there that Tetsuo’s psychic power grew and he bust out of the facility with only one focus in mind, to find something named Akira and show Kaneda and the rest of the biker crew how strong he is now.

The idea of a future with people having telekinetic powers for me has many angles which this can be spun. Then this animated movie focus of when such powers is given to someone who is not mentally able to handle such responsibility is very capturing. Challenge I felt this could have been implemented better.

If you are done with seeing Akira, you will enjoy the way the medium uses dream sequences to show different perspective of things. The cross between reality and what isn’t and the challenge of having to prove oneself as self sufficient when the need to be is not needed. Other than that, you will be wondering why anyone would ask you to see this.

I can advise that if you want to see this, note this animation is not for children.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

 9/10

Starring the voices of

Atsuko Tanaka

Akio Otsuka

Lemasa Kayumi

 

Directed by Mamoru Oshii

 

When you see this movie for the first time like me, you will join the cult lovers of this manga. Ghost in the Shell is a sci-fi ,cyberpunk thriller set in the mid 21st Century.

Better late than never. When in uni, The Stand Alone Complex was released and all my friends were hooked on it, except me. Truth is, silly me never saw a single episode and did not bother to even see this classic of an animation.

I wonder if I would have liked or enjoyed the complexity in the plot? The whole interfacing between flesh and digital wires and the result of it is what Ghost in the Shell’s deep narration is about. Here is a future where being pure human is a thing that is getting out of fashion and being a cyborg is the new norm.

The plot takes place in 2029, and we get to follow the life of Major Kusanagi, she leads a team of security agents as they deal with complex cyber issues, and this movie is about the most complex of them all the Puppet Master. Her unit’s section is called 9, which is an arm of the government security agency. Before we go deeper into the plot, let me give you a brief, this 1995 anime is based on a manga written by Masamune Shirow between 1989 and 1990. He wrote this psychological thriller using a concept that is so ahead of its time. Everything in the manga is written which such ingenuity that even now in 2021, our world seems to have not caught on.

The Puppet Master is a master hacker, who seems to hack people and use them to further his agenda. In this present world almost, everyone has a form of cyberonic brain, and the puppet master is a master in hacking people and planting false memory.

The Major as we know is also a cyborg, but her origin is not the focus here. She and her team are tasked with stopping the Puppet Master, but the whole chase is causing her to start having some existential crisis. Our whole journey is about the chase and capture of the Puppet Master. We encounter the deeper understanding of what he is trying to achieve and the government’s place in everything with more existential crisis and psychological questions.

First thing I would have to say is, please watch the 1995 version, it is the same as the 2008 version, but I liked the animation here better. Also, the movie embodies the concept of the first volume of the manga and sadly every animated work done after this 1995 movie concerning the Ghost in the Shell world are original stories. The Stand Alone Complex is just as much fun as this movie itself, so don’t be deterred.

After seeing this movie, you will find clues where other movie makers got ideas from, especially the Wachowskis 1999's The Matrix.

After seeing this movie, I would say go see The Stand Alone Complex which is set in an alternate timeline. The second movie which acts like a sequel to this movie (both does not follow the manga) is not that good at all. After The Stand Alone Complex, you should see the Arise which is more about a younger her working with Section 9.

I will also will like to add, I have not seen the movie either, so I have no comment about that.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

8/10

Starring

Greg Kinnear

Steve Carell

Toni Collette

Alan Arkin

Abigail Breslin

Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Little Miss Sunshine is one of the best movies I have seen. The plot is well designed to pull on your heart strings and then the different surprises that this movie packs, is amazing. It was like the writers thought up all the bag of tricks to make a movie thrilling and, just dump it all in this movie. This here movie has comedy, tragedy, thriller like scenes, mystery and drama all rolled into one.

What we have is an average family with dreams and each getting to see the reality of things. We do not see them in the end become triumphant which is another thing amazing about this movie, but we see them make peace with their differences and move on.

The great ensemble cast of this movie consist of Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin. Their lives are woven as such, Kinnear and Collette are the married couple Richard and Sheryl Hoover respectively. They have two children, Dwayne (Dano) Sheryl’s son from a previous marriage and Olive (Breslin) a child of both Richard and Sheryl. There is Sheryl’s brother Frank (Carell) who as the movie starts we see just being released. He was hospitalized for attempted suicide and tagged unstable. Then Edwin (Arkin) Richard’s father who is always on the loose with his mouth and got kicked out of the retirement home he was because he started using heroine.

Olive got lucky and she gets called to participate in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California and the family cannot afford to fly her there. They have another problem Frank cannot be left on his own and Edwin has been Olive’s dance coach. So they whole family decided to drive to California from Albuquerque. The movie then uses this journey to shed more light on all the characters, there is no wasted time on flash backs or anything, we just get to understand how weirdly wound up they all are. Little Olive though is the only innocent lovely girl in the group, who just wants to be a beauty queen, and regardless of all the challenges, the family wanted by all means to at least help her participate.

The movie is a directorial debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. When it comes to acting, this movie packed enough from season actors to make all the emotions real enough to win you over. And one thing I notices in the movie is that Breslin looked bigger, which after reading up, found out she wore a padded suit to accomplish that.

The movie was a huge box office hit, making over $100 million on a $8 million budget. It won numerous awards, including two Academy awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.

Here is a movie I will be seeing again, it is worth it.

Home on the Range (2004)

Home on the Range (2004)

6/10

Starring the voices of

Roseanne Barr

Judi Dench

Jennifer Tilly

Cuba Gooding Jr. 

Directed by Will Finn and John Sanford

 

Home on the Range is not a bad film, but it is far from superb and its tale is easily forgettable with characters that make little to no impact on the mind. It comes across as an animation made directly for children who will not bother to think too much of what is going on the screen, but be amazed by the colors and the numerous jumping around.

The animation’s intended reach surprises me, I do not understand how Disney expected this to be a box-office hit. I feel the story and animation is fair enough for a direct-to-DVD release, but leave it to Disney to go overboard. Here is something I don’t get, they made Brother Bear (2003) with $46 million which was a huge box office success, then decided to make this with over a $100 million, I don’t get it.

Why invest so much in an animation whose story is very basic with no emotional tie like Brother Bear (2003). There is no deep comedy like Tarzan and The Emperor’s New Groove or even action adventure like Atlantis: The Lost Empire or Treasure Planet. Then forget taking about soundtrack, because that too does not exist when you equate the songs here to that of the animations before it.

The animation drops us flat in a western setting where we meet Maggie who is the only cow left on her ranch after an outlaw known as Alameda Slim, stole all the cows on the ranch.

This outlaw cow wrangler is capable of stealing all the cows from numerous ranches in one night, without much noise made, when the owners wake-up they see that all their cows are gone.

Maggie’s owner is left distressed and financially downtrodden, and sold Maggie off to Pearl Gesner, a kind old woman who runs a small farm called Patch of Heaven. The sheriff informs Pearl that her farm will be taken over by the bank, if she fails to pay the $750 loan she took.

Well, Maggie got an idea and she was able to get the two other cows on the farm to go along with her. There is Grace the ever-happy resident and then Mrs Calloway, the cow who seems to be running things on the farm.

The plan was to first get the sheriff’s horse a show off wannabe who wants to be ridden by a famous bounty hunter, that plan did not go well as the horse was obnoxious and proud. The second plan was to capture the notorious cow wrangler and get the reward money.

They went for the second plan and we get to watch how these three cows battle with a cow wrangler who has special skills he uses to get cows to do what he wants.

In the end, I can see why many may forget that such an animation was made.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

7/10

Starring the voices of

Michael J. Fox

James Garner

Cree Summer

Don Novello

Phil Morris

Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise

Before 2001, just delve back and you will see that Disney is not one that likes to jump into the realm of Science Fiction. This was their first Science Fiction animated feature and it was released a year before Treasure Planet (2002) which was also a science fiction adventure feature.

The movie boast of a different artistic style at that time and like the movie after it, it was not much of a box office hit. Years after, Atlantis has become one of those Disney movies which have a cult following. I cannot seem to find anyone who has not seen this movie and not walked away loving it for the story and the way it was animated. This was Disney’s 41^st feature film and it was not aimed at children at all. Just like Treasure Planet (2002) the movie seem to be made for more matured audience and the sad returns led to a sequel being done as a direct-to-video.

Michael J. Fox was employed to voice the lead character Milo and along with some other amazing voice actors we delve into the adventure of finding Atlantis the lost empire.

It starts with the introduction to Milo an adventurer seeking funding to go search for the lost city. He seem to be on this hunt just like his grandfather which he adores much so much.

Set in 1914, Milo’s obsession has led him to be a ridicule at the Smithsonian Institute which he works. Milo we learn is a cartographer and a linguist which are skills he plans to use to find Atlantis. After his plea for funding has been rejected again by the board, he resigns. He gets home to be greeted by a charming lady, who tells him that a benefactor wants to meet him. The man who wanted to meet Milo was Whitmore, an old man who has been a partner to Milo’s grandfather. Certain things have come to be and there is a book Milo’s grandfather left behind with Whitmore. His grandfather felt Whitmore will know best when to give the book to Milo, he felt the time was right. Milo believes the book is the needed key to go find Atlantis.

Whitmore provides the mode of transport, the crew and finances needed for Milo to go find Atlantis.

The movie is about their journey, discovery and the impact of that discovery to their lives. The movie had issues because it was one of the first animated feature to not feature any songs, like previous Disney’s movies. All that aside it is a very decent film to see and enjoy for what it is, a wonderful take on the mythical world under water.