Therapist Reacts to ATLANTIS

Why do competent people get exploited? How do you find your confidence in pressure situations?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are reacting to the beloved Disney Experiential Era film, Atlantis. They react to Milo stepping into a world that he’s not comfortable in and how he learns to thrive and be valued by others. Jonathan talks about how Milo gets walked over and how he finds his confidence. Alan isn’t hugely fond of the story, but he loves the art style… and that Milo might be a psychopath??

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Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Edited by: Nathan Judd
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

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Music ID: 34GKRMWXUMAJJMBP

[ben-toboxent.]

As a boiler technician myself, Milo's treatment of the boiler is... surprisingly accurate. Sometimes, the machinery just needs some... "Concussive Maintenance."

[FigurativeCritter]

There was a tumblr post that once basically said Atlantis was a workplace comedy except instead of working in an office they're on an archeological expedition, and that person was right.

[ashmon]

You missed Audrey being a Mechanic and her sister being a boxer, Vinny being a florist, Roles that when I first watched Atlantis wasn't a thing for those genders, and to a certain point, are still not really seen in this day and age.

Sweet actually being a caring doctor. Mole while socially questionable, is great at his job.

and for once the man isn't this force of nature, he is shown to be weak, and kinda not good in the physical area, and he meets a woman who is.

All this during a time where i felt for those roles, just didnt happen in the real world, or the world that the movie is set in for those type of people.

[writefastertheo]

Context for the seemingly goofy "solid gold kewpie doll" line: Kewpie dolls were ridiculously popular in the early 1900s when the movie Atlantis takes place. The originals were mass-produced bisque/porcelain knicknack statuettes along the lines of modern-day Precious Moments. Cheaper plastic versions were often given as prizes at carnivals. "Winning the kewpie doll" became a sarcastic phrase meaning roughly "congrats, here's some meaningless validation for you"

[Guardian_of_Hope]

While working on Atlantis the crew wore t-shirts that said, "Less songs, more explosions"

[Larssrage]

"Why are we remaking How To Train Your Dragon? It's perfect already."
THANK YOU. My sentiments exactly.

[quintinfoutz]

I don't know if anyone else has brought this up in the comments. A really cool thing that Disney did was the level of detail in the Atlantean language. They actually hired a linguist expert, Marc Okrand (the same guy who invented the Klingon language!), to design symbols to utilize in the book and the backgrounds. He ended up combining multiple elements of real world languages, written and spoken, to create what theoretically could have been a real language. Awesome detail, to me at least!

[FigurativeCritter]

I know I'm mostly just being pedantic because I love this movie, but
A) her name is Kida, not Kira, and
B) it's his grandpa who raised him, not his dad

[MoombaTroopa]

I wish they were a bit more specific in what they mean by "they whiffed it in some places" because I really don't see how Atlantis' story "convoluted" and very much disagree with the idea that Atlantis requires a live action remake to "fix it". I also find it strange that whenever anyone talks about the 1 dimensional characters, they conveniently skip the scene before the firefly fire scene that literally has the characters talking about their life and motivations. Like that's way more history than any of the side character teens from the first HTTYD movie gets.

Also a culture that has suffered a catastrophe forgetting it's own language and history is not that far fetched. In fact it's happened multiple times in real life. Especially considering the king of that culture was specifically encouraging the suppression of reading their own language out of fear. It's been pointed in other comments before also but to re-iterated the "solid gold kewpie doll" line is a perfectly fitting line for the time period that the film is set in.

[NarrativeNelly]

I will say, as someone that's Navajo, them forgetting how to read their language was not only a bittersweet and realistic detail for me but also entirely in line with many people in still surviving tribes. 🤷🏽‍♀️ There are entire native languages that are completely dead and others on the verge -- oral communication is sometimes all we have.

The 'great flood' is such an excellent metaphor for relocation onto reservations and away from the homeland. Idk, it works so well in that context.

[linkawintersteen]

I was a little heartbroken to see them spend so much of the video talking about what they see as wrong with the film. Even the character cast, which they call one-dimensional, have moments where their more complex histories and motivations are mentioned. The crew has already been on an expedition together, and both Milo and the audience get to experience trying to catch up to the lore and dynamics of an already established group. I would argue that Atlantis has an equally or more fleshed out cast than the young vikings in HTTYD. The Atlantis crew are all memorable and genuinely get the audience to care about them, even with limited backstory.

[shainamathey]

I love that Milo is completely unphased by Helga's act when they first meet, but he's smitten by Kida and her genuine nature. It's a subtle but sweet thing.

[trinaq]

Milo and Kida are one of the most underrated Disney couples, and a rare pairing of Nerdy Guy/Athletic Girl. Much like Mulan and Shang, they don't get married at the end, taking the time to get to know each other, with their simple hug conveying enough affection.

[rebajoe]

I like that Sweet is the first to turn against Rourke, his doctor side immediately wins out as soon as the King gets hurt and Sweet stays by his side the whole time tending to him. (he didn't even need to hear Milo's speech about doing the right thing, Sweet already decided on his own to stay and help)

[vailias]

@7:13 Cool detail in this scene with the old man. The fish in his tank are Coelacanths. An absolutely ANCIENT species that was, at the time of this film's setting, only known from fossils. :) Soooo this guy literally has something that isn't supposed to exist, and is just legend. It adds a neat layer to him being the role of the quest giver for another legendary mythical quest as well as all the otherwise goofy dialogue.

[trinaq]

Atlantis and Treasure Planet were truly ahead of their time, and surely would have been popular had they been released two decades later. Their gorgeous animation, simple plots and memorable characters still hold up well today. I never listen to what the professional critics say, even if they pan one of my favourite flicks.

[BatAmerica]

I like how they portray Rourke as a villain; he's warm to Milo when useful but treats him as expendable the moment Milo loses sight of Rourke's selfish goals. Not since Monsters Inc. have I seen such a believable portrayal of greed in human form.

[SilverLetomi]

So I adore Atlantis and I'm bristling a bit at the description of the characters being "aggressively 1 dimensional, 2 if you count driven by money."

Before the twist in the third act, we already see them having dimensions and, what you're calling as the 1 dimension, their passions.

Milo: He's smart, obviously, but he's a dreamer, a *believer*, and he's a problem-solver. He's great at applying knowledge he's learned from one area into other areas of his life. We also see that he's stubborn - the Museum has apparently repeatedly refused his request for funding for his expeditions but he's ready to go back and ask AGAIN. And he's accepting of new information and new possibilities. He wants to explore and learn and grow and share the knowledge with the world.


Vinny: Our demolitions expert with a history that involves family, family business, and flowers. He teases Milo along with the others, sure, but he's quick to accept him too. He is driven by money (but why else would you take such a dangeous job) and he was in the previous expedition to Iceland, showing continued willingness to explore the unknown (and make big booms out there). We also see that when Rourke is violent with the dying King, Vinny is uncomfortable. He may love explosions, but he does NOT enjoy violence.


Packard: Sarcastic and pessimistic, but also clearly far more skilled than most realize. She gets her job down well enough and fast enough to carry on conversations with loved ones back home. She corrects Rourke on the size of the sounds before the Leviathan encounter, after all. She also clearly has lively long and well enough to not GAF about decorum, electing to sleep in the nude even on expeditions.


Dr Sweet: Is our sweet and enthusiastic doctor, knowing his patients immediately by name and what they medically need from him. His family history is a TOUGH one in this time period, showing us that him becoming a doctor in this day and age was no small feat. He tells us he was raised on a reservation and in military camps and so he applies the medical knowledge from both areas in his work. He is caring outside of work too - giving Milo a sleep mask just in case Milo wakes up to Packard's sleepwalking. He also is probably the first to "switch sides" as his main objective after the twist in the third act is to (try to) save the King and protect the people.


Audrey: Another character that would show us early on which side she'd choose, Audrey shows us that she prioritizes life, saving as many as she can by leaving the doors open as long as possible and hands on fixing the Ulysses as best she can during the Leviathan attack. When she talks about her past to Milo, she speaks with pride about her father and her sister because she knows that while her father wanted 2 sons, the two daughters he got have lived up to his expectations. She's another character that's worked hard for her place in this period of time and her passion and expertise can't be discounted. She accepts when Milo does know more about a particular boiler than she does (but treats him the way, based on her body language, her family would've treated her- "two for flinching") and is the first to turn around and rejoin him, showing she values her moral center.


Molier: You know what? I'll give you this one. Gaetan Molier has 2 passions in life - dirt, and women. (Though he's also clearly familiar with combat and enjoys pranking Milo with Vinny.)


Cookie: Cookie takes a bit more thought. He's brought along despite not being a very good cook (and while the Direct To Video sequel explicit tells us he's a sharpshooter, you can see hints of that in the first movie in that he mans the turrets on the Ulysses and then, when riding the flying stone fish, he continues to use his shotgun rather than the fish's weapon) but it's clear he cares about the people he's with. He insists on giving Milo a second serving because Milo's so skinny "you turn sideways and stick out your turn, you'd look like a zipper" and he does choose to side with Milo to defend the people of Atlantis.


Helga: Sexy and smart enough to use it, Helga I do love despite being a villain. She's easily swapping between being a femme fatale and a strong second-in-command, displays strategic thought, and HAS a moral compass (she says to Rourke when they first see Atlantis that they won't expecting people to be LIVING down there and she's unsure of what that means for the mission) but ultimately choosing loyalty over morality. And I say loyalty because while yes there's money at play, just expressing the doubt of what living people mean for the mission shows, to me, that she would be willing to forego the money if that was what Rourke decided. But he said nothing changed, so she followed his lead. And when Rourke betrays her, she gets her final say in a fairly cunning final move.

Rourke is arguably the only character with 1 dimension. Rourke is a mercenary who will do anything for money. And that does mean anything.
(edited to correct "live" to "life" in Molier's section.)

(SECOND EDIT: Really, I think it's easy to view the characters as 1 dimensional because the film DOESN'T have a lot of time to directly flesh them out and give them story and arcs and relies on us, the viewers, noticing and inferring and connecting subtle dots. They could have maybe done better, but they were doing the best they could with the time and resources they had)

[celinahaas]

I love the fact that the Atlantis team is made up of a very diverse cast of characters in every way because the thought process was that Whitmore would just want the best and wouldn’t care about anything else.

[andreashelley]

"so it's useless."
"No, just different."
Mission statement for the whole movie right there