you’ll find your home

Imagine you’re just some guy with a hyperfixation and your dead grandpa’s ex boyfriend says he’ll send you to Atlantis, and less than 24 hours later over 100 people are killed by the robot lobster from hell.

You meet a really pretty (possibly immortal) girl and she actually likes you, the resident Twink Dweebus, only to immediately get yoinked into a commentary on capitalist corruption.

Your new girlfriend gets possessed by a sentient rock and is then kidnapped in a hot air balloon.

You slice open the Big Bad Military Capitalist and he turns into a crystal monster, which you graphically shred to pieces in an engine fan. (Yes, this is a kids movie.) The volcano you were all fighting in erupts (did I mention it’s a volcano?) but it’s fine because millennia old robots rise up from the ocean and stop it.

"Cartographer, linguist, plumbler. Hard to believe he's still single."

It's interactions like this in the movie that really make the original expedition team come to life. The way that they all talk and make little jokes around each other. The way they carry themselves side-by-side, just because they're comfortable. It makes Milo stick out even more when you see how much everyone else already fits in.

Plus, it keeps the audience from thinking about Helga and Rourke as being any different from the rest of them, because everyone treats Milo like the odd one out; they all poke at him and get upset with him and don't want to be around him unless they have to. But, as we get to meet the rest of the team, Helga and Rourke don't seem to adjust like the others. They're the least understanding, the most self-interested, and the least willing to listen or open up. So, when these two make the call to do what benefits themselves over anyone else, it doesn't actually feel out of place. It's not some slap-in-the-face twist to shock you: it's a twist that makes sense, keeps the conflict going, and you still get to enjoy what comes out it.

Regardless, all of these mercenaries have done these kinds of jobs before, and have done them with each other. They know each other's quirks, humors, and stories (at least somewhat). It even comes off as them feeling like family around one another, and they play favorites like parents and siblings. I mean, try to tell me that Rourke would've smiled if anyone else would've said what Helga said. Look at his smirk.

They're treated like people. People with both positives and negatives. [Insert quote about the Atlantis characters being the best DnD party put to screen.]

If you’re a fan of Atlantis the Lost Empire, I recommend you pop into the Toy Soldier toy store in the United Kingdom Pavilion in EPCOT.

Go to the back, at the Kidcot Fun Stop, to find a book with Atlantian writing on the spine and framed concept art by famous comic book creator Mike Mignola.

I’ll say it again, the parks have so many details that no one ever notices and many of them are being done away with to make way for new things.