Atlantis: Milo’s Return

• Directed by Victor Cook, Toby Shelton, and Tad Stones
• May 20, 2003

Voice Cast

• Milo-James Arnold Taylor
• Kida-Cree Summer
• Whitmore-John Mahoney
• Audrey/Nurse-Jacqueline Obradors
• Vinny-Don Novello
• Mole-Corey Burton
• Sweet-Phil Morris
• Packard-Florence Stanley
• Obby/Mantell-Frank Welker
• Cookie-Steven Barr
• Volgud-Clancy Brown
• Inger-Jean Gilpin
• Seaman/Gunnar-Kai Larson
• Sven-Bill Fagerbakke
• Carnaby-Tom Wilson
• Chakashi-Floyd Westerman
• Sam McKeane-Jeff Bennett
• Erik Hellstrom-Morgan Sheppard

When strange things begin to happen on the surface, Milo and his friends reunite to solve the problems.

Some Disney direct-to-video sequels like Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas are very good distinct stories that move the narrative begun in the original forward or just have their own self-contained story. Others like Atlantis: Milo’s Return are a bad cash grab meant to recoup something from an investment of a project that never materialized.

Milo’s Return is made up of individual segments that were originally meant to be part of a television series that never happened called Team Atlantis. And that reality is painfully obvious. Additional animation was done to connect the three completed segments-“Kraken,” “Spirit of the West,” and “Spear of Destiny”-but that does little to make transitions smooth. You can see the breaks and it is clear that one sitting was not the intended viewing method.

When you get invested in interested in one story it wraps up and they move on. A more effective method would have been a wraparound or even some of the characters providing a kind of hosting duty with each story introduced rather than them forced together. Each segment has a different tone making the change from story-to-story jarring and harming any enjoyment or excitement that has been built up.

Most if not all of the stories connect in some way to the city of Atlantis. It seems several thousand years ago the Atlanteans were quite the litterbugs. They reframe this empire as less of an empire and more as a kindly group going out and accidentally/purposefully spreading civilization though they are sure to throw in references to Atlantis’s conquering nature as needed by the plot and not by events of the first film.

The least simplistic of the stories is “Kraken.” It deals with a man who made a deal for immortality and a creature with dark powers. That would have been something worth expanding upon. As a pilot episode it promised better than the other two installments delivered.

This is family friendly on the friendly side. Atlantis: The Lost Empire was no edgy piece of material, but it was not as dumbed down as this. We even get a cute pet that can live in lava and acts like a dog. It felt like a bad way to remind us of Atlantis yet Princess (now Queen) Kida and her numerous references to her people and her city were more than enough.

The animation is a bit flat and less dynamic than what the film offered but then again this was intended to be a television series. The style looks a bit like a knock off of what you might find in a Chuck Jones Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies short.

Nothing gets you too excited. Nothing is that engaging. Between the cheap animation and simplistic tone and stories that fly through their narratives giving the viewer no time to take anything in, you will ultimately be disappointed.

Atlantis: Milo’s Return is just a bunch of episodes for a TV show that never materialized poorly strung together and marketed as a movie. SKIP!