The fantasias adventure follows Milo James Thatch; a linguist who embarks on a journey with a team of explorers to find a mysterious lost continent of Atlantis.
It's probably the most grown-up animated feature Disney has produced, and with its attuned vocal performances, elegant design and pulse-quickening finale, it sets a standard of sustained craftsmanship most live-action film-makers must envy.
This blandly conceived and executed attempt at a juve-style Indiana Jones with Jules Verne trappings recycles familiar adventure and cartoon devices with minimal wit and flair.
Nell Minow
Common Sense Media
December 22, 2010
Entertaining but intense adventure for tweens and up.
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
June 15, 2001
The characters and story are mere narrative lubricant to get us from one digitally goosed sensory assault to the next.
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
June 28, 2011
...a passable Disney endeavor that ranks somewhere in the middle of the studio's animation canon.
It's too rich with invention and characterization, too packed with juice, and it gallops right along breathlessly. Even so, it manages moments of lyricism and visual elegance.
Visually imaginative and even persuasively spiritual, this animated adventure has some unusually complex villains and heroes, and some of the plot and dialogue transcends what's typical in movies intended for a broad or youthful audience.