First shot of animation: Scratchy newsreel footage establishes the setting.

All caught up! The era of Difficult Family Relationships finally makes a follow-up to Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It’s animated like they saw those TikToks of people acting like Disney characters and felt motivated to go further beyond. Everyone’s constantly bouncing and pendulating, but in particular ways to denote character.

So our story concerns actual power plants, that grow actual green energy. And three generations have to work through their issues to solve a problem with it. One is a rapacious explorer, then a resource exploiter, and our hero is Mr sustainable. The mystery prevents anything analogous to an indigenous perspective, and the adventure genre locks out keeping the Strange World as a preserve. I’m almost thankful this one flopped so we were spared people blogging on Disney Does Degrowth.

Love the critters. Every few minutes a new little guy pops up and I’m making my noises at it. Like Avatar with whimsy. The best part is some exist just to exist, with no practical, exploitable use. They’re features of wonder, not Chekov’s jellyfish clouds.

Why does the final shot reveal the story was a comic book? Was it fictional all along? The opening was a newsreel so it’s not a bookend thing. Which means they managed projection before electrification so the switch isn’t reflecting Pando’s loss. It’s too in love with the pulp influence, and that final shot spoils the experience.