If you're looking for the animation quality and visuals of the original Atlantis, you're pretty much guaranteed to be disappointed. This is not the best work animation-wise for Disney's DTV department.

If however you can accept this as the first three episodes of the "Atlantis" Saturday morning cartoon series, (which I believe is what might have been intended), it's actually pretty good. The DTV is split into three distinct episodes--searching for a sea monster called the Kraken, discovering the secret of the sandstorm coyotes and retrieving a magic spear from some crazy ex-CEO who thinks he's the Norse god, Odin. Milo, Kida and the Atlantis team become almost like those 'meddling kids' from Scooby Doo (complete with six-legged lava mutt) as they hunt down various monsters and mythic beings. Of course, instead of the answer to all their mysteries being a guy in a rubber mask, it's some element of Atlantis.

I actually found the Atlantis team more enjoyable on this outting as well--everyone had something to contribute which made them feel a lot less like a motley crew of tag-alongs. Even Mole became less of a strange little wart and more of a useful character, using his knowledge of the earth to save the team's skin on more than one occasion.

So, all in all, better than I expected. I think if you liked the characters from the original movie, you might actually enjoy this.

This "film" got me mad. I was expecting at least a half-decent Disney DTV feature, but what I get is exactly what Athena guessed below - an aborted TV series with crummy animation that has the audacity to fob itself off as a movie. And whereas this didn't bother her that much, it got right up my nose.

Don't rent or buy this expecting anything remotely resembling the original 'Atlantis'. It's horribly dumbed-down (the Queen's interior monologue in the first 5 minutes will make you cringe), and the animation is way, way below the quality of the original or of most of Disney's own DTVs that I've seen. It looks like TV animation, and not even really outstanding TV animation at that.

There's no real attempt to develop a plot in the way that you'd expect in a full length film. Everything is rushed (one minute they're standing around in Atlantis, next minute they're on a boat? How did that happen? Obviously in a 25 minute cartoon episode if they bothered showing how, there wouldn't be room left for the story.)

And yes, the comparison to 'Scooby Doo' (which incidentally I think is one of the most inexplicably popular things ever invented) are horribly apparent.

Ok, if this was in the 'TV Series' section - if, in fact, it WAS a TV series and not a faux-movie, it would have gotten a score from me in line with what I expect from TV animation. Two and half maybe.

As it is, I was just so ticked off I didn't even finish watching the damn thing. Avoid.

(and yes, Athena, you guessed right. Further research reveals this was the leftover from a proposed TV series 'Team Atlantis', which was going to follow up the expected blockbuster movie, but which was abandoned halfway when the film bombed at the box office. Disney decided to complete three of the episodes which had made it to the animation phase and push it out as a movie. Boo! Hiss!)