Intro:
I've decided to put online this section after I heard a lot of
people saying that "Atlantis - The Lost Empire",
Disney's latest movie (release date: June 15, 2001), was quite
similar to "Nadia - The secret of blue water" (Gainax -
1991). Being honest and a bit proud, this section was the first
appeared (at least in English language) about this subject, in
February 2001, followed by a series of other pages.
First of all, I'm NOT saying I hate Disney, I'm NOT accusing Disney, I'm NOT blaming at Disney!!!! I received lots of "hot" e-mails (also featuring viruses...Luckily I've a really nice and well-working antivirus JJJ) after I put this section online and I'm still wondering why...What I wrote here are just my two cents about this subject...I mean, this page was built just because it was a new [Nadia-related] subject to discuss about and NOT to say to people to boycott the movie!!! Are we joking?? So please stop doing all this mess...If you're against this kind of stuff, you can just avoid visiting this section (but please keep still enjoying the rest of the site JJJ). Thanks to all those people who wrote to express their solidarity, you're great ! J
Anyway...It's useless to say that the stories are different but it's even obvious Disney's animators like Nadia...Even though...
“Never heard of
Nadia till it was mentioned in this NG. Long after we’d
finished production, I might add.” Kirk Wise, director
of 'Atlantis: The Lost Kingdom'
(Thanks to M.D. Hayden for
this sentence)
Yes...Yes...
This wouldn't be the first time (and surely either the last) animators of a company take inspiration from other series for their works. There's nothing bad on this, I guess, if it's not a pure copy of course JJ . Japanese animators look at Disney to see what they are doing and Disney looks at Japanese animation companies to see what they are doing. Even Nadia was inspired by Laputa and a lot of scenes are similar...But, at the end, works are different and that's ok. That's all, just my two cents JJJ
I just think Disney could choose a better "way of action" ...I mean, as I wrote above, there's nothing wrong being inspired by another anime...How can the director say he ignored the existence of one of the greatest, most appreciated and fashinating Japanese anime ever made??? Why couldn't he say "Well, yes, we obviously heard about Nadia but we wanted to develop a project about Atlantis in a personal way...". During a recent interview, also, Gay Trousdale, "Atlantis" co-director, has told he's a fan of anime, as well as Kirk Wise (the director of Atlantis). But they said they were inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke). It's quite curious that Disney owns the distribution rights of "Princess Mononoke" etc etc, uh?
WHAT ABOUT...THE PLOTS?
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water |
Atlantis: The Lost Kingdom |
|
|---|---|---|
| The story begins in… | France (Le Havre) | America (Washington) |
| When? | 1889 | 1914 |
| Where our hero, who is… | A young guy with red/brown hair, round glasses, a red bow tie and a great passion for science | A young guy with red/brown hair, round glasses, a red bow tie and a great passion for science |
| Meets… | The heroine | A beautiful, blond woman named Helga |
| Coming across to… | ... a high-tech submarine with an international crew and a blond female second-in-command, a bald dark-skinned doctor and a steersman with short hair and mustaches | ...a high-tech submarine with an international crew and a blond female second-in-command, a bald dark-skinned doctor and a granatier with short hair and mustaches |
| Finding in their way a... | Scary and giant prehistoric fish | A scary and giant lobster |
| After lots of underwater adventures they find… | An underwater place | An underwater place |
| Which leads to… | A chamber filled with strange drawings | A chamber filled with strange carvings |
| From where the group… | Heads for open space, then holds a memorial for those who died along the way | Holds a memorial for those who died along the way, then heads for open space |
| They end up in… | Atlantis | Atlantis |
| Which is… | A dead civilization | A living civilization |
| At the center of which there is… | A huge jewel similar to the pendant | A huge glowing thing |
| Which is linked to… | A small blue jewel worn as a pendant | A small blue jewel worn as a pendant |
| Which is around the neck of… | The heroine, a dark skinned girl, dressed in a strange way (see below) who doesn’t fully understand what it’s for | The heroine, a dark skinned girl, dressed in a strange way (see below) who doesn’t fully understand what it’s for |
| Because as a child, she… | Lost her family (but her father is still alive) when the cataclysm occurred | Lost her mother (but her father is still alive) when the cataclysm occurred |
| But she discovers that… | These crystals are the power source for Atlantis | These crystals are the power source for Atlantis |
| Which explains why… | The bad guys are so interested in Atlantis | The bad guys are so interested in Atlantis |
| So they can… | Use the power source | Sell the power source |
| While the rest of the world… | Plunges headlong into war (against Neo Atlantis) | Plunges headlong into war (against Germany) |
| But the heroine stops them by… | Using her pendant to merge with and control the power source | Using her pendant to merge with and control the power source |
| And when it’s all over… | She fall in love with the "hero" (Jean) and live happily with him | She fall in love with the "hero" (Milo) and live happily with him |
WHAT
ABOUT...THE IMAGES?
(click
above and a pop-up window will appear)
If you have any other idea and/or image, feel free to let me know and I'll put them here.
Copyright© Max 2001. All
rights reserved ®
"Atlantis: The lost
empire" - Copyright owned by Walt Disney Company (2001).
The plot table was taken from Anime News
Network (for the only reason I didn't
know anything about the plot of Atlantis, or I would have done a
table by myself) and, for a couple of sentences, from this site (to which I wish the best luck...even if it
features lots of images taken from here JJ)
The image I used making the logo of this section can be found here
Check it out also this page about Laputa Vs Atlantis