Worlds Apart...

It’s late afternoon and there are hardly any people on the beach. ‘Weird’, Althea thinks to herself as she sits down on the warm sand. She watches some seagulls lazily glide towards the shore, a smile forms in the corners of her mouth when they land and immediately start proclaiming their presence to the world. In the distance, she can hear some waves breaking. 

She listens to how they are pulled back into the ocean and come crashing down again, letting the sound wash over her wave-after-wave, allowing it to transport her to some far-away place. As her tired body starts to loosen up, she lets out a sigh. Has she really done it? 

 

She is startled when the wind suddenly picks up, but quickly allows herself to drift off again. She needs this. For too long has she been in hiding, always working at night, never going out during the day, ever. She tries to concentrate on her breathing as she slowly inhales the salty air, secretly congratulating herself for choosing this specific island. This is a special day indeed, almost too good to be true. 

As she lies there, staring into the distance, she can feel herself slowly falling asleep. There’s nothing left to do. ‘Who knows’, she thinks, ‘Today might just be my lucky day. Today, I might just get to die’.  

No one will ever know for sure what events played themselves off the day that the fabled city of Atlantis disappeared for good from the face of the Earth. One can only imagine. But since the time of Plato and his apparent observation of its demise, Atlantis has captured the imagination of civilisation for thousands of years and continues to do so until this very day. With a whole island quite literally magically disappearing, who better to recreate its story than the masters of magical story telling themselves: Disney.

When Milo Thatch decides to quit from working at the city’s public library, he has absolutely no idea what magnificent new adventure is about to unfold in his life. But, pretty soon he realises that what was a bold step for him to take in the first place was a step in the right direction, all along.

When his services as a linguist are recruited by a mysterious Mr Whitmore to help find the lost city of Atlantis, Milo realises that this is more than just some opportunity to make a name for himself as an explorer-slash-discoverer, this is his destiny, and the key to finding both lies in finding and returning a magic crystal. 

 

Of course, no one is going to tell him that the real reason why he is actually there, are for some mercenaries to plunder the island, once located, and to leave Milo there for dead, should that be necessary. 

Fortunately, Milo has the true explorers gift of inspiration, and when the going gets tough, he persuades his fellow explorers that some things are worth far more when they are left undiscovered and pure, than merely selling it to the world for money and a few moments of fame. 

It’s a lovely story with some beautifully done animation scenes and a score to match it musically every step of the way.

There are many lessons to be learned from it, the most important one probably being that the spirit of Atlantis was always its people. The day the people lost themselves through all their many new inventions and distractions, was the day the city of Atlantis in fact actually disappeared. Perhaps, a reminder to all of us still left on our planet that the day we lose our way might be the end of us and our world, too.