Atlantis The Lost Empire

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.

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.

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.

Atlantis is good, and kids will love it, but it doesn't achieve greatness.

A new-fashioned but old-fangled hash.

The characters and story are mere narrative lubricant to get us from one digitally goosed sensory assault to the next.

Our little science-minded guy was hooked, and it's easy to see why. It's the kind of film Disney usually produces as a live-action blockbuster.

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.

...a passable Disney endeavor that ranks somewhere in the middle of the studio's animation canon.

Entertaining but intense adventure for tweens and up.

It is difficult to say whether its greatest failure is in its story, its characters, or its animation.