Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire opened on this day 25 years ago. The studio treated its release like a cultural milestone, as it was their feature animation division’s 40th “official” animated feature (it would later lose that status when Disney decided to count Dinosaur as one of their “animated” films so they could sell Tangled as their 50th, but that’s a rant for another day). Perhaps for this reason, the marketing largely targeted teenagers and adults, and unfortunately, that had mixed financial results. Atlantis wasn’t a “flop” per se–it did turn in a profit, albeit barely–but it was far from the blockbuster they were counting on. Huge plans for a potential franchise–including an elaborate theme park attraction and a TV series–were ultimately scrapped. All of this is a darn shame since Atlantis has become much more beloved by fans as the years have gone by. It’s gone from being a cult classic to something that might just actually be popular.

Not helping it out at the time of its release was an abnormally harsh–and frankly unfair–response from critics. The Washington Post named it “one of the ten worst movies of 2001” (fuck off), which is insane when you consider that See Spot Run! opened the same year. And here’s the part where I add that my mom partook in such “criticism” by saying “she could’ve written a better script than that,” and I was tempted to respond by handing her a pen and paper and going “fine, then go ahead and write one!” I of course didn’t do that, but…

Now I intend to cover more on the legacy of Atlantis in later headers–and by “legacy” I of course mean “fast food promotions”–but this time I’m going to talk about something I don’t often dive into: a deleted scene. Or, more to the point, an alternate opening. Of course, fully animated abandoned sequences in Disney movies are extremely rare, as every scene in a feature film is a commitment due to the time-consuming and costly process of animation. So when they get rid of one, they need to have a damn good reason. And did they in this case? Well…

Included as a bonus feature on the two-disc collector’s edition of Atlantis on DVD, the scene was intended to immediately let the audience know they weren’t in for a typical Disney ride. It features a group of Vikings in possession of the fabled Shepherd’s Journal which according to legend leads the way to the titular lost empire, but their trip is cut short by the arrival of a sea monster. And then they all fucking die. Honestly, it’s awesome stuff, made even cooler by the fact that it’s done entirely in Icelandic with subtitles (the sequence was supposedly still included in countries like Scandinavia, although I have not personally been able to confirm this).

The scene was replaced very late in production–shots from it were even included in several of the film’s trailers–following feedback Disney received after a test screening. And that was that Princess Kida was introduced too late in the story for audiences to form a connection to her (for those who haven’t seen the film, Atlantis isn’t found until the 45-minute mark, and how the hell do I know this without having to look it up?). Why should filmgoers care for the Atlanteans after they’ve only spent time with Milo and his ragtag explorer pals up until that point? And so a new opening was done, this time showing the actual destruction of Atlantis and a young Kida witnessing the tragic sacrifice her mother made to the crystal in order to save her people from certain death (look, just watch the movie, okay?).

Now amazingly enough, the Viking prologue didn’t go completely to waste, as it was used as the opening cutscene for the video game prequel Search for the Journal. This was a first-person shooter which I owned but never played (for reasons which had absolutely nothing to do with my mom, and why would you even assume that?), and was actually a freebie. It was a CD-ROM which took up a lot of memory for only four levels of gameplay, and was included in cereal boxes and certain Disney DVD releases (in my case, I’m pretty sure it was attached to The Emperor’s New Groove). It chronicles Milo’s grandfather’s original expedition to find the diary which I feel I’ve already mentioned far too many times in this header, and you know what? That’s a pretty cool concept for a game. This not only served as a precursor to the movie (or as the sleeve advertises, “The Prequel How It All Started!”), but also another computer game which was exclusive to Windows titled Trial by Fire. And who the fuck is that on the box art? Is that supposed to be Milo? He looks more like Matt Damon in Don Bluth’s Titan A.E. Did my boy Milo roid up? Jesus Christ, man. You gotta stop giving in to peer pressure, Milo. Get help. Milo. Please.

Have a great night where the dream takes you, y’all! And on a bittersweet note, this was the late Jim Varney’s final film which, by coincidence or not, opened on his birthday.