Milo's cast of explorers. © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

A New Wavefront
So besides the widescreen format, which has not been used since Lady and the Tramp, what makes Atlantis so special? Technically, it boasts the largest and most advanced type of computer graphics to date of any traditionally animated film. According to Joshi, 27% of Atlantis is digital and every scene contains computer effects. Hahn explains that the need for such large-scale computer sequences is attributable to Atlantis not being a musical: "In a musical we'd call the songs the set pieces and they'd carry the story forward. They'd be the tent poles that hold the movie up. We went to the computer graphics to create something the audience has never seen before. It's the thrill ride aspect of the film."

Computer effects in Disney animated features began with the Big Ben climax in The Great Mouse Detective, which was steered by Toy Story mastermind John Lasseter. Effects were used sparingly in ensuing films mainly due to budget restrictions and software limitations. The decisive moment in Disney's timeline came with the ballroom dance scene in Beauty and the Beast, where the entire background was rendered. Disney took this a step further in Aladdin with Carpet, the first Disney feature character to be completely computer generated. The Lion King flaunted the now infamous wildebeest stampede; the detail and fluidity of the nearly entire CGI scene was unparalled in 1994. Of course Disney and Pixar united in the ensuing years for Toy Story, its sequel, and A Bug's Life. Deep Canvas, a technique created for Tarzan, uses digital paint effects to augment traditional 2D backgrounds in order to create a sense of depth and realism unattainable through traditional means. Dinosaur, despite having a terribly predictable and silly story, represented the epitome of computer effects by seamlessly blending live-action scenery with stupendously crafted CGI dinosaurs.

Integrating The Ulysses into the film called for the careful meshing of 2D and 3D. © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

"One goal [with Atlantis] was to hybridize the two types of animation," says Wise. "Often the digital animation sticks out, so we had an ambition to bridge that flaw." Fortunately, Atlantis culminates the various digital effects incorporated in the last two decades of Disney animation. In fact, the technology used to create Dinosaur was a modified version of the hybrid techniques that were being developed in the early stages of Atlantis. Animators modeled and animated elements like backgrounds, vehicles and landscapes using Alias|Wavefront's Maya. As Joshi explains, "In a particular scene there are a whole series of 3D elements. We wanted to set it up so the animator had all the elements in the Maya window in order to be able to animate. That enabled our more traditional canvas animators not to need to know how to use all the features of the program."