- “You are a scholar, are you not? Judging from your diminished physique and large forehead, you are suited for nothing else!”
- ―Kida to Milo
Milo James Thatch is the protagonist of Disney's 2001 animated feature film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He serves as a linguist and cartography expert who directs the expedition to find the lost continent of Atlantis. Milo is the orphaned son of Augustus and Lucille Thatch, and Thaddeus Thatch's grandson. By the end of the first film, he had married Princess Kida, becoming the son-in-law of Kashekim Nedakh and the former Queen of Atlantis, and the King Consort of Atlantis.
Background[]
Having been orphaned by a railway accident in 1885, Milo Thatch was raised and educated by his grandfather Thaddeus Thatch (see related files: Archeological Expeditions led by, Diplomatic Relations brokered through, Patents held by, and Georgetown Incident).
Milo took after his grandfather with regard to his affinity and passion for languages and antiquities. Graduated Buford Beaumont High School at age 11, accepted (and declined) admission at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Universities for advanced academic studies, 1895. Enrolled at Oxford University, 1896. Tried out for Rowing Team, 1899 (rejected); Archery Team, 1900 (rejected); Debate Team, 1900 (accepted); Cricket Team, 1901 (rejected); and Chess Team, 1902 (accepted).
Development[]
The development of Milo as a hero was a difficult one for the filmmakers. Heroes, in general, have been widely regarded as the least interesting for animators to work on, so the filmmakers sought to develop Milo as a character with a great deal of personality. There was an early concept that Milo was the descendant of Blackbeard the pirate, but that was abandoned in favor of Milo discovering his inner self and love for exploration rather than his inner pirate.
The supervising animator of Milo was John Pomeroy. Pomeroy had the unique challenge of trying to figure out what a linguist looked like and, according to Marc Okrand, who developed the Atlantean language for the film, used him as a basis for the design of the character. Pomeroy has also noted that Milo was the closest in his then thirty years in the business that he had animated a self-portrait. Because Milo appeared in virtually every scene of the film, he was one of the few characters requiring a team of animators working under Pomeroy.
Michael J. Fox provided the voice of Milo. Fox reportedly had to decide between this film and Titan A.E. (another science fiction animated feature, directed by Don Bluth) and left it to his son Sam to decide. Fox enjoyed not having to worry about the way he looked and could do what he needed, be it contorting himself, in order to project the right emotion through his voice. Co-director Gary Trousdale noted that Fox, despite being in his late thirties at the time, could still project a youthful exuberance needed to voice a character like Milo.
James Arnold Taylor replaced Fox as the voice of Milo in the sequel for budgetary reasons, he previously voiced him in the game for the first movie.
Appearances[]
Atlantis: The Lost Empire[]
In 1914, Milo James Thatch is working as a linguist at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. He is preparing for a presentation he has scheduled with the board of directors to seek funding to locate a book called the Shepherd's Journal in Iceland, believing it will lead them to the lost city of Atlantis. He had compared the runes in ancient texts to those of a Viking shield and discovered that historians have mistranslated a letter making them erroneously believe that the journal was in Ireland. Shortly after four o'clock, he receives notice that the meeting had to be moved to three-thirty. He then immediately receives another notice that the matter is closed due to his supposed no-show.
Furious by the deceit, he chases after the board members and manages to catch his boss, Fenton Harcourt. Harcourt lays it thick that the museum only funds expeditions based on fact and "Not legends and folklore", also belittling Milo's skills by saying that he is needed to tend to the boiler during winter. Milo literally chases him down threatening to turn in a letter of resignation if the board wouldn't fund the expedition, thus leaving the Smithsonian with no one to deal with the boiler and Milo would get revenge by having them all freeze to death in the wintertime. When Harcourt has his chauffer back up to Milo, Milo goes on to say, "I mean it, sir! If you refuse to fund my proposal-" but Harcourt cuts him off asking, "You'll what? Flush your career down the toilet just like your grandfather?", going so far as to take a Napoleon appearance to show how loony the board thought Thaddeus was when he tried asking them for funding. He tells Milo that he has potential, and he shouldn't throw it away chasing a fairy tale.
Milo persists until Harcourt tosses a coin at him and tells him, "You wanna go on an expedition? Here, take a trolley to the Potomac and jump in. Maybe the cold water will clear your head." Milo is then left in defeat as the car splashes him as it drives over a puddle as it drives away, leaving his resignation letter soaked and ruined and Milo embarrassed, crest-fallen, and ashamed.
A disheartened Milo returns home to find Helga Sinclair waiting to bring him to her employer, discovered to be a friend of Milo's grandfather in Preston Whitmore. Whitmore presents a parcel from Milo's grandfather, "He brought that package to me years ago. He said if anything should happen to him, I should give it to you when you were ready." Milo opens it and finds it to be the Shepherd's Journal. Whitmore then begins to test Milo's commitment to finding Atlantis by pretending he doesn't believe Atlantis exists either. Milo then tells him, "I will find Atlantis on my own! Even if I have to rent a rowboat!" With a satisfied smile, Whitmore tells him, "Congratulations, Milo. This is exactly what I wanted to hear."
He also reveals that the expedition is all set and ready to go, having provided all the equipment, vehicles, and experienced crew for it. He'd even taken care of Milo's personal preparations all the way down to bringing his cat, Fluffy, over. The crew also brought the journal from Iceland, making Milo extremely glad that he was right about the mistranslated letter. All that's left is for Milo to fill in for his grandfather to translate the directions from the book.
Milo has difficulty getting along with the other members of the expedition whom he makes a bad impression on firsthand, some even pulling pranks on him and teasing him mercilessly. In the end, when their consciences begin to catch up to them and they begin feeling they've been too hard on him, they finally let him in during a rest stop. They manage to get him to stop reading the book for a moment, even though there appears to be a page missing. Vinny tells him, "Kid, relax. We don't get paid overtime." Milo finally closes the book confessing that he was often getting carried away. After Dr. Sweet helps Milo with his neck with a technique he learned from an Arapaho medicine man, he reveals how his father settled in Kansas after meeting his mom showing that he's part Arapaho and part African American. After this, they set up camp and some of the others begin to open up about themselves. As they start getting ready for bed, Milo (since Audrey asked since she never got the chance to meet Thaddeus) tells Audrey about how his Grandpa raised him after his parents died when he was little. He then shares a story with them of something that happened when he was eight, "We were hiking along the stream, and I saw something shiny in the water. It was a genuine arrowhead. Well, you'd think I'd found a lost civilization the way Grandpa carried on about it. It was until I was older that I realized that the arrowhead was just some compressed shale mixed with zinc pyrite that had fractured into an isosceletic triangulate." Mole, being knowledgeable in minerals himself, found the story cute.
In the middle of the night, Milo awakens to use the restroom. He accidentally points his flashlight at a large stone lamp on the cave ceiling housing fireflies that attack. The expedition is dropped into a cavern with Milo seemingly separated from everyone else.
When Milo comes to, he finds himself surrounded by strange figures. Upon noticing a scar on his shoulder, one of the figures removes its mask, revealing itself to be a human woman. Milo watches in shock as the woman uses a crystal to completely heal his scar. The woman then gives him a warm smile and puts her mask back on. The figures make off upon the rest of the team arriving to find Milo, with Milo following until he finds himself looking at Atlantis, alive and thriving. The figures return and he recognizes them as Atlanteans, able to communicate with them until it is discovered that they can speak other languages since they root back to Atlantean. The Atlantean woman who tended to his wound earlier calls on Milo to explain why they are here. Once he is able to get more accustomed to speaking with her, to the point she takes off her mask completely to speak to him face to face, she is then able to speak clearly in English, welcoming them to Atlantis before encouraging them that they need to meet with her father.
Though the meeting with the Atlantean King Kashekim Nedakh does not go so smoothly, the woman Milo met, revealed to be Princess Kidagakash Nedakh, leads him on a tour of the city while they get to know one another. Milo's interest in looking for the power source is sidetracked when he discovers that no one in the city can read the Atlantean language or even remember much of their past culture, as he witnesses when Kida is unable to understand the ancient Atlantean in the Shepherd's Journal, despite how long she's been alive.
Kida then takes him to a pond where she tells him there's a tablet with writing that could tell them about the bright light in the middle of the city that showed up when Atlantis was buried under the sea. As Kida removes her sarong to swim, she asks him if he knows how to swim, to which he tells her, "I swim pretty girl." but corrects himself, saying he meant to say, 'pretty good'. After stripping down to his boxers, Kida leads him on a swim where the tablet Kida described is found and Milo begins to understand the true nature of the power source known as the Heart of Atlantis, as it is a crystal responsible for keeping the city alive and its magic was kept in the crystals they wore around their necks.
Upon surfacing, Milo learns of Lyle Rourke's true intentions, having been the one who stole the missing page from the book and leading the rest of the expedition to find the crystal and sell it on the black market. Milo does not join them but is forced to cooperate when Rourke has one of his men aim a gun at Kida, threatening to shoot her if he refused. Milo translates the page that the crystal is hidden in the King's Chamber, but does not understand the riddle, "The Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of our king." Rourke figures it out and forces Milo, along with Helga forcing Kida, to descend into the Crystal Chamber to recover it. Milo and Rourke argue about how to bring the crystal down until Kida is called upon by the crystal. When she turns to assure Milo in Atlantean, "All will be well, Milo Thatch. Be not afraid." he tells a questioning Rourke that he "didn't catch it." though he clearly did. Kida then bonds with the Heart of Atlantis, taking on a translucent form that Milo tells Rourke or Helga not to touch.
As Rourke and the expedition prepare to leave with the Heart of Atlantis and Kida, Milo makes one scolding speech to them for the prices they'll pay for their actions as it will kill the Atlanteans if they sell the crystal for money by sarcastically saying, "Congratulations, Audrey. Guess you and your dad will be able to open up that second garage after all. And, Vinny, you could start a whole chain of flower shops. I'm sure your family's gonna be very proud. But that's what it's all about, right? Money." Rourke punches him and leaves him to be forgotten by the world, even adding insult to injury when he steps on and crushes the photo of Milo and his grandfather Thaddeus under his boot. The key members of the expedition see this and finding they wouldn't be able to live with themselves out of sheer guilt and drawing the line at hurting Milo, ends up siding with him, not wanting to be responsible for the deaths of innocent people, with Audrey making it clear to Rourke that this was going too far, especially after assaulting Milo. Milo learns from the dying king that he must also save Kida, for if she remains bonded to the crystal for too long, she will be lost to it forever (which is how he lost his wife when she was bonded with the crystal for too long). When Sweet attempts to offer his aid to Milo, Milo goes into a furious tirade about how he doomed an ancient civilization and allowed Rourke to get his hands on the Heart of Atlantis, which he'll probably sell to the highest bidder, possibly even the Kaiser of Germany. Following Milo fuming at Sweet as to if he left anything out, Sweet reminds him about what happened on their way to Atlantis, "Well, you did set the camp on fire and dropped us down that big hole," leaving Milo further demoralized. Joshua Sweet then tells Milo something that Thaddeus once told him, "When you hit bottom, the only place left to go is up." Milo leads the others in using Ketaks to stop Rourke.
During the battle, Milo and Vinny Santorini act as decoys while Sweet and Audrey Ramirez attempt to free the container holding Kida and the Heart of Atlantis. When Rourke and Helga force them to retreat, Milo crashes his stone fish into the Gyro-Evac and causes it to descend, although Rourke gets it back going by tossing off everything else, including Helga. As Rourke and Milo fight, Helga destroys the main balloon using a flare gun, causing Rourke to become enraged. Rourke attacks with an axe, smashing a glass cover on the container Kida and the Heart are in. Milo notices energy from the crystal seeping into the glass shards and uses it to cut Rourke, turning him into a crystal. A chance swing by Milo causes Rourke to shatter against the moving propellers, ending his life for good.
Though Milo and the container avoid the Gyro-Evac crashing upon them, it does result in the volcano awakening. Milo and the others manage to get the Heart of Atlantis back to the city in time to save it and Kida is freed from the crystal into Milo's arms. Milo chooses to stay behind to help the Atlanteans rediscover their lost culture and has also fallen in love with Kida, though the others, with help from Whitmore, construct a story that he died in the wreck of the Ulysses. He slips a package to be given to Whitmore on the surface containing the photo of him and his grandpa and one of the crystal necklaces from Atlantis, thanking him for his belief in the Thatches. Now, married to Kida and King of Atlantis, Milo constructs the stone effigy of Kida's father to join the other stone effigies of the past kings that orbit the Heart of Atlantis now hovering over the restored city.
Atlantis: Milo's Return[]
Milo returns in the sequel. The film consists of three shorts that had been meant for a failed television series called Team Atlantis. James Arnold Taylor replaces Michael J. Fox as Milo's voice. The film's opening reveals that Milo has married Kida, who is ruling Atlantis as its Queen, with him as her consort and advisor. The two are said to be working together to restore Atlantis to its former glory. When Milo's comrades make an unexpected arrival in Atlantis, Milo learns that a creature called the Krakken is reigning havoc near Norway. Together with his comrades and Kida, Milo travels to Norway to stop the creature. They learn that the Krakken has been attacking ships and taking the cargo to a village called Krakenstaff, said to be devoid of spirits and run by a corrupt magistrate named Edgar Volgud, who made a deal with the Krakken to gain immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth, but are able to defeat the Krakken by blowing it up, thus, killing Volgud as well. Later, Milo and the group travel to the southwest to investigate a group of coyote spirits.
They find a hidden city that has Atlantean style statues. Milo and the group are forced to combat a businessman named Ashtin Carnaby, who intends to steal the statues and sell them. Coyote spirits interfere and turn Carnaby into one of them. Finally, Milo and the group are asked by Whitmore to find the Gungnir (Odin's spear, aka Spear of Destiny), a spear of Atlantean origin. It had been stolen by Whitmore's last competitor, Erik Hellstrom, who now believes himself to be Odin after the stock market crash drove him insane. Milo and the group track him to the Nordic mountains but are forced to rescue Kida, who is kidnapped by Hellstrom. Hellstrom reveals that he believes Kida to be his daughter, as well as his plan to end the world in Ragnarok. Milo and the others manage to rescue Kida and retrieve the spear after a difficult fight. At the end of the film, Milo is seen looking on as Kida chooses to combine the spear's power with the power of the crystal to raise Atlantis above the sea, as she had come to believe her father was wrong for hiding it. According to the ending narration, the world was made a better place as a result.
House of Mouse[]
Milo Thatch appeared in "Goofy's Menu Magic", where he is briefly seen swimming through the waves of Goofy's flooded magic stew.
Once Upon a Studio[]
Milo appears in the men's bathroom with Gaston, Happy, The Headless Horseman, Prince John, Thomas O'Malley, and Chicken Little sprucing himself up for the picture. He then joins all other Disney characters in a group photo to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Wish[]
Milo Thatch was among the Disney animated characters that appeared during the credits.
Disney Parks[]
Milo appeared at Disneyland and Walt Disney World during the time when the movie was first released. Milo and Kida appeared in a Ketak inspired car in Disney Stars and Motorcars before their float was replaced after a few years. The characters themselves disappeared from the American parks several years after the film's release, only making occasional appearances at Disneyland Paris's Discoveryland since. He's also been said to currently appear for DVC's Moonlight Magic events, Disneyland's After Hours Event: Sweetheart's Nite and occasionally appears in Tomorrowland.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- According to the 2-disc DVD, before falling in love and marrying Kida, Milo's first love interest was named Lisa McGrath.
- Milo's complaint about how much he does not like carrots after puking over the ship used to launch the Ulysses could be a reference to how his voice actor Michael J. Fox is actually allergic to carrots, the line was ad-libbed by Fox, it wasn't supposed to be in the original script.
- Milo's decision to remain in Atlantis at the end of the film was better for him due to the fact that the film was set in 1914, three years before the United States joined World War I. It is possible that Milo could have been drafted into the war, something Milo was shown to be against, and he would have had a large chance of being killed during it if he had been drafted. Also, it is implied that Milo never liked living on the surface until the Atlantis expedition.
- The shorts that Milo wears to swim to find the Heart of Atlantis in the movie is actually boxer shorts, which means that Milo's shorts is his underwear. However, since this movie is set in 1914, boxer shorts weren't really invented until 1925 (11 years later).
- Milo's fighting during his final confrontation with Rourke was based on Jackie Chan's.
- Milo is the eleventh King of Atlantis.
- "Thatch" is one of the surnames used by the famous historical pirate Blackbeard: in an early draft, in fact, Milo was supposed to be a descendant of him.
- According to critics, Milo's characteristics were said to resemble those of Daniel Jackson, the protagonist of the 1994 film, Stargate.
- The 2-disc special edition shows that Milo is officially 32 years old.
- John Pomeroy claimed that, when designing Milo, he created several different designs and had the directors choose the design they liked best.
- In a deleted scene, Milo was supposed to follow typical Disney tradition and have an animal sidekick: a rat named Plato who lived in the museum whom Milo treated as a pet and was very much like Meeko the raccoon.
- Instead, Milo had a pet cat named Fluffy, who was adopted by Audrey after Milo chose to stay in Atlantis.
References[]
- ↑ "Milo James Thatch voices". Behind the Voice Actors.
- ↑ "Milo James Thatch voices". Behind the Voice Actors.
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