Empire of Atlantis

It is easy to see why the animations of Dingo Pictures are relatively obscure, though those who have had the misfortune of seeing any of their output (which along with their equally low-budget computer animated counterpart Video Brinquedo have not once made anything worthwhile) cannot forget their awfulness. It is even easier to see why they are universally reviled. The above review summary is not trying to be malicious by the way, despite how it sounds.

Along with 'Lord of the Jungle', 'Legend of Atlantis' is one of Dingo Pictures' least bad. Despite it still being very bad indeed and having almost all of the same flaws that plague the studio's output, there are also a few marginal improvements on things usually done terribly. As at least there was a little degree of effort to improve upon the typical problems in 'Legend of Atlantis' that was not obvious in the rest of their efforts, even if mostly that came off flawed in execution.

'Legend of Atlantis' has a few things done better than usual. Although a vast majority of the animation is still not good by any stretch, it is still one of the better animated Dingo Pictures. Namely because some can see a little more ambition in the backgrounds and because there is some actual fluidity of movement. The letter reading part features the best animation of their entire output.

For Dingo Pictures, this is surprisingly self-aware in the way never seen before with the studio. Where they actually seemed to acknowledge the usual flaws, such as questioning why the recycled polar bear is there in the first place (so addressing the continual habit of the studio's to recycle animation and characters) and acknowledging the very random sound effects.

Everything else is done poorly though. The rest of the animation is flat and sloppy, with some repetitive animation for some of the characters and simplicity taken too far. The music always sounds misplaced and never fitting with what's going on, not to mention that it has little breathing space even in scenes that are in dire need for it. The script is juvenile and repetitious with some laughably awful howlers passing for lines of dialogue.

Despite there being a little bit more of a story, it is not an engaging or cohesive one. It is still thin, the conflict (what little there is of it) is completely lacking in tension and too much of it is aimlessly padded. The overused recycling, namely the seal and polar bear from 'Balto' and Rasputin from 'Anastasia', confuses the story and setting. All the characters are dull and irritating, the grandfather did get on my nerves. The voice acting does not fit the characters at all and sounds odd, with a too feminine sounding grandfather and it was like the voice actors for the boy and the grandfather swapped roles.

Overall, very bad but one of the studio's best. 3/10.