Atlantis: A Lost Empire

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Disney’s Atlantis; A Childhood Introduction to a World of Conquest and Exploitation Destruction and exploitation are two words Americans and many Europeans should be familiar with. From both population’s gruesome pasts to even now, these words are alive, present, and still happening. It should come as no surprise that these topics reflect in modern television and movies. In 2001, the movie Atlantis: A Lost Empire came out. This Disney movie shows an attempted ruin and exploitation of an imaginary land, Atlantis. The movie gives children and their parents a view of an all too real history, but unlike the movie, there is no happy ending. A lack of cultural understanding has played a huge part of history, and this movie reflects that idea with a comparison of Atlantean’s to American Indigenous peoples, early 1900’s British imperialism, and also dives into the exploitation of the Middle Eastern oil industry by America in the…show more content…
Rourke and Helga are both out to rob these people because of their ideas and this is a direct reflection to the British at the time period. They have money and power and want to gain wealth because of their upper class, white, and powerful upbringing tells them that it is okay. The minority characters such as Audrey, Vinny, The Mole, Sweet, and Milo don’t have the same privilege and thus they are less likely to take advantage of the Atlantean’s. The reason is because they have faced a challenge to overcome their identity so they are less likely be willing to be harsh to someone else. Either there gender, race, or class separate them from those who would be acting out. The ideas of imperialism doesn’t appeal to these minority characters as much because they weren’t ingrained into their heads because they were “different”. This use of minorities by the director was a good choice to pinpoint the idea of imperialism and

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