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In 2000, ten years after the conclusion of Nadia, Disney released a movie entitled Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The movie, in my opinion, is remarkable; aside from being just an all-around enjoyable flick, it also served as a stark departure from the typical fairy tale-ish Disney movie. Atlantis wasn't a musical, there weren't any talking animals, and it was given a (GASP!) PG rating. Atlantis also was based on Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Like Nadia, Atlantis deals with the lost kingdom of Atlantis. Like Nadia it involves a princess, and her nerdy boyfriend, and a fantastic submarine, and a stern ship captain, and blue magic crystals. In fact, to someone who has seen only one of the two (or neither of them) it looks as though Atlantis is a fairly cookie-cutter ripoff of Nadia entirely. At the very least the movie is inspired by the anime... at first glance.
The knee-jerk reaction of Nadia fans in 2000, therefore, was outrage. How dare Disney rip off such a wonderful series!, they shrieked. And they made cute little comparison lists to support their viewpoint. And it looks very impressive; there are just far too many similarities to be coincidence... right?
Right?
Confession time: the reason I watched 975 minutes of Nadia wasn't to make a "fair and balanced" review or any such rubbish... at least, that isn't the entire reason. I wanted to see for myself exactly how much credence these claims of "blatant ripoff" had. Make no mistake; even if Atlantis did turn out to be a total rip, Disney could still shrug and say, "Well, at least we told the story better."
The key to determining whether or not something is a ripoff, however, isn't similarities; it's lack of differences. Cherry-picking similarities between any two works of fiction is rather easy, but when you start looking for differences... that's when you get the real picture. This is the inherent flaw in the aformentioned list, and while I'm tempted to just take it apart piece by piece it looks like someone's already done that. So instad, I'm going to focus on all the differences between the series and the movie before I draw a conclusion.
This page is going to be spoiler-heavy for both subjects, and I won't be blotting them out. If I did, virtually the entire page would look *like this* so if you're honestly worried about having the stories spoiled for you, just click your Back button and return to the nice, safe review.
The Cast
To start with we have to examine the cast of both anime and movie. Since both are based on the same source material we can certainly expect a lot of similarities here, yes? And not just in the visual sense; each "pair" of characters would be expected to largely think and act alike, while serving a similar role in the plot. So, without further ado...
Nadia's Cast |
Atlantis' Cast |
Comments |
Nadia
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Kida
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The most important distinction is that while Nadia is the main character of Nadia, Kida is not the main character of Atlantis. The physical resemblance ends at the fact that both characters have dark skin. There are no personality similarities; the characters speak and act totally differently. Nadia is 15, Kida is 8800 (or older). Nadia is an orphan with no clue about her past, Kida is an Atlantean citizen who is trying to save her world. Nadia regards Jean with contempt and bitterness, Kida regards Milo as her peoples' redemption. |
Jean
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Milo
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Again, the biggest difference is that while Jean is a main character of Nadia, he is not the main character. Milo, on the other hand, is most assuredtly the main character of Atlantis. (In other words, Nadia is a story about Nadia while Atlantis is a story about Milo.) Jean is a young kid who is popular with the Nautilus crew, Milo is a grown man who is unpopular with his comrades (at least at first). Jean is a scientist and an inventor, Milo is a linguist and a historian. Jean sets out on his journey to be with Nadia, Milo sets out specifically to find Atlantis. |
Electra
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Helga
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Probably the most similar of the cast members. Both are second in command after the captain, both are authoritarians, both betray the "good guys" at one point in the story and both redeem themselves before the conclusion. However, the characters themselves are much different: Electra is kindly, polite and knowledgable; Helga is mean, greedy and violent. Electra has a deep emotional attachment to her captain, Helga is merely a business partner (at best). |
Nemo
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Rourke
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Completely different characters; there isn't even a physical resemblance this time. The only thing these characters have in common is they are each captain of the submarine. |
Gargoyle
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Rourke
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This is a much more apt comparison (although there still isn't a physical resemblance). These are the villains; they both command ships, they both lack regard for human life, and they both seek shiny crystals. However, Gargoyle's ultimate goal is the destruction or enslavement of the human race, while Rourke merely is trying to get rich. Both characters need the princess to accomplish this task (although Rourke doesn't know this until it's already happened). |
Nemo
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King of Atlantis
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Likewise, this is a more apt comparison. Still no physical resemblance. Each is the only character in their stories who knows the entire truth about Atlantis. Each is the rightful king of Atlantis. Each is the father of the princess. However, while Nemo actively pursues a course of action that is aligned with his goals, Kida's father is content to let his country crumble around him. Both sought to stop a vast, terrible power from being unleashed; Nemo by fighting those who weild it, and the king by hiding it away. Both characters die, however the circumstances of each death are different. |
Neo
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X |
Neo simply doesn't have a counterpart in Atlantis. Kida has no brother, the Atlantean King has no sons, and Rourke has no puppets through which he works vicariously (although Helga nearly counts). |
Marie
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X |
Likewise, there isn't anyone in Atlantis to fill Marie's niche. In fact, there are no children whatsoever in Atlantis. |
King
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Fluffy
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Okay, this is pretty much a joke. Still, while there's no lion cub in Atlantis Milo does have a pet cat... at least at first. Fluffy serves no purpose whatsoever as to drive home the point that Milo lives alone with a cat. King, on the other hand, is a more-or-less integral part of Nadia. |
X |
Whitmore
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Nadia doesn't have a Whitmore. Whitmore is the guy who funds the expedition to Atlantis (to settle a bet with Milo's grandfather); in other words, he's the springboard the adventure launches from. Technically this role is filled by Grandis in Nadia, but in a much different way. And while Grandis eventually goes on to become a major character in the story, Whitmore is MIA until the very end; he doesn't even go on the voyage. |
Grandis
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Cookie
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Speaking of Grandis, she's the ship's cook in a few episodes. The role of cook in Atlantis is filled by a grizzled crazy old Civil War veteran. Culinary skill is where the similarities end; Cookie doesn't have a tank or any sidekicks, and Grandis doesn't have a beard or a tattoo of all 48 states. |
Hamson
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Audrey
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Aside from both being mechanics, these characters are completely different. Audrey fixes things but does not invent anything, and Hamson is completely devoid of a fiery Latino attitude. However, if one assumes Hamson and Samson are siblings, both Hamson and Audrey have siblings who are adept at brute strength. Of course, Samson is a major player in Nadia whereas Audrey's sister barely gets a mention in one scene, so it doesn't really count. |
Samson
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X |
There is no gun-toting strong-man in Atlantis other than Rourke, and I've already used him twice. Anyway, the characters are on different sides of the good guy/bad guy fence. |
X |
Vinnie
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Most of the supporting casts from each series are totally different, as you can already see. Vinnie here is the flower-loving demolitions expert in Atlantis; nobody in Nadia posesses his special brand of style. |
Ayerton
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X |
Ayerton doesn't even have a purpose in his own story, let alone a counterpart in the opposing one. |
X |
Mole
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Ditto Mole, except Mole is at least entertaining. Nadia doesn't have a geologist (or if it does, he wasn't memorable enough to list). Worthy of note: Mole is the only French character in Atlantis; a role filled by Jean in Nadia. |
The nurse
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Sweet
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Stretching it. Other than both being the ship's doctor and both being all-around nice folks, these characters have nothing in common. Sweet does not have a fan club (although he deserves one) and the cute nurse lady doesn't have a Navaho sheepskin dream catcher or whatever. |
X |
Packard
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Except for Nadia herself, there's nobody in Nadia quite as cynical and sarcastic as Packard. Of course, Nadia tops it off with a lot of yelling and screaming and carrying-on while Packard is just always bored. Packard is a communications officer of some kind, a job which doesn't seem to be filled in Nadia by anyone interesting. |
Final score, we have two good hits, eight near-hits (a few of which are tenuous at best) and at least eight complete misses. This covers the entire starring cast of each work, but disregards some minor characters (such as Jean's uncle, Milo's dead grandfather, a few of the Nautiflus' less prominent crew members, etc) so as not to bog down the page with lots of comments like "Nope, this one don't match either."
The Story
The next step is to analyze each story and see whether or not the flow of events matches up very well. This is already a non-issue since Nadia is over ten times longer than Atlantis, but if one is truly a ripoff of the other than surely the story's framework will be equal on both sides, right?
Nadia's Story |
Atlantis' Story |
We open in France in the late 1800s where Jean and his uncle are attempting to build a flying machine. Jean goes off to take a break and meets Nadia, who is a circus performer. Jean makes note of Nadia's mysterious glowing pendant, the Blue Water. |
After a short prologue detailing the fall of Atlantis, we open in Washington, D.C. in the early 1900s where Milo is feverishly working on a sales pitch to obtain funding for an expedition to find the Lost Continent of Atlantis. He has discovered the location of a book which he believes will lead himself and a crew right to Atlantis' doorstep. Milo will not meet Kida until much later in the story. |
Jean and Nadia are persued by a small group of jewel thieves led by Grandis. The children manage to escape Grandis' tank (the Gratan, or the Catarine, depending on which of her henchmen you ask) by making use of Jean's aeroplane, but crash land in the middle of the ocean where they are taken aboard a US battleship. The battleship is sunk by a mysterious "sea monster", but the children are rescued by the Nautilus, of which Captain Nemo is in command. They are not allowed to meet with Nemo; instead they deal with the ship's first officer, Electra. |
Milo's proposal is refused and he returns dejectedly home to his cat. He is immediately confronted by a stranger in his apartment: the seductive Helga Sinclaire, who has a business proposition for him. Milo is whisked away to the mansion of an eccentric millionaire named Preston Whitmore. Whitmore gives Milo the book that shows the way to Atlantis, and right away introduces him to Rourke, captain of the submarine that will take him there. (First officer of this vessel turns out to be Helga herself.) |
The children are disposed on an island where they quickly meet an orphan girl named Marie, and learn that they are in unspeakable danger. A group called the Neo-Atlanteans has taken residence here, and they are nearing completion of a terrible weapon of mass destruction. The leader of this group, the menacing Gargoyle, manages to capture Nadia and Marie, forcing Jean to team up with the Grandis gang and mount a rescue. Eventually the kids manage to destroy Gargoyle's weapon and are rescued by Nemo's Nautilus. This time, the children (and the Grandis gang, who turn out to be not such bad guys after all) are taken aboard and made full crew members. |
Milo has a few run-ins with Rourke's mismatched crew. No island, no Neo-Atlanteans, no orphan girl, no massive weapon of destruction. Milo has still not encountered Kida. |
Jean and Nadia enjoy several adventures aboard the Nautilus, including an undersea battle with a massive shelled monster. The Natuilus sustains some damage but manages to overcome the beast, and lives to fight another day. Partway through their adventures the ship stops to repair and refuel at the ruins of Atlantis, where Nemo and his crew pay tribute to their fallen. It is revealed here that Jean's father died at the hands of the villain Gargoyle. |
Milo instructs the crew on a massive sea crature called the Leviathan, but postulates it is more likely a sculpture. He turns out to be wrong, however, and a massive undersea battle ensues which ends with the destruction of Rourke's ship (called the Ulysses) and the death of most of the crew. Eventually a few straggling survivors climb ashore in an underground passage that leads to a highway which will take them to Atlantis. Neither Kida nor the villain have yet been revealed. |
Gargoyle's new flying vessel gets ahold of the Nautilus and rips it to shreds. Though the crew has managed to escape (barely) the Nautilus is not long for this world. Nemo plans to send Nadia (who, it is revealed, is his daughter), Jean and Marie off to safety, but before he can do so his first officer turns on him. Electra pulls a gun and tries to kill Nemo, but in the end doesn't have the heart to do it. The children are shuttled away from the broken ship and wind up on another island, although this one is completely deserted. |
Milo leads Rourke and his crew through the strange subterranean geography to the bridge that will bring them to Atlantis. There is a mishap, however, and everyone winds up plummeting down into the shaft of a dormant volcano. Milo is wounded and momentarily separated from his comrades, but is rescued when a mysterious white-haired girl shows up and binds his wound with a magic blue crystal. She quickly vanishes, but Milo and the rest give chase. They are stunned to find that Atlantis is actually an entire living civilzation, and the white-haired girl reappears. She introduces herself (finally!) as Kida, princess of Atlantis. |
Nadia, Jean and Marie adapt to live on the deserted island, but before long are reunited with the Grandis gang. They move to another island, which is somehow adrift on the ocean. Nadia and Jean attempt to discover the mysteries of this island, which turns out to be a mobile Atlantean base called Blue Noah. Before long the island begins to sink, and our heroes must escape in the Gratan. |
Milo, Rourke and the rest of the crew take in the wonder of Atlantis. They try to get some of their questions answered but are shunned by Altantis' xenophobic king. Kida pleads with her father to allow Milo to help them, and when he refuses goes behind his back and seeks out Milo anyway. Milo helps Kida translate some ancient Atlantean text which tell about a massive power source called the Heart of Atlantis, and upon returning to the city are accosted by Rourke and Helga. As it turns out, Rourke is nothing but a mercenary who intends to steal the Heart of Atlantis, even if it means destroying the entire city. |
Gargoyle meets up with the Gratan and insists Nadia give him the Blue Water. She eventually agrees and is taken aboard Gargoyle's flying battleship. The rest of the cast, meanwhile, flees for their life and ends up deep underground where Nemo, Electra and the rest of the Nautilus crew have been recuperating. Learning that Gargoyle now has Nadia and the Blue Water, everyone piles into a spaceship and begins their final assault. |
Rourke forces Milo and Kida down into the crystal chamber, where Kida merges with the crystal. Rourke locks crystal-Kida up in a metal crate, but as he's loading her up on the convoy most of his crew (except Helga) backs out on him and stays behind. Soon after Rourke is gone and the Atlanteans' crystals begin to fade, the king dies. His last request is for Milo to save Atlantis, so Milo hatches a scheme to do exactly that. |
After a massive final battle, Nemo, Electra and Jean manage to board Red Noah (Gargoyle's new chariot) and make their way face-to-face with the archvillain himself. Gargoyle has brainwashed both of Nemo's children (both Nadia and Nemo's lost son, the Emperor Neo) and is using them as puppets to gain control over the Blue Water. After being shot and/or electrocuted, they manage to break Gargoyle's control over Neo, who maneuvers his broken robot body over to Nadia and breaks the control over her as well. In one final act of hatred Gargoyle drops Jean off a high platform, killing him. Nadia, however, uses the Blue Water to restore him to life, thus expending the very last of its power. They all escape on the Nautilus, except Nemo, who stays behind to ensure Red Noah is destroyed. Everyone lives happily ever after. |
After a massive aerial battle, Milo and his friends manage to disable Rourke's escape plan: a hot air balloon climbing the volcanic shaft. In order to regain altitude Rourke drops everything over the side, including his partner Helga... who presumably falls to her death. After a rough landing, Helga draws a flare gun and fires at the balloon, ripping it open. Seeing that he's lost, Rourke attempts to take his aggression out on Milo. Milo grabs a sliver of glass from Kida's crate and cuts Rourke with it, turning Rourke into a crystal as well. The villain thus dealt with, Milo returns Kida (and therefore the crystal) to Atlantis. The Heart of Atlantis, and by extension all of the Atlantean crystals, shine brighter than ever, restoring the lost city to its former glory. Everyone lives happily ever after. |
Summary: Jean meets Nadia, embarks on a journey to escape from Grandis, winds up on the Nautilus, are deserted for a while on an island, and only then is it revealed that Nadia is the princess of the dead civilization of Atlantis. The villain gets a hold of her and during the rescue Jean is killed, so Nadia expends the last of her crystal's energy to revive him. |
Summary: Milo embarkes on a journey to find Atlantis aboard the Ulysses, which is destroyed by a sea monster, is dropped down a volcano shaft, and arrives at the very much alive civilization of Atlantis. He then meets Princess Kida, helps her solve some of the mysteries of her people, and only then does the villain get a hold of her. After the rescue the Atlantean crystals are restored forever. |
Remember that "lack of differences" thing I was talking about?
We see from this list (which admittedly leaves out a lot of Nadia's filler episodes) that though the stories begin and end somewhat similar, the middle is almost completely different. Jean meets Nadia almost immediately; Milo doesn't meet Kida until after he's found Atlantis. Gargoyle is after the Blue Water to create a powerful destructive weapon with which to rule the world; Rourke is after the Heart of Atlantis to make himself rich. The Blue Water and the Heart of Atlantis don't even serve the same function; the Blue Water helps Nadia escape danger and (ultimately) power Gargoyle's weapon, while the Heart of Atlantis is, in essence, the very lifeblood that keeps the lost kingdom up and running. The Blue Water is broken into two pieces (Nadia's and Nemo's), the Heart of Atlantis powers countless small shards of crystal which are worn by every Atlantean man, woman and child.
The Conclusion
So, it's true: Atlantis has more than a few similarities to Nadia. However, it has far more differences. Neither the cast nor the plot line up properlly, despite having both sprung from the same source material.
Derivitave works of fiction are a way of life. People enjoy seeing the same story told dozens of different ways. Disney does this by taking a classic story and "kid-ifying" it, making it easily consumable by children and families. I already touched on this briefly in my review of The Little Mermaid; the anime version came ten years before Disney's did, and yet nobody called "rip-off!" when Disney marched theirs out. Both versions take the same original story and branch off in different directions with it. It's the same here. Both Nadia and Atlantis have their roots in the same original tale, but in the end they've branched so far away from one another as to each be unique in its own right.
I'm obviously biased towards Disney's version. I mean, I love Disney and I've seen Atlantis a dozen times at least, while at the same time I despise Nadia, particularly its title character. However, I'm still able to look objectively at the two and come to a rational conclusion.
There is no vast Illuminati-esque organization in Atlantis. There is no enormous crystal-battery in Nadia. Atlantis' lead character is a nerdish young man who is obsessed with dead languages and posesses an insatiable urge to follow his grandfather's footsteps. Nadia's lead is an ungrateful little girl who possesses the key to a lost world, and is whisked from adventure to adventure through circumstances that are not of her own design. The villain of Atlantis is a greedy mercenary who can't see beyond his own pocketbook. The villain of Nadia is an egomaniac who wants to enslave the world or destroy it, whichever is more convenient.
If you absolutely must align one with the other, go with Disney's version. It's better, make no mistake, and even if you don't like it it's over in 90 minutes. And that is truly a great thing.
And now, just for fun, I'm going to pick on Nadia's song lyrics!
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