Atlas: The Animated Movie

A few years ago, I got this idea that I was going to find some old forgotten public domain superhero and modernize it. I wrote some outlines and did a lot of research, but it was a task I was just not up for. In fact, it just seemed way easier to create my own superhero than try and resurrect something from the past.

During this research, I found myself on a variety of sites that listed public domain superheroes, showed off fan art, and occasionally shared a short story. It seemed a lot of people had the same idea that I had, and just as many failed to see it to completion.

One of the more interesting projects I stumbled upon was a proposed shared universe by filmmaker/YouTuber Austin McConnell. He raised some funds on Kickstarter to not only create a 2D animated Cat-Man film, but also a full length 3D animated movie for the character Atlas.

I've loosely followed the project over the last four years, but honestly, I'd given up on it ever coming to completion. Austin experience some health issues and he was still churning out content for the YouTube Channel, so it seemed the films were not really a priority. I unsubscribed a while back, so I was surprised last night when I saw an update video pop up in my feed.

During this brief explanation, Austin broke down how the films came to be and that Atlas was finally complete and would be releasing on September 8th. He also discussed his goals and expectations, which were very reasonable considering he taught himself motion capture, 3d animation and did almost the entire ninety minute film himself. He wanted to create something adjacent to those straight to video Barbie CG movies from the late 90s and I think he accomplished that, and maybe even exceeded it a bit.

I turned on Atlas, not sure if I wanted to commit ninety minutes to something, but I was curious what one guy could do, animating an entire movie himself. Shockingly, I found myself engaged in the film pretty quickly. While the animation is a bit stiff, the eyes a bit dead, the voice acting was way better than it had any right to be and the story... it was wholesome and inspiring, and heck, if I'm honest, its more in line with Superman than James Gunn's Superman last year, which is saying a lot!

I am a huge fan of true independent productions, and even more so when I see folks do something that just seems beyond their budget/capabilities. It's why I was so impressed with Primitive War last year. I saw a team of filmmakers make something that shouldn't be possible for the budget they were working with. Well, Atlas is the same. For fifty thousand dollars, a mostly one-man operation made a full-length superhero movie on his own that doesn't suck. That's impressive.

There is a great article over at Cartoon Brew about the creation of the film and if you are interested in seeing Atlas, it's up for free on YouTube. Cat-Man is coming next, and Austin is crowd-funding some more to create his cinematic universe. Obviously, this isn't the type of film for everybody, but if you have young kids or are interested in seeing what one man with some time and commitment can do, its worth a watch.