Milo Thatch

Milo James Thatch is the main protagonist of Disney's 2001 feature film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and its sequel. He is voiced by actor Michael J. Fox and currently James Arnold Taylor. Milo is set apart from most other Disney heroes that have dashing good looks and are oozing with charm, but still remains endearing and likeable.

Background
Milo James Thatch was born in 1882 to British parents whom he lost early in his childhood. After their passing, he was adopted by his grandfather, Thaddeus Thatch, with whom he was very close. When Milo was young, Thaddeus often told Milo stories of the lost continent of Atlantis, which, according to legend, sank beneath the Atlantic Ocean following a cataclysmic disaster. Milo was fascinated by these stories, and in life made it his personal goal to prove the existence of the legendary city.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire
By 1914, Milo was a linguist and professor of archaeology in Washington, D.C., trying desperately to prove to his contemporaries at the museum that Atlantis was a real civilization. His eccentric pursuit of the topic labeled him a nutcase by those forced to listen to his stories, so Milo could never secure the funding to start an expedition to search for Atlantis.

After yet another disastrous session in 1914, Milo returned home where he was greeted by Helga Katrina Sinclair, a German woman with a proposition for Milo. Milo and Helga went to the Whitmore Mansion, where Milo met Preston B. Whitmore, one of his grandfather's closest friends prior to the latter's death. Mr. Whitmore presented Milo with a gift left to him by his grandfather, which happened to be the long-lost Shepherd's Journal. The journal supposedly contained the information necessary to uncover Atlantis, but Whitmore didn't buy the legend either. Milo then declared that even if he was not granted funding, he would find Atlantis on his own, even with a rowboat. Impressed by Milo's determination, Whitmore revealed that he had in fact planned the entire expedition. He had made a bet with Thaddeus that if he found the journal, he would fund such an expedition. Whitmore informed Milo that the expeditionary team needed an expert linguist, and Milo eagerly agreed to the job.

Milo and the rest of the team set sail towards Atlantis onboard the massive submarine Ulysses, which had been specially designed for the purpose of uncovering Atlantis. Upon meeting its commander, Lyle Tiberius Rourke, who led the team that found the journal, Milo boarded the Ulysses and got acquainted with its crew. He was immediately viewed as an outcast by most due to his socially awkward personality, so he initially received only their scorn and ridicule.

During the first day of the journey, the Ulysses is attacked by the Leviathan, which Milo sdescribed as being a mythical guardian of Atlantis capable of shooting sparks of fire. Milo was shocked to discover that the creature, which took the form of an enormous lobster, was not an organic being, but a massive machine. The crew of the Ulysses attempt to fight the creature off, but the ship is heavily damaged and the survivors are forced to abandon ship. Milo evacuates on an Evac-Sub with Rourke and some members of the team, and is among the few to survive the disastrous escape from the Leviathan. Milo is then left to guide the team, as the journal he possesses is their only means of finding the city.

As they travel through the ancient highways to Atlantis, Milo attempts and fails to befriend the other members of the crew, who like to poke fun at him and ignore him. When they realize they've been rather tough on him, Dr. Sweet and Audrey invite him into their group, and Milo gradually begins gaining their trust. He explains to them that the Shepherd's Journal tells of a great and powerful source of energy the Atlanteans have but cuts off "like there's a missing page" before it goes into any detail on the subject. Late in the night, Milo accidentally angered a hive of deadly fireflies located on the ceiling of a cave with his flashlight, and the entire camp is set on fire. As the crew frantically escape, the bridge that leads to Atlantis cracks, and they go plummeting into the bottom of a dormant underground volcano. Milo had been separated from the group, and is found by Atlantean hunters, one of them Princess Kidagakash "Kida" Nedakh, who gently heals a deep cut on his chest from the accident with the power of the crystal around her neck. Following them, Milo (shortly followed by the crew) finds the city of Atlantis.

The explorers learn that Atlanteans can speak many different languages because their own language was "based on a root dialect, like the Tower of Babel". Princess Kida takes Milo, Rourke and Helga to her father, King Kashekim Nedakh, and after some negotiation, he bitterly allows them to stay for one day in his city. The crew assigns Milo to talk Kida to find out what her father is hiding. After finding him, Kida takes Milo around the city while they ask questions. Milo learns that Atlanteans can no longer read and are a crumbling society, and they can somehow live many times longer than the average human. Trusting him, Kida takes Milo to a secret underwater mural with Atlantean writing for him to translate. They learn from it that the power source Milo was reading about and the bright "star" that took Kida's mother away from her were the same thing, a large and powerful crystal with the same energy of that in the Atlantean's necklaces.

Emerging from their swim, Rourke and the rest of the crew unexpectedly turn against Milo and reveal that they had been planning to steal the crystal from the start, Rourke showing Milo the page he had stolen from inside the Shepherd's Journal. Helga takes Kida captive and Rourke punches the king in an attempt to find the hidden crystal, which they find "in the eyes of [Atlantis's] king", or in a secret chamber below the throne room. Milo, Kida, Helga and Rourke take an aquavator down to a pool of water with a large glowing ball of blue light floating high above surrounded by stones with carvings of kings of Atlantis's past. Sensing Rourke's evil presence, it glows red, and a ray of red light falls on Kida, causing her to go into a trance-like state as she is drawn to the crystal. After telling Milo in Atlantean that everything will be alright, she is lifted into the air and becomes the crystal.

Rourke and the crew trap her into a pod to carry her in, and they prepare to leave Milo and the other Atlanteans to die. Milo asks his "friends" if wiping out an entire civilization is really worth all the money they could get selling the crystal/Kida. Before leaving, Rourke punches Milo in the face, and the crew finally realize how wrong and selfish they were. One by one, they leave Rourke's side and rejoin Milo, and Rourke and Helga leave with a dozen troopers with Kida and proceed to blow up the bridge that connects the city to the journey back home. The king is dying of internal bleeding from Rourke's punch, which was too much for the frail old man. He tells Milo that the crystal chooses a host of royal blood to protect the city from danger, but he hid it from the world to prevent Kida from being chosen. If a person is kept bonded to the crystal for too long, they would be lost to it forever, like Kida's mother. He trusts Milo and gives him his crystal, and in his last breath, asks him to save Atlantis and Kida. Milo is convinced that he can't and blames himself for being the one who led the mercenaries to Atlantis. It isn't until Dr. Sweet reminds him of his grandfather when Milo decides to do what's right and stop Rourke.

Milo and the crew sneak-attack Rourke's escaping team with flying Atlantean fish-machines. Attempting to make the escape air balloon containing Kida's pod go faster and higher, Rourke unflinchingly throws Helga off the side, and as she lies dying on the ground, she shoots a flare at the balloon above. Milo climbs aboard the sinking balloon and he and Rourke engage in combat as Rourke tries to kill him with an axe. Smashing Kida's pod instead, Milo grabs a crystalized glass shard and scratches Rourke with it, who turns a violent blue and red crystal-like substance, and is smashed to pieces by the air balloon's propellers. The balloon crashes to the ground, causing the volcano to awake and begin to erupt. Milo and the crew narrowly escape back to the city, where the freed crystal-Kida summons Atlantean stone soldiers to awake and protect the city from the volcano with a powerful dome of crystal energy, covering the entire city. After the barrier breaks away, and all is safe, Kida floats down into Milo's arms in human form, and they embrace. The city is more beautiful than ever before as excess water drains away to reveal hidden buildings under the light of the crystal floating in the sky.

The crew eventually leave Atlantis and Milo, as he had chosen to stay in the city and with Kida, both of which he had fallen in love with. They choose to keep Atlantis a secret from the surface world so it remains safe from people with intentions such as Rourke's. The story ends with Milo and Kida, presumably married, sending a king stone of Kida's father up to surround the crystal with the other kings, and they gaze from above at their newly restored city.

Atlantis: Milo's Return
Milo returns in the sequel film, Atlantis: Milo's Return. 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 Queen. 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 Kraken, an Atlantean defense mechanism, is reigning havoc in Newfoundland. Together with his comrades and Kida, Milo travels to Newfoundland to stop the creature. They learn that the Kraken has been attacking ships and taking the cargo to a village said to be devoid of sprits, but are able to defeat the Kraken by exploding it.

Later, Milo and the group travel to the southwest to investigate a group of coyote spirits. They find hidden city which has Atlantean style statues. Milo and the group are forced to combat a businessman named Ashton Carnaby, who intends to steal the statues. Coyote spirits interfere and turn Carnaby into a statue.

Finally, Milo and the group are asked by Whitmore to find the Gungnir, a spear of Atlantean origin. It had been stolen by Whitmore's competitor Erik Hellstrom, who now believes himself to be Odin. 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.

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 parks several years after the film's release.