Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale are genuine animation legends. Their first film as directors, Beauty and the Beast, was a runaway smash and the first animated feature to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award (it was up against JFK and ultimate winner The Silence of the Lambs). After Beauty and the Beast, they directed The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a true spiritual successor to Beauty and the Beast (there’s even a cameo from Belle in the opening number!) and the adventurous Atlantis: The Lost Empire, one of the last truly great traditionally animated movies at Disney. So …

Earlier today we spoke to Kirk Wise, legendary director (along with his creative partner Gary Trousdale) of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame about the legacy of his sorely underrated Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Had Atlantis been the kind of sizable smash that Disney was hoping it would have been, it would have veered Disney into an alternate timeline of sorts. We’ll have more from that interview, and about how Atlantis’ success could have potentially changed the company forever, very soon. But for right now we just wanted to share something that Wise …