Team Atlantis

TEAM ATLANTIS

“Team Atlantis” was a series developed by Walt Disney Television Animation to follow the theatrical film “Atlantis”. Tad Stones was the producer and Greg Guler was the lead character designed for the series. Greg Weisman served as the Voice Director and also wrote at least one script for the series.

Unfortunately, due to the disappointing Box-Office take for the film, the series was cancelled a third of the way through production as three episodes had begun being animated, and voice work and partial story boards were completed for several more episodes.

“THE LAST”

One of the episodes written, voice recorded and partially story boarded was titled “The Last” and was written by Greg Weisman. The episode was a pseudo-crossover with “Gargoyles” taking place in Paris, in the year 1920 . With permission from Tad Stones and Jay Fukuto, Greg was allowed to tell a new “Gargoyles” story in this series. He even got Marina Sirtis to reprise the role of Demona (referred to in the script as ’The Gorlois’) and Sheena Easton to play the part of Fiona Canmore.

As the episode opens, we see Fiona Canmore smashing gargoyle statues at Notre Dame Cathedral only for the sun to set and the Gorlois to make her escape, injuring Fiona in the process. Fiona makes her way to a hospital where she is reunited with an old flame, Joshua Sweet.

At the same time, the Gorlois makes her way to Paris’s catacombs to continue digging for the Praying Gargoyle. It is here that she encounters Princess Kida, Mole and Vinny. After a brief struggle, Kida identifies Demona as a Gorlois and tells us that long ago, the Gorlois were allies of her father (the King of Atlantis) and regarded as trusted friends. She and the others take pity on the Gorlois, and Mole develops a strong and even more comedic crush on her.

Fiona, Sweet and Milo Thatch come searching for Kida and the others, having agreed to help Fiona hunt down the Gorlois, only to find that Kida is not willing to let them hurt her. The Gorlois uses Mole to dig up the Praying Gargoyle before tying him up and escaping back to Notre Dame with it. She uses it to cast a spell for all of Paris’s stone gargoyles in Paris to suddenly come to life (being animated stone, not flesh and blood), which when night falls again she will use to wipe out every human in the city.

Night falls and Sweet and Fiona confront the Gorlois, Sweet coming to think that the Gorlois does have a legitimate gripe, and trying to put an end to both feuds. A huge battle takes place in the skies of Paris and Sweet destroys the Praying Gargoyle and saves the Gorlois’ life allowing her to escape, hoping that the act will change her. Sweet and Fiona exchange bitter words before going their separate ways.

The last thing we see is the remains of the Praying Gargoyle, and the Gorlois swooping down from the sky and snatching up the Atlantean crystal within it.

Is It Canon?

One of the big questions asked of Greg Weisman since he revealed this story at the 2002 Gathering was if this story was indeed canon in the “Gargoyles Universe” and if so, did it tie “Atlantis” into the “Gargoyles Universe” as well. Greg’s answer was that he has his own plans for Atlantis.

The events in “The Last” took place in two different universes, and this was the one place where they intertwined. Both series while similar were quite different. Like “Gargoyles”, “Team Atlantis” would have featured Odin (both voiced by W. Morgan Sheppard), Puck and the Loch Ness Monster. However, there were clear differences between these and their “Gargoyles” Universe counterparts.

Greg felt that with all the legends that “Team Atlantis” was going to encounter and make use of, bringing in gargoyles made sense and decided to tell a story about Demona and one of the Hunters. Though he had to make a few compromises, neither in the episode nor anywhere in the script is Demona called by name, but “Gargoyles” fans would have recognized her right away. Instead she is called The Gorlois, which is the Atlantean word for Gargoyle. Fiona Canmore is never referred to as a Hunter except in one vague line of the Gorlois’ thrown in for old fans, while new fans would interpret it as referring to Fiona hunting the Gorlois.

As for the Praying Gargoyle being destroyed and revealing an Atlantean Crystal inside, Greg has since revealed that thanks to the crystal, the statue can regenerate itself over a period of sixty years if kept on holy ground. Sure enough, sixty years later in 1980, Demona returns to Notre Dame to claim the statue as seen in “Hunter’s Moon”.

The story is canon, but neither the movie nor the rest of the series would have been. A terrible pity that the series was cancelled mid-production.