Disney are fans of Tolkien?
Calisuri @ 12:13 pm EST

Ringer fan Mike swears that Disney, in its latest film "Atlantis," is borrowing some things from Tolkien. Check it out:

"Last night I went to see the new Disney film, 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire' (I live in South Africa and it came out here on Friday). Well, near the beginning of the film, there is a scene where Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox's voice) is giving a lecture on the city of Atlantis and how he plans to find it - he's actually talking to dummies and pretending that they're people, but that's not the point. The point is that on his chalk board are weird runish letters and underneath them is the translation of the letters - something about Iceland. If you look closely at the runes that are supposed to be "ancient writings" they begin to look a little familiar to a Tolkien fan. Why? Because most of the letters are Elvish (or Dwarvish?) runes taken from 'The Lord of the Rings'!!!

I guess the animators must be 'Lord of the Rings' fans because the runes are right there in your face. See the film again and you'll know what I mean. I have included some runes that I remember being on the chalk board in the film (I drew them in Paint, so they pretty much suck - but you'll get the idea).

That's it.

Mike"

I haven't seen Atlantis yet, but I'd love to see if this could be true!

Update

Fans are already reacting and Gastbona sends in a very good point:

"I am not saying that there are no Tolkien fans at Disney, but I don't necessarily think the runic writing is a homage to the good professor.

Atlantis was suppose to begin with Vikings discovering a text about Atlantis or something like that. It is reasonable, in the world of animated films, to think that Fox's character if reading from an Icelandic source would read something written in runes, or the futhark as it is referred to. This same alphabet, with a few minor changes, was used for the Thror's map in the Hobbit and as the basis for some of the elvish alphabets.

What I think you have here is that both the artists at Disney and Tolkien went back to a common medieval source for inspiration. "