10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Atlantis: The Lost Empire

10. Atlantis: The Lost Empire Is Widely Recognised As The Last Film Of Jim Varney.

The late great Jim Varney was a beloved comedian and actor, best known for his character of Ernest P. Worrell in the Ernest film series. He was also the voice of Slinky in the first two Toy Story movies. But that wasn’t his only time voicing an animated movie character.

As a last Huzzah to Varney, he was able to showcase his talents one last time as the voice of the comical oddball Cookie – the chef of the expedition. Varney was battling lung cancer during the making of the film, and died at the age of fifty just before production finished.

The one line “I ain’t so good at speechifying” was voiced by his close friend Steven Barr and the film was dedicated in his memory.

Directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale thoroughly enjoyed working with Varney, as he knew how to improvise and ad-lib for such a humorous character, even going as far as singing randomly made-up campfire songs.