Atlantis: The Lost Empire from Studio Ghibli, particularly in its character design, setting, and story. Although Disney never responded formally to claims of plagiarism, co-director Kirk Wise posted on a Disney animation newsgroup in May 2001, "Never heard of "Nadia" till it was mentioned in this [newsgroup]. Long after we'd finished production, I might add." Both "Atlantis" and "Nadia" were inspired, in part, by the 1870 Jules Verne novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", of which Lee Zion (reporting for Anime News Network) wrote, "There are too many similarities "not" connected with "20,000 Leagues" for the whole thing to be coincidence." Critics also
The Twenty-Seventh City welcomed the book: "Jonathan Franzen has written a novel of our times; so imaginatively and expansively of our times, that it seems ahead of them." In "The New York Times", "American Heritage" contributing editor Peter Andrews wrote, "Make no mistake about it, "The Twenty-Seventh City" is an impressive debut by a gifted young writer... It's a riveting piece of fiction that lingers in the mind." Reviewing the author's second novel "Strong Motion", critic Laura Shapiro at "Newsweek" discussed "The Twenty-Seventh City"'s "brilliance" and Franzen's "prodigious gifts"; she described the novel as "a huge and masterly drama of St. Louis under