Image credit: Disney Movies |
So recently the inevitable happened and Disney+ was acquired within our
household. So what was the first thing I watched? Funnily enough it wasn’t a
classic from my childhood (I have all those on DVDs) and it wasn’t one of the
new classics that I missed at the cinemas… It was Treasure Planet, a film that I missed as a kid and never got around
to watching until now.
A retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure
Island set against a science fiction background, Treasure Planet tells the story of young Jim Hawkins, a lost lad
looking for some direction, who comes into possession of a map to the fabled
treasure planet of Captain Flint. Along with a family friend, Jim sets sail to
find the mysterious planet and prove to the world what he’s worth. But things
take a terrible turn when their crew of cutthroats mutinies, led by the
fearsome cyborg, Silver.
An interesting retelling of a timeless tale of adventure, Treasure Planet focuses more on the
unlikely friendship between Silver and Jim, giving the film a more family-friendly
edge by humanising the villain and making us, as well as Jim, care for him.
This aspect of the film is very lovely.
The remainder is a pretty flimflam that looks great, but lacks anything
deeper than the visual surface. Made around the time when movies were
experimenting with computer-generated animation, Treasure Planet, a little like Pokémon 2000, suffers from this strange half-and-half blend of classic animation
and shiny, substantial 3D animation and the two just do look too weird
together. It doesn’t have the cute best-of-both-worlds like Mary Poppins or Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but more this janky and glaringly out of
place look like Detective Pikachu
(yes, I know this came first).
The script is pretty weak and the characters are nothing to write home
about, indeed the most complete is Silver… and he’s a cyborg! Jim as the
protagonist is just downright boring, as plain as an unsalted cracker, and he’s
definitely not any sort of emotional anchor for the audience to hold on to.
Image credit: Beyond the Boxset |
I might have liked this movie better as a child, when I didn’t know any
better. Watching it for the first time as an adult, I definitely appreciated
the idea behind it; the science fiction setting made for some visually stunning
achievements in art design, but it’s certainly not the greatest adaptation of
Stevenson’s classic that I’ve seen. To be fair, Muppet Treasure Island was my introduction to the tale, so I may be
spoilt and biased. But Treasure Planet
is certainly not a terrible film, it’s just one of the weaker ones in Disney
animated arsenal.
Director: Ron Clements & John
Musker (2002)
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
Roscoe Lee Browne, Tony Jay, Laurie Metcalf, David Hyde Pierce, Michael
Wincott, Martin Short, & Emma Thompson
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