Treasure Planet 2002
Disney’s Treasure Planet is seen as a failure typical of their post-Renaissance lull. However, Treasure Planet was directed by the same team that did The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, which maybe set expectations too high. For me, expectations were pretty low for this movie, so maybe not surprisingly, I was quite impressed. One of the biggest complaints I have seen is they use sailing ships going through space, where there is no atmosphere (they sail on the solar wind, which at least is a thing). Knowing that would be happening, I was fine with it. In fact, since the whole story is a throwback to Robert Louis Stevenson anyway, I appreciated the way they were able to combine classic old pirate stories with sci-fi. And the animation is the same, combining conventional hand drawn 2D animation with some really flashy computer generated 3D effects. Pixar’s style of animation seems to have won out, but this movie really does look great. I don’t know the story of Treasure Island so I don’t know how faithful they are to it (started reading it once and didn’t get very far), but they do a good job. Maybe the basics of the plot have been done many times in the past, but not quite this way, and it seems creative. Even with some of the period grunge style of music and skateboarding style acrobatics, which maybe were hackneyed at the time, give the movie some roots in a particular time that isn’t completely unwelcome. Most of everything else is as timeless as Stevenson’s classic book. I also like the relationship between Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver, giving both of these characters a lot of depth in what otherwise is just an action movie. The supporting characters develop a little less, but they are decent. The sidekicks, Morphie and a crazy robot voiced by Martin Short, are a little obnoxious but bearable. All in all, this is a fun movie, with great animation, a classic story, neat effects, and strong characters. This is a much better movie than its reputation.
Written: 23 Nov 2019
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD