I'm little ashamed to admit that I didn't even see this film in theaters when it was released in November of 2002. I had a lot going on at the time (buying a house, getting married ... you know, little things) and I was still feeling burned by the whole Titan A.E. and Atlantis fiascos from 2000 and 2001. Basically I just didn't see anything in Treasure Planet's advertising that made me think this story could succeed where other animated sci-fi features had failed in previous years. Upon its release on DVD in 2003, I decided to pick the movie up and see if its story was as bad as I feared. Much to my (pleasant) surprise however, Treasure Planet featured excellent animation, some superb character dynamics and a good (albeit not great) story.
Our movie begins with fifteen year old Jim Hawkins getting into trouble when the local authorities find him solar surfing through a restricted area. Upon his capture Jim is returned to the local inn run by his mother - whose name is Sarah - and is given a stern scolding for his repeated run-ins with the law. Shortly thereafter, a mysterious alien crashes on a nearby landing pad and Jim helps the mortally wounded stranger back to the inn. Once there the alien tells Jim, Sarah and family friend Dr. Delbert Doppler (he's an anthropomorphic, dog-like astronomer) to "beware the cyborg" and hands over a golden sphere to Jim before dying. Within moments a gang of pirate-like ruffians attack the inn forcing Jim, his mother and Delbert to flee the once peaceful establishment. After escaping to (what I presume is) Delbert's observatory, Jim unlocks the newly acquired golden sphere and discovers it's a holographic map leading to Treasure Planet, the fabled world where legendary pirate Captain Flint hid all of his treasure. Though difficult to convince at first, Sarah allows Jim to undertake an expedition with Delbert to follow the holo-map and see if it does indeed lead to Treasure Planet. In need of transportation, Delbert commissions a space vessel called the "RLS Legacy" and its commander Captain Amelia (she appears to be half cat and half human), to provide passage during their journey. Once aboard, Jim is relegated to "cabin boy" and put into the care/service of John Silver, a cyborg cook that Jim is initially skeptical of. So begins the journey to find Treasure Planet.
Taken at face value, the story of Treasure Planet isn't exactly overflowing with originality. It's based on a novel from 1883, and the formula of pirates riding the high seas while following a map to hidden treasure is a well worn one, even if the film is set in outer space. This decision to use outer space as a location was actually declared "gimmicky" by some critics, or at least the ones that wanted the story to stay closer to its origins (admittedly, I did sense a bit of old man "curmudgeon" from those critics). Personally I had no issues with the overall story - which made for a good adventure vehicle I thought - or its cosmic setting. Still, neither of these ideas really endeared the film to me when it was all said and done (which is one of the reasons I didn't go to theaters to watch it).
So why did I like Treasure Planet so much? Well, despite its derivative nature, Treasure Planet does one thing very, very well. It develops the father-son bond of Jim Hawkins and John Silver magnificently. The best example of this would be in the film's second act montage when we see a young Jim Hawkins being neglected, and eventually abandoned by his biological father. These somber moments are interrupted by scenes of Hawkins and Silver bonding over various chores and learning experiences aboard the "RLS Legacy". The result is a fantastic montage that quickly - and convincingly - establishes John Silver as a surrogate father to Jim, a role Silver finds himself conflicted over given his true intentions. This is the driving force of the film, without Hawkins and Silver's perfectly executed father-son relationship, the rest of this movie just wouldn't work. Luckily, directors Clements and Musker understood the importance of this character dynamic and nailed the execution.
The decision to focus on the dynamics of Hawkins and Silver does have its consequences however. Delbert - who appeared to be an important character during the films first act - all but disappears during the middle portion of the film. Even his reemergence in the third act doesn't quite bring about the characterization the story obviously wanted to give him. Still, the movie does manage to keep its secondary characters alive. While predictable, the bickering romance of Dr. Delbert and Captain Amelia does have its funny moments. The relationship is of the "opposites attract" variety, so while Amelia is a confident woman of action, Delbert is an awkward intellectual ... oh and he's a dog/human and she's a cat/human, so there's that too. Anyway, I liked the decision to hammer home the father-son relationship of Hawkins and Silver, even if it required secondary characters like Delbert to fade into the backgrounds at times. This is what good directors do, they figure out the stories main thrust and do what it takes to get it across.
Overall I think the story of Treasure Planet is good. The movie is well paced, the plot is nicely executed and the main character dynamics are awesome. When compared to the plot hole riddled Atlantis, the horrible characterization of Titan A.E., and the awful character dynamics of Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas (all films released around the same time), this movie is great. By itself, Treasure Planet my not shine quite as bright, but it's still a good story.
As you would expect, the animation of Treasure Planet is excellent. Being a Disney film, it should come as no surprise that the traditional portion of this movie is expertly crafted and beautifully designed. Since it was created during the turn of the century, it should also come as no surprise that CGI was used extensively in the film. As I've mentioned in past reviews, the early days of CGI and traditional animation merging were a crap shoot. Some of the films did it well (Tarzan, The Iron Giant), others did it terribly (Sinbad, Titan A.E.). Overall I think Treasure Planet's creators did a good job of marrying the traditional animation and CGI imagery. There are some scenes where I felt the digitally rendered backgrounds lacked the detail of their hand drawn counterparts, but even at its worst I was never taken out of the moment. On a more positive note, the CGI used for John Silver's mechanical hand was awesome. Not only did the traditional and computer portions of the character blend seamlessly, the decision to use CGI for Silver's bionic prosthetic was completely appropriate and helped enhance the film in a tasteful way. I only wish other directors of the time had been this fastidious with their projects.
Besides the excellent animation, Treasure Planet also has some really nice design. The overall look of the film is very much inline with traditional pirate-colonial stories, the kind you would see in old movies and storybooks. Because the film is set in space, however, various objects and locations are "tweaked" in such a way that they reflect the sci-fi environment. Things like flintlock laser pistols and spacefaring sailboats make for a fun combination of classic and futuristic technology. Though not quite the animation milestone you would expect for $140 million dollars, Treasure Planet is still a very impressive looking movie all around.
When it came to voice acting I felt Treasure Planet's cast did a very good job overall. Nobody really stood out as exceptional, but all of my expectations were met. The film's music however, was a source of mixed emotions for me. On the one hand I thoroughly enjoyed the score of Treasure Planet. Beautifully composed with just the right amount of celtic influence necessary to evoke an "old world" sensibility, I thought that James Newton Howard nailed the sound of this film. On the other hand, Disney's decision to include two modern songs in the movie was ill-advised. Written and performed by John Rzeznik (of the Goo Goo Dolls), these two songs ended up dating Treasure Planet noticeably. Even worse, the song "I'm Still Here" is played during the aforementioned montage sequence involving Jim Hawkins, and takes away (ever so slightly) from the scenes impact. Though the inclusion of these numbers doesn't ruin the film in any significant way, I definitely felt their age during my latest viewing. If I could change just one thing about Treasure Planet, I would have Rzeznik's songs replaced with celtic scores similar to what Howard did throughout the rest of the film.
Treasure Planet will never be a Disney "classic". The film just doesn't have enough magic to be mentioned in the same breath as Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King. Make no mistake though, this is a good movie. On its own merits, Treasure Planet is a well executed story with excellent production value. Compared to most of the other animated features of the time however, its straight up awesome. In fact, I would rank Treasure Planet as the best post 2000 animated Disney feature after Lilo and Stitch. I won't go as far as to say you should run out and buy the 2003 DVD - which is still available since Disney never even bothered to put it in the "Vault" - but if you haven't seen Treasure Planet it's worth at least a rent (heck, you can probably catch it on the Disney channel for free).
