Treasure Planet is a 2002 science fiction animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 27, 2002.
The 42nd animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is a science fiction retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novel Treasure Island. It was produced and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker from a screenplay by Musker, Clements, and Rob Edwards. The film was the least financially successful of Disney's animated features and ranks as one of the biggest "box office bombs" of all time.[citation needed]
The film employs a novel technique of hand-drawn 2D traditional animation set atop 3D computer animation. A similar dichotomy was used for the character of the cyborg John Silver: his natural body is hand-animated, but his mechanical arm and eye are computer animated.
It is the first film ever to be released simultaneously in regular and IMAX theaters.
Plot synopsis
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
As a boy, Jim Hawkins was enchanted by stories of the legendary pirate Captain Flint and his ability to appear from nowhere, raid passing ships, and disappear, hiding the loot on a "treasure planet". As a young man, abandoned by his father, Jim has become alienated, begrudgingly helping his mother run an inn, then getting his only thrills from "solar surfing", a variant of windsurfing atop a rocket, a pastime that frequently gets him arrested.
One day, a ship crashes near the inn. The dying pilot gives Jim a sphere and tells him to "beware the cyborg". The sphere turns out to be a projector, showing a map that Jim realizes leads to Treasure Planet (the film's equivalent of Flint's Fist). Shortly thereafter, a gang of pirates raids and torches the inn, with Jim, his mother, and their friend Dr. Doppler barely escaping.
Doppler commissions a ship on a secret mission to find Treasure Planet. The crew is a motley bunch, led by cook John Silver, whom Jim suspects is the cyborg he was warned about. Jim is sent down to work in the galley and despite his mistrust of Silver, they bond, forming a tenuous sort of father-son relationship. Later, Jim comes to realize the crew are pirates and Silver their captain, and that they plan a mutiny.
As the ship reaches Treasure Planet, the mutiny begins. Jim, Doppler, and Captain Amelia escape to the surface, but what Jim thought was the map is actually Silver's shape-shifting pet, Morph. They meet an abandoned robot, B.E.N. (based on Ben Gunn), who invites them to his house to care for the wounded Amelia who was injured during the escape. The pirates corner the group here, but using a back-door, Jim and B.E.N. return to the ship and recover the real map. Upon their return, they and the map are captured by Silver, who has already captured Doppler and Amelia.
With Jim forced to use the map, the group finds their way to a metaphysical portal that leads anywhere in the universe, thus explaining how Flint could conduct his raids. The treasure is at the center of the planet, accessible only via the portal. In fact, the so-called Treasure Planet is in fact a large, complex space-station built by unknown architects and commandeered by Captain Flint. In the stash of treasure, Jim finds a missing part of B.E.N's brain, which causes him to remember that the stash is booby-trapped and the planet is set to self-destruct. In the ensuing catastrophe, Silver finds himself torn between holding onto a literal boat-load of gold and saving Jim, who hangs from a precipice after a fall. Silver saves Jim, and the group escapes to their original ship. It cannot clear the planet in time, so Jim fashions a surfer out of sheet metal and a broken rocket, flies down and operates the portal so that he and the ship can fly through the portal to safety halfway across the galaxy.
Escaping the destruction of Treasure Planet, the surviving members of the pirate crew are tied up and prison-bound. Silver has snuck below deck, where Jim finds him preparing his escape. Jim lets him go, and Silver tosses him a handful of jewels and gold to pay for rebuilding the inn. The film ends with a party at the rebuilt inn, showing Doppler and Amelia now married with children, and Jim a military cadet. He looks to the skies and sees an image of Silver in the clouds.
Spoilers end here.
Reception
Critical reaction
Critical opinion of Treasure Planet was lukewarm. It received very few enthusiastic reviews from major critics, and many critics, such as Roger Ebert,[1] felt the film fell well short of the studio's best work.
Box office
Treasure Planet was a major box office bomb, one of the biggest in movie history. Its box-office gross of $109 million worldwide was well short of its estimated $140 million production cost even before the box-office cut was deducted (the studio typically receives about half of the box office gross). Additionally, the film had spent an estimated $40 million for marketing, making the total loss over $125 million. The movie's failure forced Disney, a multibillion dollar company, to restate its earnings estimates for the following quarter.[2]
Critics argue that Treasure Planet destroyed Disney's animation studio, in the same way that Heaven's Gate destroyed United Artists or Cutthroat Island ruined Carolco. Within 18 months of the film's release, Disney had laid off thousands of animators, closed its Florida animation studio, cancelled production on one movie (A Few Good Ghosts) and burned off two others with little promotion (Brother Bear and Home on the Range), leaving it with no traditional cel-animated films in production. The remaining artists were all retrained in computer animation techniques for future films, in accordance with a management belief that audiences no longer wanted to see 2D animation. Currently, Disney is planning on making a slow return to 2D animation, despite already being in production of three other CGI-animated movies.
Despite their string of hits before Treasure Planet, Musker and Clements were released from their contracts with Disney a year after the film's release. However, Musker and Clements returned to the studio in 2006.
Credits
Voice cast
| Actor | Role(s) |
|---|---|
| Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Jim Hawkins |
| Brian Murray | John Silver |
| David Hyde Pierce | Dr. Doppler |
| Martin Short | B.E.N |
| Emma Thompson | Captain Amelia |
| Michael Wincott | Scroop |
| Laurie Metcalf | Sarah Hawkins |
| Roscoe Lee Browne | Mr. Arrow |
| Patrick McGoohan | Billy Bones |
| Dane A. Davis | Morph |
| Phil Proctor | Meltdown |
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the movie was largely orchestral in nature, although it produced two moderately successful pop singles from The Goo Goo Dolls frontman Johnny Rzeznik and British vocal group BBMak. The orchestration was noted by Soundtrack.net [1] for its use of the electric guitar and Celtic elements. Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and members of his Skyedance band play on several of the pieces, particularly the ones featuring dance elements on screen.
The score material was done by James Newton Howard.
Track listing
- "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" - Johnny Rzeznik
- "Always Know Where You Are" - BBMak
- "12 Years Later"
- "To The Spaceport"
- "Rooftop"
- "Billy Bones"
- "The Map"
- "Silver"
- "The Launch"
- "Silver Comforts Jim"
- "Jim Chases Morph"
- "Ben"
- "Silver Bargains"
- "The Back Door"
- "The Portal"
- "Jim Saves the Crew"
- "Silver Leaves"
Trivia
- Disney used animation records of Captain Hook, from Peter Pan to test Silver's robotic arm.
- One of the earlier ideas was to make every character in the movie a human.
- Earlier sketches of Morph picture him as a bird-like creature.
See also
- List of animated feature-length films
References
External links
- Official site
- Treasure Planet at the Internet Movie Database
Treasure Planet at Box Office Mojo- Treasure Planet at Rotten Tomatoes