Film #083 - Treasure Planet (2002)
Treasure Planet should have been a big, fat success story for Walt Disney. It’s based on one of the best adventure stories of all time, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, it has incredible visuals and it features a strong voice cast. But, in the end, it was all for naught as the film just never finds its footing; a beautiful waste of time and effort.
First, the good. As I stated, the visuals in Treasure Planet are amazing. Everything from the spaceships (represented as sailing ships) to the complexities of John Silver’s mechanical parts are shown in intricate detail. With ample use of computer imagry, as well as the CAPS system, it is probably the most detailed film that can carry the name “traditional animation”.
Also, the supporting cast is mostly able to hold up its end. I would particularly like to point out the very nice relationship that builds between the scholar Doctor Doppler (David Hyde Pierce) and Captain Amelia (Emma Thompson). Their banter in the best dialogue in the film and their eventual relationship is more convincing than the central one between Jim Hawkins (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and John Silver (Brian Murray). Murray does pretty well with Silver, making him a strong character, but he never really emtionally connects with Jim.
And that’s where the whole thing falls down. There’s never areason to really feel for these characters. Jim Hawkins is portrayed as relatively unsympathetic, basically moping his way through the film. There’s more buildup given to his relationship with his absent father than with anyone who actually appears in the movie. An irritating robot, B.E.N. (Martin Short), doesn’t help things, either, bounding through his portion of the film, only making the audience look forward to when he’s done.
Treasure Island is filled with fascinating characters and interesting stories, yet somehow directors Ron Clements and John Musker managed to wring almost all of it out of this film. Perhaps they were dazzled by what they could do visually. Perhaps they just never got a handle on how to switch the setting from the sea to space. Regardless of the reason, this is a film that sets sail in a beautiful ship, but without a rudder to steer it.