The story is the one you all know, just set in the distant future. When a dying pirate shows up at the Admiral Benbow Inn, he bestows on young Jim Hawkins a map to the planet where legendary pirate Captain Flint buried all his treasure. Embarking on a quest with the eccentric Doctor Doppler financing the hunt, he befriends the cyborg ship cook Long John Silver. Which puts him in an unfortunate position when it looks like Silver is leading a mutiny. So he has to pick a side while the loyalists and pirates race to find the treasure.
To be honest, this could easily have been a great movie, but it made some poor choices. There’s stuff I really like and stuff I really hate. Let’s start with the good: the visuals in this movie are terrific! Though sometimes the contrast between CG and traditionally animated components can be really obvious (like that one scene where they pass by those space whales from Fantasia 2000), there’s a great display of interesting and stunning imagery. The world itself is wonderfully creative in design. It’s set in a sort of steampunk-futuristic-yet-still-19th-century universe and it looks really unique. The “etherium” I believe Tony Jay called it in his enticing narration, where atmosphere exists in space allows the film to keep some of the romance of the original story and era. The spaceport, the map, all sorts of minor gadgets are pretty cool, and the aliens are also really creative-looking. I particularly liked the design of Captain Flint, as well as this film’s scorpion take on Israel Hands, Billy Bones as some kind of lizard creature, and of course Long John Silver. There are so many different kinds of aliens in this universe it really feels vast.
The cast is also generally good. Laurie Metcalf and Roscoe Lee Browne round out some good supporting roles as Jim’s mother and Mr. Arrow. David Hyde-Pierce plays Doctor Doppler, an amalgam of Doctor Livesy’s intellect and Squire Trelawney’s buffoonery from the novel. He like every character Hyde-Pierce played around this time, is essentially Niles Crane. But I like Niles, and Doppler does have a few really funny moments (though one scene where he talks about being a doctor I’m not entirely sure wasn’t just ripped verbatim from Frasier). Emma Thompson is glorious as usual as Captain Amelia, the stern, disciplinary commander of this voyage. But it bugs me that they didn’t just keep her name Captain Smollett. And to call her by her first name, it just doesn’t seem to inspire the power it should. Doppler and Amelia do though, make for a nice team despite an extremely forced last act romance. I like the little details in how their characters move, (how Amelia gazes at the map as though its a ball of yarn briefly, but doesn’t resort to anything idiotic) and how surprisingly resourceful they can be. As for Long John Silver, he’s voiced by the virtually unknown Brian Murray. But does he ever make for a good incarnation of the character! Though he differs quite notably from his book counterpart, this is one of my favourite interpretations of the legendary pirate. Silver in the book was a seemingly well-meaning man, charismatic and a lot of fun with the crew, only to eventually show his true character as a murderous and greedy mutineer. He was written by Stevenson to be an example of a wolf in sheeps’ clothing; and even though its implied he’s not as evil in spirit as he lets on and does genuinely like Jim, he’s still driven by his vices and hasn’t much heart. Treasure Planet portrays him as a good man at his core and surrogate father-figure to Jim. The two are given a believable bond and their attachment makes Silver redeemable. It’s a different take on the character that I approve of, that makes him worth rooting for even though he’s resorting to crimes to get what he wants. And that in addition to his really interesting design makes him quite memorable.
His pet Morph on the other hand, not so much. I get that they needed a sci-fi replacement for the parrot Captain Flint, but this thing was dumb and annoying. And he’s not the only one. I love Martin Short, but what he was doing with Ben Gunn was really the wrong direction for the character. While Silver’s depiction was a departure from the book for the sake of character development, B.E.N. was a departure for comic relief. He’s got a funny delivery or two but I didn’t like the amnesia thing nor the manic energy that felt a lot like recordings of Short improvising between takes. His design was elaborate, but like Treasure Planet the more I think about it, it didn’t look that interesting. He kind of looked like he’d wandered off a Futurama episode. But maybe the biggest problem in characterization lies with the main character. The fact that this films’ version of Jim Hawkins is certainly not the books’ doesn’t bother me, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is alright. What’s irritating is he’s got a very modern rebellious teenager streak about him, right down to the ridiculous hair. He’s got an attitude problem, is a little ungrateful, confrontational, and he spends his days sky-surfing in sequences clearly meant to look “cool”. He’s also uncharacteristically savvy and an action hero. And yet he never has to kill anyone or deceive his friends here, which takes away from the character’s growth in my book. His relationship with Silver is endearing, but even his lack of a father figure is set up poorly, never even referenced until they begin to bond. I actually don’t mind the montage apart from the flashbacks -but all that set-up could have been dealt with earlier. Maybe if it turned out his interest in adventure derived out of a desire to find his father, it would have felt less disjointed. I don’t know, in a story like this that feels like its trying to replicate the early nineteenth century in the future, Jim is characterized too much like a current Disney Channel star for my liking. Oh and who’s bright idea was it to include an alien who speaks in farts?! You’re smarter than this Disney!
My biggest gripes are probably in the story. Don’t get me wrong, in some places it adapted the source material fairly well, even including a couple moments that are absent from other versions, such as Captain Smollett’s undertaking the voyage under protest. But some story beats, changes, and choices for the sci-fi setting either don’t work or just really bother me. First of which: how could they rename the Hispaniola?! I don’t care about the “Legacy”, the Hispaniola is one of the coolest ship names out there (and most fun to say!) Is it because the name’s Spanish? Thank god they at least kept the Admiral Benbow. Some changes I like, such as Silver again, as well as the placing of the mutiny, which loses the suspenseful build of the book as each side is waiting for the other to make their move, but does gain a pretty good action sequence. However I don’t like that they forecast Silver’s villainy from the get-go. Even though it’s pretty clear to most, the audience shouldn’t have it confirmed until the apple barrel scene, which in this film there are two of -only the first doesn’t feature Jim. They kept the scene where Jim stows back aboard the ship and is confronted by Hands, but I wish he’d actually killed him like the book. Additionally, I don’t like that Jim parleys with Silver rather than Amelia. I get that they want to strain the relationship even further so they can inevitably reconcile, but Smollett had an awesome speech to give. Combining Livesy and Trelawney into one character is fine, but he should have been Squire -science fiction or not, there is no way a country doctor can afford to finance an expedition that size! And though I love the environment, the science fiction did hurt the film in a few details. For example, while it’s nice, the etherium makes no sense. And I hate that Silver wasn’t able to open the map! He’s not a moron, what the fuck makes Jim so special! I admire the creativity, but the eventual reveal of the treasure was pretty stupid, as was everything that came after that. Jim “proves himself” about three times as a hero in a climax that exists only for money shots and an unneeded race against time. The effects aren’t impressive, and the outcome of the adventure is opposite to the book; but hey wasn’t that sky-surfing thing cool?
I feel like Musker and Clements read Treasure Island in the late 80s when they first pitched this idea but didn’t reread it by the time production began. Either that or there were a few too many cooks in the kitchen. It’s unfortunate to say that Treasure Planet is just average, because there are aspects I really like a lot and potential for a fun and thrilling movie. But it needed a little more thought, some smarter characterizations, a little more loyalty to the novel where needed, and some better writing. Because of the good stuff I feel bad for Musker and Clements who were so passionate to get this film made, and had it been done at an earlier time it might have succeeded. At least their next project for Disney would work out. But that’s for another review.
Next: Brother Bear (2003)
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