Treasure Planet

[Silver Figment]

This is, in my opinion, the most unfortunate Disney animated film. The movie contains a good plot, good characters and miraculous animation, yet Disney neglects it. It was released with major competition during a Christmas season and fell short. From what i can tell though, people like the movie, but because it wasn't a box office success it is almost 100% ignored by Disney. I'd love to see at least a little representation of this film in the parks but i doubt it will happen. What is your opinion on this film?

 

[BobMoriarity]

I didn’t think that Treasure Planet was terrible, but it was similar to the type of film that Atlantis was. If Disney wanted to make action based animated films, they should have marketed them properly. They were both marketed as if they were going to continue the classic type of Disney film; instead they ended up in the Black Cauldron of mostly ignored Disney films (pun intended) that were not marketed properly. I managed movie theaters during the period those films were released and I remember being disappointed in the marketing of Atlantis and Treasure Planet. They (and Home on the Range) were kind of the death of the traditionally drawn animation style. At the time it almost felt as if they were trying to kill off non CG animated films entirely. The marketing push that Disney put behind Chicken Little (there first attempt at a total CG production) was night and day compared to Treasure Planet, Atlantis, and Home on the Range. Chicken Little was marketed as a rebirth of Disney animation. In my opinion if Atlantis and Treasure Planet were marketed as a new genre of Disney Animation we would have some sort of representation in the parks of those films.

 

[Mouse Wizard]

When Treasure Planet came out, I'd completely lost interest in any animated Disney film. I did finally see it about a year ago, and I had to agree with the few people I knew who watched who said it wasn't bad. It was decent, just not the "Classic Disney type" film. Disney could try to find a place for it.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Disney totally missing out on a character that boys could graviatate to.

 

[MarkTwain]

I agree that Treasure Planet is a great film, and one that is completely underrated and underrepresented. I would go so far as to say that it represents the pinnacle of a certain kind of animation, that being using 2D animation to create a 3D sense of depth. I think Disney struggled for a while at how to meet the increasing demand for more advanced, computerized animation with their tradition in hand-drawn, and Treasure Planet IMO does the best job of merging the two forms together to create a single visual style.

And that's just the animation. The soundtrack is beautiful, and IMO John Silver is one of the deepest and most intriguing "villains" of any Disney film - in fact the viewer spends most of the film trying to figure out whether he's a villain at all. Just the chemistry between Silver and Hawkins, and the father/son type relationship they develop is really appealing. The film also just seems like something Walt would have loved - he referred to Treasure Island over and over without making an animated film about it, and setting the film in space seems just like kind of boyishly creatively spin he might have put on it.

 

[Bairstow]

I honestly can't remember anything about Treasure Planet except for the weird bird-hips people. Or was that Titan AE? Or were they same movie? I can't remember. Totally forgettable.