Treasure Planet

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Treasure Planet
Promotional Poster for Treasure Planet
Directed by	Ron Clements John Musker
Produced by	Ron Clements John Musker Roy Conli Peter Del Vecho
Written by	Ron Clements John Musker Rob Edwards
Starring	Joseph Gordon-Levitt Brian Murray David Hyde Pierce Martin Short Emma Thompson
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	November 27, 2002
Running time	95 min
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

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 employs a novel technique of hand-drawn 2D traditional animation set atop 3D computer animation with many comparing it to Titan A.E., a film that had previously used an almost identical style. 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.

1 Plot synopsis
2 Differences from novel
3 Inspirations and similarities
4 Reception
- 4.1 Critical reaction
- 4.2 Box office
5 Credits
- 5.1 Voice cast
6 Crew
7 Soundtrack
- 7.1 Track listing
8 Trivia
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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.

As time goes on, Jim makes enemies with Scroop, a spider-like sailor who is contemptous toward Jim. At one point a dying star explodes in a supernova and begins to form into a black hole. Jim is given the resposibility of making sure that the life lines are secure as the crew embarks to save the enperiled ship but Scroop cuts the life line of the ill tempered first mate, Mr. Arrow, who is sucked to his death in a black hole, thus discrediting Jim and getting rid of the suspicious Arrow. 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 in an attempt to recover the real map. However Scroop is aboard the ship as lookout. B.E.N. accidentally turns off the artificial gravity and Jim and Scroop threaten to float off into space. Jim grabs the mast while Scroop gets entangled in the flag and cuts himself free: no longer connected to the ship Scroop floats away. Jim and B.E.N. get the map but 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.

[edit] Differences from novel

Besides the obvious fact that the novel is set on Earth and the film in space the novel and film differ on other points. The characters of Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey are combined into Doppler and in the novel the captain was male and named Smollett. The character of Mr. Arrow is also considerably different. In the novel he is an incompetent alcoholic who vanishes one night early in the journey. In the film he is tough and commanding and is murdered by Scroop. In the film the pirates, especially Scroop, are hostile toward Jim but in the novel are friendly. However Scroop's death at the hands of Jim on the top of the mast mirrors the death of Israel Hands in the novel.

In the novel the pirates are marooned but in the film they are captured and put below deck. In the novel the pirates don't get the treasure because Ben Gunn stole it. In the film they fail because Treasure Planet explodes. The character of Ben Gunn has been divided into B.E.N. and Morph. Jim's father dies at the beginning of the novel but in the film he has abandoned his family. The character of Billy Bones stays at the inn awhile in the novel before being killed by stroke brought on by the Black Spot. In the film he crashlands at the inn and shortly afterwards dies of grievous injuries.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Inspirations and similarities

Treasure Planet appears to share some similarities with Spelljammer, a campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Of note is that 15th century sailing ships (or what greatly resembles them) are used as "spaceships," and they are not airtight as the characters appear to be able to breathe in space, just like the "air envelopes." Additionally, certain alien creatures which appear in the crowd at the port resemble Dungeons & Dragons monsters such as the Illithid and Githzerai.

[edit] Reception

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[edit] 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. However, it currently retains a rather high 72% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[1]

[edit] Box office

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 contend that Treasure Planet destroyed Disney's animation studio, in the same way that Heaven's Gate destroyed United Artists or Cutthroat Island ruined Carolco.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} Currently, Disney is planning on making a slow return to 2D animation, despite already being in production of three other CGI-animated movies. However, Treasure Planet was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

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.

[edit] Credits

[edit] 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

[edit] Crew

Crew Position
Directed by	John Musker Ron Clements
Produced by	Roy Conli John Musker Ron Clements
Original Story by	John Musker Ron Clements Ted Elliot Terry Rossio
Screenplay by	John Musker Ron Clements Rob Edwards
Based on the Novel by	Robert Louis Stevenson
Songs by	John Rzeznik
Original Score by	James Newton Howard
Associate Producer	Peter Del Vecho
Art Director	Andy Gaskill
Film Editor	Michael Kelly
Artistic Supervisors	Barry Johnson (Story supervisor) Rasoul Azadani (Layout supervisor) Dan Cooper (Background supervisor) Vera Pacheco (Clean-up supervisor) David Tidgwell (Effects supervisor) Kyle Odermatt (Computer Graphics supervisor)
Supervising Animator	Glen Keane (John Silver) John Ripa (Jim Hawkins) Ken Duncan (Captain Amelia & Scroop) Sergio Pablos (Dr Doppler) Oskar Urretabizkaia (B.E.N) Michael Show (Morph) Jared Beckstrand (Sarah) T. Daniel Hofstedt (Mr Arrow) Nancy Beiman (Billy Bones) Ellen Woodbury (Silver's Crew) Brian Ferguson (Onus) Marc Smith (Hands) John Pomeroy (Captain Flynt)
Associate Art Director Production Design Artistic Coordinator Production Manager	Ian Gooding Steve Olds, Frank Nissen Tina Price Kara Lord

[edit] 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 [2] 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.

[edit] 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"

[edit] Trivia

The first Disney film to take place entirely off of planet Earth.
Animation records of Captain Hook from Peter Pan were used to test Silver's robotic arm.
The contest between Jim and Silver (each calling Morph to him like a pet, each wanting the map) was unstaged, and was ad-libbed by the actors.
A Stitch (title character of Disney's previous animated feature, Lilo and Stitch) toy can be seen on a shelf in Jim's bedroom.
Doppler shouts, "Darn it, Jim! I'm an astronomer, not a doctor!", a reference to the sci-fi series Star Trek.