Treasure Planet

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Treasure Planet is the adventure film that Atlantis wanted to be – and it works far better, because it has a much stronger emotional core. Unfortunately, it also suffers from some of the same pitfalls as Atlantis, but we’ll get into that later. As it’s tragically underrated, many of you might not know the story and it admittedly does sound very bizarre on paper (it’s essentially Treasure Island set in a high-tech alien world) but it works really well due to it’s heart and fantastic animation.

Quick disclaimer by the way: I've never read Treasure Island, so I won't be able to comment on the film's accuracy to it's source material and will instead be judging it entirely on it's own merits. 

Much like Lilo and Stitch, has a very sweet story, without becoming too cheesy, due to the grounded emotions at the centre of the story. The relationship between John Silver and Jim Hawkins is very heartfelt and genuine and speaking of John Silver, it’s always very interesting to have an anti-hero in an antagonistic role. Jim could’ve been a stereotypical teenage rebel, but as you find out the reasons for his behaviour, he narrowly swerves becoming one of the most boring archetypes in film. Additionally, Silver’s alien sidekick Morph is actually really cute, although I will admit that I don’t find the robot they meet later on in their adventure, named BEN, very funny. Unfortunately, much like Atlantis, many of the other side characters are a little flat, which is a real shame considering how great the film is overall.

The animation is also fantastic, as the mix of CGI and Hand Drawn animation shown to brilliant effect in Tarzan is at it’s best here. Disney doesn’t do action much, but all of the action sequences in the film are also really well done.

In general, Treasure Planet is a fantastic adventure and it’s a real shame that more people haven’t seen it.

Ratings

Good guys: The protagonists are great, but some of the side characters are a little flat, meaning that overall the score for the good guys balances out to 6/10

Bad guys: John Silver’s black and white nature makes him a really interesting antagonist, so the bad guys get 7/10

Animation: The often stunning animation gets 10/10

Music: I’m Still Here is a nice song, but the rest of the soundtrack isn’t great 5/10

Plot: A bizarre idea, but it actually works really well 7/10

Overall score: 35/50

Next review: Brother Bear