I remember reading Treasure Island as a kid, and I really liked it. About five years ago, my family and I went to Disney World, and I found out that the animation department at the MGM Studios was hard at work for its next project after Lilo & Stitch- a movie called...Treasure Planet. When we went back to our room, I turned on the tv, and the teaser trailer for the movie started playing...It blew me away.

I never actually got to see this movie in theatres, but I wanted to so badly because not only did it look awesome, but I had heard at the time that my favorite Disney animator Glen Keane was doing some work on the film. It wasnt' until maybe a year ago that I saw the film on the Disney channel. One word came to mind as those credits began to roll at the end of the movie...cool.

To me, I thought it was a neat twist on the original story by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was like Treasure Island meets Star Wars; it was the perfect formula. My two favorite characters in the film were Jim and Long John Silver.

Jim was a character that I could relate to: his dad left him as a kid, he loves his mom, and he lives for adventure. Silver, on the other hand, had the best animation by my hero, Mr. Keane. The CGI and traditional animation worked together beautifully. The voice-acting was really good, too.

This is definitely one of my favorite Disney films, and despite it being one of those movies that are unfairly overlooked, it's a fine gem among others in the history of animation like Brother Bear or Balto. To put it simply, it had boldy gone where no pirate had gone before.

I really couldn't care less what people say about this film. People can trash it all day long if they want to, i'll just keep watching it. I LOVE this movie!!

Beleivable, relatable characters, spot on animation, fun, adventurous story with many touching themes and an awesome choice of music that actually fits well with the movie.

Maybe the whole premise of it being in space seems unnesseccary, but the way I see it, Disney already had a live action version called Treasure Island, so I think it was the right choice to change the setting, instead of just making it the same old movie...only animated.

I loooooved this movie! 4 stars from me!

Treasure Island in Space got the go-ahead after Ron Clements and John Musker delivered the mega hits The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and the profitable Hercules. Greenlighting their baby Treasure Planet was fulfillment of a promise for their successful contributions to Disney. Honoring this promise would cost the House of the Mouse. As demonstrated by Atlantis, Final Fantasy, and even way back with Starchaser, the recipe of sci-fi + animation resulted in little audience appeal. Unfortunately, Sci-Fi films (even animated ones) aint cheap. Treasure Planets innovative combination of traditional animation with CG elements such as Silver's cybernetic arm, cost a lot to create. The film was a major flop. Costing $140 million, the film only recouped $38 million domestically (opening against Harry Potter 2 and The Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers wasn't wise either). Brother Bear and Home on the Range became the lame ducks of traditional animation at Disney, as Treasure Planet's failure ushered in the digital age of such classics as Chicken Little... (riiiiiight).

So, back in 2002 when Treasure Planet came out, I am sure the thoughts that went through my head were also in the heads of many other potential moviegoers, namely "why is it in space?" The space angle seemed like a gimmick and a very unDisney one at that. Though Disney had recent success with Lilo and Stitch, the company was better known for straight adaptations of classic fairy tales not sci-fi adventures. I went to Disneyland around the time of this film's release, and all of the advertising for Treasure Planet seemed so out of place. Maybe it was, or maybe Disney had just too narrowly defined its image in moviegoers minds. One other thing that bothered me a lot about promotions for the film was the design of the main character. His look must have been inspired by both Vanilla Ice and a young George Washington. His hair was shaved on the sides but he had a rattail at the bottom and also wore a shiny earring. The whole concept seemed bizarre and just lame.

The film introduces Jim Hawkins, your typical rebellious teenager (with atypical sense of style) out on his solar surf board - basically its like hoverboarding in Back to the Future 2. Jim keeps getting into trouble because he thinks his life is a dead end. Then, one stormy evening, a wounded alien gives him a map to a treasure planet and a warning to beware of the cyborg. Jim and his mother's friend set off on a quest to find the treasure. Luck would have it, that the ship chef happens to be a cyborg. Coincidence? Are all cyborgs evil? Do they find the treasure? Does Jim cut his hair? Watch Treasure Planet to find out.

This film had been around for a couple years when I finally watched it. While the idea of sailboats in space is admittedly a bit strange, the film is a lot better than I expected, and the "in space" aspect is actually a decent twist allowing for truly great animated sequences and diverse characters. The animation is top notch. At one point a pod of Orcus Galacticus, or space whales, fly past the ship. These creatures look fantastic. Questions of how they breathe in space or fly are forgotten as the image is so majestic. Also well done is the animation of the cyborg Silver. His CG arm, eye, and head gears blend surprisingly well with his traditionally animated body. The CG elements do not scream out that they do not belong as do some elements in other hybrid films. I also enjoyed the obligatory creature sidekick. This time, the creature is an alien named Morph who can (as you may guess) morph into any shape. He remains cute and a good visual gag without becoming super annoying. B.E.N. on the other hand, a crazy robot that Jim meets up with during the quest, does become a nuisance. He has literally lost part of his mind, and rambles on and on thanks to a performance by Martin Short. Another element of the film that was irritating was the nature of Silver. He switches roles as good guy and bad guy too many times, and it isn't just an act. Are we supposed to hate him, or love him? Someone in the story department needed to decide if he was going to be a hero or villain because he can;t have it both ways. Overall though, the animation in this film is its real strength as it builds fantastically realized scenes upon the story of a classic novel. Treasure Planet may not ever join the top tier of Disney classics, but it certainly isn't at the bottom of the barrel either as I had once thought. Even with his bad hairdo, I give Jim and Silver a B.

Considering the direction Disney has been going the last ten years, I didn’t think this movie would be worth the money I paid to get into the theater. I was pleasently surprised though. It wasn’t what I had expected, and was a very enjoyable movie.

The animation is superb. The 3D and the 2D blend fairly well, and the amount of detail in all the characters is amazing even if some of them are aided by computers. There is a lot of interesting character design in this film.

The voice cast did a great job, and all actors fit the characters well. The story has a good moral, and making the setting space added a bit of a twist to the classic story. There were a few slow spots every now and then, but those were over quick enough and the story/characters made up for those. Jim was a well developed character and Silver was also pretty good too. Most of the other characters had some good depth to them as well. The score is very good, similar to Atlantis’ as the same composer wrote both. The songs that are in the film, aren’t sung by any characters thankfully and fit in the scenes.

I’d recommend this film to anyone who enjoys sci-fi/action movies. Definitely worth seeing!

A pretty fair effort from Disney, which I suspect would be fairly unintersting if you took away the gobsmacking 3D scenes - though I did like Dr. Doppler's character.

It seems to me that by the end of the 90's Disney must have been figuratively scratching its head and trying to come up with some new way of doing things, which would reinvent the brand name and give it a foothold in the 21st century. On the strength of 'Atlantis' and 'Treasure Island' I suspect they cocked an eye at the way anime was gobbling up the teenage boy audience, and tried to marry traditional Disney with a slightly more mature SF feel. As Titan AE suggested though, the anime audience don't seem to be very interested in Western style animated SF, and neither, apparently, do traditional Disney audiences. Perhaps for this and other reasons, 'Treasure Planet' was Disney's biggest box office bomb. It must have been particularly discouraging after 'Lilo and Stitch', which was the one good, old-fashioned success they'd had in years.

Like so many later animated movies I found myself amazed by the visuals early on, and then increasingly bored by everything else towards the end. There are enough flickers of greatness in 'Treasure Planet' to make it worth watching. It's an enjoyabe enough ride, and it certainly didn't deserve to be Disney's biggest bomb ever, but it never really gripped me. 'Atlantis', which is its most obvious cousin in the Disney pantheon, is a better movie, for my money.

Ok, I know this is an obvious quibble, but does this film take place in some region of space where people can breathe in a vacuum? The captain says "Turn on the gravity plating" (or something) as they set off. Couldn't she have said "Oh, and turn on that thing that stops everyone imploding" as well? But I suppose if you're going to quibble about such things, you might find yourself asking stupid questions like "why would anyone design such a completely ridiculous spaceship at all", so probably best to just roll along with it.

PS: I do believe this film pinched quite a few ideas from Star Trek - most obviously the 'doors' which open and close successively on different worlds: identical to the 'gateways' the ancient Iconians built, from Next Gen and DS9.

Anyway, a decent enough film, certainly a good-looking film, nearly a 3, but not quite.
The one song, incidentally, was pretty good, though I've forgotten how it goes already.

Since 'Home on the Range' hasn't been released in Australia yet, this is the last Disney movie I've seen, and knowing how the 2D animator's furniture was literally being sold while they were working on HoTR, I couldn't help but feel a certain poignancy watching 'Treasure Planet'. Seeing the traditional 2D characters against the eye-popping CGI backgrounds, I almost felt like saluting them, or playing 'The Last Post' or something. Look through the 'coming soon' list on this site. An endless vista of CGI stretching into the future. So long, Uncle Walt. Maybe it's time for Ghibli to take up the torch, though in their hands it may shine just as brightly, but with an altogether different light.*

Still, we can hope that Disney will keep making traditional animations in its DTV's - because as far as I'm concerned, 'Lion King 1 1/2' was better than any of their cinematic releases of the 00's anyway.

* correction: Disney released so many movies in the last 15 years that I get confused. I forgot I forgot that 'Brother Bear' came out after this one. However I like that bit I wrote, so I'm leaving it in!

Treasure Planet is my all-time favorite movie. I was amazed at the way that disney connected computer graphics to animation. The characters are easily liked (especially Jim, the main character) and the story rolls through well. I was even amazed at the song that was written and preformed by John Rzeznik (of the Goo Goo Dolls)and put in the film. Although the movie is far off from the book I still managed to look away from that fact and have a good time. It was definitly worth my money for the ticket and I bought the movie as soon as it came out. This is a must-see movie and is enjoyable for the whole family.

Treasure Planet is a guilty pleasure of mine. By all rights, the movie is a hack job as big as any Hollywood writer's ever done. All the typical Disney elements are in place here. Jim is a youth with a pretty face and a knack for getting into trouble. His mother is embarrassed of him. Then his life gets turned upside down and he discovers a way to a grand adventure. Important life lesson for all ensues. Unlike the previous Disney movies, the lesson here, greed is bad, isn't something that's exactly applicable in the modern world. Where Disney's previous movies, The Emperor's New Groove and Lilo and Stitch, cleverly integrated their lessons into the movie, Treasure Planet lazily slaps the lesson onto the movie, and the rest becomes an excuse to showcase a big budget video game. The background aliens and villain aliens are weak, two dimensional, and poorly designed. Silver's flip flopping from seemingly good natured towards Jim to betraying the whole crew back to getting a soft spot for Jim and getting a true good heart feels a little contrived. However it's also somewhat pleasant because it shows that Disney can make a villain without him being truly evil. But in the face of truly ambigious characters such as Amos Slade and Lady Eboshi, Silver looks like a weak patch job character. The visual design of the movie, with ships that have sails but can still soar through the air and into space is a throwback to icons like Captain Harlock but here it has no logic. Unlike in Atlantis, where it feels the existence of the city and the flying ships have some reason, everything in this movie is just flights of fancy. In fact when compared with Atlantis, its mature sensibilities and wry adult humor, Treasure Planet seems like a very big and childish step backwards.

So why couldn't I help but like this film? Maybe because two of the secondary characters, Doppler and Amelia, have such a wonderful relationship and are two of my favorite characters. Maybe because the film has such a grand execution and an emphasis on fun. On the big screen, watching the crescent shaped city come to life or seeing the huge sails of the ships unfold is beautiful to behold. The computer animation is handsome, and the first ever fusion of computer imagery and hand drawn animation in Silver is magnificently executed. And the final scene is such a white knuckle ride you have to see it to believe it.

At any rate, even though I acknowlege its flaws and drawbacks, I still couldn't help but have fun watching this movie.

This film was a lot more better than what some people give it credit for. Sure it might have been off from the book, but this was half Disney, after all. Don't you think that they can have just a little bit of creativity with this?

Normally, I don't like the fact that computer animation is used in some animated fims, but for some reason, I liked the ones in this one. Disney did a better job in this film than thay did in any other one, but that's my opinion.

My favorite character in the movie, by far, is B.E.N. He's a little nuts, but he's pretty cool. I liked the fact that Martin Short did his voice. Other chars I favor are Captain Amelia, Dr. Doppler, and John Silver.

I also like that Disney chose one of my favorite lead singers, John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls to record Jim's theme, which has become one of my favorite songs of all time.

Overall, it was pretty great. Maybe it doesn't follow the book exactly, but, it's Disney, for crying out loud. Give them props, and give Treasure Planet props.

Wow, this movie was great!
I loved the trailers, they made me begging for the release date. When I first saw the film I wan't sure what to make out of it. I liked the action, the characters, the design, the music but I thought something was missing.
Then I saw it again and I realized all the great details I missed at the first viewing. Then I saw it again and noticed even more. Then I saw it again ... and again ... and again (I finally saw the movie seven times during it's run in the theaters).
There's nothing more to add. "Treasure Planet" is one of my favourite movies of all time, it's cool and keeps the atmosphere of Stevenson's book.

I have guilty of being extremely skeptical about this movie. The concept seems ridiculous--or at the very least an attempt by Disney to milk the movie-going public for a few more dollars. And the trailers made it seem like a Titan A.E. clone. A bad Titan A.E. clone.

But this... this is a GOOD movie. A very solid effort that is actually worth the ticket price.

The characters are excellent. I didn't feel as sympathetic for Jim as I might have liked but I did find I liked and respected the kid by the end. The cyborg, Long John Silver, was extremely well done. There's no doubt that this is a very dangerous guy but at the same time you could see the struggle in him as he finds himself sliding into the father figure for Jim. It's not a straight or simple transition and it isn't always clear which side he's going to ultimately land on. Great, great characterization there. Although my favourite character would probably be Dr. Doppler--David Hyde Pierce turns in another screen-stealing performance as the 'geek in search of adventure'. But hey, I've always had a soft spot for geeks.

I didn't even hate Morph or B.E.N. (the obligatory sidekicks) as much as I thought I would... and I thank the directors for giving them a relatively small amount of screentime.

Animation? Great stuff. I watch a lot of animation as part of this gig and I sometimes forget why Disney still--by and large--reigns king. It's for those little pieces of character animation that are just over the top with emotion, acting and personality. Jim's acts of sullen rage. Silver's inner struggle flickering across his face. Even Dr. Doppler's little expressions of endearment... these are the hallmarks of something special.

Lastly, music... again, kudos to Disney for making a smart musical choice in Johnny Rzeznik. The one song in the film fits very nicely over a montage of images showing Jim learning, with much reluctance, how to be a productive member of the ship's crew... and his growing respect and love for ol' Long John Silver. It's a good match for the film's tone and the music gives those moments that extra bit of heart.

No, this one probably won't ever reach 'classic' status... and I expect Disney will be tearing their hair out trying to figure out why the Jim Hawkin's action figures aren't selling like hot cakes... but track down this rental. It's worth the trip.