Wow! Just, wow! How could I have forgotten how awesome this movie was?! Wow! I wish I’d have re-watched it sooner, because it definitely would have made its way on the list of my top 13 favorite Disney Canon films!
What film am I talking about? I’m talking about Disney’s 43rd animated feature, “Treasure Planet”!
Released in 2002, “Treasure Planet” tells the story of a young Jim Hawkins who helps his mother run an inn after his father left the family. Jim doesn’t quite get over the fact that his father left, causing Jim to be a somewhat troubled teenager! This leads to frequent altercations with the law as well as frequent arguments with his mother.
Their luck changes when a dying alien named Billy Bones comes to the inn and leaves with Jim a map pointing to a long-lost much sought-after mega treasure! The problem is that Billy Bones is being chased by a bunch of looting pirates who want to steal the map from him. And now that they know that the map is at the inn, they attack the inn, while Jim and his mother barely escape with their lives.
Now intrigued by the ideas of adventure and treasure, Jim tries to convince his mother to allow him to go with a crew to find the treasure in order to help reconstruct the destroyed inn. She reluctantly agrees.
The crew is made up of financier and family friend, Dr. Delbert Doppler,
Captain Amelia…umm…No Last Name,
and of course cyborg Long John Silver, amongst others.
So the film, as you can see, is basically Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” set in outer space/the future/the futuristic outer space! And that makes it seem like the movie would have been an instant mega-hit! Yet, it wasn’t! And I can’t quite understand why! Oh well, regardless of the box office output, I consider this film to be gripping, action-packed, and filled with incredible voice acting!
Anyway, making a decision about a forgotten/minor character of this film was an extremely difficult task! The problem is that the movie takes place on another planet with alien inhabitants. This allows the animators to let their creativity run wild when drawing/animating the alien characters, which in turn causes the movie to feature an infinite amount of minor characters! But because each character is so pleasingly and deliciously weird, it’s impossible to forget them, or at least not notice them. I mean, look!
So to ease the decision-making process, I decided to go with the coolest minor characters in my opinion, and that would be the police bots! Jim Hawkins as I’ve mentioned before, gets in trouble with the law quite a bit. One time, he’s brought home (well, the inn) by the authorities. Well actually, by the coolest-looking authorities ever!
I mean, just look at them! I just love their designs, their colors, the way they move, the way they talk! I’d love to be arrested by police officers like that!
Well, you know what I mean! And even though Jim is the protagonist of the story, you don’t find yourself hating the police bots! The police bots are just doing their job: in the beginning, they’re arresting Jim and in the end, they’re…well, I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it!
I just love these police officers and wish that they had been more prevalent throughout the whole movie. Oh well, I’ll be content with what I’ve been given and instead offer a salute to probably the most amazing forgotten/minor characters ever in the Disney Canon!
The Animation Commendation 
I loved this movie too. And I didn’t forget about the police bots, but some might have. 🙂
Yeah, they seemed the only minor characters that were somewhat forgotten and that I could write about.
I’m glad about everyone who sees the light regarding this movie (and really, what was Disney THINKING to put it out against HPCOS and the second LotR movie? Did they try to make sure that it wouldn’t be a success?).
And I frankly hate that more or less every reviewer starts the critic with “Why is it set in space?” – well because there are dozens other adaptations in the traditional setting, it was time to shake this up a little bit. I for my part totally want to travel through space on a sailing ship. The very idea is awesome.
Yes, this is definitely one of the most underrated films in the Disney Canon. And having it set in space just makes it so much more cooler!
I think a stupider release date choice was when Disney released “Winnie the Pooh” on the same day as the last Harry Potter film! What were they thinking then, lol?
Well, at least at this point the Potter Mania had cooled down a little bit…I remember back when the second and third movie came out our local cinema centre showed it during the first two weeks on half of the screens available, you could watch it every half hour – if you got a ticket. When the last movie came out, things were much calmer. Plus, at this point this wasn’t exactly the same target audience any longer, since Winnie the Pooh was mostly marketed for younger children.
I understand your point about the targeted audience. But I still think the Potter mania was strong (at least in America) when the last movie came out! It broke records and did make over a billion dollars worldwide!
I am still gonna read all of these awesome posts. Anyways, I personally found it to be just okay. A lot better than I thought it would and liked all the characters but that lanky robot. The movie does drag at times, but overall I agree with what you said. I think peopel also did not watch this movie because it seemed like the company was trying way too hard to be anti Disney.
I was really surprised as to how much I liked this movie when re-watching it.
I just saw this movie, and I gotta say, I actually really enjoyed it! I do see some issues with it, but I liked it regardless.
I did too! That’s why I feel it would take the #13 spot on my Top 13 Disney Canon Films list!
I don’t think it would make my favorites list, but I still don’t think it deserved to be the failure it was upon its release.
I was in elementary school when TREASURE PLANET first came out 15 years ago (Man alive, where does the time go?), so I saw all of the promotional ads, but I didn’t actually see the movie itself until I first checked out the DVD about 4 years ago.* Since then, it has become my favorite films from the period in between TARZAN and THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG. Not only that, but before re-watching MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND in Heaven-knows-how long, it was sort of my chance to get re-acquainted with the story of TREASURE ISLAND.
Needless to say, there is a whole helluva lot that I want to say about this film, but I’ll just stick to the things that stand out the most:
1. The universe in which the story is set- the environment, the diversity of alien species, the technology- is just mind-blowingly awesome, and seems to subtly pay homage to such sci-fi films as TITAN A.E. and the entire pre-Disney STAR WARS canon. (I especially love John Silver’s “Swiss Army arm” [as I like to call it,].)
2. The characters are all so well-performed by their respective voice actors, and they’re also well-written, with Jim Hawkins and John Silver being perhaps the most complex Disney animated characters created up to that time.
3. Special mention should be made of the film’s music, too. John Rzeznik’s songs fit the themes of the story amazingly well, and James Newton Howard’s score is, as usual, first rate– though I hasten to critique, it doesn’t have as many pieces of music that get stuck in your head and that you can easily start humming or vocalizing out loud, like with DINOSAUR.
*In fact, I write this after watching the film again in celebration of its 15th anniversary.
Little error– it should say “one of my favorite films,” but I forgot to put that in. Silly me…
I just realized the 15th anniversary is upon us. Glad we both love this film!
Please sign this: https://www.change.org/p/to-get-disney-to-finally-give-treasure-planet-the-respect-and-attention-that-it-deserves