So great to see an appreciation thread for Treasure Planet available. I love quite a lot of Disney films like The Rescuers, The Fox and the Hound, and plenty of others. But ultimately my most favorite of all Disney films would have to be Treasure Planet, hands down. My thoughts mirror a lot of others in this thread about the great aspects of the film, like the story and the animation. Like many others I think the film didn't quite get the recognition it deserved.
On that topic in particular though, I remember there being an interview with Ron Clements and John Musker a couple years ago where they spoke about the film's reception back then. I specifically remember the mentioning how the film got a much better reception in France. Does anyone have any ideas about why this would've been the case? I just find that concept very interesting considering the lackluster response in the US.
Side note: On the topic of Jim's Theme in other languages, I think my favorite would be the Swedish version
"They weren't exactly singing my praises when I left home. But I'm gonna change all that." - Jim Hawkins Treasure Planet
The Disney Archives have uploaded a video of the teaser and trailers for Treasure Planet on YouTube with an introductory scene with Laurie Metcalf. Since Treasure Planet was never given a double disc release, as opposed to it`s Post-Renaissance predecessors, it would be tempting to assume that this video were among the bonus featurettes of the release who never saw the day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-YaExHc27A
John Musker wrote:We had a very tough time with the previews for Treasure Planet. If the previews go well, obviously then you're just trying to embellish and enhance what's there, but if the previews don't go well then all hell can break loose and we hadn't had a good preview. We had a bad preview and it was right around 9/11 and so that may have colored it even a little bit. We're telling a story where armed people take over a vessel and that had a different resonance when we were previewing it in 2001 than it had when we were working on it, but there were other things too. The character of Jim Hawkins in that movie... We wanted him to be a troubled youth who grew up without a father and who really needed a father and Long John Silver becomes his unlikely surrogate father, but the question was how do we introduce Jim? How do we get us on his side, particularly if he is a sullen teenager? Those aren't the most likable people in the world. Because in the preview the audience hadn't clicked with this character well enough, we ultimately wound up restructuring the opening, partly based on what I was suggesting which was to give Jim a moment of exhilaration before coming down, so you could see him being happy about something before he sank into his depression almost. We had a different way of putting over the idea that he was a fatherless kid. We used to have a scene where he saw a little kid who needed help with some kind of scooter or something like that and Jim went to help him, but then his dad came there and took care of it and Jim saw this very wistfully. It was a father and son connecting in this father-son moment and we had that in for a while. Then because of these story changes we made, that scene went away and Ron always regretted us making that choice. He feels like we made the wrong choice. That there was a way we could have done it where we could have kept that scene and you would have gotten more of an emotional connection with Jim. I was on the other side of that one, just feeling we should go with this other way where we just get him going.
When the film came out Michael Eisner literally wrote off the film after the opening weekend. He was quarreling with Roy Disney and he was eager to lay its diminished box office at Roy's door to discredit Roy so that he wouldn't be his adversary in these board of directors meetings or whatever. Ron was off skiing that weekend and I had to take the brunt of its box office disappointment. It was a very tough weekend for us. We had been spoiled by all these other films even when they were lesser successes. We had phone calls and condolences which are always a mixed bag because you glad to hear from people, but you feel horrible. We even talked with Jeffrey Katzenberg the week after and he was like "OK, you have to get back on that horse" which was actually nice to hear. It was heartening in a way.
I feel like there was room for both scenes. I think that the solar surfer sequence just makes for an exhilarating opening, and also sets up his part in the climax, but I also really liked the father-son deleted scene that underscored what Jim was really missing.
To be honest, I`m glad that they didn`t kept that scene. Mainly because it was too much on the nose and frankly made Jim seem more brash by leaving in such a sudden way. It frankly rubbed the issue in the audiences faces by showing the affection of a father and a son, so I like that it wasn`t kept in the movie.
I agree. The scene was too on the nose and schmaltzy. John Musker's idea to open the film with Jim having fun on his skateboard was the right call. Besides, the idea Jim was a fatherless kid who yearned for a father-son connection was well conveyed in the 'I'm Still Here' sequence. Having that deleted scene in the film too would have been overkill.
