Treasure Planet Appreciation Thread

[UmbrellaFish]

It’s very surprising! I hope it’s a test to bring more walk around characters to WDW, especially in light of Rey and company at Hollywood Studios.

[JeanGreyForever]

So glad to see Jim and Treasure Planet get some love at the parks.

It’s very surprising! I hope it’s a test to bring more walk around characters to WDW, especially in light of Rey and company at Hollywood Studios.

What connection does Jim have with Rey and others?

[Avaitor]

Well, that's not someone I expected to come back to the parks. I wonder if Milo and Kida are possibly next on the list.

It’s very surprising! I hope it’s a test to bring more walk around characters to WDW, especially in light of Rey and company at Hollywood Studios.

I hope so, too! I miss how character meetings were more sporadic at WDW back in the day, as opposed to how everyone has their designated area now.

[UmbrellaFish]

It’s very surprising! I hope it’s a test to bring more walk around characters to WDW, especially in light of Rey and company at Hollywood Studios.

What connection does Jim have with Rey and others?

Unlike Disneyland, nowadays WDW characters generally do not walk around the park and with rare exceptions can only be found at designated meet and greet locations. The opening of Galaxy’s Edge in Florida has bucked this trend, allowing Rey and Chewbacca to freely roam Batuu and enhancing the immersive experience with guests.

I’m hopeful that Jim Hawkins showing up in Tomorrowland as a walk around character is Disney’s way of testing a return to more walk around character experiences.

I hope so, too! I miss how character meetings were more sporadic at WDW back in the day, as opposed to how everyone has their designated area now.

I remember visiting WDW as a child and seeing Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum just strolling past the teacups. I remember meeting Mary Poppins nearby and I was literally star struck, I couldn’t speak to her! It really does enhance the magic.

The last time I went to Universal I desperately wanted to meet Lucy— I didn’t think I was going to meet her and there was no way of knowing when she’d be out and I was resigned to that. But then, again like magic, I exited the Universal Horror Make-Up and there she was just waiting in the street. I guess it’s a pain for people who need that picture and who plan every detail, but those little surprises can make a trip and vacation all the more memorable.

[JeanGreyForever]

What connection does Jim have with Rey and others?

Unlike Disneyland, nowadays WDW characters generally do not walk around the park and with rare exceptions can only be found at designated meet and greet locations. The opening of Galaxy’s Edge in Florida has bucked this trend, allowing Rey and Chewbacca to freely roam Batuu and enhancing the immersive experience with guests.

I’m hopeful that Jim Hawkins showing up in Tomorrowland as a walk around character is Disney’s way of testing a return to more walk around character experiences.

Thank you for confirming! I know WDW doesn't really do walk-around characters anymore but when you brought up Rey, I got confused because I thought you were implying that she had some connection to Jim, which for the life of me, I could not figure out.

This is another reason Disneyland is my favorite theme park compared to WDW. Kylo Ren also walks around Batuu with his Stormtroopers and R2-D2 has been making appearances now as well.

Going back to Treasure Planet, I always wished that they had done a ride for it in Tomorrowland.

[Disney Duster]

I just saw this film on Amazon Prime last night!

It was a pretty good film! The story was really good and the animation was out-of-this world amazing! Definitely something you need to see! Some of the animation was too CGI, like why did some creatures have to be CGI I'll never know, but the animation was really something. I thought Ron and Jon making Treasure Island, but in space, was stupid, but when I saw the movie, I thought the way they did it really made it all worth it. I prefer my Disney Classics to all be done, well, classically, but if I accept Disney as it what it has become today, this film is totally a bona fide Disney Classic. It fits with modern Disney as a very good movie. The characters are great, especially Jim Hawkins, Captain Amelia (her witty banter and take-charge attitude were wonderful!) and Long John Silver. I really liked the relationship between Long John and Jim, and actually I was pretty bummed they couldn't stay together forever. My only question is, was B.E.N. hand-drawn or computer animated?

[blackcauldron85]

^ I'm so glad you liked it!! B.E.N. is a CGI character. Just curious: What did you think of Morph?

[Farerb]

I used to not like the film because it was different than what Disney used to make, but I've learned to appreciate it more even though I still think it's still my least favorite Musker and Clements film. In some ways I feel this film marked the end of WDFA, since everything afterwards was either not good or made from CGI (the exceptions are TPatF and Moana, which were also made by Musker and Clements, thus having a lot they shared with previous Disney films from the 90's, especially the humor and the fact they are musicals that end with a song, unlike Tangled and Frozen).

[Disney Duster]

^ I'm so glad you liked it!! B.E.N. is a CGI character. Just curious: What did you think of Morph?

Thanks! I liked Morph a lot. He was very cute. I kind of didn't like how he messed some things up and never felt he consequences, and I didn't like that he left Long John Silver, but that was minor.

[DC Fan]

Just watched it again.

If there´s an underrated movie is this one. It´s SO good. The adventure, the characters, the setting...

To be honest, I think it improves on the book. I read it not so long ago and it disappointed me. Once the characters reach Treasure Island
the plot suffers and gets tiresome.

I especially love John Silver and what they did with him. If I remember correctly in the book he was a "villain" the entire time. In the movie not only did they make him a sympathetic character but turned him into a father figure to Jim.

As for the setting the sci-fi environment made it different to what Pirates of the Caribbean was going to do.

The only thing I didn´t like was that Morph stayed with Jim. Jim already had her mother, extended family with Doctor Doppler and Captain Amelia plus B.E.N. as well. John didn´t have anyone and Morph was always his friend.

...I would also have liked if they, somehow, made it known that John and and Jim stayed in contact.

I really wish this movie would get the attention it deserves.

[blackcauldron85]

I wonder if Silver felt that Jim could give Morph the life that Silver couldn't give him, & that's why he was more okay with Morph leaving?

[Farerb]

I don't watch it very often, but I do like it more than I did in the past. Though I don't know how I'd rank it in the M&C films, probably 6 or 7, switching places with The Princess and the Frog depending on my mood.

[Disney's Divinity]

To be honest, I think it improves on the book. I read it not so long ago and it disappointed me. Once the characters reach Treasure Island
the plot suffers and gets tiresome.

I've never read the book, but I actually feel that way about the movie, that it's weaker once they get to the planet. I guess because on the ship, Jim spends most of his time with Silver. On the island, he's mostly with BEN... And I'm not a fan of BEN.

Yeah, I love what they did with Silver here, too.

[JeanGreyForever]

I don't watch it very often, but I do like it more than I did in the past. Though I don't know how I'd rank it in the M&C films, probably 6 or 7, switching places with The Princess and the Frog depending on my mood.

My M&C rankings would be like this.
1) The Little Mermaid
2) Aladdin
3) Treasure Planet
4) The Great Mouse Detective
5) Hercules
6) Moana
7) The Princess and the Frog

I recently watched the live-action Treasure Island for the first time and while I did like it a lot as a film, I do think the animated version is superior at the end of the day. There's more heart to it not that the Jim-Silver relationship was lacking in the live-action film, but it's even better fleshed out here.

[Disney Duster]

I totally agree that Jim and John Silver's relationship is so good, that Morph should have stayed with Silver, and I wish Jim and Silver somehow stayed in contact for the rest of their lives, even visited each other.

[JeanGreyForever]

I totally agree that Jim and John Silver's relationship is so good, that Morph should have stayed with Silver, and I wish Jim and Silver somehow stayed in contact for the rest of their lives, even visited each other.

If we had gotten a sequel or TV series, that would have happened but suddenly those plans were scrapped. I'm assuming that's also why Morph stayed with Jim at the end, because he was too marketable to lose so they needed him for the TV show.

[D82]

Glen Keane talks about Treasure Planet and the character he supervised in the film, John Silver, in a new interview:

You have animated some of the most iconic characters in movie history: Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin … Is there one that jumps out as one you wish had been better appreciated?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Silver in Treasure Planet. I mean, that guy was so true to my growing up as a teenager. I knew somebody — my coach in football, this guy, Micky Ryan — who had the same speech that Silver gave to Jim Hawkins: “Someday I’m going to see the light shining on him and off you.” I lived that. I put my heart and soul into creating that guy. And also just the connection of CG and hand-drawn blended into one character; I just felt like this is defining everything of who I am as an animator — the heart, the passion, the humor, the weight. Everything about him. And then to see it sacrificed in a political battle that went on between Michael and Roy at that time, where [the film] was written off as a loss after, I think, almost two weeks. No one went to see it. I have to say, it’s one of the most beautifully animated films. There was this authenticity to Silver that I thought was really remarkable. I loved animating with John Ripa on the same animation desk at the same time, doing tag-team animation of Silver and Jim Hawkins. I’d never done anything like that. It was so real and spontaneous. It was like improv, what we were doing on that film.

Source: https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/disney- ... lanet.html

[Disney's Divinity]

Aw. I'm sure M&C wish that film and its characters would get / would have got more love, too. With Silver, he did bring so much life to a character that I think under normal circumstances, I would have been completely bored by. It's funny how both Silver (a combo of 2D and 3D animation) as well as things like Paperman were ignored by Disney. They didn't have any interest in seeing how 2D could exist in a way that was lifted up by 3D or that could work in tandem with 3D, they just wanted 2D out. So much for experimentation and advancements. I don't think they've done anything impressive with their 3D films--speaking from their use of 3D as a medium. I mean, nothing that PIXAR, Dreamworks, and others hadn't done or couldn't do themselves easily.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

As mentioned in another thread; I think one can blame a lot on the trailer. Its main focus seemed to be on Jim's trouble with the police and skateboarding. An angry young man with some issues. With the different trailer, more would have been interested in it (and as we saw with John Carter, Disney still haven't learned their lesson about how not to do trailers).
When I finally saw it on Disney channel, it was a lot better than what I had expected.

This was back when CGI was still a new tool, and it had probably never been used more in a Disney feature than in this movie. If it had been made today, the amount of CGI required would maybe have made Disney say "why don't we just do it as computer animation?". Andreas Deja made a reference to it during Production of The Princess and the Frog: "I always thought that maybe we should distinguish ourselves to go back to what 2D is good at, which is focusing on what the line can do rather than volume, which is a CG kind of thing. So we are doing less extravagant Treasure Planet kind of treatments."

About Paperman:

https://www.polygon.com/2020/10/21/2152 ... s-animator

2012’s Paperman became his sandbox. Keane worked as a character designer for director John Kahrs’ hybrid short, a missed-connection urban fairytale love story that takes place across a subway line and a city setting.

With moving hair, flurries of paper planes, and shifting lighting, Paperman achieved a combination of 2D expressiveness with the solidity that Keane coveted. The short was a boon for the creative team, winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, but much like the Where the Wild Things Are project, it was just too expensive of a model to pursue — and Hollywood’s biggest award wasn’t enough to sway Disney.

“It is a great idea that is waiting for its day,” says Keane, calling it the best of both worlds. “It’s an expensive path. Today, if we approached it again, we would find an even faster, more economical way to do it. I would absolutely love to see it.”

[Sotiris]

Glen Keane talks about Treasure Planet and the character he supervised in the film, John Silver, in a new interview.

At least with Treasure Planet, unlike with Tangled, Glen got to finish what he started and his vision for the character came through in the finished product. The movie may have under-performed in its initial release, but if it wasn't for Glen's excellent work, and everyone else's who worked on it, it wouldn't have gained the cult following and appreciation that it enjoys now.

It's funny how both Silver (a combo of 2D and 3D animation) as well as things like Paperman were ignored by Disney. They didn't have any interest in seeing how 2D could exist in a way that was lifted up by 3D or that could work in tandem with 3D, they just wanted 2D out. So much for experimentation and advancements. I don't think they've done anything impressive with their 3D films--speaking from their use of 3D as a medium. I mean, nothing that PIXAR, Dreamworks, and others hadn't done or couldn't do themselves easily.

Agreed. It was always on how they can exploit 2D animation and animators to make CG better, but never the other way around. It's sad that other studios like Sony or Netflix are more willing to experiment and try new techniques and approaches than Disney is.