The long road to bring an adaptation of Treasure Island to the screen, only to end in tragedy. Background for Atlantis The Lost Empire: • A Look at the Backgrou...
The older I get the more I prefer this movie over the more fairy tale-like Disney classics I liked when I was a kid. I wish I had been old enough to appreciate it when it was in cinema, but I've since bought the DVD AND rented it a few times beforehand. I wish there had been a sequel or - even better - an animated show. A Jules Verne-like universe would have been an AWESOME playground for sci-fi stories.
It's cool and creative that the Treasure Island in Disney adaptation is in steampunk science fiction genre adaptation and look like both a steampunk and pirate theme version of Star Wars, there could also be steampunk science fiction genre adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and be named "20,000 Light Years in the Outer Space" or "20,000 Light Years in the Galaxy".
It's funny how Disney has made both of the best Treasure Island films and both are so incredibly underrated for their era. Treasure Planet was such a mature and universally relatable tale, while Muppet Treasure Island had an all-star cast that included Tim Curry as Long John Silver, a soundtrack better than a Muppet Movie had any right to have, and was ironically, the more gruesome of the two takes, actually depicting period accurate torture (through the lens of slapstick humor, of course) and is one of the only times I can think of where a Disney villain actually tried to use a gun on the protagonist. The muppet version also had the less sympathetic version of Long John, who was more convincing of a cut-throat, but far less convincing of a father figure to Jim, culminating in the aforementioned drawing of a gun on Jim while escaping and the ultimate comeuppance of the ship sinking and winding up stranded on the island. In Treasure Planet, Jim straight up assists with the escape and they part on as good, if not better terms than their previous friendship, with Long John truly falling into that role of father figure Jim needed, while MTI had Captain Smollet fill more of that father figure role.
THREE! They made THREE of the best _Treasure Island_ adaptations; don't forget the 1950 version, which gave us THE platonic ideal of "pirate" in Robert Newton's Long John Silver
I remember back when you first did Atlantis and alluded to your eventual look at this one. Glad its finally here. Im glad that Treasure Planet has become vindicated and reevaluated, especially given the current online discourse of Disney's current films and how so many damn people keep decrying how Disney is dying because of the current stuff. Do these damn people not know their history?
I mean....I'd argue modern Disney deserves to die. But I doubt its going to happen. Worst case scenario for them is a restructuring followed by dropping a few of the less lucrative film series unto subsidiaries.
I’m critical of a number of things Disney has done but I see it as no different from before. You say modern Disney needs to die but what makes any different from say… The Disney of the 2000s that made multiple failed financial features , crapped out cheap DTV sequels, and mostly phased out 2D in their major theatrical projects? The Disney of the 70s and early 80s that made multiple failed financial features, one of which was the much maligned Black Cauldron, and was on the verge of shutting down their animation forever? The Disney of the 40s that made multiple failed financial features, treated their animators like sweat box slaves, and was a WW2 propaganda machine?
@@myriadmediamusings When was the last time Disney launched a successful new IP? The only thing they _can_ sell is nostalgia, only their creators either don't understand the appeal of what people are nostalgic for or actively despise that quality; inevitably, the public has noticed. Worse, the folks at the top don't seem to recognize any of their missteps. Disney chose to 'fix' things by... putting the guy who was the architect of their current problems back into the top spot at the company. Then, as one wag put it _"Dial of Destiny_ managed to pack everything wrong the _Star Wars_ sequels did into one movie." Mind, that's mostly why Disney is in trouble (and why it's unlikely to recover any time soon,) not why it should die. The calls for its death come from a combination of the political stances the company has taken along with the perception that at least half the point of their bad nostalgia is to actively destroy what people loved about the properties (with the sometimes stated corollary that the latter is driven by the former.)
Also keep in mind that Musker and Clements supposedly hated Katzenberg so much (apparently most Disney employees and animators hated the guy and Eisner was constantly having to apologize for his behavior) that they told James Woods stories about him, which was one of the main inspirations for Woods' performance as Hades in Hercules.
I feel like those last gasps of 2d animation from disney are some of those most underrated disney stuff. man i miss 2D films in theatres. I feel like if I knew they'd become a rarity then I would of watched more of them, even the bad ones.
Such an under appreciated gem In my opinion it was better than Atlantis (and way better than Pearl Harbor obviously) I think it probably just came out at the wrong time and didn't have enough of the studio backing behind it. (Competing against Shrek was obviously a death sentence)
That so many damn people act like the current drama has never happened before and that Disney is dying is utterly baffling. Disney has existed for 100 years, OF COURSE its gonna have its ups and downs.
@@myriadmediamusings yup, I'm going with broad strokes but it happened in every other decade. So, 40s, 60s, especially in the 70s and 80s and the early 2000s. And I should add 90s because they had all that trouble with Euro Disney and Disney's America.
@@katherinealvarez9216It was thanks to Defunctland that I was made aware of the Parks side of Disney history and it was truly fascinating. It was also an opener to me that even during the Disney Renaissance, things were not well in the company because of the corporate shenanigans and Parks ventures.
I remember when this came out, a video website I frequented at the time (I think it was called ifilm?) kept showing clips for it as I and my sibling were trying to watch clips for Chamber of Secrets. I was still absolutely in love with Atlantis (and I still am) and so I told my sibling right there and then that after seeing Harry Potter our next trip to the theatre had to be to see Treasure Planet. It was the first time I saw a movie in an empty theatre, and I sort of feel like my sibling didn't want to hurt my feelings and say that they weren't really into it. It also shook my confidence in things I had a passion for, I remember enjoying the movie but I didn't really talk about it at school or with anyone else until a couple years later when I saw it again at a friend's house.
Today I learned that I did not notice when this movie came out because whatever money could have been used to market it was wasted on an over-the-top marketing stunt for Pearl Harbour. ...do these people in the business ever actually watch their movies???
Just tried to watch this and gave up about 30 minutes in. So much screen time spent without advancing the plot. It's like everyone just forgot they had any goals or anything they were trying to accomplish. Skipped forward 30 minutes, still felt like nothing was really happening, skipped to the end and watched the main character re-uniting with the hot mom. The end. Fine.
I saw this for the first time recently. I'm not a fan. It's not bad, I liked the animation and some designs the most. Story and character didn't do a whole lot for me.
I am blown away by how well researched, multifaceted and rhetorically presented your essay on the background to Treasure Planet is.
He's ALWAYS this thorough, and it's a major reason why he's one of my favorite reviewers.
This movie deserved so much more. It's iconic.
It's an adaptation of a famous book **in space!**
This was one of my favorite movies growing up. Thanks for bringing its background into focus sfdebris, it truly is an under-rated Disney gem.
This is one of my favorite Disney movies, it's underrated as hell and I still love it.
The older I get the more I prefer this movie over the more fairy tale-like Disney classics I liked when I was a kid. I wish I had been old enough to appreciate it when it was in cinema, but I've since bought the DVD AND rented it a few times beforehand. I wish there had been a sequel or - even better - an animated show. A Jules Verne-like universe would have been an AWESOME playground for sci-fi stories.
It's cool and creative that the Treasure Island in Disney adaptation is in steampunk science fiction genre adaptation and look like both a steampunk and pirate theme version of Star Wars, there could also be steampunk science fiction genre adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and be named "20,000 Light Years in the Outer Space" or "20,000 Light Years in the Galaxy".
It's funny how Disney has made both of the best Treasure Island films and both are so incredibly underrated for their era. Treasure Planet was such a mature and universally relatable tale, while Muppet Treasure Island had an all-star cast that included Tim Curry as Long John Silver, a soundtrack better than a Muppet Movie had any right to have, and was ironically, the more gruesome of the two takes, actually depicting period accurate torture (through the lens of slapstick humor, of course) and is one of the only times I can think of where a Disney villain actually tried to use a gun on the protagonist. The muppet version also had the less sympathetic version of Long John, who was more convincing of a cut-throat, but far less convincing of a father figure to Jim, culminating in the aforementioned drawing of a gun on Jim while escaping and the ultimate comeuppance of the ship sinking and winding up stranded on the island. In Treasure Planet, Jim straight up assists with the escape and they part on as good, if not better terms than their previous friendship, with Long John truly falling into that role of father figure Jim needed, while MTI had Captain Smollet fill more of that father figure role.
THREE! They made THREE of the best _Treasure Island_ adaptations; don't forget the 1950 version, which gave us THE platonic ideal of "pirate" in Robert Newton's Long John Silver
I remember back when you first did Atlantis and alluded to your eventual look at this one. Glad its finally here.
Im glad that Treasure Planet has become vindicated and reevaluated, especially given the current online discourse of Disney's current films and how so many damn people keep decrying how Disney is dying because of the current stuff.
Do these damn people not know their history?
They have to read books and look up articles in order to do that.
I mean....I'd argue modern Disney deserves to die.
But I doubt its going to happen.
Worst case scenario for them is a restructuring followed by dropping a few of the less lucrative film series unto subsidiaries.
I’m critical of a number of things Disney has done but I see it as no different from before.
You say modern Disney needs to die but what makes any different from say…
The Disney of the 2000s that made multiple failed financial features , crapped out cheap DTV sequels, and mostly phased out 2D in their major theatrical projects?
The Disney of the 70s and early 80s that made multiple failed financial features, one of which was the much maligned Black Cauldron, and was on the verge of shutting down their animation forever?
The Disney of the 40s that made multiple failed financial features, treated their animators like sweat box slaves, and was a WW2 propaganda machine?
@@myriadmediamusings When was the last time Disney launched a successful new IP? The only thing they _can_ sell is nostalgia, only their creators either don't understand the appeal of what people are nostalgic for or actively despise that quality; inevitably, the public has noticed.
Worse, the folks at the top don't seem to recognize any of their missteps. Disney chose to 'fix' things by... putting the guy who was the architect of their current problems back into the top spot at the company. Then, as one wag put it _"Dial of Destiny_ managed to pack everything wrong the _Star Wars_ sequels did into one movie."
Mind, that's mostly why Disney is in trouble (and why it's unlikely to recover any time soon,) not why it should die. The calls for its death come from a combination of the political stances the company has taken along with the perception that at least half the point of their bad nostalgia is to actively destroy what people loved about the properties (with the sometimes stated corollary that the latter is driven by the former.)
@@boobah5643There is no destruction of nostalgia. That's overdramatic doomsaying by insecure fanboys who refuse to use critical thinking.
Also keep in mind that Musker and Clements supposedly hated Katzenberg so much (apparently most Disney employees and animators hated the guy and Eisner was constantly having to apologize for his behavior) that they told James Woods stories about him, which was one of the main inspirations for Woods' performance as Hades in Hercules.
People evidently did NOT like animated space movies in this era.
Unless you count Lilo & Stitch, people liked that one.
I feel like those last gasps of 2d animation from disney are some of those most underrated disney stuff. man i miss 2D films in theatres. I feel like if I knew they'd become a rarity then I would of watched more of them, even the bad ones.
And given that this was Joseph Levitt’s first voice acting role, he did a very good job.
I went into Treasure Planet expecting to dislike it as a cheesey remake. I loved it! It’s a shame it didn’t do better box office.
One of my favorite Disney movies…
Huh, I watched this flick for the first time just last night! Sometimes timing just works out great like that.
So many of these movies get shafted by backroom deals and bad timing.
Such an under appreciated gem
In my opinion it was better than Atlantis (and way better than Pearl Harbor obviously)
I think it probably just came out at the wrong time and didn't have enough of the studio backing behind it. (Competing against Shrek was obviously a death sentence)
Okay, raise your hand if it was this, Muppet Treasure Island and Return To Treasure Island.
Ah, nice to be reminded Disney Drama is nothing new.
No, no it is not. Which is why I'm waiting for that book that'll give us some idea what's going on now.
That so many damn people act like the current drama has never happened before and that Disney is dying is utterly baffling.
Disney has existed for 100 years, OF COURSE its gonna have its ups and downs.
@@myriadmediamusings yup, I'm going with broad strokes but it happened in every other decade. So, 40s, 60s, especially in the 70s and 80s and the early 2000s. And I should add 90s because they had all that trouble with Euro Disney and Disney's America.
@@katherinealvarez9216It was thanks to Defunctland that I was made aware of the Parks side of Disney history and it was truly fascinating. It was also an opener to me that even during the Disney Renaissance, things were not well in the company because of the corporate shenanigans and Parks ventures.
I remember when this came out, a video website I frequented at the time (I think it was called ifilm?) kept showing clips for it as I and my sibling were trying to watch clips for Chamber of Secrets. I was still absolutely in love with Atlantis (and I still am) and so I told my sibling right there and then that after seeing Harry Potter our next trip to the theatre had to be to see Treasure Planet.
It was the first time I saw a movie in an empty theatre, and I sort of feel like my sibling didn't want to hurt my feelings and say that they weren't really into it. It also shook my confidence in things I had a passion for, I remember enjoying the movie but I didn't really talk about it at school or with anyone else until a couple years later when I saw it again at a friend's house.
Treasure Planet, or as I call it: The Patreon Pick.
Today I learned that I did not notice when this movie came out because whatever money could have been used to market it was wasted on an over-the-top marketing stunt for Pearl Harbour.
...do these people in the business ever actually watch their movies???
Disney hubris....the hell you aay
Disney was thinking about doing a Swan Lake movie? And they didn't do it!?
Y'know what? We have the Barbie version.
There's also the 1994 Swan Princess by Nest.
@@gljames24 True. Very true.
Just tried to watch this and gave up about 30 minutes in. So much screen time spent without advancing the plot. It's like everyone just forgot they had any goals or anything they were trying to accomplish. Skipped forward 30 minutes, still felt like nothing was really happening, skipped to the end and watched the main character re-uniting with the hot mom. The end. Fine.
I saw this for the first time recently. I'm not a fan. It's not bad, I liked the animation and some designs the most. Story and character didn't do a whole lot for me.
As if I couldn't hate Michael Bay more than I already do