(Re)discover “Treasure Planet”, a Disney nugget from the 2000s that transforms Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic into an epic space opera.
From the age of 8
Jim Hawkins is a fifteen-year-old boy who has dreamed of travel and adventure since his childhood. The day a stranger named Billy Bones arrives at his mother’s inn with a treasure map, pursued by a horde of armed pirates to the teeth, Jim’s daily life changes in the blink of an eye.
When an expedition to find the fabulous “loot of a thousand worlds” is organized, the young man embarks as a cabin boy aboard the RLS Legacy, where he meets a cyborg employed as a cook on the building: attaching him John Silver.
Often considered a lean period for Disney studios, located right between the golden age of the 90s and the revival initiated by Rapunzel in the early 2010s, the 2000s nevertheless concealed a few nuggets, which the it would be wrong to forget too quickly.
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker (the legendary duo who can also boast of having signed Basil, private detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Hercules), Treasure Planet is one of those unknown films and too unfairly ignored by the general public that you are advised to catch up with urgently.
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Directly inspired by Treasure Islandthe very famous adventure novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883 (and already adapted by Disney in live action in the 1950s), this animated film indeed combines many qualities.
Taking place in a universe located at the crossroads of steampunk and space opera, where ships no longer split the waves but fly to the stars, Treasure Planet benefits from high quality animation and a masterful soundtrack signed by the excellent James Newton Howard. It depicts a touching story of friendship between young Jim and the charismatic John Silver. Be careful, if you let yourself get carried away enough, you may well discover a little dust in your eye at the film of the film.
Walt Disney Animation Studios
What they will like…
- The character of John Silver, a complex, extremely endearing, multi-faceted protagonist unlike any other Disney studio hero. Note that it is animated by the brilliant Glen Keane, famous for having worked on Aladdin, on Ariel or even on Pocahontas.
- The change of scenery that the film provides, and the breathtaking journey that it offers us to take to the ends of the universe.
- The secondary characters such as BEN, a robot abandoned for many years, and especially the adorable Morph, a sort of small floating blob that serves as a parrot for John Silver.
Walt Disney Animation Studios
What can worry them…
- Some mutinous RLS Legacy pirates, including the arachnoid Scroop, who doesn’t really have a lucky head.
- John Silver, him again! Because yes, we told you, this character is complex, and his intentions are not always very noble. Some of his reactions, and his “dark side”, could therefore surprise viewers too young to understand them.
(Re)discover all the hidden details of the film…