November 27 - Treasure Planet

On this day, in 2002, Walt Disney Pictures' 43rd animated feature, Treasure Planet, opened in theaters. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, of The Little Mermaid and Moana fame, Treasure Planet is one of the few box office flops in Disney's animated catalog. On a budget of 140 million dollars, the film only managed to take in 38 million in the US and limped over 100 million worldwide. The only other modern animated Disney films to not gross at least what they cost to make are The Black Cauldron and Home on the Range. Treasure Planet, while not great, is a far superior film in my opinion than those two. So what went wrong? As it turns out, several things.

The first problem Ron and John encountered was the whole idea of the picture itself. They first pitched Planet at the same time they pitched The Little Mermaid. Their plan to move Treasure Island from the high seas into space seemed natural enough. Adventure is adventure no matter where it takes place, right? It turns out that changing the genre of an established story is really difficult. Ron also felt that the outer space of this movie had to be a warm, inviting place, containing lots of life instead of the usual cold, vacuum of most science fiction. Since space suits would get in the way of characterizations, they invented the Etherium, an atmosphere filled void, to eliminate them. All of this proved to be too much for audiences to swallow.

Image copyright Disney

Perhaps the biggest misstep Ron and John made, though, was in making Jim Hawkins older. The original story involves a young boy getting into real danger and having to match wits with adults. It's a classic trope that is still very much in use today. As one critic put it, we are much less amazed by the petulant, umimpressive teen that Jim became.

One place the studio didn't hurt themselves was the voice cast. David Hyde Pierce and Emma Thompson signed on to the project pretty early. Martin Short, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brian Murray and Laurie Metcalf all came aboard as production continued. One of the things that gives Treasure Planet its own distinction is the fact that it was the first animated film to be released simultaneously in regular and IMAX formats. In the end, however, neither of these things helped.

Image copyright Disney

Not to say that all the reviews were negative. Planet enjoys a 69% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Most critics said that, yes, the characters aren't as strong as Disney usually provides but the film is visually beautiful. Unfortunately, initial audiences clearly didn't care for it. Planet did manage to get an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature in spite of that. Since its release, Treasure Planet has slowly gained a fan base and become something of a cult classic. I think it is a film worth checking out. It's probably not going to become a favorite for most people, but it definitely deserves more recognition than it gets.