By: debbie lynn elias
Thanks to Walt Disney Pictures, reading may become a thing of the past for children everywhere – and that is not a good thing. What is good, though, is Disney’s latest very updated book to movie version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 19th Century classic “Treasure Island” in the form of “Treasure Planet.” For those that haven’t read the book or seen earlier live action versions on film, “Treasure Island” is the tale of the adventures of young Jim Hawkins when he joins up with a group of adult adventurers who set sail in search of buried treasure. Along the way, they meet up with pirates (Long John Silver, for one), face horrific storms at sea and encounter death and danger at every turn. “Treasure Planet” now takes young Hawkins out of the 19th Century and out of the sea, setting him far in the future and on a distant planet where he still seeks treasure, but this time out gets to meet, greet and blast aliens.
In “Treasure Planet”, Jim Hawkins is still a dreamer in search of big adventures – at least bigger than helping his mother wait tables at the Benbow Inn, a waystation in space catering to intergalactic travelers. A pony-tailed earring wearing “spacer”, Jim whoops it up all over the galaxy on his cloud-skimming wind surfer, with all the joy of today’s thrill-seeking youngsters on boogie boards, skateboards and roller blades. But alas, wind surfing just doesn’t quite cut it for Jim. He still yearns for something bigger, better and more dangerous and adventurous. Enter Billy Bones, an alien who crash lands outside the diner and just before gasping his last breath, gives Jim a map leading to the location of the treasure of the infamous Captain Flint. Naturally, “X” marks the spot and instead of skulls and crossbones as warnings, Jim is now warned to “Beware the Cyborg.” Together with his trusty “dog” Dr. Delbert Doppler, Jim sets out to find Flint’s treasure. Aboard the space ship Legacy (and in this case, I mean a galleon as opposed to the USS Enterprise), Jim meets up with the ship’s cook John Silver, a cyborg who has a Swiss army knife for a prosthesis and a protoplasmic pet named Morph.
As comes as no surprise, Silver may be the cyborg the map warns of and things get nasty when Jim abandons ship together with Doppler, Morph, and the Legacy’s captain, Amelia, as they all head to Treasure Planet. Meeting up with Flint’s 100 year old robot navigator B.E.N., madness and mayhem, danger and daring, rule the day as Jim and Silver meet up in the inevitable confrontation that forces Jim to make choices between money and friendship.
Directed by winning Disney veterans Ron Clements and John Musker (“Hercules”, “Aladdin” and “The Little Mermaid” just to name a few)”, “Treasure Planet” is a thrill-seeking boy’s dream (and girl’s too!). A rock-and-roll roller coaster ride that seamlessly combines hand drawn animation with 3-D computer animation into a palette of emotional expressiveness, never before accomplished so effectively – even by Disney! With a backdrop of the vast expanse of space, animators had carte blanche not only with imaginative creatures (check out my favorite, pink protoplasmic Morph who, well, morphs!) but by juxtapositioning well known objects from the past and present with the as yet to be discovered intergalactic wonders of the future, like worm holes and flying schools. Think “The Jetsons” meets “Mutiny on the Bounty.” And for all you film buffs out there, FYI: “Treasure Planet” is the first film ever released simultaneously in 35mm and 70mm.
Not short on voicing talents here, we’ve got one of everyone’s favorite space adventurers, “Third Rock from the Sun’s” Joseph Gordon Levitt as Jim, the incomparable David Hyde Pierce as Dr. Doppler, Oscar winner Emma Thompson as Amelia, “The Prisoner’s” Patrick McGhoohan as Billy Bones, and the talent-to-end-all-talent, Martin Short as B.E.N. Not since Robin Williams as the Genie in “Aladdin” has there been a character as funny or lovable as B.E.N. And not since Williams has there been a voice-over done with such elan and unadultered joy until now with Martin Short.
Another artistically masterful animated classic from Disney, “Treasure Planet” is like a super-nova, energetically exploding in a panorama of eye-popping candy colors. Long on fun and frolic, and filled with futuristic swashbuckling excitement and adventure, this is one sure fire winner for the kids this holiday season. And after they’ve seen it and yelled for more, take them to the nearest book store and get “Treasure Island” – it will make for lots of nights of great bedtime reading.
