Treasure Planet
the loot of a thousand worlds


This has to be one of the most underrated Disney-movies ever. One of the most underrated movies, even. Treasure Planet is a paced thrillride, a revamped edition of R.L. Stevenson's classic Treasure Island novel. The visuals are brilliantly beautiful, the colours are vibrant, the music is good, the song "I'm Still Here" by Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik is fantastic and the voice-acting is top-notch.

The film cost 140 million dollars to make + 40 million dollars for marketing and only made $39 million domestically. Why this movie bombed at the box office, is beyond my understanding. Annick Pollet, a gal who knows a good movie when she sees one, told me that the American audience was outraged by the fact that Disney placed the classic tale (a book everyone in American schools has read) in a futuristic, new environment. She said : "If Disney just made it the way Stevenson imagined it, it wouldn't have been a flop".

So there you have. Just because they feared the book's legacy would have been tampered with, the movie sank quicker than a normal pirateship would. Totally unfair and unjustified.

Treasure Planet is a grand movie. It certainly is the best Disney since The Lion King (The Emperor's New Groove was tops too, but isn't counted as a "traditional" Disney in the vein of Snow White, Pinocchio - you know, the "once-a-year"-ones) and demands to be seen. So do yourself (and me) a favour : go to the videolibrary, borrow a copy and indulge in the most atmospheric piratemovie ever drawn.


Julian De Backer, 3 April 2005