Jose-Andres Alegria I’m extremely biased when it comes to Treasure Planet. Nevertheless, it is one of my top five Disney movies. I know, a hot take if you’ve ever seen one, but this is a hill I’m willing to die on. And don’t get it twisted; I love most Disney animated movies. I grew up with them all, but Treasure Planet was a shock to the brain.
Movie of the Month: Treasure Planet
I LOVE Treasure Planet. It came out at the perfect time for me. Space pirates, a treasure map, a cute squishy pink pet, and a quirky robot sidekick all had my little kid brain exploding with happiness. What more could a six-year-old ask from an animated Disney movie? So I want to retract my top 5 statement from earlier. Treasure Planet is a top-five western animated movie of all time. It’s up there with Atlantis: The Lost Empire and The Iron Giant and a few other films I won’t name because now I want to write an article on this topic.
The Plot
I love when a director or author retells a classic story with a twist: Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (The Jungle Book), 10 Things I Hate About You starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles (The Taming of the Shrew), and probably the most famous of the retellings, The Lion King (Hamlet). Of course, they don’t need to be perfect retellings, but I always enjoy seeing how different people can add their personalities to a story.
With that said, Treasure Planet is such a fun retelling of Treasure Island with some of the coolest steampunk sci-fi world-building that I want to explore even more than what we got. Jim Hawkins, our main character, is your typical angsty, misunderstood teenager who is secretly a badass with a single mom who is trying her best. But, outside of those cliches, the story and plot are awesome. Is it predictable at times? Yeah, but it’s a kid’s movie, so don’t expect some Sorkin-Esque dialogue or some M. Night Shyamalan twists at the end.
The Worldbuilding
I know I brushed over it earlier, but this movie has space pirates. Do you know how freaking cool that is to a six-year-old? They combined astronauts and pirates in the coolest way possible. And don’t get me started on the spaceships in this movie. I will get started. The pirates/spaceships in this movie are something out of a dream. They are so cool. I get that it’s a regular pirate ship in appearance, but it flies through the sky and is solar-powered. Maybe I’m still a kid at heart, but that’s a cool concept.
I love the most about this movie, outside of the solar board surfing thing, is the diversity in character design. So many sci-fi shows and movies have their alien races look like completely grotesque monsters or too humanoid. Treasure Planet kills it in their character designs, whether the character is an alien, has a robotic prosthesis, or a mix of both. And no one was scarier than Scroop, the spider/ant alien who attempted a mutiny on the ship. He has the same scary vibe as Randall from Monsters Inc.
My Rating
5 out of 5 Arrrggghhhssss
I LOVE this movie
I’m so overwhelmed with what I want to say about this movie that I have difficulty articulating it. I love this movie so much, and it is one of my go-to comfort movies. The main character is cool in the classic early 2000s sense with a predictable redemption arc that feels earned and not given. Unfortunately, I didn’t do this movie justice, but if you haven’t seen it, please go and watch it yourself. I promise you won’t regret it.
