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Movie Forums :: Reviews :: Disney's Buried "Treasure" |
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Posted on 12/10/02
Disney's Buried "Treasure"
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Okay, so I'll admit it: I'm not a Disney fan.
While this may come as something of a shock to some of you, I think it's an important part of author goodwill to disclose bias of this nature prior to reviewing, say, a Disney movie. Since this is exactly what I am about to do, it's only fair that you realize I am not the most ardent supporter or avid consumer of what consistently comes out of Walt Disney Pictures.
Okay, so Lady and the Tramp was good. Likewise Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin; and, of course, all three Pixar collaborations. Beyond that, I had difficulty staying awake through any of the animated features Disney has had any part in putting together.
You can imagine my joy, then, to have found at least one exeption to what seemed to be a hard-and-fast rule. That exception is Treasure Planet.
I was lucky enough to catch the first teaser trailer for this film, shown on the VHS trailers for (imagine that) Monsters Inc. I was impressed-- the teaser had literally two words of spoken dialogue, but fantastic music and great visuals. It instantly (and, I can add in hindsight, accurately) conveyed not only the film's visual style, but its overall adventurous esthetic and buoyant sense of unflagging optimism.
Later, I did see the second trailer for this film, and was not nearly as impressed. It was a more "traditional" trailer with (very little) spoken dialogue, but a different overall feeling that I felt was not nearly as effective as the teaser trailer. So, despite my initially good first impression from the teaser, I had uncertainties about this film. A definite dearth of spoken dialogue in either trailer could mean that the voice acting (or writing) was simply bad. Sure, the film looked pretty, but wasn't this a Disney film? There was no guarantee of a strong or even passable deep storyline to back up the visuals.
Still, I was intruiged: so I put off baking my pumpkin pies to go see this film opening night. It turned out to be a sacrifice I was glade I made.
Simply put, Treasure Planet is the first Disney movie I have ever seen that I have connected with on some level. It is the first Disney film I have sat through without dozing off, or even feeling tempted to doze off. It is the first Disney film that I have felt is devoid of bland stereotypical humor, an overload of cheesy sing-alongs, or a raft of extraneous "cute" characters that are clearly intended for straight-to-Happy Meal merchandising.
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Treasure Planet is a rough adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic children's tale, Treasure Island: only it adds a twist to this solid story by setting it in a [link=http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2002-11/26/11.30.film]fantasy world[/link]. This is not simply "Pirates in Space"; the world in which Treasure Planet takes place is not futuristic, but simply has no direct connection with our reality. In some ways it could be called "hyperreal". I bother to mention this at all because it is the setting that gives this film an immediate visceral appeal. What's not to like about a world in which tall ships of old are driven by snapping sails through a glowing Etherium, a world where a menagerie of alien creatures coexists peacefully with humanoids, a world where pods of massive whale-like creatures drive through space?
The story follows young Jim Hawkins, an irrepresible youth striving to find his place in the universe. The audience gets an excellent portrayal of Jim at their first glimpse of him, bucking authority by joyriding through restricted areas on his solar sled, a surfboard-like vehicle that is powered by rockets and solar wind. Not only does this pasttime look like a ridiculous amount of fun, it paints an engaging picture of a boy whose enthusiasm for life and willingness to take risks is only tempered by his inherent capability.
As anyone who is at least somewhat familiar with the story of Treasure Island knows, (and as any good pirate story is) the rest of the story is predominantly concerned with the existence of a map to a fabled buried treasure. It is not the goal of this review to elucidate the entire storyline here -- those who have read the book know roughly what to expect (although the film does deviate in a few key respects). What is more important for our purposes is the fact that Disney has managed to weave into their retelling an engaging, honest, and human story of a broken home, the process of growing up, and the value of trust.
To address the film on some more technical merits, the trailer(s) do not lie -- this film is visually breathtaking. In fact, it may be the most seamless and esthetically unified [link=http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2002-11/25/11.30.film]integration[/link] of computer-generated and traditional cell-based animation in recent years, if not ever. In fact, one of the characters (I won't spoil the surprised by mentioning who) is actually five-dimensional-- and looks good that way. Whatever political or social faux paus Disney has comitted with their material in the past decade, their technical wizardry certainly hasn't suffered. The world of Treasure Planet literally leaps out at you from the screen, treating you to an eyefeast of two and three-dimensional art that is characterized by a distinct lacked of the antispectic, "scrubbed" appearence of so much other CGI floating around these years.
The plot is well-paced throughout, although it may surprised some viewers with its initial quickness: Clements and Musker don't waste time, or mince words....except at the very end of the film.
Which brings me to my one and only gripe about the entire production. This film, for all its breathless sense of adventure, well-modulated emotionality and soaring, epic shots, does overdo it on the saccharine at the end. There is simply far too much happy happy joy joy packed into the last 2 1/2 minutes. Yes, this is a Disney movie, and Disney does love their happy endings, but I think that this one is overdone to the point that it feels a bit incongruous. This is not to say that I think Jim and his mother (and the supporting cast) don't *deserve* the ending they got --- on the contrary, I was giddy for them -- just that it was a bit excessive.
Still, for such a fundamentally happy movie, I suppose it makes sense. Jim's character is such that he seems like he's having the time of his life while being shot at and nearly burned to a crisp, so the state of his world at the end of the film is, in some ways, unsurprising.
Now, having said all this, I do have one final concern with this film: and that is audience appreciation. When I saw this film on Wednesday the 27th (opening night), the theater I saw it in had maybe 10 other people in attendance. Granted it was the day before Thanksgiving, but even so, I'm concerned that this film is either not getting enough promotion, or not drawing large enough crowds because of it's cross-genre nature. Older fans may view it as too much of a "kids" film, while younger children may not cotten to all the creative concepts. Granted, it is going up against James Bond and Harry Freakin' Potter, but this is a film that deserves an audience -- if for no other reason than it is not a sequel or serial film.
The bottom line is, I know what to expect from a Disney movie -- and so do you. But in place of the usual Disney fare, this film provides an honest, adventurous, exciting, fun galactic romp that says something about life and growing up....without being preachy or sappy.
And that, coming from Disney, is quite an accomplishment.
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