Review of Treasure Planet (2002) by Nigel D — 01 Mar 2009

I miss traditional Disney animation. By the time 'The Princess and the Frog' hits at Christmas, it will have been over five years since classic 2D animation caved in to CGI.

'Treasure Planet' is notoriously one of the films that signaled the end of Disney's second golden age of animation; it also has the dubious distinction of being the greatest financial loss in the company's history. I somehow missed this movie seven years ago; having finally seen it, I realize it is actually quite a unique gem.

CGI has been used to assist 2D animation for a couple of decades now. (I particularly remember the stampede scene from 'The Lion King'.) Just to do those things that would be too difficult or time-consuming to accomplish with traditional hand-drawn animation. Well, 'Treasure Planet' is the one movie I've seen where the 2D and the CGI blend almost seamlessly. Sure, there were plenty of instances where I could look at the screen and say, "Okay, that was hand-drawn; that was computer generated." But I didn't even realize as I watched the film that the character of John Silver is actually hand-drawn animation blended with CGI--in the same character. It was absolutely seamless, and beautiful.

This movie is pure fantasy, and lovely to look at. Why can the characters seemingly breathe in the vacuum of space? Who cares? The visuals are so breathtaking, the gaps in logic don't matter. And yes, the visuals will stick with you far longer than the story or the characters, but this movie is still worth a ride.

Why did this movie fail? I don't know. Perhaps people were becoming too enamored with computer animation. Perhaps it bore too many similarities to 20th Century Fox's 'Titan A.E.', which came only two years before. But it did herald the end of an era that I really feel needs to come back. I will forever love the works of Pixar, but CGI has taken over way too much. I don't hold out too much hope for 'The Princess and the Frog', actually, but I want to see more of the classic Disney animation that has gone the way of the dodo in the last few years. 'Treasure Planet' happily gave me a taste of what could still be done in this extraordinary medium.