Review of Treasure Planet (2002) by Lizzie A — 27 Dec 2010

I honestly couldn't be more of a fan of this movie than I already am. The story is amazing and, of course, an enormous tear-jerker, on more than one occasion. Jim Hawkins is a character whose emotions are portrayed so perfectly in his facial expressions that it would be near impossible to NOT be moved by him and fall in love with his personality. Yes, he's a bit of the stereotypical angsty teenager but as a 14 year old I can safely say that's what makes him so easy to relate to. The adorable yet action-packed prologue to the movie is guaranteed to have any Disney fan - at least one who has any child left in them at all - on the edge of their seat.

The relationships within the movie - mainly Jim and Silver's - are very believable and really do tug at your (at least my) heartstrings.

And it doesn't stop there. The humor of the movie is exactly what you expect and yet it's still so well-done. My two favourite moments in the movie are simple portrayals of Dr. Delbert Doppler's character that are SO amazingly realistic it makes me really happy just to see it. The first of these moments is near the beginning of the film when Jim is taken home by the police and they ask Delbert 'are you the boy's father?'. In all the confusion and awkwardness, Jim's mother says "ew!" and Delbert subtly shoots her an insulted, hurt look that makes me want to hug him. The other moment is in Captain Amelia's room on the RLS Legacy ship, when she says "Let me make this as... Monosyllabic as possible." being a man (?) of high intelligence (an astronomer to be precise) he does this adorable little shrug and looks around the room angrily as if to silently say, if you'll excuse my language, "WTF?!".

That all said, there are a couple of lines of speech that struck me as dipping in quality from the rich realism of the rest of the acting. One example would be Captain Amelia's (Emma Thompson's) line "to the longboats, quickly!" it seems very forced and rushed but I honestly cannot think of any more negative points about this magical underrated Disney classic, except maybe for the fact that B.E.N annoys me slightly (maybe because by the time he's introduced I've already become a rabid Jim fangirl and am trying to force myself to focus on other characters, too).

One more thing I want to add; there is a lot of debates about this and I want to clear this up...

I, personally, see Jim and Silver as a slightly - even if Disney didn't intend it to be that way or if the characters don't admit it to themselves - romantic relationship. Once you get past the age gap and the fact that Silver is not a particularly pleasant person to look at, it's a great couple. Nobody hugs their father like in that goodbye scene... And that wistful sigh from Jim at the very end? I know from experience that that IS an 'I love you' sigh. As I already said, it's very easy (sometimes painfully so, especially in the pivotal scene where you see Jim shocked and alone, even if it's for half a second you can easily see the heartbreak on his face) to read his expressions and the combination in that final shot of Jim of shrugging his shoulders and that dreamy, wistful look on his face is definitely a hint that there could be more than a father/son relationship to be found.