Review of Treasure Planet (2002) by Gareth R — 01 Jul 2009

As it's been a while since the last proper adaptation of Treasure Island, Disney no doubt wondered if a straight adaptation would appeal to kids. So they set their latest attempt in space with robots, aliens and a couple of rock songs. Such an idea would probably have made Robert Louis Stevenson's brain implode, but Treasure Planet is a surprisingly enjoyable and - no, really - quite faithful take on the original story. Just, you know, massively different as well.

Basically setting the story over a galaxy rather than an ocean, we've still got Jim (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), unhappy at home, meeting a mysterious pirate with a treasure map. Events are condensed from weeks to minutes, and the pirate is a giant space lizard, but things still get off to the same start, with pirates burning down Jim's family pub looking for the map. With the aid of Dr Doppler (David Hyde Pierce), he sets off to locate the famed Treasure Planet, not realising (of course) that the ship taking him there is filled with the very same pirates who attacked earlier. Befriending the ship's cyborg cook, John Silver (Brian Murray), Jim starts to open up about things, little realising that Silver is the pirate leader.

Once they arrive on the planet the plot departs into pure sci-fi, with a mystical space portal and a hollow world with a golden core. But the core of the story is still there. The relationship between Jim and (Long) John Silver is one of the most interesting in literature, and Treasure Planet successfully touches on - if not, admittedly, nailing - the uneasy camaraderie between hero and (oddly heroic) villain. Kudos for that; this is more than a boring goodies vs. baddies battle, although Long John's shipmates usually end up personifying rather flat baddies, and do not disappoint in Treasure Planet. At least *he's* good, though.

The same cannot be said for Jim, played as a surly and insufferable teenager throughout. Better, and endlessly refreshing in comparison with Jim, is David Hyde Pierce. But there is also funny support from a shrieking Martin Short (is there any other kind?) and a host of weird, bizarre-looking aliens. Incidentally, the world of Treasure Planet is an oddly clever mixture of Victorian clothes and futuristic technology. It works. We see a great menagerie of creatures surrounded by fascinating machines. Some of this isn't quite so successful - one of Silver's crew is a blobby monster that communicates entirely in farts - but it's still more thoughtful than most visions of the future I've seen. One shot shows us a crescent moon, revealed to be a huge crescent-moon-shaped space station. Genius.

Despite the splashes of creativity and the quiet respect for how the story goes, Treasure Planet's not a very remarkable movie. Jim's too flat to carry it, the songs stink and if I'm honest, I'm in no hurry to see it again. But it's the best of a ponderous, if not bad situation. It's a highly okay re-telling of Treasure Island, with plenty of appealing shiny bits and a few good laughs.