Film Addict's August Film Choice

My kid sister turned 20 this month and while not a big achievement (though she has lasted 20 years without me or my mother killing her), I decided to dedicate Film Addict's August Film Choice to her which meant she got to choose any film for me to review.  So this is Disney's Treasure Planet.

A faithful adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Treasure Planet is the 2002 animated fantasy film from Ron Clements and John Musker with the voices of Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, The Dark Knight Rise), Brian Murray (Dream House, In the Family), Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility, Nanny McPhee), David Hyde Pierce (Frasier, A Bug's Life), Martin Short (Saturday Night Live, How I Met Your Mother), Michael Wincott (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Crow), Laurie Metcalf (Toy Story, Roseanne), and Roscoe Lee Browne (Babe, Spider-Man the Animated Series) bringing this eclectic group of characters to life.  While a faithful adaptation, there is the major alteration of the film being set in space instead so to make it stand out from other Disney adaptation of Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Just like Film Addict's May Film Choice, Brother Bear, which was dedicated to my best friend, I'm going to add another point to my normal review points which reminds me of my kid sister.

Rating: 9

Recommended To: Disney fans; anyone; adventure fans

Favourite Characters: Dr. Doppler - funny; Jim - loveable; Captain Amelia - just love her

Favourite Part: Captain Amelia: [to a protesting Doppler] Let me make this as... monosyllabic as possible.  I...don't much care for this crew you hired.  They're...
[to Arrow] How did I describe them, Arrow?  I said something rather good this morning before coffee.
Mr. Arrow: 'A ludicrous parcel of drivelling galoots,' ma'am.
Captain Amelia: [to Doppler] There you go, poetry.

Good Points: Variety in character designs; dialogue was great; father-son relationship explored; Silver - a villain who wasn't evil for the sake of it

Bad Points: Not a lot of female characters; Jim and his parents are the only humans

Special Point: Morph - many reasons behind this one

Treasure Planet opens with little Jim Hawkins (Austin Majors) reading a storybook about Treasure Planet past his bedtime; his mum, Sarah (Metcalf), then walks in and tells him off for being awake so late but using his big, loveable eyes, she caves and sits with him as they read his book together.  Once it's done, Jim is tucked in after saying he wishes to visit Treasure Planet much to his mum's amusement.  Years later, we come to find a rebellious Jim Hawkins (now Gordon-Levitt) solar-surfing through a restricted zone which he is then arrested for and brought home to his disheartened mother who is struggling to run her inn without Jim's father who left years before.  After being told that this time was a warning and next time could lead to Jim going to prison, Jim ignores his mother's pleas to think about his future, he helps out for a bit then disappears outside to reflect on his life alone.  As he listens to his mum talk to Dr. Delbert Doppler (Hyde Pierce) about him and he is upset that his mum is almost ready to give up on him; at this moment, a passing spaceship crashes at the end of the dock and Jim rescues the old salamander alien, Billy Bones (Patrick McGoohan, Braveheart), who in turn gives him a strange golden orb to protect from the "cyborg".  The film then follows the same story as the original and, with Dr. Doppler, Jim gets to go on an adventure where he learns more about himself, making friends along the way.

This film has a wonderful collection of colourful characters.  My sister and I both love the various designs because we are always curious about what the next character will look like (even the background characters) and how wonderfully weird they all look, making Jim stand out even more.  Personally, I love the colourful and unusual designs of every character because it shows this level of imagination that can't always be found in the traditional Disney films due to this one being set in space.  I also found the combination of a hand-drawn character with a CGI prosthetic (Silver (Murray)) fascinating because it is unusual for the two methods to be combined in the same character and has inspired some of my own animation, which weren't brilliant because I can't draw to save my life but fun to play with.

The dialogue is fantastic throughout the film because I always find, even after watching it for the 5 millionth time, nearly every line funny as some characters argue and bicker while others just have a conversation and the lines are interlaced with something that leads to comedic effect, B.E.N. (Short) and Doppler especially.  While Silver's speech to Jim about his future was not funny, I found it to be incredibly heart-warming and moving - and I still do, making me tear up all of the time - which proves to me that Silver is not evil for the sake of it, though I will come back to this point later, he's just done bad things to get what he wants and does actually care for others.  If I could, every piece of dialogue would be my favourite part but that would unfortunately make this the world's longest review.

As I've said before in other reviews and in the description for this blog, I grew up on Disney films; apparently the only way to keep me quiet at home was to stick a Disney video (yes, I am of the VHS generation) in and just leave me to watch it.  I've enjoyed every Disney film I've seen, especially the princess ones, but I've always love Treasure Planet (and so has my sister obviously) because of the father-son relationship story that is explored with no romantic alluded to at all.  This makes the film, in my opinion, easier to access for a wider audience as more boys may be interested in seeing this young man learn more about himself as he gets to know a member of the crew who becomes a father figure to him as the audience may be able to identify with it more.  I know I don't want to watch an animated love story about a princess and a boy all of the time.

John Silver, the character we instantly know to be the villain of this tale after what Billy Bones told Jim before he died, was not completely evil, he was just ruthless in his actions because he knew what he wanted.  You could sympathise with him as he related stories to Jim which showed that he wasn't evil for the sake of it.  As mentioned previously, Silver becomes a father figure to Jim, making sure he does as he's told but also giving a chance to show off and encouraging him to see his full potential.  I think he was one of the first villains my sister and I liked and now the list is expanding because he may be a bad-guy but that doesn't mean he's a bad guy.

Some may think talking to yourself is completely mad, and sometimes it is, it's the main reason why Dr. Doppler is one of my favourite characters.  He occasionally talks to himself, when he's being ignored, or even rants to himself when everything is getting too much which becomes amusing within seconds of him starting to speak.  This was the quality I could identify with because I talk to myself (and rant) when I'm being ignored much to everyone else's amusement.  Another amusing trait of Doppler's that made him one of my favourite characters were his little Freudian slips, for example, saying "felon" instead of "fellow" when speaking about Jim to Sarah; these always provided humour and made Doppler stand out.

Just like most Disney films, the main character, in this case Jim, tends to be the one the audience finds endearing and we wish that they have a happy ending.  Jim is such a loveable character that you root for immediately when you see him at the age of five because you want him to succeed in seeing Treasure Planet and beyond as he believes he has no future; he just needs someone there beside him encouraging him and show him that he has potential.  We've seen the passion that drives Jim in his second scene as he solar-surfs and we can see this passion will drive him later on.

While Doppler and Jim were two of my favourite characters, Captain Amelia (Thompson) wins hands down because she is such a sassy, badass character, standing up to all of the men on the crew, even the financier Dr. Doppler.  No one even questions that Amelia, a woman, is the captain and one of two women on-board which I found fascinating because it seems very forward thinking for a Disney film even if it is heavy with male characters otherwise.  Another contributing factor to my love of Amelia is that she is voiced by Emma Thompson as she is one of my favourite actresses, even when she is Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter who always wound me up in the books.  Captain Amelia has some of the best lines in Treasure Planet and her conversations with Mr. Arrow (Browne) always stick in my mind because they make me laugh but I will discuss that a bit later.

I have two problems with this film, one more major than the other.  The bigger issue I have with this film is that there are only three female characters in the entire thing; granted, Lion King had very few who spoke but it had a large number of female lions making up the pride.  Even if they were trying to be authentic to a ship having little to no women aboard then it was just absurd, it's an animated science fiction film, this is no time for accuracy!

My minor issue was that Jim and his parents, even though you only see his father from behind but it is implied, were the only humans, or incredibly human-looking aliens, around.  It made no sense.  Yes, you can identify with a main character easier if they are human because it is something the audience has in common with the main character but it just seems ridiculous to surround him with aliens and not throw in a couple of humans every so often, even if they don't speak.  Maybe it's to make Jim stand out more from the crew but I just find it really weird.  I feel better that I've got that off my chest.

Captain Amelia: [to a protesting Doppler] Let me make this as... monosyllabic as possible.  I...don't much care for this crew you hired.  They're...
[to Arrow] How did I describe them, Arrow? I said something rather good this morning before coffee.
Mr. Arrow: 'A ludicrous parcel of drivelling galoots,' ma'am.
Captain Amelia: [to Doppler] There you go, poetry.

This part was just wonderful; it's a beautifully phrased insult and illustrated the Captain Amelia and Mr. Arrow relationship well, with their excellent back and forth that is shown earlier.  Lines like this are why I love Amelia because she's straight-talking and a little bit evil towards Dr. Doppler throughout the film.  If I could every part that the captain says, especially when talking to Mr. Arrow, would be my favourite but this review would be extremely long and tedious.

Just like the last time I did a request review, I chose a special point that reminded me of the one who requested the film; instead of picking a specific part because there would be too many, I chose a specific character as they remind me of my sister more so.  Morph has always been my sister's favourite character and I can't blame her; he is the weirdest, coolest sidekick pet I can think of.  He's her favourite character because she has always liked characters that can change their body at a drop of a hat and Morph is an excellent example as that.

She also likes him for the comic relief because he makes some of the darker moments of this film lighter with his silly behaviour.  Much like how a certain part of Brother Bear reminds me of my best friend, certain lines from Morph remind me of my kid sister, such as "Spider psycho" and "We're dead.  We're dead.  We're dead.  We're dead.", which she says to me repeatedly as I do to her, even when we're not watching Treasure Planet, and it always puts a smile on my face.  If it were possible, I'd want to own a Morph or give one to my sister because he's just adorable and kids would love him in this film.

Treasure Planet will always hold a special place in my heart because it reminds me so much of my kid sister.  The dialogue is wonderful and random to comedic effect; the characters are varied and colourful bringing life to the same old story that is so well known to give a fresher take on it; and to make a change, the villain isn't evil just for the sake of it.  While there are very few female characters, it would still to appeal to both boys and girls because it's funny and a great story by its self.  This is an underrated film which is a shame because it is colourful and fun-filled and would be amazing for kids because they would adore Morph, the loveable little pink blob.  Disney films were a big part of childhood and are an interest my sister and I share and I am glad she asked me to review Treasure Planet for her birthday.  Happy belated birthday Snap.

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