Another example of a Disney film I know I watched, but only remembered fragments of. While in my youth I found it largely forgettable, but fine, as an adult I find it mostly enjoyable. It's not the turnaround I had on Robin Hood, a show I disliked as a kid but after watching it as an adult It's one of my favorites, but it is one I've come around to liking.
Following Jim Hawkins, a boy without a father, he's portrayed as being rather smart but without direction. After stumbling across a map to a legendary treasure, he sets out as part of a ship to discover it. It's not a twist that most of the crew are pirates intending to mutiny and steal the treasure for themselves, but along the way, the leader of this band of pirates, Captain Silver, takes a liking to the boy. He starts to become a father figure to him, and that's where the tension of the story lies.
He starts to care about the boy, and does a lot to help fill in the gaps that not having a father left. It becomes a touching relationship that comes to a big crossroads when it's discovered that our Pirate captain had an evil plan. You see both characters grow throughout, and that relationship makes the story work. Even if the growth of Jim is entirely predictable, it's handled well and he's quite the likable character. He is a bit caught between doing what he thinks is right and standing up for himself, and going against the guy who taught him these things.
This is backed up by some great visuals and a supporting cast. The visuals have always been one of Disney's strong suits, and you get a lot of great shots of pirating in space, it's a great mix of classic Pirate and Sci-Fi looks that blend wonderfully together. Mixing all this, it's a bit of a wonder why I didn't come around on it entirely.
And that comes down to a couple of things, the big one being Disney's growing reliance on terrible comedy relief. There exists a race of creatures that communicate entirely in fart noises, and the extremely obnoxious robot they meet on the actual Treasure Planet. That is paired with everything in this movie being entirely too predictable.
Though, it feels like something intangible is missing here. I do like the movie, and I'd recommend it, but if I had never seen it before or even heard of it, and someone brought it to me I don't know if I'd think this was a Disney film. While I do praise some great visuals, at the same time there is this odd lack of wonder to it all that keeps it from really feeling like an adventure. I wish I could better describe this, but I can see why this movie just didn't have the same impact as past Disney features.
This is a fun movie to watch. It looks good, it's engaging, and so long as you can get past the mostly bad comedic relief, I think it's worth the watch. I may have started seeing some of that Disney Magic start to die out here, though thinking back that may have started fading since Emperor's New Groove.
