Treasure Planet is my favourite film of all time.
However, my extraordinarily high opinion of it is not shared by many others.
Described by A. O. Scott of The New
York Times as "not much of a movie at all" and a "brainless,
mechanical picture", many have asked me why I love this film so much. I am
here today to offer an answer to that question. Here are the top five reasons
why I think that Treasure Planet is an underappreciated masterpiece:
1.
The Story – Treasure Planet is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's
brilliant pirate novel Treasure Island , so the
story is pretty self explanatory. Jim Hawkins is the troublesome only child of
single mother and land lady Sarah Hawkins who sets out on a ship full of pirates
(unknown to him) to find the fabled Treasure Planet. Treasure
Island is one of my favourite stories, and you can’t go wrong with
one of the best loved novels of all time. What is so refreshing about this film
is that it is a Disney movie in which the most important relationship is not a
romantic one, but one between a fatherless boy and a stranger who becomes a
father figure, and this relationship is absolutely delightful to watch unfold.
What gives this version of the story an edge is its style. The two things I
love most in a story are pirates and space. This film combines the two
seamlessly, without tarnishing the work of Robert Louis Stevenson.
2.
The Visuals – If one thing can be said for Disney, is that
they know how to do animation. The art style in Treasure Planet combines old
and new in two very important ways. The first of which being that the artists
operated on what Disney call the “70/30 Law”. What this means is that 70
percent of the art is traditional (e.g. Pirate galleons and rickety wooden
inns) and 30 percent Sci-Fi. This is balanced exceptionally well and it gives
the world a very endearing look that keeps bringing me back to watch it over
and over and over…
The second way is that they used a similar principal to
balance traditional hand drawn art with CGI, creating astoundingly beautiful
scenery with intricate detailing abound.
3.
The Voice Acting – What truly amazes me about the standard of
voice acting in this film is how it can be so fantastic despite the fact that
only one of the main characters is voiced by an experienced voice actor.
Yes Emma Thompson (Captain Amelia) and Joseph Gordon-Levit (Jim Hawkins) are
great actors, but neither of them had any voice acting experience prior to
recording this film. It’s astonishing how they can convey so many things
without the audience ever seeing their faces. By far my favourite performance
in this film is that of Brian Murray (John Silver). His exchanges with Jim are
some of the most beautiful scenes in the film.
4.
The Soundtrack – Once again Disney employs the “70/30 Law”
with Treasure Planet’s soundtrack. 70 percent of the film is accompanied by the
beautiful bluegrass style score by James Newton Howard (whose work you may have
heard in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Disney’s Dinosaur). The score is
complemented by two more modern songs by John Rzeznik, one of which (I’m Still
Here) is the back drop for one of the most meaningful scenes in the entire
film.
5. Morph -
No comments:
Post a Comment