Monday, September 5, 2011

Treasure Planet (2002)

My Rating: 80%

I still remember how much i was really excited for this film before it came out. I was actually home-schooled at the time so my mom assigned us to all read Treasure Island together before we could see this movie. And boy did I have fun when we saw this film on thanksgiving.

Plot: an alienated teenager named Jim Hawkins constantly gets into trouble by the authorities while still trying to help his mother run her inn after his father left them. one night, a spaceship crashes near the inn and the dying pilot gives Jim a sphere and warns him about a cyborg before dying. Shortly afterword, some pirates attack and burn down the inn. Jim and his mother take shelter at their friend Dr. Doppler's house where Jim discovers that the sphere is a map to the legendary Treasure Planet and thus he and Doppler hire a ship and a crew in search of "the loot of a thousand worlds"

This is a very clever film. if anything, you have to at least love the film just because of their creativity with technology, creatures, worlds, and so on. That aside, the characters are fun, and the story is nice.

Characters:
Jim Hawkins: I really liked Jim. The concept of being a trouble-maker after a parent dies or leaves may be old but even then you have to like his cleverness as a hero. If anything, I especially like his Solar Surfing...I WANT A SOLAR SURFER!!! Those things look so freaking cool, I really wish i could get one and do all those moves that Jim does throughout that film...so yeah i'm a little jealous there...but you still have to like him even if you...really...really want to solar surf and can only see him do it in this film.
John Silver: I loved Silver. If not for his personality, then definitely for his cyborg arm. I won't go on in blabbering about how it's super cool and all that like I just did about Jim's surfer, so well jut leave it at knowing that.
Dr. Doppler: he was fairly funny. I liked his relationship with the captain and it actually was just after recently seeing this film again how I noticed one of his lines was a Star Trek reference.
Scroop: They gave Scroop a really good menacing voice. And I enjoyed his fight with Jim.
Morph: Morph was awesome. some of his formations where cute, I liked how when Silver tells him to keep and eyes on Jim so he totally makes his eyes really big, and it was funny whenever we was repeating what someone just said something. One of my favorite forms is when he cries and turn into a puddle. that was cute and clever.

Music: I really like the score to this film. And like many people I really enjoy the song "I'm still here". While I am unable to listen to music due to having Hyperakusis, I still would wish I can find this song and download it. It's just a really good song.

And that is my review for Treasure Planet. It's a very excellent film, a little underrated but not by much. And it's all around a fun film to enjoy.

4 comments:

  1. I agree that Treasure Planet was an excellent film. It's too bad it ended up being a flop at the box office during it's theatrical run; that along with The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Home On The Range. That's really too bad because all of them, except for Home On The Range, were good movies (I never saw Home On The Range, but I know you did and mentioned at David Jerusik's open house graduation party, about a year ago, that it was either one of the worst films or worst animated films, something like that). Anyway.

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  2. Hey, great review by the way. So, you know how I mentioned a while back how the Animated Heroine did an episode where she compared this and Titan A.E.? Well, anyway, she said this film came out on top. However, she went on to say that in many cases, just because a film does poorly in theaters doesn't make it a bad movie. However, in this case, she said she could see why both films were box office and critical flops. She clarified by saying that they weren't bad, but could've been better. Now, based on what you said on your Titan A.E. review, I'm guessing you would likely agree with her on that one? I'm just curious, though, do you think this film could've been better too, or do you think it was good the way it was and what not?

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    1. Well...I consider it a very good but not great movie, and maybe it could've been better...but I have no idea how. More then likely I'm being biased considering how I great up with this movie, but honestly, I don't know what I would suggest to make it better. Just standing by what I said in this review, it was a very enjoyable film with its characters story and how it mixed the time from when the book was written with science fiction. Is there anything I"m missing? Maybe. But until I really discover what, I can't really think of anything that I would truly want to add or remove from the film.

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  3. Well, I think it was good even as Treasure Planet even though it probably could've been a little better. Did you ever also watch Lazerdude 99's Animated Lookback series? He thought that this movie should've just been Treasure Island. He even talked about a quote from Roger Ebert. Ebert said that, and I quote, "While he didn't completely write off the film, he thought that a more traditional take would've been more exciting and less gimmicky." Bottom line, Lazerdude agreed. The Animated Heroine also said that the film would've done better if it had just been Treasure Island. Honestly, I disagree in both cases because I think that likely the actual reason it bombed at the box office was because A) it probably wasn't advertised quite nearly as much as it should've been and B)it was released around the same time as other movies that made much more money and possibly put Treasure in a loophole because of that (i.e. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, Lords of the Rings: The Two Towers, James Bond's Die Another Day, and possibly too many others). Well, who knows though. It is what it is and as I said before, I enjoyed this film for what it was. I remember even almost crying every time I watched the last scene with Jim and Silver together before Long John Silver takes off and the end of the film before the credits started. Still, great job. with this review.

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