Because I was disappointed with LILO & STITCH, I really wasn’t looking all that forward to Treasure Planet. But my niece and nephew were gonna be visiting, so I figured that was my best chance at entertaining them.
Thing is, I ended up loving it too!
Based on the classic Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Planet takes his story into the future, and into the skies, for a cool outer space adventure.
Our hero, Jim Hawkins is voiced by Joseph Gordon –Levitt, who was the youngest alien on TV’s Third Rock From The Sun. He does a nice job with the kind of sullen, extreme sportser to the extreme role. Playing his sort of adult chaperone is David Hyde Pierce. Very funny. And even funnier was Martin Short as a robot named B.E.N.. Very funny indeed.
John Silver, never referred to as “Long”, unless I missed it, which is possible (Senility at 34? Oh boy, anyway…) is played very nicely by Brian Murray, but not the older brother of Bill. This is a Brit or some other European Murray. So there.
And the voice that I could not place (damn that senililty!) was Emma Thompson as the Captain. Kinda feline, but with a kicking figure! Woo Hoo!
The entire cast is flawless, but I was even more impressed with the look.
I’m not into space stuff at all, but I guess the mix of old school pirate ships with space age machinery worked for me. And the rendering was quite solid, as was, in me own estimation, the combining of both traditional and digital mediums. For the most part, organic characters were traditional animation, while the inorganic was CGI. Nicely done!
Heck, I even liked the one or two original songs I heard from John Rzeznick, the lead Goo Goo Doll on a solo tip.
I’ve come to expect greatness from Disney, and this time I feel they’ve delivered, with both guns a blazing!