Susan Granger’s review of “TREASURE PLANET” (Walt Disney)
Swashbuckling “Treasure Island” serves as inspiration for this raucous adventure into infinity. As the story begins, Jim Hawkins (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a fatherless 15 year-old living on the planet Montressor, riding his solarsurfer, and searching for his place in the universe. Just after an alien, Billy Bones, warns him about a cutthroat cyborg, pirates destroy his mother’s Benbow Inn. So Jim and his mom seek refuge with doddering Dr. Delbert Doppler (voiced by David Hyde Pierce), a wealthy astrophysicist, and discover a chest containing a holographic map to Treasure Planet, where the legendary Captain Flint hid the “loot of a thousand worlds.” Determined to help his mother rebuild the Inn, Jim and Doppler set off for Crescentia spaceport to board a galleon, the RLS Legacy (named for “Treasure Island” author Robert Louis Stevenson), and meet its crew. There’s the feline Captain Amelia (voiced by Emma Thompson); her first officer, Mr. Arrow (voiced by Roscoe Lee Brown); the crafty half-human, half-cyborg cook, John Silver (voiced by Brian Murray); and Morph, Silver’s mischievous shape-shifting pet. Traveling through the Etherium on sun-powered solar sails, they encounter Orcus Galactici (giant flying whales), plus other exotic phenomena, along with much skullduggery. Scurvy, scheming Silver becomes Jim’s surrogate father – until there’s a mutiny and Jim crash-lands on Treasure Planet, where he finds a wisecracking Bio-Electronic Navigator, B.E.N. (voiced by Martin Short), and an amazing discovery. Visually rich with amazing depth, the animation combines highly expressive hand-drawings with the latest in CG technology – plus John Rzeznick’s songs. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Treasure Planet” is an exciting, imaginative 9. Go for it!
