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Treasure Planet

Though this movie has been out quite a while, I saw it for the first time last night after borrowing it from my wife’s boss.

The story follows a young boy that was abandoned by his father at a young age, and became rebellious and arrogant as a teenager. He even has a ponytail, an earring, and a flying skateboard/hovercraft/wind surfboard! He is arrested by the robot police for skate/flying in a restricted area, and his mother is upset at him for ruining his future by getting into so much trouble.

A space ship crashes close to their house, and the owner of the ship gives the boy, Jim, a small sphere before he dies. The sphere turns out to be a map to Treasure Planet, a legendary planet that contains the plundered treasure of 1,000 worlds.

Jim saw this good fortune as a way to turn his life around and prove his worth to himself and everyone else, while also becoming terribly rich in the process. He set off with long-time family friend Doctor Doppler who used his life savings to commission a boat for the long trek across the galaxy to Treasure Planet.

The crew of the ship they end up on is rather questionable at best, and it is quickly apparent that they are not the friendliest bunch one could hope to be aboard a ship with. Regardless, Jim becomes friends with John Silver, the cook on the ship and eventually comes to see him as a surrogate father figure.

There are a few twists and turns in the plot, but you have to remember this is a Disney movie, so it’s pretty easy to see them coming from about the first ten minutes of the movie.

Cliche’d storyline aside, I thought the movie was pretty entertaining. The animation is great, with a combination of impressive 3D renders for the backgrounds and environment, and hand-drawn 2d animation for the main characters.

The “world” of the movie is interesting as well, combining elements of the traditional pirate universe with space ships and cyborgs. This allows the artists quite a bit of freedom to come up with whatever they can think of, and makes for a visually rich movie.

The best part of the entire movie however was the little side-kick character Morph, who, in my opinion is quite possibly the cutest cartoon character ever. He’s basically a pink blob that can float and morph into any object he wishes. He provides most of the comedic relief in the movie by morphing into objects and illustrating certain jokes. He generally brought a smile to my face every time he was on the screen.

Overall the movie was entertaining in a Disney Cartoon way, and as long as you don’t watch it with the expectation of an engrossing and original storyline, I think you can find some enjoyment in it. Heck, I’d watch it again just to see Morph.