Treasure Planet (Content & Quality) Review

 Overview

Jim Hawkins is a genius, his future looks bright, except for one thing. He's also a criminal. Well, almost anyway. The police have told if they catch him one more time he's going to jail. To make matters worse, Jim's father left him a long time ago. In the midst of all this, a spaceship (Think basically an actual ship that flies through space)crashes out of the sky and next to the inn he and his mother keep. The pilot gives him a map to the fabled Loot of a Thousand Worlds, the long-lost plunder of the pirates. Jim launches on a journey to prove himself to his mother, and himself. 

Negative

Some minor violence with laser guns (Nobody ever gets hit). One character plunges into a black hole, never to be seen again and a villain drifts off into space, also never to be seen again (Both characters are aliens.). Some of the alien creatures, including a cyborg, might be scarier for younger viewers. Action scenes include a whole lot of explosions, and sometimes unnamed characters falling to their doom. Some characters find the skeleton of a pirate. 

Positive

This coming of age story has a lot of positive messages coming with it, as most do. Silver eventually gives up on his greed for the Loot of the Thousand Worlds to rescue someone he loves. Jim matures over the movie, going from a reckless almost criminal to a hero. Silver becomes a sort of a father figure for Jim, and Jim learns to accept him as such. A very minor character dies early on from a disease. 

Conclusion

This beautifully animated story from Disney met with a lot of negative reception at the box office, and an even worse reception with critics for "weaker than usual character arcs", but I can't figure out at all why. The characters are as strong and emotional as some of the greatest stories I've ever read, if not stronger in some cases. The worldbuilding doesn't suffer at all from the focus on the characters either. This steampunk version of Treasure Island features an in-depth world of space pirates, spaceports, and a bunch of different aliens. The animation is some of the best I've ever seen, and the score is equally beautiful. This is plainly put a good story, so it gets the 👍.