Treasure Planet is a 2002 American animated science fiction movie produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Pictures on November 27, 2002. The 42nd animated movie in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, the movie is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novel Treasure Island and was the first movie to be released in both normal and IMAX theaters at the same time. The movie uses hand-drawn 2D traditional animation over 3D computer animation. And it was theatrical released with a 2002 Pixar short, Mike's New Car.
The movie was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who had pitched the concept for the movie at the same time that they pitched The Little Mermaid. Treasure Planet features the voices of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brian Murray, David Hyde Pierce, Martin Short, Emma Thompson, Michael Wincott, Laurie Metcalf, and Roscoe Lee Browne. The musical score was composed by James Newton Howard, while the songs were written and performed by John Rzeznik. Although it got mostly positive reviews, the movie did not perform well at the box office in the United States. The movie cost $140 million to make but only earned $38 million in the United States and Canada and just under $110 million in the rest of the world. It was nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Plot
As a young boy, Jim Hawkins (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) grows up enjoying stories of the legendary pirate Captain Flint. Twelve years later, he has grown into a wayward, rebellious teenager; his father is out of the picture and his mother Sarah (Laurie Metclafe) is at her wit's end. Jim reluctantly helps his mother out at the Benbow Inn, and finds entertainment through "Solar Surfing" (similar to windsurfing and sky surfing), a hobby which gets him into frequent trouble.
One day, a spaceship crashlands near the inn, and Billy Bones (Patrick McGoohan), the ship's pilot, is critically injured. Before succumbing to his wounds, he gives Jim a sphere and warns him to "beware the cyborg". After this, a gang of pirates raid the inn and raze it to the ground, as Jim, Sarah and their dog-like friend Dr. Delbert Doppler (David Hyde Pierce), escape. Taking refuge in Delbert's study, Jim discovers the sphere is a map to the legendary Treasure Planet.
Doppler commissions a ship called the RLS Legacy, on a mission to search for Treasure Planet. The ship is captained by the cat-like, free-spirited Captain Amelia (Emma Thompson), and the stone-skinned Mr. Arrow (Roscoe Lee Browne); the crew is secretly led by the half-robot cook Long John Silver (Brian Murray), who Jim suspects is the cyborg that Bones warned him about. Jim is sent to work in the galley, where Silver and his shapeshifting pet alien Morph supervise him. Although Jim does not trust Silver, they form a tenuous father-son relationship.
On the voyage, the ship encounters a supernova. While Jim secures the lifelines, he saves Silver just in time. The supernova then devolves into a black hole, and Mr. Arrow falls to his death into the abyss. As Amelia mourns Arrow, she suspects Jim failed to secure his lifeline, when it was really severed by the treacherous crablike pirate Scroop (Michael Wincott).
As the ship approaches Treasure Planet, Jim eavesdrops on the crew and discovers that they are following Silver, which leads to a mutiny. Jim, Doppler, Amelia and Morph escape, but the map is left behind. Silver, thinking that Jim has the map, targets to kill him, but hesitates; Amelia ends up being wounded when the fugitives are shot down in the escape.
While Jim explores Treasure Planet's jungles, the group come across the eccentric robot B.E.N. (Martin Short), who has lost his primary memory and invites them to his home for shelter, where the group are cornered by the pirates; Using a back door, Jim, B.E.N. and Morph return to the ship in an effort to recover the map. Scroop attacks them, but ends up falling into the abyss. The group obtain the map, but end up being caught by Silver (who has captured Doppler and Amelia) when they return.