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Africa-AICN: Crowbar Jones spends a bit of time with LongJohn Silver & Jim Hawkins on TREASURE PLANET
SPOILER ALERT !!
Father Geek here with a special report from one of our long lost African Editor DR. SOTHA's out-patients... way way out there... one with the strangely curiously bent handle of "Crowbar Jones". Now knowing SOTHA the way I do, having served for several years as his direct superior here at Aint It Cool News, and judging from a few slips of the tongue on "Crowbar's" behalf, I'd have to say "Crowbar" was probably an escapee from one of the good DOCTOR's more experi-mental labs, one of his failed experiments perhaps, soooooooo bare that in mind as you read "Crowbar's" report below... Strange he doesn't even mention the astonishing, white latex cad, Head Nurse Hollis... curiouser and curiouser...Hmmmmmmm...
Oh yeah... and beware of Spoilers...
In deepest darkest Africa, we rarely get to taste of the nectar of real civilization, except when ol' DR SOTHA comes a-visiting on his rounds. And recently he seems to have been busy on the other side of the jungle, so my part of the bushveld's been feeling a bit neglected. So imagine our delight when Long John Silver & Jim Hawkins came to visit on their way to a worldwide release of Treasure Planet!
Needless to say the film's great. Spectacularly rollicking even. Darn good yarn. I've written about it too -->
Strange he doesn't even mention the astonishing, white latex cad, Head Nurse Hollis... curiouser and curiouser...Hmmmmmmm...
Oh yeah... and beware of Spoilers...
In deepest darkest Africa, we rarely get to taste of the nectar of real civilization, except when ol' DR SOTHA comes a-visiting on his rounds. And recently he seems to have been busy on the other side of the jungle, so my part of the bushveld's been feeling a bit neglected. So imagine our delight when Long John Silver & Jim Hawkins came to visit on their way to a worldwide release of Treasure Planet!
Needless to say the film's great. Spectacularly rollicking even. Darn good yarn. I've written about it too -->
In deepest darkest Africa, we rarely get to taste of the nectar of real civilization, except when ol' DR SOTHA comes a-visiting on his rounds. And recently he seems to have been busy on the other side of the jungle, so my part of the bushveld's been feeling a bit neglected. So imagine our delight when Long John Silver & Jim Hawkins came to visit on their way to a worldwide release of Treasure Planet!
Needless to say the film's great. Spectacularly rollicking even. Darn good yarn. I've written about it too -->
There are two types of people in this mixed up world: those who love Disney films, and those who despise them. For all my gruff demeanour, I belong to the former demographic.
Worse still, I belong to that select, elite group of adults who actually like all the song and dance routines found in Walt's cartoons - something that can be blamed perhaps on my being entrenched at the Mother Grundy school of Vaudeville during my most formative years.
So while everybody was rejoicing that Disney was releasing a song-free version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, I was alone in my regret... that is, until I saw the trailer, and realised that this film was SET IN OUTER SPACE!
You see, as I would tread old Mother Grundy's boards, (sweeping 'em usually, occasionally mopping), I would dream of escaping to the far reaches of the galaxy, hanging out with Luke Skywalker and Buck Rogers and maybe rescuing a princess or two. Thus began a lifetime of geekery, tragically tempered by a fascination with burlesque. So, when you mix The Pirates of Penzance with Star Wars, you've got me hooked no matter that there's neither song nor dance.
Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest
Treasure Planet is about a young angst-ridden scallywag called Jim Hawkins, who causes his loving innkeeper of a mother no end of grief by getting busted by the cops for racing his solar surfer in inappropriate places at inappropriate speeds. So imagine her relief when her inn burns down and young Jim decides to go off on an adventure to find the loot of a thousand worlds!
He's been entrusted the map to the hiding spot of the legendary and fearsome Captain Flint (who, in flashbacks and later rotting corpse shots, has six eyes!) by a dying tortoise called Billy Bones, who in between his final gasps warns Jim to "beware... *hack, cough*... the cyborg..." (in the original book it was "beware .. *hack, cough*...the one-legged man...").
So he and the doddery Dr Doppler (Frasier's David Hyde Pierce), who used to hang out at the inn until it came under the influence of arson, hire a big space-galleon to go after the loot. Trimly run by the feline Captain Amelia (Emma Thompson on speed), the ship is crewed by a no good bunch of shifty dodgers who look suspiciously like pirates. And, blow me down and shiver me timbers if the cook isn't a gumby old cyborg by the name of John Silver (fantastically voiced by Brian Murray).
There's adventure. There's skullduggery. There's chivalry. There's betrayal. There's treasure. There's a happy ending.
Tell you what, there's a rollicking movie in it too.
Yar, ya scurvy lubbers!
Treasure Planet hurtles from opening sequence to Heinz Winkler's credit-rolling songfulness like an embarrased cat out of a hot tin hell. It never lets up (for any ariatic singing moments, for example), and the film is over before you know it, leaving you wishing there was more.
Admittedly, there's the standard dollop of Disney sentiment - as well as the perennial Disney trademark: the "amusing" sidekick. Fortunately, in the case of the sidekicks (two of 'em) - one of them is fairly cute and never says a word, and the other - a robot voiced by the unfortunate Martin Short - doesn't have that much screen time.
In the matter of the Disney sentiment, however, I was intrigued by the angle they took. The cardinal subtext, which forms what our dear William Goldman would call "the spine" of the film, is Jim's paternal abandonment issues.
Unlike Mr Stevenson's novel, Jim's father doesn't die at the beginning of the story. He leaves the boy and his mother, and never returns. I think Disney really took a risk there... compared to its usual level of schmaltz, the subsequent substitution of Long John for a father figure, the reluctant trust, the betrayal, the maturing of a troubled boy into a bold young man... it all becomes rather poignant - bittersweet even - and never too sentimental.
Pieces of Eight
Earlier, I pretty much trumpeted the fact that there weren't any songs. I lied. There is one, and it's sung by the Goo Goo Doll's Johnny Rzeznik. But it wasn't a song and dance routine - it was a song and space-blitz! And it's more like a montage than a routine, plus it's really cool, so we'll gloss riiight over that and move swiftly on to the end credits, which has also got a song, sung in the South African release of Treasure Island by our very own pop Idol, Heinz Winckler.
Yaaaay!
Which brings us to nutshell time: A very good film, Disney's best in a while (although Lilo & Stitch was really good too). The voice talent is especially superb (c'mon, David Hyde Pierce and Emma Thompson in a verbal duel?), and the integrity of the story - a classic for very good reason - is preserved in this new medium. Well done Disney, let's have another.
Hakuna Matata, as my dear old mum used to say after watching the Lion King too many times!
-Crowbar Jones
(somewhere in Africa)
-Crowbar Jones
(somewhere in Africa)
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+ Expand All
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I'll probably end up seeing both...go figure.
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I can garantee it'll be better than HS score for TTT. Wow, wonder if anyone can understand all this that I've just said?
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I agree. Yes. Lilo and Stich was a disney movie. Completely. Hopes for Treasure Planet. Good book.
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The premise of TP sounds stupid, but I was very impressed with "Lilo and Stitch". I can't believe that's a disney film! ***minor spoiler**** "My friends need to be punished." "I'm going to cut you up and make a pie and serve you up to the social worker and when he asks me what my secret is I'll say----- ah, LOVE." And the whole situation about being a broken family, "We are little and broken..." was so raw. I like classic disney films, too, but I was definitely impressed with the creative team that put that film together. Cheers to Treasure Planet.
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Nov 21, 2002 1:23:39 AM CST
"a robot voiced by the unfortunate Martin Short..." = one of t
by lance rock
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Make whatever excuses you want. Despite John Lasseter's amazing efforts on Spirited Away, Disney still fucked up on the marketing. Where were the billboards? How about the TV ads? I live in L.A. and I didn't see jack shit. They didn't even attempt to open this wide. If they can roll The Country Bears out, they could have done the same thing. It's all about word of mouth. There was enthusiastic applause both times I saw it. And now that Disney has 3 films competing potentially for the Animated Feature Oscar, guess which one's not going to get promoted. A recent of the Hollywood Reporter had For Your Consideration ads for Lilo & Stich and Treasure Planet. They were on the front and back covers. Guess where the ad for Spirited Away was? Buried in the middle. I understand they're going to favor homegrown stuff, but it makes me sick that they buy out the competition so they can take the credit for it (Pixar) or let it twist in the wind (Miyazaki). It's a fucking outrage, and if Spirited doesn't even get nommed for the award, Burbank and Anaheim are going down in flames! Unite brothers and sisters! Kill the mouse!
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Apparently you're not looking.
I live in TLH, FL and if we get posters and a campus ad campaign then I know that you're getting something in LA. -
Which automaticaly makes this the coolest Disney feature ever.
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