What made Disney decide to make Treasure Planet?

[DodgerGirl]

I have never figured out why Disney made Treasure Planet in the first place? Because I saw it on Disney+ and to me I thought it looked very unappealing since I first saw it when it came out on DVD and I have never understood why people liked it so much. For one thing I think Treasure Planet was the beginning of Disney wanting to do adventure type of animated movies as we saw with Atlantis The Lost Empire. The other thing is why did they give Jim Hawkins a odd personality because for one thing Jim Hawkins was supposed to be independent but whenever he wanted to do things his mom would say no and she feared for his safety over his adventures. I think Jim Hawkins was meant to be a strong character and a guy who could face challenges on his own. The other thing I noticed is that they had put the score set to rock music and why the song I'm Still Here is done as a rock ballad? The only thing I remember about Treasure Planet was I had liked the character Amelia because she was tough but full of humor and I even got her plushie after I saw the movie and I still have it today. Was Treasure Planet Disney's weakest link?

 

[BrianL]

Treasure Planet is definitely a mess of a movie, though it's one that I WANT to like very much. I love the concept and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL in the animation department. I really loved that era with CG backgrounds but hand-drawn characters. A lot of those movies were experimental, and in some cases didn't quite live up to their potential. Honestly, the issue with Treasure Planet comes in the third act, when it becomes the Martin Short show - and I like Marty, but the robot character was a bit much. I can agree that the rock music was out of place, but the actual score by James Newton Howard is very good. I can still enjoy this movie for what it is, but it's hard not to see th emissed potential. Atlantis came off much better and is one of my absolute favorites!

 

[maltdizzy]

I know the exact answer, I was working in animation at this time.

The answer is "tween" boys. The untapped market for animated films in the 1990s was "tween" boys (roughly ages 10-13). Disney had the tween girls market pretty well sewn up with Princesses, but boys fell off at the box office for animated films a few years earlier. And studios were trying to capture what they felt was a untapped market.

Several companies tried to connect with this market by producing animated adventure features geared to boys...Fox/Bluth tried with Titan A.E., Disney tried with Atlantis The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet, and Warner tried with Iron Giant and Osmosis Jones. Every single one of these film was a box office bomb. Fox lost so much money on Titan A.E. that they closed their entire feature animation studio (founded with Don Bluth in Arizona), WB also closed their feature studio, focusing on TV animation instead, and Disney went whole-hog in Princess films.

Eventually, the Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man feature films showed that was a different route to capturing the tween market. And that's why Disney bought Marvel and Lucasfilm, to sell Princesses to girls and sell superheroes/Star Wars to boys (sales execs generally aren't very creative and still like to narrow focus to gender).

 

[BrianL]

I know the exact answer, I was working in animation at this time.

The answer is "tween" boys. The untapped market for animated films in the 1990s was "tween" boys (roughly ages 10-13). Disney had the tween girls market pretty well sewn up with Princesses, but boys fell off at the box office for animated films a few years earlier. And studios were trying to capture what they felt was a untapped market.

Several companies tried to connect with this market by producing animated adventure features geared to boys...Fox/Bluth tried with Titan A.E., Disney tried with Atlantis The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet, and Warner tried with Iron Giant and Osmosis Jones. Every single one of these film was a box office bomb. Fox lost so much money on Titan A.E., they closed their entire feature animation studio (founded with Don Bluth in Arizona), WB also closed their feature studio, focusing on TV animation instead, and Disney went whole-hog in Princess films.

Eventually, the Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man feature films showed that was a different route to capturing the tween market. And that's why Disney bought Marvel and Lucasfilm, to sell Princesses to girls and sell superheroes/Star Wars to boys (sales execs generally aren't very creative and still like to narrow focus to gender).

That's very interesting. I love that time in animation because it is so experimental - lots of nascent CG but with traditionally animated characters. So many of those movies are very good too, ant at least a few are cult classics now, like Iron Giant and Atlantis (I mean, those are both SO good!). It's weird how none of them could crack the box-office, though Bluth's Anastasia did decently - of course, that wasn't targeted at boys (and it's also very good!).

It's interesting though that animation that would appeal to Tween boys did eventually come - The Incredibles, Big Hero 6, How to Train Your Dragon - I wonder why these struck a different chord?

If I may ask, what were you working on in the animation world?

 

[Karin1984]

As I always understood it. Musker and Clements really wanted to make it. Katzenberg says: let's make Little Mermaid first.

After mermaid: can we do treasure planet now?
Katzenberg: no, lets do Aladdin first.

After Aladdin: how about now?
Katzenberg: no, lets do Hercules first.

Musker and Clements go to Roy Disney, who talks to Katzenberg. In the renewal of their contracts Treasure Planet was part of the negotiation.

It was made because it was a passion project.
It got reasonable reviews, but it wasn't a hit or well liked. It has more fans now, but that will also be nostalgia. This is an introduction into scifi for a generation.

 

[disney-inspired]

Treasure Planet was slept on! It's one of my sister's and my favorite movies.
Also, Atlantis needs more recognition.

Non-Disney, Titan AE is also good and in the same vein.

 

[BrianL]

Treasure Planet was slept on! It's one of my sister's and my favorite movies.
Also, Atlantis needs more recognition.

Non-Disney, Titan AE is also good and in the same vein.

I really love Atlantis and Titan AE - they are actually pretty similar in a lot of ways. Treasure Planet is one I do like, and it is beautifully animated, but I don't love it because the third act get's a little lost. Atlantis is probably my absolute favorite of the Walt Disney Animation Studios ouvre!