Treasure Planet

As a boy, Jim Hawkins (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was enchanted by stories of the legendary pirate, Captain Flint, and his ability to appear from nowhere, raid passing ships, and disappear in order to hide the loot on the unlocated "Treasure Planet". Jim's father abandons the son and his mother Sarah (Laurie Metcalf) when Jim is a child; therefore Jim grows up to be alienated, begrudgingly helping his mother run an inn, and deriving amusement only from "solar surfing" (a hybrid of skysurfing and windsurfing atop a board attached to a solar-powered rocket), a pastime that frequently gets him in trouble.

One day, a ship crashes near the inn. The dying pilot, Billy Bones (Patrick McGoohan), gives Jim a sphere and tells him to "beware the cyborg". Shortly thereafter, a gang of pirates raid and burn the inn. Jim, his mother, and their dog-like alien friend Dr. Delbert Doppler (David Hyde Pierce) barely escape. The sphere turns out to be a holographic projector, showing a map (the film's equivalent of Flint's Fist) that Jim realizes leads to Treasure Planet.

Doppler commissions a ship on a secret mission to find Treasure Planet. The ship is commanded by the cat-like, sharp-witted, and often sarcastic Captain Amelia (Emma Thompson) along with her stony-skinned, loyal, strict-disciplined First Mate, Mr. Arrow (Roscoe Lee Browne). The crew is a motley bunch, secretly led by cook John Silver (Brian Murray), whom Jim suspects is the cyborg of whom he was warned. Jim is sent down to work in the galley; despite his mistrust of Silver, they soon form a tenuous father-son relationship. During an encounter with a black hole, Arrow is dropped overboard and lost, for which Jim blames himself not readying the support lines properly. Viewers, however, see that Arrow's line was cut by a ruthless, insectoid crew member named Scroop (Michael Wincott).

As the ship reaches Treasure Planet, mutiny erupts, led by Silver. Jim, Dr. Doppler, and Captain Amelia abandon the ship, accidentally leaving the map behind. Silver, who believes that Jim has the map, has a chance to kill Jim, but refuses to do so because of his attachment to the boy. The fugitives are shot down by a mutineer, identified in novelizations as "Meltdown", during their escape, causing injury to Amelia.

The fugitives meet an abandoned robot, B.E.N. (Martin Short), who invites them to his house to care for the wounded Amelia. The pirates corner the group here; using a back-door, Jim and B.E.N. return to the ship in an attempt to recover the map. The pirate Scroop, aboard the ship as lookout, stalks and fights Jim. B.E.N. accidentally turns off the artificial gravity, whereupon Jim and Scroop threaten to float off into space. Jim grabs the mast while Scroop gets entangled in the flag and cuts himself free: no longer connected to the ship, Scroop floats away. Jim and B.E.N. obtain the map; upon their return, they and the map are captured by Silver, who has already captured Doppler and Amelia.

When Jim is forced to use the map, the group finds their way to a metaphysical portal that can be opened to any place in the universe; this being the means by which Flint conducted his raids. The treasure is at the center of the planet, accessible only via the portal. Here, the so-called Treasure Planet is revealed to be a large, complex space station built by unknown architects and commandeered by Captain Flint. In the stash of treasure, Jim finds a missing part of B.E.N's cognitive computer, which causes him to remember that the stash is booby-trapped and the planet set to explode upon the treasure's discovery. In the ensuing catastrophe, Silver finds himself torn between holding onto a literal boat-load of gold and saving Jim, who hangs from a precipice after a fall. Silver saves Jim, and the group escapes to their original ship. The ship is damaged and lacks the motive power required to leave the planet in time to escape. Jim attaches a rocket to a narrow plate of metal and rides this device towards the portal to open it to a new location while Delbert pilots the ship behind him. Jim manages to open the portal to his home world of Montressor, through which all escape the destruction of Treasure Planet.

After the escape, Amelia has the surviving pirates imprisoned aboard ship and offers to recommend Jim to the Interstellar Academy after his heroic actions. Silver sneaks below deck, where Jim finds him preparing his escape. Jim lets him go, inheriting the shape-changing pet called Morph. Silver predicts that Jim will "rattle the stars", then tosses him a handful of jewels and gold to pay for rebuilding the inn, revealing that it was he who had burned it. The film ends with a party at the rebuilt inn, showing Doppler and Amelia now married with children, and Jim a military cadet. He looks to the skies and sees an image of Silver in the clouds.

Cast

Actor	Role(s)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Jim Hawkins
Brian Murray	John Silver
David Hyde Pierce	Dr. Delbert Doppler
Martin Short	B.E.N.
Emma Thompson	Captain Amelia
Michael Wincott	Scroop
Laurie Metcalf	Sarah Hawkins
Roscoe Lee Browne	Mr. Arrow
Patrick McGoohan	Billy Bones
Dane A. Davis	Morph
Corey Burton	Onus
Austin Majors	Young Jim
Tony Jay	Narrator

Differences from the novel

Besides the fact that the novel is set on Earth and the film in space, there are several other differences between the Treasure Island novel and the film. Jim Hawkins' father in the novel dies in the beginning, whereas he abandoned Jim and his mother in the film. In the novel, Billy Bones stays at the inn for a while before dying due to a stroke brought on by alcoholism and exposure to the death-sentence called the Black Spot. In the film, Billy Bones crash-lands at the Benbow Inn with the map to Treasure Island and shortly afterwards dies of grievous injuries.

The characters of Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey are combined into Dr. Doppler in the film. As opposed to the novel's male captain (Alexander Smollet), the captain in the film is female. Mr. Arrow in the novel is an alcoholic who vanishes one night early in the journey, presumably as a result of drunkenness, while in the film he is a competent, stony-skinned member of the crew who is murdered by Scroop. (However, it should be noted that making Mr. Arrow a respectable man is common in adaptations of the movie, as it was also done in Muppet Treasure Island) Ben Gunn's character is present in the movie as a robot named B.E.N. (Bio-Electronic Navigator).

The novel depicts Long John Silver as being handicapped with a wooden leg. His companion is a parrot who is named Captain Flint. The film presents Silver as having a cybernetic arm and leg; accessories which act more as an advantage than a hindrance. His companion is similarly altered for the film: Morph, whose ability is evident in the name he sports, loves Silver but gains an attachment to Hawkins. For the film, the crew members were all chosen by Doppler but seem much more hostile toward Hawkins. Silver's presence on the ship in both the movie and novel is presented as being that of the ringleader who masks his mutinous intentions by fawning on the Captain. In the film, unlike the novel, Hawkins is forced upon Silver when the Captain orders Silver to monitor the boy. This responsibility, while received hesitantly, leads to Silver's softening toward Hawkins and eventually becoming a father figure to the boy.

Scroop's death at the hands of Jim on the top of the mast mirrors the death of Israel Hands in the novel. Though the pirates fail to obtain the treasure in both the novel and the film, the reasons for this differ. In the novel, the treasure is found and 'relocated' by Ben Gunn and recovered by the crew, whereas in the film, the treasure is mostly lost when Treasure Planet self-destructs. Instead of being marooned, the pirates in the film are captured and put below deck.

In the novel, John Silver escapes with a few bags of silver at an unspecified point; in the film, Jim allows him to escape. Also, the novel portrays Long John Silver as rather more sinister and less of a father figure than does the Disney film.