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How often do we carry old wounds into new relationships without even realizing it?
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And what happens when someone finally shows up for you in the way that no one else ever has?
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In this episode, you'll learn how Treasure Planet shows that being the person that steps up for someone when the past has burnt them can make all the difference in the world.
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Welcome to the Phantom Portals Podcast, the podcast that explores how fandoms and film can help us learn and grow.
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I'm Aaron, a teacher and lifelong film fan, and each week on the podcast, we explore the stories we love to learn more about ourselves and the worlds that shape us.
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As always, today I'm joined by Brash Rackham.
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How are you, Brash?
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Hello, I am very well.
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Good to have you here, Brash.
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And we are here to talk about the third movie in our theme arc of Failure Isn't Final, where we talk about the movies that aimed high, stumbled, but still have something to teach us.
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From the misguided epics to misunderstood visions, this series will ask: what do stories that failed to find their audience teach us about ourselves?
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This week we are doing a community pick brash.
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We did a poll on our Instagram that lasted for it was a it was a fight bracket, like one of those cool fight bracket things.
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We do one of those.
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And you guys voted for this movie, and it was this and eight others or something like that.
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But this one came out victorious.
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It's Treasure Planet from 2002.
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So that's the movie we're doing.
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And before we get into our most valuable takeaways and to talk to you about what we're going to be focusing on for this episode, just a ground you brash is going to give you one of his famous synopses.
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So without any further ado, Brash, tell us all about Treasure Planet from 2002.
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What can I say?
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Treasure Planet, a space adventurer, featuring teen angst, pirate shenanigans, and questionable parenting.
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Jim Hawkins, a teenage disaster with great hair, is busy perfecting his life's passion, extreme sports that will inevitably cause property damage.
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His hobbies include brooding, skating on solar power death traps, and brooding while skating on solar power death traps.
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His life changes when a dying space pirate literally literally crashes into his workplace and hands him a glowing orb that essentially says, Hey kid, on an entire planet made of treasure and danger, press here.
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Naturally, Jim opens it and Jin uh Jim opens it, revealing a story long told to him by his mother.
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Jim ends up joining a magnificent steampunk space galleon, which is captained by Captain Amelia, a feline woman who is 90% charm, 10% Sass, and 100% out of Dr.
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Doppler's league.
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No matter what the universe.
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The crew, imagine hiring for a normal job, but your applicants all is exclusively people you'd never let house to your plants.
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They're all pirates, every single one, except for Dr.
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Doppler, who is what you get when you cross a golden retriever and a Victorian astronomer.
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Astromer?
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Most suspicious of all is John Silver, a cyborg cook with suspicious number of mechanical limbs and the vibe of a man who's definitely mutiny before breakfast.
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But he's also gives Jim actual life advice.
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So it's confusing for everyone.
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Jim and Silver, the this is definitely therapy arc, because Silver is told of Jim's absent dad.
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And Silver's just like, fine, I'll do it myself.
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What begins as a uh I will 100% betray you quickly turns into the most heartwarming father-son bonding montage in Disney history.
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There are lessons about responsibility, tough love, emotional eye contact, and shared trauma of having to deal with a malfunctioning robot who speaks exclusively in chaos.
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Silver and Jim bond so hard that even the audience forget Silver is uh is in fact planning piracy.
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And everyone who watches the movie now says, Why did this masterpiece flop?
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Well, because the universe saw greatness forming and said, absolutely not.
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Treasure Plan is like that beautiful, misunderstood friend who peaked after high school.
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Box Office disaster, absolutely.
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Cult classic, no doubt.
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If they ever made a live action remake, I think we'd all go feral.
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Very, very true.
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I think the biggest thing for me is definitely that animation style, which we'll probably talk about very, very soon.
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But a lot of compelling characters in this one, Brash, a lot of compelling characters, some of which will feature in our most valuable takeaway, which was that sometimes the greatest treasure is being someone who helps another recognize the wounds in their past and showing them that some kindness is needed for them to move forward into who they're supposed to be.
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We're gonna look at themes in this one, such as like coming of age through connection.
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We're gonna look at some aspects of fatherhood, masculinity, and the expectation of boys through the characters of Silver and Jim.
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And we're gonna look at specifically in terms of like men and fathers, the balance between ambition and compassion.
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And we're also gonna look at the power of like one impactful relationship on anybody's life, whether it be a boy or a young person that you're helping or a friend.
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So the power and impact of that one person, that could be you, or you might be the one receiving it.
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So that's our MVT, and we're gonna look into that very, very soon.
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But Brash, those first thoughts of this amalgamation of 2D and 3D animations.
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We'll start off with a threads commenter, MXXTCH.
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I don't know how to phonetically say that.
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Says it's certainly one of the few animated Disney features that actually deserves a chance for a live action remake.
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Yeah, I see that.
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Well, see, it is probably one of the Disney's greatest animated films.
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Let's let's be honest.
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But like like there's also other ones like you can't go past like Lion King.
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Oh, yeah.
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Like that's like one of the all-time grades.
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Yeah, I I kind of watched this one and I hadn't seen it for a really long time.
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I probably watched it when I was 13 or 14.
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Didn't really hit.
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It was just like a video store rental.
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But then I watched it now, and I think the fact that I am now like a father and I work at a school with kids and I see these kind of relationships happening all the time, or these kind of patterns in young boys happening all the time.
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I think it hit me a little bit harder this time when I watched it.
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I think that it was really ambitious in 2002 to do a combination of animation styles in terms of the 2D, the 3D, and then there was also 3D CGI that was rendered to a flat piece.
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So all of Silver's like cogs and cyborg tree was the CGI that was rendered down into a flat.
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Yeah, and Ben as well.
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He was he was also rendered down into the flat.
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But then there was also obviously the ships and some of the background were were really obviously CGI, and it blended these these two things pretty pretty well together, I thought.
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Like it stood up to a 2025 viewing.
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But at the time, I'm not sure if that was so well received because I think Disney was moving pretty much forward into their 3D animation space after the success of like their Pixar runs of stuff.
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I l I love I love the because there's sometimes it's hit and miss, but I think they did it like extremely well.
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Because sometimes when you blend a 2D in with a 3D, it's sort of it feels really out of place, like you're basically putting like an old 2D cartoon over a flash new 3D modeled like world.
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Yeah, so it's yeah, um, but I believe they I think it's more of because of the colour patterns they use, they were able to blend it in a lot more to make it seem a bit more seamless.
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And uh yeah, I'm I was I was I'm really impressed with especially when they did it back in what I'm pretty impressed with what they were able to accomplish.
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Yeah, well I think that especially in the character design of Silver, like flat have a 2D animated character like Silver with some pretty flattened elements on him, and not having it stand out so much that because if you remember the scene where he's like cooking the soup for the first time, and everything's just impressive, it's quite quick, it's fluid, it blends both of those animation styles in so well, and it's like you see the intricacy of his hand and the like the expert design of that CGI animation, but then it's also obviously blended with the 2D landscape and the 2D design of Silver as well.
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I think that'd be the scene that I'd say like to everyone to watch, be like, that's what I mean.
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Like, just watch that scene and you'll understand exactly what I'm saying, how everything just sort of just all sort of they were able to like fade it and blend it all in together to make one whole cohesive like project.
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Yeah.
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I think an another aspect for me that I really enjoyed about this, other than the characters and the sort of relationship dynamics and the themes present was the like the mashup of pirates and space.
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I think that always works well.
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I can't think of a time when it hasn't worked well and it hasn't hit for me.
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But also like futurist futuristic steampunk coexisting with a classic piece of literature such as Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
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I think that whoever was sitting at the boardroom and having that discussion was just like, okay, Treasure Island, but space is just like that.
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What a it's never been done before for one, but it's a genius idea, and it's only outranked by one Treasure Island adaptation, which we've spoken about before, and that is the Muppets version of the Muppet Treasure Island, which is is great.
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But I think adding that like steampunk element of it really gave some depth to the story, rebranded it for a new audience, but also like Jim was able to be shown as having more unique sets of skills present for like a modern audience, so it made him seem youthful compared to some of the pirates that were really good at like seafaring and working on boats and stuff.
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Like he had that mechanical acumen about him that obviously isn't present in the literature character, but they took what was good about Jim and they built upon it by giving him that little bit extra.
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So I think that was something that they did really well, also, and it blended well with the fact that they were using old school Disney animation and new Disney animation, pushing that together because it's almost like metaphorical.
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Because if you're looking at Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island being written way back in the early 1900s, I don't know the exact year, but it was early, like that's the old piece of literature, like the old 2D animation, and then blending it with the 3D animation, which is the steampunk, I think like it metaphorically fits together too.
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So it's pretty smart of the directors to actually go for this choice.
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That's Ron Clements and John Muscar to blend those two aspects.
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And um, I think it was a good choice too, because if you if you look at mo like pretty much all of the Treasure Planet, Treasure Islands and everything in all the literature for Treasure Planet, Jim is always a like 10, 9, 10-year-old kid.
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Yep.
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Like he's always like really young and honestly pretty useless in all situations.
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So where in this one they made him like a bit, they made him older and they made him more able to bond with I reckon bond better with Silver because he's able to actually like do hierarchy things that helps them bond together, yeah and more faring things that bond them together.
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Feel the fact that they made him aldo and more capable with already a set of like his own set of skills, yeah, that make made him sort of stand out more, I think, to Silva to make him want to be like, he there's more to this kid than me see I.
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And that's what sort of prompts him to actually get more involved with him.
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Yeah, I I agree.
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And I think that making him older is also good because you can see a range of emotional arcs from him.
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Like obviously, he's the angsty rebellious teenager when we meet him, but he's got a history before that, which we explore in Treasure Planet, which then Silver taps into in a in a particular way.
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But I think without him being a teenager, the solid arc that develops for Jim across the movie, it wouldn't be as successful because obviously the heart of the story is the relationship between Jim and Silver.
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But that being said, there is more to that relationship now because Jim is able to make autonomous decisions as a teenager.
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He's got a personality of his own.
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He doesn't just imprint on an adult because he's a cool pirate that does dangerous things.
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Like there is actually a little bit of a psychological why as why they actually start to develop this relationship and why Silver then reciprocates that in return.
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So I think that that was a brilliant choice as well, because not only did it probably because I I definitely think this movie is targeted towards boys, like a boy audience, and probably around that age group, around the like the 10 to 15, 16 sort of year level.
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So making that protagonist Jim older also helps in that front.
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It helps them relate to the primary character in in Jim Hawkins as well.
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So I think it had a lot of things going for it, but we know that we're doing this film brash because it fundamentally flopped.
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It was budgeted to$140 million, which was the most expensive, I'll quote 2D animated movie that Disney's ever done to date.
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And worldwide, box office-wise, it only earned$100 million.
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So to Disney, including marketing as well, like a loss of quite a lot of money.
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They actually said that they wrote off$74 million for this movie, which is pretty significant.
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And I think one of the reasons for that was a lot of people have said, and some people on our our threads have noted this as well, that there was a crowded Christmas uh holiday movie bracket.
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Like this came out exactly the same time as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
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Yeah, I've got that reading here.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Literally.
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So it it hundred percent had lots and lots of competition to to try and stand out in on a Christmas sort of market.
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And I think like we had a threader, Marshall Fisher 03.
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They said they totally kneecapped it for no reason, and Disney tried to push and go fully 3D, but they also released it during a time when they said that it was released during Chamber of Secrets, Spider-Man 2, Revenge of the Sith, all of these movies came out this same year, 2002, and it was just like it was not destined to stand out above those franchise IPs.
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And I think that's a real big shame because it's definitely rose in significance and appeal as people have started to re-evaluate it over time.
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And again, it's almost like people watched this when they were 12, grew up and started advocating for it when they were in their 20s to 30s, and then now it's getting this this resurgence, which I think is great because again, it was voted by you guys, our community, as one that you wanted us to do on the podcast.
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So it's got some popularity there, but it did indeed flop.
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And I I'm thinking back to it in 2012.
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I was 12, we were 12, and thinking back to those those sort of days, like it was almost to the point where we I think as a sort of generation had sort of stopped watching cartoons and were moving firmly into the live action movies, whatever they uh go to, like your Harry Potter's, your Lord of the Rings, and if you wanted something fantasy based, it was always like, oh, let's go look for the live action rather than the animated versions.
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And I think that would have and because it wasn't very m marketed very well either, I think it was that those two things of like just the time of the time of how it was, how watching a Disney cartoon now at 12 years old as a boy who seems very anti-masculine and yeah, not the cool thing.
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Not the cool thing to do.
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Yeah, which is funny because this movie deals with themes like that too.
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Exactly.
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Which we'll get into a bit later, but but I feel uh there it's just just the time the timing of it, I think, was rock.
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Because the directors said they weren't going to do Hercules unless they could do Treasure Planet afterwards.
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Yeah, because this was a passion project for those those two.
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But they wanted to do it years beforehand.
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Can't remember when I read that it was 17 years in the making, just from initial conceptual idea to actually premiere.
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So it was originally pitched in 1985 during the production.
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But they ended up doing the Great Mouse Detective, which also I love that movie too.
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Dang it movie.
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Love that.
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And then they tried again after directing The Little Mermaid, and then they said no, and then they instead had to do Aladdin.
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Then after directing Aladdin, they're like, Oh, can we do it again?
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And they're like, No, I want you to direct Hercules, and they're like, Alright, fine, we'll do Hercules, but we'll only do Hercules if we can do first plan afterwards, and then finally able to do that.
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So, and like Hercules was like what 1997, so then like, yeah, what five years later they would bring it out and bring it to life.
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Yeah, I th I think this one was actually also more obviously experimental in terms of its animation, and I think that might have put off some like Disney traditionalists, you might say, because they were either always fully in the 2D camp or fully in the 3D camp, and this mixed both.
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Yeah.
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With that being said, though, Disney's always merged some form of computer animation, even the early classics like Aladdin when he's going through the Cave of Wonders, as it's yeah, that's the earliest, and even the Beauty and the Beast ballroom dance sequence, they've always sort of merged them well, but I think this one was more outward in its expression of hey, we are actually merging these two set sorts of animation styles.
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And I think like maybe that's a reason as well.
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But yeah, I think that the like you could say that there might have also been an ambiguous target audience.
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I think it was definitely for boys and teenagers, but that also might put off some people because as you said before, teenagers going to see animated movies might not be the the thing that happens, and you know, marketing this as like an adventure or a genetic a generic adventure movie may not have been the right course of action if that's the target audience you're going for.
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So I think there was definitely some some difficulties in terms of how this was portrayed, but I'm just sad to say and and sad to hear that because of this like flop status, it's not getting a second look in terms of a live-action remake.
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Honestly, I don't know if I'd like one.
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I'd watch it if it came out, but I don't think this needs one.
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Yeah, it depends on what they do with it.
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Like if they go sort of down like the Lion King, Lilo Stitch root, and a true shot for shot and just botch it, or if they go like what's the like the only Disney movie that's actually got a lot of action, it's really good.
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Is there one Jungle Book?
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The Jungle Book?
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I'll I like Jungle Book.
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Yeah, they'd have to, they'd have to oh to do what they did, what DreamWorks did for how to train your dragon.
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Add it a little bit.
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Added a little bit, but pretty much kept the whole thing exactly how the animated movie went.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Well, we had some conflicting opinions on our threads as well, because as I said before, we had one threader that said this is definitely a Disney movie that deserves a live action remake.
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Atlantis as well was in that list.
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And then somebody could somebody else said Atlantis could get a live action, and then also not Disney, but Road to El Dorado could get a live action remake.
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Both of those movies also flopped, by the way.
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So I think like all three of those movies are pretty heavily tailored towards boys and less like kid friendly as well.
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So I think it could hurt could have hurt the movies, but I I like live action-wise, not a necessity for me because I think this story is best told as it sits right now.
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And I really do like the creative choice to blend those two animation styles for metaphorical reasons, but also like visually it looks good.
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So I'm happy with how it is.
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Maybe who shows his gym?
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Oh, these days you could go with like Mason Thames, who is like hiccup from how to train your dragon.
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You can go with him.
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You could definitely like if Joseph Gordon Levitt was younger, who is the voice actor for Jim Hawkins, like that's just he's perfectly played.
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So turn back time and give me that.
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Another one, hmm, I don't know.
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Maybe one of the Stranger Things boys.
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Well, I was actually thinking uh Timothy Chalonet.
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I don't think he'd do it though.
00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:50.480
I reckon he'd he'd be a good Jim.
00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:54.880
Yeah, yeah, I think so too, because he could definitely pull off the um The teenager look.
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:56.720
Yep, and the the angst as well.
00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:08.319
He's got lots of emotional range, and he could definitely get into those sort of softer moments and pull out the emotionality too, because he's definitely a brilliant actor, but maybe Finn Wolfhart too, like he's pretty good, like from Stranger Things.
00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:14.720
Yeah, and he's got the physique too, like he's like lanky and teenage-looking too.
00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:16.000
So, yeah.
00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:27.039
We were talking as well, just off camera before we were doing this treasure planet episode about the importance of the character of John Silver, and we might sort of dive into our MVT now and sort of start there.
00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:36.559
So our MVT is sometimes the greatest treasure is being someone who helps another recognize the wounds of their past and then showing someone the kindness that they need to then move forward.
00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:59.440
And Silver does portray that role, but we said it's very difficult to portray a Long John Silver well, and we both agree that like Tim Curry in the Muppets version, absolutely phenomenal because he plays like villainous really well, but like villainous with a little bit of charm, and he also plays that tenderness really well, and all three are absolutely necessary for a Long John Silver persona.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:40.400
And, you know, this this version of Long John Silver is voiced by Barry Murray, and I think he he does a really good job of connecting us to the character early through the way that he speaks, obviously through pirate vernacular, but then our introduction to John Silver is him in the cook's perspective cooking up a meal for everybody, and then the filmmakers do this wonderful thing by pairing him with Morph to show his compassionate side, and he's always like very true and very honest with his opinions, and he seems very welcoming and polite and gentle, so they really like lure us into this sort of false sense of comfort with him.
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:45.440
And I feel like Jim also felt that, obviously, being very skeptical from being warned about the cyborg, too.
00:22:45.599 --> 00:23:00.000
But I feel like Lon Long John Silver is, and I've said this on our threads, I think he's one of the greatest characters ever written by Robert Lewis Stevenson, but also portrayed in these movies, he has to be done right for it to be a success.
00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:04.319
So yeah, I I can't say enough good things about Silver.
00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:05.680
Oh, yeah, 100%.
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:19.759
The only thing I wish a bit more of is because you don't get to see too much of it, but like in the scene where he has to go full pirate, I had I wished it had been a bit more uh more aggressive.
00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:26.559
Because even when he was gone off, it was just him just yelling and barking orders, it wasn't really him yucking.
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:33.119
You can sort of like you saw it's just sort of sort of touching on his sort of actual pirate side.
00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:33.599
Yeah.
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.119
Like when um when he tells off uh Scoop or whatever his name is.
00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:38.079
Yeah, Scoop.
00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:42.240
Played by Michael Wincott, by the way, who is from The Crow.
00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:43.920
He's the villain in the crow.
00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:46.880
Insane deep voice, amazing for the character.
00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:50.240
What a what a character design too, just completely villainous and scary.
00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:51.759
Go ahead, Brash, sorry, I cut you off.
00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:52.880
No, no, that's fine.
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:54.240
Um, but um, yeah, yeah.
00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:03.839
But he plays the charming swashbuckling father figure like so perfectly.
00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:24.240
Like every time he's like sitting there talking to Jim, and like even the way he speaks, you're like he he speaks talks like the old school long John Silver with a very thick pirate vernacular, but then just the tone of voice and just the depth of voice is almost like you could almost like close your eyes and hear your own father speaking.
00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:26.240
Yeah, sort of thing as a kid.
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:31.039
Like he's just like that is just he was just perfect to a T.
00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:35.920
I just wish they had of somehow did more with his villainous pirate side.
00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:36.640
Yeah.
00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:51.039
Well, I think part of that is obviously because like it's a kid's movie for one, but for two, I feel like Long John Silver is a character and in this movie Treasure Planet, is he's a character that's in very much a lot of conflict because he's in conflict with himself.
00:24:51.200 --> 00:25:00.160
He's spent his life ambitiously seeking this treasure, which I feel like is him sort of self-validating his own importance and his worth.
00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:19.359
And in order for him to sort of get that and to fit into and to be seen as worthy, he has to be this leader of the pirates who is very boisterous, who is very menacing and fierce, and he has this reputation where everybody has to worry about the cyborg, and he goes and he like destroys the Benbo Inn, for example.
00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:33.759
And in these scenes that you see him around his pirate crew, he's very much posturing this hypermasculinity in front of the crew, and he's very much suppressing the feelings that he's having of genuine connection.
00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:46.240
Because when I first watched this movie as well, in some of the scenes when you're looking at him, and he's making these genuine promises to Jim later, when he's when he says, you know, if you give me the map, then we can I'll give you an equal share in the treasure.
00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:51.920
You're sort of questioning like, is this the genuine silver or is he just going to betray him?
00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:53.519
Are we waiting for a betrayal here?
00:25:53.599 --> 00:26:12.559
And I think he walks that line perfectly, but I think he does that because the message that's being portrayed here is obviously, and I think growing up as as as boys, me, me, for example, you're always sort of given the message from your friend group at least, and sometimes from people's parents, you know, stay tough, do it all by yourself, be strong.
00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:17.680
Like that's the the boy masculinity thing, the expectation of boys, and it's very common to this day.
00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:21.119
It's more more common in various different cultural settings as well.
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:27.039
But I think I don't think Silver is being his true self when he is around his his pirate companions.
00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:32.559
And he says things like, you know, like he's going to do the same thing that happened to Mr.
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:33.599
Arrow to Scroop.
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:51.359
He's going to send him off and be and he always resorts to that sort of hypermasculine threats of violence, posturing a loud voice, yelling and screaming, throwing his weight around, transferring his cyborg arm into weapons, and just doing these really big threats as a as a means of portraying his power.
00:26:51.519 --> 00:27:00.000
But I think the true John Silver is the version that we see of him around Jim and when he's actually having those genuine conversations.
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:03.440
And you're right, because he is extremely attentive to Jim's needs.
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:06.559
He takes an interest in what he likes to do.
00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:11.039
He also like is genuinely concerned when he shows that he's upset.
00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:27.200
And I think also it's because he does see an element of himself in Jim as a young man, but he also shows this vulnerability and almost unintentionally a healthy sort of masculinity for Jim as he shows that compassion.
00:27:27.279 --> 00:27:33.440
You can see him cuddling up to more for not being afraid to show that he really likes this cute little adorable creature.