What makes characters like Aladdin's Genie memorable to decades of audiences, while Treasure Planet's John Silver fades into obscurity?
Part of that answer, I suspect, is because Treasure Planet is less memorable as a movie. And considering how great a film it is, that's a shame.
(Yes, I just watched Treasure Planet (2002) for the second time ever, and yes I have Thoughts)
Look. As a ride or die fan of Muppet Treasure Island (1996), I'll admit I thought a lot about the changes Disney made just a few years later in 2002. (Thus, I'll be comparing it specifically to Muppet Treasure Island as opposed to the original Robert Louis Stevenson novel, because while I know both, I only know one like the back of my hand.) To my surprise, I must admire the many ways Treasure Planet (TP) succeeds.
The key characters of any telling of Treasure Island are young Jim Hawkins who dreams of someday leaving home, and the pirate amputee Long John Silver, and their relationship. Our protagonist in TP (a 21-year-old Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is still a trapped young boy who dreams of adventure, but unlike the pure-hearted Jim of Muppet Treasure Island (MTI) this Jim is also a juvenile delinquent, yearning for a father who left him. TP John Silver is still a scheming pirate leader, but unlike MTP's Tim Curry who likes Jim from the start, this Silver actually starts off resenting the cabin boy, taking him under his wing only as a way to throw him off the scent of his scheme...only for him to begrudgingly like the cabin boy and form a mutually warm - and vulnerable - emotional comnection with him. Both Long John's are revealed to actually care for both Jims, but I really like that the space pirate version of TP actually admires the kid and hopes he can turn his future around, while also filling a hole in the heart of this troubled teen that it previously seemed only a father could. Tim Curry's Silver is a friend - cyborg Silver is the dad who stepped up, and who became a better man (gifting Jim both some of his treasure and his friend/parrot companion equivalent) in the process.
An interesting contrast is that aa result of his encounter with the dangerous pirate, the Jim of Muppet Treasure Island feels emboldened to follow in his father's footsteps and continues to sail the seas with his friends, while the Jim of Treasure Planet makes choices he knows his mom - his only family - would be proud of, saying goodbye to his only friend and charting his own course, choosing to return home to...become an upright navy man. (Is this copaganda?)
Tim Curry is a delight in everything he does and will always be my number one Long John, but this animated John Silver is both fun to watch and honestly deeply compelling. While Jim is told the first mate Captain Arrow died because of him, Silver knows the truth, so knoeing what a blow this is to Jim's newfound confidence and how it could set him back in his growth, finds a way to comfort him. He constantly undergoes his own series of trials, and to match it, Silver is rendered so lovingly, with a deeply expressive face, and a robot arm that transforms into delightful shapes that can be either tools or weapons, a visual representation of the question of whether he is a dangee to Jim. Even if he might be tough to make merch for, he's a great character.
But he's still no Genie! Hell, if you asked the average Treasure Planet fan who they think is TP's most memorable character, they'd probably say Captain Amelia (Emma Thompson is such a butch cat vibe who didn't deserve to be written out of the last third of the movie and go on to make gender essentialist babies with the bumbling goat man), or possibly even B.E.N. the malfunctioning robot who shows up on cue when the goat man can't go on for plot reasons. But would they consider John Silver memorable, even outside the context of his own movie? I don't think so.
Maybe it's because most memorable characters in these movies are either cute Stitch-like mascots, or get their own song and dance number. John Silver can't be made into a plush toy, and he doesn't get the same moment in the spotlight...because Treasure Planet isn't a musical. Of course it missed the Disney Renaissance by just a few years! I'd argue that renaissance was iconic - not just because theose movies all had song and dance numbers, but because they were styled like MUSICALS.
I'm sorry this post is a backdoor excuse to praise musicals, but they are simply a perfect art form. Not the only perfect art form of course, but they're perfect vehicles to telling certain kinds of larger than life stories, which are also really well-suited to animation! They allow the situations, the emotions, and the characters themselves to be larger than life, in outlandish worlds that can only be depicted in a live performance or very stylized film style. That's part of why it has always been a strong medium for Disney's animated storytelling (the "live action" films certainly don't have the life or energy of iconic Broadway musicals), and Disney seems to really struggle producing films that don't utilize the musical framing and larger than life feeling.
And many of the best, most memorable Disney characters that endure for decades are basically characters right out of a Broadway musical. The Genie, or Mushu, or Olaf couldn't have been introduced in non-musical contexts. And I think if John Silver had had that same opportunity to break into song, we'd be talking about him in the same breath as Scar or Ursula.
There are actually many reasons to watch Treasure Planet. It tells a compelling story whose characters have clear motivations and real heart to them (outside of the not one, not two, but three exhausting comedy relief characters), in a unique and visually distinct setting, backed by a really weird score that includes both a pirate adventures soundtrack and 90's grunge music (which could have been combined to create a really original musical identity, but was instead tonally strange). Captain Amelia alone is an excellent reason to watch this movie (respectfully, ma'am). The blend of 2D animation with cutting-edge CGI is actually really impressive and worthy of admiration! Hell, everything about the animation, the expressiveness of characters, the cinematography, the character design, are all a master class. It's not all perfect, but if you ever need a gem to pull out - either to admire or to gleefully dissect - journey over to Treasure Planet.
I cannot stop staring at my beautiful new work of art from the always amazing @keivni. If you ever get the opportunity to commission them, you should 1000% take it.
