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A futuristic twist on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island, this Disney-fied update sends rebellious teen Jim Hawkins on a journey to retrieve a fabled stash of gold hidden on a distant planet. After jumping aboard a local pirate spaceship, he befriends the sarcastic cyborg cook John Silver, and the two bond as they make their way towards the elusive pot of gold. Of course, they also have to battle various space phenomena such as supernovas, black holes and space storms, but their biggest challenge is yet to come. A rival space pirate is also onto the booty, and it is gonna be a race to the finish line....

Admittedly, this flick is a strange amalgam of elements. Mixing classic Stevenson with outer space, Treasure Planet is the equivalent of Treasure Island meets that old arcade game Space Ace. Weird, to be sure. The narrative is all over the place, and perhaps the film's fatal flaw is not properly setting up the milieu and its main protagonist. Jim is a wafer-thin character with a weak quest, and I'm not sure just why the story is set in outer space. What kind of planet is this? Who are all these creatures? Are we just watching a story-within-a-story as the prologue suggests? I would have loved to have seen the pitch meetings on this one.

With the characters far from the most memorable in Disney history, it is up to the usual visual splendor to save Treasure Planet. Even if the film has little to offer thematically, it certainly is a visual feast. I loved the simple act of looking at this movie, and the one aspect where the outer space-meets-Waterworld conceit actually works is the blending of animation styles. Hand-drawn meets CGI, old meets new, the visual panache of Treasure Planet nicely underlines the story, even if it doesn't make any sense. I liked the various action scenes, and minute by minute, I remained entertained. So perhaps Treasure Planet is best enjoyed as less than the sum of its parts, or simply as a home theater demo disc. It is still destined to go down as a legendary Disney misfire, but I've seen worse. Far worse

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Say what you want about the film, but this DVD sure looks spectacular. Presented in a THX-certified, 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer (slightly windowboxed on the sides, the amount of overscan visible will depend on your monitor), this looks as good as any animated film I've seen on DVD. A pure digital-to-digital transfer, the clarity is often astounding - colors are stunning, with gorgeous, rich reds, deep midnight blues and heavenly amber hues making this one a showstopper. The entire spectrum is reproduced with incredibly clarity and no noise, bleeding or smearing. Blacks are rock solid, with detail exquisite and excellent sharpness. My only minor criticism might be a compression artifact or two noticeable on a couple of dissolves, but I bet a more high-end DVD player would deliver better results. Terrific!

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

As impressive as the video is, the audio is comparatively disappointing. Presented here in Dolby Digital Surround EX - no DTS option is included - it is certainly far from bad. Dynamic range is as good as it gets, with luscious highs and deep, hefty low end. However, the mix feels a bit front heavy. Stereo separation is indeed excellent across the front soundstage, but surround use is limited to the effects only. The film's nearly nonstop atmospheric and ambient noises are certainly well-rendered, but I really liked the rousing score, so it is a shame it is so subdued in the mix and never directed to the rears. Otherwise, dialogue is very clean and always discernible despite all the bombast, so aside from the selective surrounds, this is a fine mix in every other respect.

Also included are French and Spanish 2.0 Dolby surround tracks, English captions encoded as subtitles, and true English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

While I suppose it is no surprise given its less- than-rapturous box office reception, Disney has not honored Treasure Planet with their standard deluxe two-disc treatment. Crammed all onto one disc, we get a nice selection of extras that only suffer by comparison to other top-tier Disney titles such as Snow White or the Toy Story movies.

First is the Visual Commentary by producer Roy Conli and directors Ron Clements and John Musker, which is similar to those "extending branching versions" popular on many a Fox DVD. (Only here you don't have to hit your remote whenever an icon pops up on the screen, it is all done automatically.) Also unique is that this visual commentary includes the audio commentary (which also features supervising animators Glen Keane and John Ripa and associate art director Ian Gooding). Oddly, you cannot access just the audio commentary from the menu, but you can toggle it on or off manually via your remote control. (If you select the visual commentary, however, you are locked into the audio commentary track). I have to admit I found this visual commentary a bit awkward, as I usually do with these types of things. Conli, Clements and Musker interview every branching segment, which gets old, and this would have worked better simply as a self-contained featurette. There are also so many segments - over fifteen - that the constant back-and-forth between the branching segments and the main feature is annoying. Some of the material you'll find in this commentary include rough versions of scenes, a look at alternate concepts, interviews with additional animators and designers, discarded story ideas, and more. All of this branching material is presented in 4:3 full screen or non-anamorphic widescreen, but is encoded anamorphically with black bars on the side of a 1.78:1 frame, so widescreen TV owners shouldn't have to switch display modes.

Next up are 6 minutes of deleted scenes: "Original Prologue," "Alternate ending" and "Jim Meets Ethan." These scenes are again intro'd by Clements and Musker, who explain why they were excised, and the material itself is again presented in rather sketchy non-anamorphic widescreen. Fairly interesting, but not essential viewing.

I expected the Behind the Scenes section to be just a featurette or two, but is actually a fairly comprehensive mini-version of a Disney Platinum Series title, complete with multiple video vignettes, production footage, stills and other promo items. The Story section includes the theatrical trailer for the original Treasure Island in full screen, plus a "Story Art" gallery with about 50 image of conceptual art and sketches. Art Design features the short 3-minute "The Brandywine School" featurette on the influential illustration institute, hosted by Roy Disney, another 3- minute featurette "70/30 Law," referring to the film's mix of 30 percent traditional, 70 futuristic animation styles, plus another 50-odd image still gallery with three sections: "Visual Development," "Paintings" and "Moments." The Characters subsection features small still galleries (about 10 images apiece) for 17 of the film's main denizens, with the "John Silver" and "B.E.N." characters also getting a slide show and test reel footage. You also find four animation and pencil tests in the Animation section, including a look at Delbert Doppler and the "Hook" test. All of this footage is short, running less than 3 minutes combined aside from the intros by the animators. Dimensional Staging offers four more short vignettes ("Color Keys," "Layout Demonstrations," "Treasure Planet Found" and "Lighting"), while the fascinating Merging 2D and 3D Worlds offers three ("Pose Camera," "Effects Animation" and "RLS Legacy: Virtual 3D Tour and Treasure Hunt"). While again not as extensive as the best Disney two-disc special editions, this is far better than you'd expect looking at the pithy back packaging. Rounding out this section is the music video for John Rzeznik's "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" and Release, which features the film's theatrical teaser and trailer, plus a single-page still "gallery" with only two poster images.

Rounding out the package is the Intergalactic Space Adventures subsection, accessible from the main "Special Features" page. This is a bit confusing, however, as it includes material from the other sections. Aside from the "RLS Legacy: Virtual 3D Tour and Treasure Hunt" and the Rzeznik music video, we get two noteworthy featurettes. Disney's Animation Magic is a 14-minute look behind the scenes at the actual Disney studios while they were making Treasure Planet. Hosted by Roy Disney, in truth it repeats much you've probably already learned and seen on other Disney DVDs, but it is specific to Treasure Planet, and includes more interviews with Colni, Musker, Clements, Keane and other crew. DisneyPedia: The Life of a Pirate is rather fun, a kid-narrated five-part look at what it might have been like to be a pirate, at least of the Disney variety. This is obviously geared towards kids, and plays like one of those things you would watch while waiting in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Still, a kinda fun 12 minutes.

Last but not least we have the usual Disney Sneak Peeks, which start the minute you pop in the disc (but they can be skipped), and included are previews for other Disney titles like the upcoming Lion King DVD and the cute-looking Finding Nemo.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No actual original content here...just a pop-up interface with basic DVD controls and weblinks.

Parting Thoughts