Louis Stevenson meets Disney

I find it pretty hard to know what to expect out of Disney these days. While I'm not sure that the company has completely switched its attitude toward what kinds of movies to make, there does seem to be a push toward a new style of storytelling and a new approach to crafting the animated feature. Maybe this has all been brought on by the success of animated films from Pixar and Dreamworks, but like "Atlantis" before it, "Treasure Planet" represents a new form of Disney, one that trades the spontaneous musical numbers for a more kinetic action-adventure pace. \nThere is a lot to appreciate about some of the things in "Treasure Planet." Basically a sci-fi, George Lucasified version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic "Treasure Island," "Treasure Planet" tells the story of a young and troubled (in the Disney sense of the word) boy, Jim (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who finds himself wrapped up in an adventure across the universe to uncover the Treasure Planet, to which he holds the only map. \nProbably the most interesting thing about "Treasure Planet" is that it never lets go of the whole pirates/boats/high-seas-adventure thing that made "Treasure Island" what it is, and because of the skillful welding-in of the makings of epic sci-fi adventure, the whole thing feels like something entirely new. There is a reason that Stevenson's tale is so timeless, and "Treasure Planet" does a decent job of not letting that feeling slip.\nWhen the story and animation are good, they're really good, and when the script and characterization go bad, they go really bad. It's a pretty frustrating film to watch, as it is easy to let the oft-induced awe of the story get swept away by a monster speaking "flatula," a montage sequence set to a terrible Goo Goo Dolls tune or an altogether forgettable bunch of characters.\nIt seems clear that Disney is honing its skills at this new formula and has created a pretty decent (sometimes terrific) film in the process. But one cannot help but hope that Disney learns what turned "Treasure Planet" into a forgettable experience, and in the future resolves to work the kinks out.