Treasure Planet

Disney’s animated retro science-fiction version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure Treasure Island is swashbuckling, intergalactic fun that occasionally loses the wind in its mast by relying too much on current Mouse Factory formula. (Does every kids’ movie really need a motor-mouth supporting character to nudge the action along?) The story follows young Jim Hawkins (with the voice of 3rd Rock from the Sun’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as he and astrophysicist Delbert set sail for a distant planet in search of the pirate plunder of 1,000 worlds. The motley creature crew hired for the voyage includes a cyborg Long John Silver (brought to exhilarating cross-bone life by the voice of Brian Murray), with Silver’s parrot replaced by a mischievously mutating Morph (a sort of flying purple glob of Flubber) and buccaneers replaced by alien-like creatures that have more physical peculiarities than real personality. This tale of loyalty, male bonding and treachery of the high skies is a generally eye-popping mix of traditional animation and computer graphics. The movie was directed and co-written by Ron Clements and John Musker (Hercules).