50 Fun Facts About Treasure Planet

To test John Silver's computer-made arm, Treasure Planet's animators first grafted it onto which Disney villain?

Captain Hook, in a clip from Peter Pan (1953), had his arm swapped for the mechanical one. The test showed whether the computer-made limb would blend with the rest of a classic character.

Long John Silver has one leg in Treasure Island; what kind of being is he in Treasure Planet?

A cyborg is exactly what Billy Bones warns Jim to beware when he hands over the map. In the novel, Bones instead tells the boy to keep a lookout for a one-legged man.

Which Scottish author wrote the 1883 pirate novel that Treasure Planet moves into outer space?

Robert Louis Stevenson first published Treasure Island as a magazine serial under the pen name Captain George North. He began it to amuse his young stepson while bad weather kept the family indoors in Scotland.

Which Oscar-winning English actress voices Captain Amelia in Treasure Planet, a role developed with her in mind?

Emma Thompson was pregnant during several of the recording sessions. One of the directors said Amelia was the first action-adventure character she had ever played.

Which film beat Treasure Planet, Lilo & Stitch and Ice Age to the Oscar for Best Animated Feature?

Spirited Away, released in Japan a year before its rivals, beat all four American nominees. The fourth was Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

John Rzeznik, who wrote and sang both songs in Treasure Planet, fronts which band known for the hit Iris?

Goo Goo Dolls' ballad Iris was the placeholder the directors had laid over a scene before Rzeznik was hired. He said he had felt a lot like Jim at that age.

Morph, John Silver's shape-shifting pet in Treasure Planet, replaces which animal from Treasure Island?

A parrot is Silver's companion in the novel, and it is named Captain Flint after the dead pirate whose hoard everyone is chasing.

What powers the spaceships in Treasure Planet?

Solar sails let the filmmakers keep wooden decks and rigging. They also filled outer space with breathable atmosphere so that nobody needed a helmet or a space suit.

Which actor, a teenage star of the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, voices Jim Hawkins in Treasure Planet?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt found it hard to play Jim's scenes with Silver alone in a booth. He asked to record alongside Brian Murray, the voice of the old pirate.

What does the planet named in Treasure Planet turn out to be when Jim reaches Captain Flint's hoard?

A giant machine is what Jim realises he is standing on. Its portal can open onto any place in the universe, which is how Flint raided ships and vanished.

Which member of the expedition does Captain Amelia marry at the end of Treasure Planet, starting a family?

Dr. Doppler, the astrophysicist who commissions the ship, merges two of Jim's mentors from the novel, Dr. Livesey and Squire Trelawney.

Which actor, then playing a psychiatrist on a hit sitcom, voices the astrophysicist in Treasure Planet?

David Hyde Pierce, Niles Crane on Frasier, was sent the script in 1997 while recording A Bug's Life for Pixar. Jeff Goldblum and Hugh Grant were also considered for the part.

Which Canadian comedian, a veteran of SCTV and Saturday Night Live, voices the robot B.E.N. in Treasure Planet?

Martin Short was left with his natural voice as the robot. The sound team experimented with processing it, but everything they tried spoiled his comedy.

What has the robot B.E.N. lost when Jim meets him in Treasure Planet, a part later found on a skeleton?

His memory circuit turns up in the hand of Captain Flint's skeleton. Once Jim plugs it back in, B.E.N. recalls what his old master did to guard the hoard.

Which spider-like crewman of Treasure Planet secretly cuts a lifeline and later fights Jim aboard the ship?

Scroop is voiced by Michael Wincott. The lifeline he cuts belongs to the first mate, Mr. Arrow, and he then pins the death on Jim.

What swallows first mate Mr. Arrow in Treasure Planet after a crewman secretly cuts his lifeline?

A black hole forms when a star near the ship goes supernova. Jim had secured every lifeline, yet he is the one blamed for the death.

In Treasure Planet, the map that Billy Bones hands to Jim takes what form, hiding a holographic star chart?

A sphere is what Bones gives Jim after crashing near the inn. Morph later takes its shape, so Jim flees the mutiny holding a fake.

Under which job does John Silver join the voyage in Treasure Planet, the same cover he uses in the novel?

Ship's cook puts Silver in the galley, where Jim is sent to work under him. The two form a wary father-and-son bond there before the mutiny.

Captain Amelia, who commands the voyage in Treasure Planet, is an alien resembling which animal?

A cat is the model for Amelia, who takes the place of Captain Smollett, the strictly professional master of the Hispaniola in the novel.

Which ship does Captain Amelia command in Treasure Planet, taking the place of the novel's Hispaniola?

RLS Legacy is hired by an astrophysicist friend of Jim's family. Amelia is her captain and the stone-skinned Mr. Arrow her first mate.

Which directing duo made Treasure Planet after Aladdin and Hercules, having first pitched it in the 1980s?

Ron Clements and John Musker had their contract rewritten in 1995 so that they could begin the space adventure as soon as Hercules was finished.

Treasure Planet was first pitched at the same 1980s Gong Show meeting as which later Disney hit?

The Little Mermaid reached cinemas in 1989. The space idea was rejected by Michael Eisner, who knew Paramount was developing a Star Trek sequel with a similar angle.

Instead of Treasure Planet, studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted its directors to adapt which sci-fi novel?

A Princess of Mars was a book the company was already trying to adapt. The angry directors went over his head to Roy E. Disney, who backed their space adventure.

With a budget of $140 million, Treasure Planet is the most expensive film ever made in which style?

Traditional animation carried the characters, who were drawn by hand on top of 3D computer sets. The film took in only about $110 million worldwide.

Treasure Planet was the first major studio feature to open in regular cinemas and which large-screen format at once?

IMAX had already paid off for Disney with its runs of Beauty and the Beast and Fantasia 2000. The studio hoped the big screens would help in a crowded holiday season.

Which John Rzeznik song, subtitled Jim's Theme, plays in Treasure Planet and was released as a single?

I'm Still Here draws on Rzeznik's own youth in Buffalo, New York. As a solo single it climbed to number 10 on Billboard's Adult Top 40.

Which composer scored Treasure Planet, his third Disney animated film after Dinosaur and Atlantis: The Lost Empire?

James Newton Howard took over after Alan Silvestri dropped out to score Lilo & Stitch. He described his music as very much in the tradition of Korngold, Tiomkin and Steiner.

Treasure Planet's 360-degree Virtual Sets grew out of Deep Canvas, a technology first developed for which Disney film?

Tarzan pioneered the software in 1999. On the later film it let the crew build entire sets before staging a scene, then move the camera through them as on a live-action shoot.

Which screen idol did animator John Ripa study for the posture and attitude of Jim Hawkins in Treasure Planet?

James Dean had, Ripa said, a whole attitude and posture in which you felt the pain and the youthful innocence. Ripa also studied the close-ups in Braveheart for acting with the eyes alone.

Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who share story credit on Treasure Planet, later wrote which Disney film series?

Pirates of the Caribbean began a year after the animated film. Rossio later argued that its crucial mistake was turning the novel's young boy into a teenager.

Disney's previous take on the novel behind Treasure Planet, released in 1996, starred which troupe?

The Muppets shared the screen with Tim Curry, who played Long John Silver. The studio's first version, in 1950, had been its first completely live-action film.

What does John Silver abandon at the climax of Treasure Planet in order to save Jim's life?

A boat full of loot is lost when Silver lets go of it to pull Jim to safety. He later hands the boy a handful he had salvaged, which pays to rebuild the family inn.

At the end of Treasure Planet, what does Jim become after accepting an offer from Captain Amelia?

An academy cadet at the Interstellar Academy is what the once-troubled Jim becomes. Afterwards he looks up at the sky and sees an image of Silver in the clouds.

What trap did Captain Flint leave for anyone who found his hoard in Treasure Planet, as B.E.N. recalls too late?

It all self-destructs once the treasure chamber is discovered. The crew survives only because Jim races ahead and redirects the portal to his home spaceport.

What does B.E.N. accidentally switch off in Treasure Planet, letting Jim kick an attacker overboard into space?

Artificial gravity goes off in the middle of the fight. Jim had sneaked back aboard with Morph and the robot to fetch the real map.

What job does the robot B.E.N. take at the rebuilt inn at the end of Treasure Planet?

A waiter is what the once-marooned navigator becomes. He serves the guests at the inn that Jim's mother, Sarah, rebuilds with salvaged treasure.

On which planet do Jim Hawkins and his mother run their inn at the start of Treasure Planet?

Montressor is also where the adventure ends. Jim sets the portal to open on its spaceport, and the ship flies through to safety.

What is the name of the inn that Sarah Hawkins runs in Treasure Planet, borrowed from the novel?

The Benbow Inn takes its name from the novel's Admiral Benbow, which honours a real English admiral, John Benbow. In the film, pirates hunting for the map destroy it.

Which antiques did sound designer Dane Davis collect to create John Silver's mechanical noises in Treasure Planet?

Windup toys and old spinning mechanisms, scoured from hobby shops and junk stores, kept Silver from sounding slick. Davis also supplied the voice of Morph.

Which Spider-Man villain actor was set to voice the villain Ironbeard in the cancelled sequel to Treasure Planet?

Willem Dafoe, the Green Goblin of 2002, would have played a schemer trying to free the inmates of a prison asteroid. The sequel was dropped when the first film flopped.

Which actress, also the voice of Andy's mother in Toy Story, plays Sarah Hawkins in Treasure Planet?

Laurie Metcalf was best known as Jackie on Roseanne, a part that won her three Emmys in the early 1990s.

Which actor, famous as the voice of Optimus Prime, plays the pirate Captain Flint in Treasure Planet?

Peter Cullen was also the long-serving voice of Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. His pirate is seen alive only in the prologue; by the time Jim finds him he is a skeleton.

In which European capital did Treasure Planet hold its world premiere, three weeks before reaching American cinemas?

Paris saw the film first, on 6 November 2002. The overseas launch proved apt: it went on to earn about $71 million abroad against only $38 million at home.

Which star of The Prisoner made his final film appearance as the voice of Billy Bones in Treasure Planet?

Patrick McGoohan was suggested by castmate Corey Burton, who had imitated him on a temporary track. The part turned out to be the last film role of his career.

Which British pop group recorded Always Know Where You Are for the soundtrack album of Treasure Planet?

BBMak, a trio formed in Liverpool, sing it on the album. In the film itself the song is performed by the man who wrote it, John Rzeznik.

Which veteran Disney animator, who had drawn Ariel and the Beast, supervised John Silver in Treasure Planet?

Glen Keane disliked studying earlier screen Silvers, preferring to clear his mind of stereotypes. He did borrow the side-of-the-mouth way of talking of the old film star Wallace Beery.

Which Brandywine School painter, whose 1911 Treasure Island plates are famous, shaped the look of Treasure Planet?

N. C. Wyeth earned enough from those paintings to pay for his house and studio. The film's crew called the warm, painterly style classic storybook illustration.

The Procyons, enemies in the PC game Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon, are modelled on which animals?

Raccoons belong to the genus Procyon, the name the game gives its warlike aliens. The strategy game is set five years after the film, with Jim now a naval officer.

Disneyland once planned to reopen which closed ride with a Treasure Planet theme, before the film flopped?

Submarine Voyage plans were scrapped when the film did as badly as Atlantis: The Lost Empire had a year earlier. The ride finally reopened in 2007 with Finding Nemo.

A deleted Treasure Planet scene of Jim befriending an alien child was meant as a homage to which novel?

The Catcher in the Rye inspired a sequence meant to show Jim's more sensitive side. It was dropped because the directors wanted to open on him surfing instead.