Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Treasure Planet (Imax version)

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Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 12-02-2002, 08:59 PM:

Viewed at Marcus Imax, Columbus OH, 12/02/2002 @ 4:45 PM

A note to the folks at Marcus...I've complained about this many times, and the same problem is still there. Your theatre is TOO DARK before the show starts. I ALWAYS HIT MY KNEES when walking across the rows because I can NOT SEE THE ARM RESTS. Can't you brighten things up a bit? My kneecaps would sure appreciate it.

First, a word about the IMAX Experience. Very, very, VERY good. The image is very sharp and clear, with very little grain. A slight black band at bottom of screen, very little cropped at the top, if any. Sound was OK, but not spectacular. But, it only cost $.50 more than the 35mm screenings, which I consider a good value. I'm looking forward to LION KING later this month. And, the new BLACK STALLION trailer looked rather good.

TREASURE PLANET reminded me of SHREK...it felt like it was assembled by a committee. We had music that sounded like TITANIC (the main character, Jim, even had a "king of the world" moment). We need some comic relief, like the Genie in ALADDIN, provided by a manic Martin Short (with even a few "Jiminy Glick" inflections). Laurie "Why am I always the mom" Metcalf is the single mom, trying her best to raise her difficult boy. Emma Thompson plays a "Captain Janeway" style feline commander, and we can tell she's a female because of the eye shadow. And, although I enjoy David Hyde Pierce, he just doesn't fit in this role. My favorite character, the first mate Arrow, is not around long enough...I found him to be more interesting than most of the other characters.

This film is a mix of traditional-style animation and computer animation. The computer work looks much better on the giant screen. Many of the characters look just a little too smooth. And, Jim's nose is sure in a weird spot! The computer work looks wonderful, though, especially the flying ships.

Beware...this film has one of the worst songs ever in a Disney film. This is light-years away from Ashman/Menkin or the Sherman brothers. But, I'm sure the committee felt that we needed a pop song in the film, so there it was, totally out of place from the rest of the flutey soundtrack.

Not a great film, but I had a fairly good time. 15-year old daughter liked it more than I did. I'd call it average entertainment. A number of kids were in the theatre, and they seemed to enjoy it, even the very small ones.

On a 5-point scale, I'd give it a 3.

Posted by Edwin Graf Diemer (Member # 545) on 12-11-2002, 09:18 PM:

Viewed at United Artists King of Prussia 16, PA. 9:40 Show, 11/28/02.

Actually, this was the 8/70 version of the film being shown-the IMAX equipment is being reinstalled in the coming months. 14 people in audience. This was quite an improvement over the last 8/70 presentation that I saw at this theater, ("Beauty And The Beast")-very dirty print then, and lots of picture flicker from a bulb on its last legs. Very clean, bright, and beautifully rich color this time. But the IMAX sound system was yanked, along with the projectors, and the replacement dosen't have nearly the punch of the old one. But an excellent presentation, and with the IMAX 3-D equipment to be reinstalled, things will be back to normal. The entire complex is really a pleasure to visit-good staff!

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 12-19-2002, 10:02 PM:

Technically, since the movie reviews are about the movie more than the medium, I'm going to include my Treasure Planet review here. After all, I've posted reviews for many movies I've seen on DVD rather than in theatres. Maybe the "Imax Version" should be removed from the thread title?

Attendance: 2002/12/19, 19:15, Carmike Century Cinema 8, Decatur, AL, Auditorium 5, Flat/Animated

Whe I saw the trailer for this movie, being a computer scientist, I looked forward to seeing this movie just to admire the animation work. There was plenty of appealing animation work to admire in this movie, but I felt that the movie itself wasn't as good as it could have been. It took a few minutes for me to "get into" this movie before I could pay attention properly and get interested. That's a bad sign. Since I've never read "Treasure Island", I'm not sure how well the story got ported over.

I liked the idea of several of the movie's characters, like the "Morph" character and the "robot without a brain" (which felt like it was a port of a Wizard of Oz character).

One review I read stated that the movie had no memorable lines. Being a Ph.D. student, I foudn one line extremely humorous -- the one where the guy with the doctorate said something to the effect of "I'm not a medical doctor -- I've got a doctorate. I can't help people; all I can do is sit here and be useless." Does anyone remember the exact wording? People I work with would get a huge kick out of that one!

The "map" reminded me a lot of the "round Rubik's Cubes" that were around in the early 80s. They were manipulatively equivalent to a Rubik's Cube, but spherical.

Evidentally, on this night I was the only one who desired to see this movie, since I was the only person in the auditorium.

The presentation was rather lacking. The paragraph that was here has been moved to the Film Handler's Forum in the thread "Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers)".

I'll probably give this movie another try on DVD and get a much better, brighter, higher-contrast presentation. A mediocre presentation can make me appreciate a movie less.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 12-22-2002, 02:58 AM:

I took my seven year old daughter to this film kicking and screaming. I was the one kicking and screaming because I so desperately did not want to see this movie at all. Atlantis was a huge dissapointment, as was just about every disney effort I have come across.

That bieng said, I plan on viewing this one again. Too much hype on this film. I really enjoyed it quite a bit. I really did distaste greatly for all the surfing scenes. What is it with disney and surfboards? Tarzan was a surfer, Treasure Island is a surfer, I am surprised that no one in atlantis was a surfer, or did I miss that part?

I would cut about ten minutes from the film, and then give it about three out of four stars. I still give it three good stars, and pretend those ten minutes and that damn dog (played by david hyde pearce, which apparently has no role but to be there) would just die and die early and painfully.

Dave