A good movie

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out again. First of all, through Disney’s illustrious history, they did have some rather dark periods (the 80’s were especially disappointing) and this movie was one massive flop for them (in fact, it is often listed as one of the most expensive box office flops of all time). Back then, the CGI animation was already pretty much ruling the market (above all thanks to Pixar also owned by Disney) and, for them, it was pretty much their last attempt to deliver a massive epic hand-drawn feature and since it was a failure, they dropped the technique all-together which is a terrible shame (the underperforming ‘Brother Bear’ and ‘Home on the Range’ only confirmed this trend). Basically, this movie was not only really expensive, it was also probably their most experimental project so far, some kind of weird mix of ‘Treasure Island’ with ‘Star Wars’. Even though trying anything new was pretty neat from a studio which has been stuck following the same formula over and over again, you could argue that the whole translation of this classic story to a Science-Fiction environment was rather misguided. Indeed, what did it really add to the plot? Not much in fact and a more traditional adaptation might have been more popular. Still, this movie was actually not bad at all and the whole thing certainly looked terrific. Furthermore, Jim Hawkins was a charismatic but still insecure main character. On top of that, I was actually quite amazed by his complex relationship with the bad guy who actually became some kind of surrogate father to him. As a result, even though he is nowadays pretty much forgotten, John Silver turned out to be one of the most interesting and complex villains ever delivered by Disney. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I actually liked the damned thing and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.