Treasure Planet Failed At The Box Office, But It Managed to Find Success With A Song

Welcome to a new bi-weekly column called When Good Songs Happen To Bad Movies, in which I look at pretty well done songs that just so happened to debut in more subpar features.

My past four entries in this series have focused on films that I personally found lackluster, but today, the definition of "bad movies" stretches to include features that underwhelmed at the box office. For you see, I'm quite a big fan of Treasure Planet, a movie from Walt Disney Animation Studios that absolutely bombed in 2002, and I felt contrasting that sort of financial performance with a high quality song contained within the film would make for quite an interesting column.


So just how bad did Treasure Planet do back in November 2002? Well, this Ron Clements/John Musker endeavor was given a prime Thanksgiving release date, a holiday that helped launch numerous animated Disney films in the past to gargantuan success. However, ever since the company started releasing their in-house animation efforts in the summer starting with The Lion King, they had shifted PIXAR movies to that Thanksgiving time period.  Thus, Treasure Planet became the first movie from the company to be released during this time of the year since 1992's Aladdin (another film from Ron n' John), and, well, it wasn't exactly the triumphant return many at Disney hoped for.

Being released a week and a half after the second Harry Potter film, competition was certainly tough for the movie, but no one could have ever forseen it tanking this bad even with all the other films it had to face. It only wound up with $12 million over its opening weekend, putting it behind Disneys own The Santa Claus 2 in its fifth weekend, and in the pantheon of Thanksgiving opening weekends, puts it slightly ahead of Arthur Christmas, but just behind Bad Santa and Hitman.

What a shame that sort of disastrous performance overshadowed the movie itself, a delightful sci-fi journey filled with beautiful hand-drawn animation and sequences of gripping thrills. There are certainly flaws to be found (one particular shortcoming that bothers me is how easily one character, named Doppler and voiced by David Hyde Pierce, manages to get himself out of being tied up by the stories villains), but overall, it's the kind of engaging adventure Disney animation hadn't been making as consistently at the dawn of the 21st century.

Part of that victory lies in Jim Hawkins (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a protagonist who is likely to strike one at first as a hodgepodge of storytelling stereotypes; he's an angsty teenager with a missing father and a chip on his shoulder. But even in early scenes of Treasure Planet, namely one where he helps his mom clean up the bed-and-breakfast she owns, you can see goodness in his heart, especially since his whole reason for setting off on an expedition to find the legendary treasure planet is to get enough money to rebuild that aforementioned bed-and-breakfast.

The reason for Jims current attitude is explained via song, a method Disney features have utilized in the past, but one that is utilized in a whole new manner in this story. The song is called I'm Still Here, sung by John Rezeznik with equal parts frustration and hope. The tune isn't belted out Broadway musical style, but rather plays over a montage mixing footage of Jim growing closer to Long John Silver and a younger version of Jim being ignored by his father. It's quite well paced, especially the dynamic between Silver and Jim, which slowly but surely becomes more friendly over time.

One particular passage of this song, though, is what really sets it apart as something special, thanks to its particular placement during this montage. The section of I'm Still Here that really resonates occurs when the vocals by Rzeznik suddenly get more than a flash of pain in them, while the instrumental portion of the song becomes more urgent. On it's own, this part of the tune is quite unique, but in the context of the film, it's almost heartbreaking. You see, this portion of I'm Still Here is set to a brief scene where Jims father is leaving his family, and as younger Jim races to say goodbye to his dad, the music and visuals intertwine to create a compelling emotional experience. Rzezniks singing take on a whole other level of pathos, and the music that occurs during the shot of Jim standing there as his father leaves makes that image all the more devastating.

It's such a powerful use of both song and imagery, and it makes the viewer all the more invested in what happens with Jim throughout the rest of the film. It's a pity Treasure Planet didn't find the box office success it deserved, but at least it can comfort itself with knowing that it's a damn well made movie, as well as a feature that contains an exceptional piece of music. I'm Still Here isn't the only element of Treasure Planet to excel, but it certainly is a great example of the kind poignancy it can deliver.