Sightlines · reception

How Treasure Planet was received

2002 · Ron Clements · Treasure Planet on Sightlines

The arc

One of Disney's most notorious box-office bombs in 2002 — the studio took a huge write-off within weeks of release — yet the millennials who caught it on DVD grew up to canonize it, and it's now a fixture of 'underrated Disney' reappraisal lists.

What’s debated

Fans still argue over who killed it: was Treasure Planet genuinely a misfire, or a good film Disney barely marketed and dumped opposite Harry Potter and the James Bond juggernaut of Thanksgiving 2002?

Its footprint

The solar-surfing montage set to 'I'm Still Here' — sung by the Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik — is the film's cultural afterlife, endlessly clipped, covered, and edited, and Jim Hawkins remains a certified Tumblr-era animated heartthrob.

Where it stands

A textbook cult reclamation: the flop that became a Letterboxd and Disney-adult favorite, reliably topping 'films that deserved better' lists.

Did you know? Musker and Clements first pitched 'Treasure Island in space' back in 1985 — at the same meeting where they pitched The Little Mermaid — and it was rejected for over fifteen years before Disney finally let them make it; despite the flop, it still earned a Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination.