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Originally Posted by Emma
God, it makes me sad that no one went to see Treasure Planet, thus making it a contributor in the demise of Disney's 2D department. That movie was great in tons of ways and should've been the thing to pull Disney out of it's slump...I think Disney needs a new tagline guy. "Robert Lewis Stevenson's classic tale like you've never seen it before...in space!" does not pull in the crowds.  |
It is a shame that "Treasure Planet" did so poorly at the box office (and on DVD and Video). It was an excellent film, well animated and well written in most areas. I saw it on an IMAX screen during its theater run, it was breathtaking.
Even worse, the film was robbed of the Academy Award for best animated feature...
Disney's handling of the film was a nasty sequence of errors. They spent way too much money making it (which plauged many of Disney's last hand-drawn features, due largely to lack of creative direction and control); $140 million I have heard. Few movies make that much money, failing to stick to reasonable budget will come back to bite you more often than not.
Promotion was terrible, both in content and frequency. Disney claims that they spent as much promoting "Treasure Planet" as they did "Lilo and Stitch"; I didn't see evidence of that. While Stitch invaded scenes from classic Dinsey films in frequent television commercials, all I saw for Treasure Planet were a couple in-theater previews (which were unexciting, not well put together) and a very bland poster.
It didn't help that the movie went up against "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" for much of its run.
Disney aimed at the wrong market with the wrong genre, as well. "Atlantis" and "Titan AE" were similar films (though not as good) aimed at a similar market. The average pre-teen moviegoer simply didn't want to see another animated sci-fiction/fantasy film and the appeal to younger children and the adults who have to take them to the theater was far too small.
Great movie, wrong time for it.