Treasure Planet was a highlight for so many children on its premiere on November of 2002. Do any of you guys remember it? The animation, the aesthetic, the soundtrack, the character, and the plot were beyond amazing for 7-year-old little me. But, if so much effort and work were put into it, why was it a box office failure in the States? Treasure Planet is the Disney adaptation of Treasure Island created by the same animation directors as Aladdin (1992), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and Moana (2016); Ron Clements and John Musker. The first two times it was brought up as a project idea, it was turned down after the immense damage The Black Cauldron (1986) made for Disney that it almost made it cease to exist.
The Disney Renaissance refers to the era beginning roughly in 1989 and ending in 1999 during which Walt Disney Animation Studios started making musical animated films that were mostly based on well-known stories. The “Disney Renaissance” had to happen for Treasure Planet to be reconsidered and given the ‘go’ to be made into a movie. Disney Studios used the best animation programs for the adaptation of the pirate book, but, this time it was to be set in space, costing 140 million plus another 40 million for marketing. Disney’s marketing team is renown as the best worldwide, the year before Lilo and Stitch had different promotions for six months before it hit the big screen and it had no competition the summer it premiered. Treasure Planet premiered next to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Santa Claus 2, this was one of the components that lead to its failure. The next reason was its trailers, they either showed too much or too little. A poll was done before the movie came out on theaters that let the marketing team know that the audiences preferred waiting for it to come out on DVD. Knowing this, the date wasn’t moved, and the movie was left to fail.
The third, and final reason for its failure was the change of Disney’s director responsible for the confirmation of the project of Treasure Planet in 1994. By the time the movie was ready to hit the big screen, Disney had gone through two different directors. The loyalty for this amazing piece wasn’t there. There was already an agreement for a sequel and they were ready for a pre-production. What better way not to go through with it, than just letting the first installment flop?