


The problem is that, as such honorable men, they're initially blinded to the fact that they are surrounded by the scum of the earth on this voyage. They're men who know that, sure, they're hunting down buried pirate treasure, but they're also not cutthroats. Jim, Trelawney, Livesey, and the captain of the ship they're sailing, the Hispaniola, Mr. There's a treasure, and the characters onscreen want to find it, often at the expense of their fellow man. That aside, most of Treasure Island is uncomplicated, unfettered, unpretentious entertainment. But what, Livesey and Trelawney wonder, will Jim's mother think? Will they be able to take the boy on their trip? Should they ask? Why does it matter, seeing as she's never onscreen? Joined by local elders Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesey, Jim decides to go on an adventure unlike anything he's ever experienced. What he leaves behind, though, is a map to massive amounts of treasure. The plan doesn't work for long, as Bones dies the very night he receives the black spot. Jim tries to shield one of the inn's residents, Billy Bones, from some nefarious characters including one who gives him an ominous black spot foretelling his doom. We meet our lead, Jim Hawkins, a young boy who runs an inn with his aforementioned mother. Still, I was struck by the gender imbalance during the opening section. Seeing as most of the film takes place on a large ship as its male denizens hunt for buried treasure, this isn't much of a shock. Though we get a mention of a female character-the lead character's mother-we never meet her, and no other women have dialogue, let alone important roles. I just don't know what it is.īased on the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island is a boy's adventure through and through. So there is-I hope-some complex idea behind the first fully live-action film from Walt Disney Productions, 1950's Treasure Island. No, this means that while Walt Disney was able to tap into the inner recesses of people's psyches for maximum effect, something that may seem simple, he rarely created something that didn't have some complex thought placed behind it. This isn't to say that some attractions at the various Disney theme parks aren't simple in their design or their impact, or that some classic Disney movies don't have simple story structures or character development. Disney and the concept of simplicity don't go together, either. Walt Disney and the word "simple" don't go together.
