| TREASURE
PLANET
PRODUCTION
INFORMATION
 One
of the greatest adventure stories ever told - Robert Louis Stevenson's
Treasure Island - takes on a new dimension of entertainment and
excitement in Walt Disney Pictures' thrilling new animated feature,
"Treasure Planet." Redefining the state of the art for
animation, the filmmakers take moviegoers on a daring and imaginative
journey across a fantasy universe that combines expert hand-drawn
animation, incredible 3D "virtual sets," along with superb
acting and storytelling. At the center of the story is fifteen-year-old
Jim Hawkins, who joins the crew of an intergalacticexpedition as
cabin boy aboard a glittering space galleon. Befriended by the ship's
cook, a charismatic cyborg (part man, part machine) named John Silver,
Jim blossoms under his guidance, and shows the makings of a fine
"spacer" as he and the alien crew battle supernovas, black
holes and ferocious space storms. But even greater dangers lie ahead
when Jim discovers that his trusted friend Silver is actually a
scheming pirate with mutiny in mind. Confronted with a betrayal
that cuts deep to his soul, Jim is transformed from boy to man as
he finds the strength to face down the mutineers and discovers a
"treasure" greater than he had ever imagined. As an added
bonus, moviegoers in many cities around the world will be able to
see special engagements of "Treasure Planet" in IMAX®
Theatres and large format cinemas. Reformatted with meticulous detail
especially for these venues, the film becomes the first to ever
open simultaneously in 35mm and large format versions. Large format
prints showcase the film's dimensional space settings to maximum
advantage and immerse viewers into the beauty, grandeur and excitement
of this fantasy world.
At
the creative helm of "Treasure Planet" are Disney's acclaimed
directing/producing/writing duo, John Musker and Ron Clements. This
is the fifth film they have created for Disney and it follows such
other distinguished features as "The Great Mouse Detective"
(1986), "The Little
Mermaid" (1989), "Aladdin" (1992) and "Hercules"
(1997). A CalArts graduate, Musker joined Disney in 1977 as an assistant
animator
("The Small One," "The Fox and the Hound") and
went on to work as an animator and story artist before becoming
a director. Clements, who began making super-8 animated films as
a teenager, came to Disney in 1976 and served a two-year apprenticeship
under Disney animation great Frank Thomas. He moved from inbetweener
to assistant to animator/story artist with credits on such films
as "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too," "The Rescuers,"
"Pete's Dragon," "The Fox and the Hound," and
"The Black Cauldron." He first teamed with Musker in 1983
to write and direct "The Great Mouse Detective."
Overseeing
the entire production in his role as producer was Roy Conli, a ten-year
veteran of Disney's Feature Animation department, whose previous
assignments include a co-producing role on the 1996 animated feature,
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and a three-year stint running
Disney's Paris-based animation studio (overseeing the production
of "Hercules" and "Tarzan"). Conli's background
also includes impressive and extensive credits producing and managing
stage productions. Assisting him on "Treasure Planet"
was associate producer Peter Del Vecho. Neil Eskuri served as artistic
coordinator for the film with Tina Price on board as assistant artistic
coordinator.
According
to Thomas Schumacher, president of Walt Disney Feature Animation,
"There are many sources for the animated films we make at Disney.
Sometimes we turn to myth, legend and lore; sometimes they're based
on wholly original stories; and sometimes we turn to great literature
like we did with 'Tarzan' and 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame.' In
the case of WALT DISNEY PICTURES presents 'Treasure Planet,' we
were inspired by the fantastic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.
It is the classic young man's adventure story; the classic pirate
story; and the classic search-fortreasure story. John Musker and
Ron Clements have invented great ideas for classics like 'The Little
Mermaid' and 'Aladdin,' so when they came to us with the idea of
adapting Treasure Island and setting it in a fantasy universe, we
thought it would make a great film. There is something about classic
material that just inspires this kind of reinvention. The source
material offered us opportunities for comedy, big sweeping drama
and fantastic adventure and not every story allows you to do that."
Schumacher adds, "This movie is very special for several reasons.
First and foremost, it has some of the most brilliant acting ever
in an animated film. The acting of the animators, who bring such
truth and credibility to these characters, such charm and wit, reaches
a new level of sophistication here. Glen Keane, who supervised the
animation of John Silver, is a great actor who brings enormous depth
and emotion to his characters. I can't think of any artist in animation
who has had a greater impact on our movies than Glen. On top of
that, the terrific stage actor Brian Murray gives one of the finest
vocal performances ever heard in animation as the duplicitous Silver.
John Ripa's great animation of Jim Hawkins combined with Joseph
Gordon-Levitt's outstanding vocal performance is equally impressive.
'Treasure Planet' also marks a milestone for the integration of
hand-drawn artwork and CG elements. For the first time, we have
entire environments called 'virtual sets' where you see characters
moving in space that is in fact threedimensional.
The
technology is used to create fantastic settings and, in the case
of Silver, a character with great credibility." An outstanding
group of actors was assembled to provide the voices for the colorful
cast of characters. Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("Angels in the Outfield"
TV's "3rd Rock From the Sun") lends a wide range of emotion
and dimension to Jim Hawkins, a lonely fifteen-yearold trying to
find his place in the universe. Threetime
Tony Award-nominated Brian Murray ("The Crucible," "The
Little Foxes," "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead")
gives an inspired vocal turn as John Silver, the affable rogue whose
good-natured charm masks a ruthless obsession. Academy Award®-winning
actress/screenwriter Emma Thompson brings great sense and sensibilities
to the character of Captain Amelia, the no-nonsense, cat-like officer
of the solar galleon, the RLS Legacy. David Hyde Pierce (who portrays
Dr. Niles Crane on the long-running hit TV series, "Frasier")
adds laughs, drama and a touch of romance with his vocal performance
as the bookish astrophysicist Dr. Doppler who gets a chance to fulfill
his fantasy when he finances a treasure-seeking expedition. Comedian/actor
Martin Short provides the hilariously manic voice of B.E.N. (Bio-Electronic-Navigator),
a bucket-of-bolts robot plagued with a missing memory circuit and
two big no-nos (touching and talking).
Also
featured in the vocal cast is veteran actor Patrick McGoohan, who
voices Billy Bones, the last surviving member of Captain Flint's
pirate crew and the key to locating the treasure. Emmy-winning actor
Roscoe Lee Browne adds dignity and decorum to the character of Mr.
Arrow, the straight shooting first mate to Captain Amelia. Laurie
Metcalf (who voiced Andy's Mom in both "Toy Story" films)
provides the voice of Jim's Mom, who has her hands full being a
parent and running the Benbow Inn. Michael Wincott ("Along
Came a Spider," "Alien Resurrection") speaks for
Scroop, the unscrupulous spider-like pirate with a penchant for
evil and treachery.
Academy
Award®-winning sound designer/sound editor Dane Davis ("The
Matrix") provides the voice of Morph, Silver's playful protoplasmic
pet who can shape-shift into anything or anyone. From a technological
standpoint, "Treasure Planet" is truly a hybrid film that
takes the integration of hand-drawn animation and CG elements to
a new level of sophistication. Most of the film's characters are
drawn by hand, with the exception of John Silver (who is a highly
complicated blend of hand-drawn and computer animation) and the
robot, B.E.N., who is completely animated with the computer. Over
19 75% of the film involves some form of "Deep Canvas"
elements ranging from painted props to detailed "virtual sets."
This is a significant advance over "Tarzan" (1999), in
which "Deep Canvas" was used for less than 10 minutes
of the film. "Deep Canvas" involves painting 3D geometry
in the computer with paint strokes that adhere to points in space.
This process is typically limited to one-time usage for a specific
scene and the paint cannot be altered or relit.
"Virtual
sets" take the "Deep Canvas" process to the next
level by creating actual threedimensional environments that can
be adjusted for any lighting situations and reused as needed. The
camera can be placed anywhere in the set and travel through it once
it is built.
One
of the benefits of this new technology is that it gave the filmmakers
greater choice in developing their staging. Musker explains, "For
example, in the solar surfing sequence, we really wanted it to feel
like an extreme sport and give it the sensation of skydiving and
windsurfing with the camera rushing alongside Jim. This was the
most liberating film we've ever made and we were free to choose
camera angles that were never possible before."
Adding
to this freedom was the contribution of layout supervisor Rasoul
Azadani and his team. Working with "virtual sets" proved
to be a real breakthrough in staging the film and allowed the layout
artists to make bolder choices with regard to cinematography.
To
create the cyborg character John Silver, Musker and Clements turned
to Glen Keane, one of the top animators of all time and the supervisor
of such favorite Disney characters as Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin,
Pocahontas and Tarzan. Keane was charged with designing the character
and animating the hand-drawn human portion of the character. He
also storyboarded several key scenes in the film. Silver's mechanical
arm, leg and eye were animated by Eric Daniels, a CG pioneer who
played a key role in developing and perfecting "Deep Canvas."
The
two supervisors worked "arm in arm" to bring Silver to
life in a new and dynamic way. In practically all areas of the production
(Layout, Background, Visual Effects, etc.), digital experts were
integrated into the individual departments. On previous Disney animated
projects, the CG department operated as a small unit that would
handle a few elements or scenes for each film. Now that the software
has gotten easier to use and the hardware to run it more powerful,
artists in each area have begun using computers to a greater extent.
Kyle Odermatt served as the Computer Graphics Imagery (CGI) supervisor
for this film and coordinated with artists and digital experts in
each department. Dave Tidgwell ("Mulan") was responsible
for overseeing a team of forty in creating the wide range of visual
effects (both 2D and 3D) that appear in the film (including fire,
smoke, swirling black holes, explosions, cosmic storms, and hundreds
of thousands of gold drubloons).
Conli
observes, "Seventeen years ago, when John and Ron first suggested
this project, this movie could not have been made. Back then, the
Studio was using hand-painted cels and the artwork had a very flat
look to it. With the advent of the CAPS system and 'Deep Canvas,'
we found ways to intergrate handdrawn animation with 3D elements
to give the film the dimensionality it needed."
For
Musker and Clements, the intention was always to do Treasure Island
with a twist. They wanted to place the story in a fantasy universe
with a science fiction element. Clements explains, "The idea
was to really let go of our universe and create this fantasy setting
that is neither past nor future. I've always been a big sci-fi fan
and ever since I started working at Disney I wanted to find something
in that genre that would translate into a Disney film. I didn't
want to do something high-tech or too futuristic that would become
dated. Treasure Island seemed like a natural because it could be
timeless. We wanted our film to be as if Stevenson had written a
science fiction fantasy.
It's
the future from an 18th century perspective. There are no computers,
televisions or microwave ovens, but rather things that someone from
that time period might picture the future as having. In our fantasy
universe, there's atmosphere in outer space (called the "Etherium")
that our characters can breathe. We came up with our own retro combination
of elements with a strong emphasis on the past to give it a warmth
the genre doesn't usually have."
Art
director Andy Gaskill, who had worked with Musker and Clements on
the Gerald Scarfe inspired styles for "Hercules," was
brought on board to help visualize the world of "Treasure Planet."
The directors suggested the "70-30" approach to the art
direction, which meant that 70% of the inspiration for sets and
props would be rooted in the past and 30% in the future. This meant
that, on first viewing, audiences would see what might appear to
be an 18th century ship design but a closer examination reveals
rockets and other fantasy elements.
Another
big inspiration for the look of "Treasure Planet" was
the Brandywine School of painters, which includes such famous artists
as Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish. Wyeth had provided
the well-known illustrations for the 1911 Scribner's edition of
the Stevenson classic. Influenced by that style, Gaskill and his
team set out to capture the sense of fantasy, adventure and storybook
quality suggested by those famous illustrations. This meant creating
an oil-painting approach to the backgrounds, something that had
not been tackled at Disney since "Bambi" sixty years ago.
In order to achieve this, the background painters had to work in
an entirely new way. Background supervisor Dan Cooper led a team
of talented artists in this groundbreaking effort.
With
regard to the film's design, production designer Steven Olds created
the look of the RLS Legacy, the 18th Centuryinspired galleon which
sails through space with its billowing solar sails. He also set
the stage for the designs of other mechanical elements from Silver's
arm to the longboats and solar surfer. Frank Nissen, a Disney storyboard
artist, also served as production designer and had a major influence
on the film in terms of conceptualizing the look. Character designs
were created by such talented artists as Rick Maki, Buck Lewis,
Peter De Seve, Peter Clarke, among others. The individual supervising
animators brought their own artistry to the process and helped to
flesh out the characters. "Treasure Planet" was 4 1/2
years in the making. Principal animation on the film began in 2000
and the entire crew eventually grew to a maximum of 350 artists,
animators and technicians.
In
the nearly 120 years since Treasure Island first appeared in book
form, it has remained a favorite among readers of all ages. The
book has continuously been in print and the source material has
inspired dozens of film versions. The earliest Hollywood versions
of the film date back to silent productions in 1908, 1912 and 1918.
In 1920, director Maurice Tourneur directed an ambitious feature
length silent version that included an appearance by the legendary
Lon Chaney. The 1934 MGM version was directed by Victor Fleming
("Gone With the Wind," "The Wizard of Oz") and
cast Wallace Beery as John Silver and Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins.
Walt Disney himself produced an outstanding live-action version
of "Treasure Island" in 1950 under the direction of Byron
Haskin and featuring Bobby Driscoll and Robert Newton in the lead
roles. Among the other top actors who have portrayed the scalawag
John Silver in film versions were Orson Welles (in 1972), Charlton
Heston (in 1989) and Jack Palance (in 2001). Additionally, Boris
Karloff played the part of Billy Bones in a 1960 TV version and
Tim Curry played Silver opposite an all-Muppet cast in Disney's
1996 feature, "Muppet Treasure Island." A 1954 film, "Return
to Treasure Island" gave the story a whole new twist when it
starred actress Dawn Adams as Jamesina Hawkins.
ORIGINS
OF THE PROJECT
The idea for "Treasure Planet" was conceived by Ron Clements
nearly 17 years ago. The creative team at Walt Disney Feature Animation
was looking for new ideas for projects and arranged a "Gong
Show" to listen to and evaluate ideas from the animators. Clements'
first pitch was Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Little
Mermaid. That project was initially rejected because the Studio
had just done the mermaid film, "Splash," but later greenlit
based on the strength of his treatment. Clements' second idea, "Treasure
Island in Space," was enthusiastically received but ultimately
placed on the back burner. After completing "The Little Mermaid"
in 1989, Clements and Musker revisited "Treasure Planet"
and began doing some preliminary writing and development work. When
the opportunity to write and direct "Aladdin" came along,
"Treasure Planet" was again sidelined. Following their
assignment on "Aladdin," that film's co-screenwriters
Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio took Clements and Musker's ideas and
wrote a treatment and script for "Treasure Planet" in
1993. At that point, "Hercules" was on the fast track
with Musker and Clements set to write and direct but "Treasure
Planet" was set to be their next project.
Over
the years, "Treasure Planet" remained a passion and priority
with the filmmakers and they finally got their chance to work on
the project full time once "Hercules" was completed. At
that time, Musker and Clements wrote a new script and began collaborating
with Rob Edwards (whose credits include "The Fresh Prince of
Bel Air"), who is also credited with co-writing the final screenplay.
The animation story for "Treasure Planet" is by Musker
& Clements and Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio. Clements recalls,
"The intriguing thing about Treasure Island is that it contains
elements that make you think of a cultural phenomenon like 'Star
Wars' is today. Stevenson didn't create a lot of the elements that
appear in the story, but he took things that were archetypal and
that people really liked and put them all together in this adventure
story.
These
elements had never really been combined in this way before and it
really resonated with readers. It is the ultimate adventure story."
"One of the rules on this movie," adds Clements, "was
NO magic. This was somehow a universe where there wasn't any magic.
Everything
that exists has some technological or scientific explanation regardless
of how different it might seem from our world. There is a logic
to everything that happens."
Musker
adds, "In creating our version o the story, Jim was the hardest
character to flesh out. We wanted him to be sort of introverted
and have the typical problems of a teenage boy but not have that
be off-putting in any way. We always pictured him as being at a
crossroads in his life. He's a kid who has the potential to do great
things with his life. But the potential also exists that he could
go in the wrong direction and end up in a lot of trouble. Like all
the characters in the film, Jim has a missing piece. He's incomplete
in a sense because he is missing a relationship with his father."
MUSKER
& CLEMENTS:
DISNEY'S ACCLAIMED FILMMAKING DUO FIND ANIMATED "TREASURE"
IN THEIR FIFTH FILM
Beginning with their directing/writing debut on "The Great
Mouse Detective" in 1986, John Musker and Ron Clements have
been putting their own distinctive creative stamp on Disney's animated
features. Over the next 16 years and four additional films ("The
Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," "Hercules"
and "Treasure Planet"), this dynamic filmmaking duo have
played a major role in reviving the Hollywood musical and in bringing
a new sense of comedy, style and excitement to animated features.
With
"Treasure Planet," Musker and Clements add a new genre
and new achievements to their acclaimed careers in the medium. Clements
describes the duo's creative process in this way: "We pretty
much worked on this film in the same way we've worked in the past.
We start by creating an outline together. John is the first to write
and he comes up with reams of ideas and improvisations. I bring
all his ideas together with mine and write a script. He'll take
the rough draft of the script and tweak it and then it goes back
and forth. Once we get into production, we divide the movie up into
scenes. We both get involved in recording the voice talent and editorial
meetings." Conli observes, "It's magic how they work together.
They're incredibly passionate about what they want and they're incredibly
giving with all their collaborators on the film. They finish each
other's sentences and they seem to have a telepathic communication
between them. They usually think pretty much alike but when they
don't they're very clear with one another about what they are thinking.
There's definitely a healthy dialogue going back and forth. They
really understand animation and have a great sense of storyboarding,
but their brilliance is as filmmakers who have a great visual sense
of storytelling using the camera."
"What's
really interesting about them is that they listen to everyone,"
says art director Andy Gaskill. "Anyone can offer advice, a
suggestion or an opinion after each screening. Ron and John encourage
notes from the entire crew. Even though they have a very specific
idea of the kind of story they want to tell, they still leave it
wide open for other ideas. If they get one note that contradicts
what they're doing, they may not take it seriously. But if they
get ten notes that contradict, they'll look at it and want to explore
other options. They're humorous, easy going and you feel like you
can always say what's on your mind."
Glen
Keane observes, "They really are the animators' director. They
think like animators and they're sensitive to the animators' needs.
Acting is paramount. They are willing to change a lot to accommodate
better acting in the picture. They truly are the dream directors
for animators."
ANIMATING
JOHN SILVER:
SUPERVISING ANIMATOR GLEN KEANE AND CG EXPERT ERIC DANIELS COLLABORATE
"ARM IN ARM"
Glen Keane ranks among the all-time greatest animators and he has
been responsible for creating some of the most memorable animated
characters in Disney history, including Ariel ("The Little
Mermaid"), the Beast ("Beauty and the Beast"), Aladdin,
Pocahontas, among others. He was just finishing up a tough assignment
supervising the animation of Tarzan and completing a four-year tour
of duty at Disney's Paris animation studio when John Musker and
Ron Clements approached him in 1999 about doing the character of
John Silver. Over the next three years, Keane would work "arm
in arm" with CG expert Eric Daniels to create a true hybrid
character - a cyborg sea cook with a mechanical side and a flesh-and-blood
side. Musker recalls, "We pitched the story to Glen early on
and I think he was intrigued by two things - the idea of doing a
character that was half CG and half hand-drawn, and the story idea
of a guy who has to overcome this obsession.
We
described an image to Glen that really stuck with him. Silver's
got the choice of Jim on the one hand and the treasure on the other.
Literally, in the film, there's a scene where Jim is slipping away
and Silver has to decide whether to hang on to the treasure or the
boy. Glen latched on to this right away. Silver is this interesting
combination of good guy, bad guy. He has a real complexity to him.
He's the villain, but there's goodness underneath that and he's
very conflicted."
According
to Keane, "Every character gets really personal for me. And
I never really have to force this to happen. It's more like, 'just
keep your eyes open, Glen, and you're going to find the clues in
your own life for the character.' The relationship between Silver
and Jim is like a father and son. Every dad struggles to help his
son realize his potential and that's certainly true with me and
my son. My greatest goal is to see him reach his potential and that's
the same treasure that Silver gets in the end of the film. For me,
that's the treasure of being a father. And that's what I drew on.
It's a very deep feeling."
Another
powerful inspiration for Keane in creating the character was his
high school football coach. He observes, "I was seventeen years
old and I had been fighting for a starting position on the football
team as a halfback. And there was another player who was competing
for the same position and he was a heck of a lot bigger and the
head coach's favorite guy. I worked really hard and I got the starting
position on this game and I was very proud of it. The game started
and I played three plays and got the ball once. Then the head coach
took me out and put the other guy in for the rest of the game. I
never played again and I was crushed. As a seventeen-year-old, that's
your life. You want your chance to shine. I had it but the coach
tookit away. Afterwards in the parking lot, the assistant coach,
Mickey Ryan, a great guy who spoke with his heart and always had
a twinkle in his eye, put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Glen,
you're gonna do great things. You're gonna get that starting position.
That wasn't right what happened.' And I could see that he really
cared. There were tears in his eyes and I started to cry too. I
lived that scene with Jim and Silver on the boat when Silver encourages
Jim after a big setback. It was one of those things where you try
to animate what you lived through and hope you can even get close
to it."
In
addition to designing the look of the character and providing an
entertaining and emotional performance, Keane joined forces with
Eric Daniels, a CG expert with a background in traditional animation,
to create some of the most exciting animation ever captured on screen.
Keane
explains, "In the beginning our biggest concerns involved the
marriage of the CG and the hand-drawn animation. We quickly
discovered that the biggest challenge in doing Silver was the same
challenge we had with Tarzan and Ariel - the acting. How do you
get into his heart and his emotions? This is really where you had
to be spending most of your time.
If
you were focused on the technical problems, it would show in the
acting and the story. Eric Daniels had this great ability to take
something really complex and make it simple. I never had to stop
drawing and, even though I was enmeshed in the computer world, I
still got just as much graphite over my face as ever before. I love
that."
Typically,
a scene with Silver would begin with rough drawings from Keane.
He would tie down the acting and timing for a scene and draw in
the mechanical side as well. For the latter, he broke the arm down
into simple shapes and animated the gestures and movements. Once
the animation was approved, the drawings would be scanned into the
computer and Daniels would start to lay the mechanics of the robotic
arm over them. The duo developed a great working relationship and
a confidence in one another that reflected in the character's performance.
Silver's key clean-up leads Bill Berg and Karen Lundeen are credited
with doin an extraordinary job integrating the character's two halves
and giving them an organic and unified feel. The film's clean-up
supervisor was Disney veteran Vera Lanpher (who has supervised such
major films as "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion
King"). Keane offers high praise for the other members of the
Silver animation team, especially fellow animator Marc Smith, who
served as his right-hand man. "Marc is an amazing animator
with a drawing style that fits very naturally with mine," says
Keane. "His animation has great appeal and a lot of humor to
it."
Eric
Daniels was ultimately responsible for Silver's right side - the
mechanical half. He explains, "Glen and I spent many months
designing the character in collaboration with Steven Olds. We were
constantly coordinating with each other. I would drive around the
city on field trips looking for various types of machinery.
The
more they felt like throwbacks to the past, the better it was. I
was looking at heavy machinery from decades past, especially steam
engines that were huge, heavy and cast-iron with lots of cotter-pins.
We went to the home of legendary Disney animator Ollie Johnston
to look at his backyard railroad and we visited Griffith Park's
Traveltown to study their locomotives. Ultimately, Silver's leg
was based on some ancient dry-cleaning machinery I came across.
"Glen and I came to this assignment with different sets of
requirements," adds Daniels.
"He
was keeping an eye on the character and how best to express his
actions in silhouette. It was very important to him to have a really
large forearm and not such a large upper arm. It makes for a really
interesting silhouette. For me, it was important that Silver not
look like a guy in a suit. He couldn't have metal encasing his real
arm. It had to really look like that was his arm.
And
in order to do that, we had to open up as many negative spaces as
possible so that we could see through it and know that there wasn't
an arm in there. I also wanted to see it be as believably functional
as possible. We didn't want a character like Inspector Gadget where
a hatch opens and an impossibly huge piece of machinery comes out.
Our challenge was to make it not seem cartoony. I remembered a jukebox
my uncle had and I was fascinated by the way the platter full of
45s would rotate on one axis and an arm would come down on a completely
different axis and pluck it out and put it into a new place. I wanted
Silver to have a turntable of devices inside his forearm and I wanted
the correct module to rotate into place so that it was in line with
the hand. Then it would pivot at the wrist and one hand would go
away and another device would come out. Silver's arm is basically
a cross between a Swiss army knife and a jukebox."
In the film, Silver's arm functions as an egg catcher (based on
a cherry picker and an olive picker), a shrimper (based on a lawn
sprinkler) and a blowtorch. Daniels and Keane worked out the intricate
choreography of making each device pop into place and operate in
a believable manner.
"Glen
would draw the arm as if he had CG software in his head," says
Daniels. "He could draw that arm from any angle and it would
match up almost perfectly. It was really amazing. He had a simplified
way of drawing the arm and broke down the components into familiar
shapes. In most cases, he and his team would be extremely specific
about what they wanted the arm to do. Other times, we would be free
to reinterpret the mechanical movements to make it work better.
I loved it when I could surprise Glen."
Daniels
concludes, "The biggest challenge was trying to make the mechanical
side look like it belonged to the drawings. There's a certain way
that traditional animation moves that computer animation rarely
does. So we had to try and incorporate the sense of movement that
traditional animators have into our work. They had to draw a lot
more solidly than they normally would and we had to make the metal
arm bend and stretch and do impossible things in order to have it
look natural, smooth and effortless.
Overall,
this project was a dream come true. I've been tinkering with machines
and studying them my whole life. And I've been doing traditional
and 3-D animation for a long time. This film gave me a chance to
bring all of these things together and an opportunity to work with
some of the best artists in the business."
Keane
adds, "Whenever the computer intersects with my world of animation,
it always pushes me to draw better, to act better, to be better
at my craft. It's always challenging me and that's why I feel like
I'm a better artist and a better actor at the end of this picture
than I was at the beginning. And, personally as an artist, that's
a great accomplishment."
The
other major part of the equation to making Silver a great character
was the contribution of actor Brian Murray, who provided the voice.
Keane observes, "Brian has a great stage presence and there's
something about stage actors that fits so well with animation. They
have a broader approach that allows you to really take the most
advantage of animation as a medium of exaggeration. His expressions
were always pushed out there a bit further, but never to the point
where they were no longer sincere.
There's
always this great sincerity in Brian's acting that you believe his
character is real, but there's also this humor to every reading
and a melody that provides a nice texture. He'd say something really
fast, and then there'd be a pause, and then a bold laugh, and then
a little laughter. There was always a lot of variety and texture.
You could close your eyes and see immediately how it was going to
be performed.
"I
did some caricatures of Brian the first day I met him," recalls
Keane. "I had them up at my desk throughout the whole film.
He had kind of an Irish way of talking where he exposed his top
teeth. And so the teeth became a very important part of Silver.
We put a gap in his teeth to make it seem less perfect."
Keane
explains, "Silver is one of those characters that feels like
there's not enough space on the screen for him. As an animator,
it's so enjoyable to draw a character like that. I think of him
as being like a sculptural drawing. This helped us marry the solid
CG three-dimensional object onto the traditional drawn part. There
was a great satisfaction in doing this and accomplishing something
that no one knew if we could do for sure. And at the beginning there
was a big question mark about blending computer animation and hand-drawn
in the same character."
Keane
acknowledges that his characters have gotten more complicated as
he has gotten better at his craft. "It used to be all about,
'Can I draw it?' Can I actually describe what I'm trying to feel
in my drawing? Now it's not so much the skill in drawing but more
about identifying those emotions. The relationship between Silver
and Jim reflects a much deeper, more complex relationship in my
own life too."
ANIMATING
JIM HAWKINS:
SUPERVISING ANIMATOR JOHN RIPA'S BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
The
pivotal role of Jim Hawkins was entrusted to John Ripa, a gifted
supervising animator who had previously worked as part of Keane's
team on Pocahontas and as the supervisor for the characters of baby
and young Tarzan (providing a lead-in to Keane's work on adult Tarzan).
A team of sixteen animators, under Ripa's leadership, lent their
talent and support to the process.
For
the final design of the character, Ripa spent a lot of time trying
to get into the mind of Jim Hawkins. He explains, "Jim is fifteen
years old and at a point in his life where he's not really sure
who he is. He has a feeling of low selfworth and doesn't realize
his potential or feel like he has anything to offer. I read books
on child development and made notes about what teens are feeling.
I also watched every teen angst film I could get my hands on. James
Dean was very inspirational. There is something about his eyes that
I found fascinating. His acting choices were brilliant and gave
him a sense of vulnerability and defensiveness at the same time.
It was interesting to see the angle of his head and study what he
did with his eyes. There is a lot of subtlety in his performance
that I kept coming back to time and again.
"To
help me understand Jim better, I came up with a whole backstory
for the character," adds Ripa. "It was something that
was never intended to be used in the film. But as Glen was storyboarding
the song sequence, set to John Rzeznik's very emotional song 'I'm
Still Here,' he began asking me questions like, 'What happened when
Jim's father left?' I don't know how much of an answer he expected
but I told him, 'He wakes up in the morning, and he senses something's
wrong, and he runs downstairs. His mother's crying at the table
and she's silhouetted by the window. The door's open behind him
and he knows something is wrong. He hears the ferry whistle and
knows that the ship is taking off. He races to the dock and sees
his father on the ship.' I imagined him hanging out at the dock
wishing that one of the stars would increase in size and turn into
a ship and his father would come back. At some point, he stops going
and his pain turns to anger and other emotions. Glen ended up using
a lot of this backstory in the song montage. As an animator, some
of the most interesting parts of creating the performance come from
feeling you know who the person is. Some animators prefer more cartoony
and broader characters, but I really enjoy trying to figure out
his eyes and what's going on inside his head. To me, Jim became
very real."
Adding
to Jim's distinctive look is the design of his hair. Ripa gave the
character a haircut that had contemporary elements including a ponytail
that became an important part of his silhouette. Ripa also extensively
researched Jim's costume and mixed and matched styles from different
periods.
Borrowing
heavily from the Brandywine school of illustration, he outfitted
Jim in traditional Pirate shirt, pants and belt. The coat has a
1940s feel to it and the boots are a combination of pirate and snowboarding
attire.
One
of the keys to making the relationship between Silver and Jim so
real was the close rapport that developed between Keane and Ripa
during the course of the production. Ripa recalls, "Glen has
always been like a mentor to me and I've learned incredible amounts
of things from him on the films we've done together. On 'Treasure
Planet,' we had a lot of fun working together and it was great to
be so open with him. Sometimes we would wrestle and joke around
just to let loose. We were always aware of each other's character
and how they worked and related together. Their relationship is
really the key to the film and what drives the story. Glen and I
would discuss scenes and act them out. On one occasion, we actually
roughed out a 30-foot scene on the same desk at the same time. He
would do a big bold pencil scribble of Silver on the drawing board
and then step back. We'd talk about what happens next and act it
out. Then I'd draw Jim on a separate piece of paper right on top
of his drawing. We blocked out the whole scene that way. It was
very comfortable and very spontaneous.
"Joseph
Gordon-Levitt did a really outstanding job as the voice of Jim,"
says Ripa. "He was fun to work with and you felt he believed
in the character the same way we did when we were animating the
scenes. If a line felt too forced, he would come up with a different
approach and really improve it. His overall attitude and approach
was really inspiring and it was great to watch his poses and body
language. Little things he'd do with his hands and the way he positioned
his head provided a wealth of inspiration and information."
Just
as the character of John Silver becomes a mentor to Jim Hawkins
and Keane mentored Ripa, actor Brian Murray became a mentor to Gordon-Levitt.
The two actors recorded many of their key scenes together adding
a spontaneity and chemistry to the performances.
Gordon-Levitt
notes, "Brian was certainly a mentor to me. He just has such
control over his voice, which is something that I really aspire
to have. His voice is this great instrument and he can control his
throat and diaphragm. He has a precision that is so admirable. I
absorbed so much just from working with him and listening to what
he does. In the scenes we did together, my performance seems thicker
and richer with more oomph. And I think that's largely his influence."
BRINGING
LIFE TO A COLORFUL CAST OF HUMANS AND ALIENS:
In
addition to Keane's extraordinary work on John Silver and Ripa's
powerful animation on Jim, a team of top character animators brought
life to the colorful cast of humans and aliens in "Treasure
Planet."
Ken
Duncan, the talented animator who supervised Jane in "Tarzan"
and Megara in "Hercules," took on the double duty of animating
the courageous Captain Amelia and the unscrupulous spider-like Scroop.
Clements explains, "At first, we had thought of Ken for the
character of Amelia, but he really wanted to do Scroop because he's
this really cool villain. In the end, we were having trouble casting
the role of Amelia, so Ken ended up animating her as well. He's
a top animator and his work on these two very different characters
shows his great range." Musker observes, "We actually
wrote the character of Captain Amelia with Emma Thompson in mind.
In addition to being a great actress, she is also a very talented
wordsmith and she always wanted her pages ahead of time so that
she could fine tune them. She would come to the recording sessions
with lots of variations and she would bandy them about. She'd say,
'I rather fancy the word footling, that sounds like a word that
she would use, right?' This is the first action adventure character
that Emma has ever played and she was pregnant during several of
the sessions. She was happy that she could do all this action and
not have to train for the part."
"Emma
Thompson is a goddess in the acting community," adds Schumacher.
"To have her in one of our films is such a great pleasure.
She has so much strength, so much charm, so much wit and such a
fantastic command of the language."
Overseeing
the character of Dr. Doppler, the bookish astrophysicist who finances
the expedition, was supervising animator Sergio Pablos. A native
of Spain, Pablos had previously supervised Tantor, the germaphobic
elephant in Disney's 1999 feature, "Tarzan."
"I
had a blast animating Doppler," says Pablos. "He is a
character that provides both comic relief and romantic interest.
He had several layers to him and this complexity appealed to me.
Doppler is rich and dedicates his time to studying but when the
map to Treasure Planet appears, he jumps at the chance to go out
there and do something. As a character, he has no social graces.
He's very awkward in social situations and is like a fish out of
water. He often gets tongue-tied and says the wrong things. Although
he would never want to be the center of attention, he always manages
to get himself in the thick of things.
David
Hyde Pierce was great at improvisation and really made the character
his own. We would be cracking up in the booth during his sessions
and he would always make the lines sound a lot funnier than they
were on paper."
For
the character of Morph, Silver's protoplasmic shape-shifting mate,
the filmmakers turned to Mike Show. The animator had previously
supervised all five of the gospelsinging muses in "Hercules."
Show
recalls, "The design for Morph was pretty easy - just a blob
with two eyes. The challenge was in figuring out how to move him
around. The directors wanted it to look like a lava lamp and I remember
sitting with them in a room staring at a lamp. The character really
took off when I started to animate him and experiment with how to
keep him blobby but still give him a personality with expressions
that would read. In the film, Morph turns into Jim, Amelia, Silver,
Scroop and a couple of dozen other things. He's basically a blob
held together by gravity just enough so that you can read the expression
on his face. He never really comes to a standstill. He jiggles all
the time.
"Personality-wise,
Morph is a happy little guy, very innocent and playful," adds
Show. "He's like a toddler who likes to play but has a short
attention span. When something serious is happening around him,
he basically doesn't understand and goes off to play. He does pick
up on people's vibes, however, and he reflects the tone of what's
going on in each scene. Morph turned out to be a combination of
a puppy, my son and a lava lamp all smooshed together."
At
the opposite end of the animation spectrum from the amorphous Morph
is B.E.N. (Bio-Electronic-Navigator), the only character in "Treasure
Planet" that is completely animated using computers. Oskar
Urretabizkaia, who had supervised the computer-generated Hydra character
in "Hercules," spent two years building this rambunctious
robot character in the computer and served as the supervising animator.
Assisting him were animators Mark Austin and Doug Bennett. Austin,
who led the animation of Aladar in Disney's "Dinosaur"
and also animated flocks of Mantabirds (Manta-ray-like winged creatures)
and sixty space whales (Orcus Galacticus) for "Treasure Planet,"
notes, "In the early versions of the script, B.E.N. was this
quiet, nervous hermit character who kept to himself and didn't like
people that much. But as the character evolved and Martin Short
was signed to do the voice, things took a very different direction.
He suddenly became a very complex character with lots of wild erratic
movements. He talks so fast and can go from a regular speaking voice
to a shout without any warning. His movements are very broad and
extreme."
John
Musker adds, "Martin Short provided the right combination of
improvisational humor and warmth. In one of the early sessions,
he adlibbed a line, 'Touching and talking, that's my two big no-nos'
and that helped us to define the character. He talks too much and
he touches too much. He's kind of like the long lost relative who
is so overcome with emotion that he becomes like flypaper and can't
stay away. He's a compulsive toucher, which is a nice contrast to
Jim, who has this kind of wall around him and is uncomfortable with
physical contact. B.E.N.'s part kept getting bigger as the film
progressed and we all loved Martin's stuff so much."
ACROSS
THE UNIVERSE:
THE ART OF "TREASURE PLANET"
Ron
Clements had a clear concept for "Treasure Planet" from
the very start. In an early presentation, he described the art direction
in this way: "It's important to point out that this movie takes
place in a fantasy universe. It's not the past; it's not the future.
It's a time and place unto itself. Esthetically, everything has
a very 18th Century feel to it. But the technology is pretty advanced.
They have interstellar galleons, intelligent robots and they do
amazing things with solar power and artificial gravity. And most
importantly: you can breathe in outer space. Space is called the
'etherium' in this movie and it's filled with atmosphere. This is
how we can have these big open deck ships sailing with the wind
blowing in your face."
With
these ideas in mind, art director Andy Gaskill was charged with
creating a universe unlike any other. He recalls, "Initially,
Ron established something he called the 60/40 rule, whereby the
film would look 60% traditional and 40% futuristic or high-tech.
We soon modified that benchmark to be 70% traditional and 30% high-tech.
For example, from a distance, Jim's house looks like an English
halftimber cottage, but as you get closer, you realize that there's
all this metal work and pipes and things that are clearly contemporary.
That 70/30 formula became an easy way of gauging the effect we wanted.
"A
major influence for us on this film was the Brandywine painters,"
adds Gaskill. "This refers to a style that is oriented towards
fantasy, adventure and storybook illustration. N.C. Wyeth did the
illustrations for the 1911 Scribner's edition of Stevenson's Treasure
Island and that became a great reference for us. We analyzed his
paintings and studied the graphic qualities of his work. We also
looked at other Brandywine painters like Howard Pyle and Maxfield
Parrish to study the composition of their scenes and the sense of
scale they used. One of the things that's very characteristic of
their work is that their surfaces are never tightly finished. They're
always a bit loose and sometimes have shadowy areas with just a
swash of brushstrokes and not a lot of detail. It takes a good painter
to do that and it was kind of intimidating at first to try to make
this film look like a Brandywine illustration.
"Another
great reference for us was the swashbuckling films of the '30s,"
notes Gaskill. "Films like 'Captain Blood' and 'The Adventures
of Robin Hood' owe so much to the Brandywine illustrators. The mantle
for fantasy and adventure seemed to transfer from them to Hollywood
during this period."
Associate
art director Ian Gooding, whose primary focus was to oversee the
use of color insupport of the story, used the Brandywine painters'
warm palette approach. Many of the scenes in the film feel like
they're bathed in light to focus on the action and storytelling.
With
regard to the backgrounds and overall look of the film, the creative
team chose an oil painting approach, once again influenced by the
Brandywine style. This is the first Disney film since "Bambi"
to use an oil painted background style and the first film from the
Studio to ever have all of its backgrounds painted in the computer.
Conli
explains, "For us to do oil painted backgrounds in the past
would have meant having hundreds of paintings drying on racks somewhere.
Before you can shoot a background, it has to be dry and oil paints
can literally take months to dry. And then to shoot them through
glass would have been a nightmare. When we discovered we could achieve
an oil painting look from a digital standpoint by painting in the
computer, we were very excited."
Background
supervisor Dan Cooper guided a team of traditionally trained painters
in creating the backgrounds for the film. He explains, "This
is the first film that we've painted completely in the computer.
It's still a stroke for stroke process but instead of using a paintbrush,
we use a stylus. To create this same oil paint look by hand would
be nearly impossible since the paints take six months to a year
to dry. With the computer, we can get that look completely and it's
instantly done. From an artistic standpoint, our painters are using
the computer to apply their brushstrokes directly onto the system
instead of having their handpainted art scanned in. It's really
the purest and most direct process we've ever had."
ADDING
A NEW DIMENSION TO ANIMATION: VIRTUAL SETS AND DIGITAL EFFECTS
Creating
a fantasy universe as a backdrop to an intergalactic adventure story
required considerable imagination and an exciting new approach to
blending the traditional and 3-D worlds of animation. Expanding
upon the "Deep Canvas" technique that was invented for
"Tarzan," the film's technical team developed something
called "virtual sets" to add depth and dimension to the
production. Nearly 75% of the film's sets were constructed as 3-D
environments which could be lit and reused for different scenes.
"We
knew going into the production that we were going to have a lot
of detailed sets and that several of those sets were going to be
used over and over again," explains Conli. "A third of
the film takes place on the solar galleon, another third takes place
on Treasure Planet, and the first third involves the spaceport and
other settings. Virtual sets allowed us to keep each scene visually
interesting and dynamic."
"Other
films have used digital backgrounds before," adds Gaskill,
"but what makes 'Treasure Planet' unique is the way we combined
digital painting technology with 3-D modeling techniques. Our backgrounds
became really fluid and we could move through them but still make
them feel like they were paintings. In the case of virtual sets,
we actually constructed 3-D sets in the computer and the camera
could move freely within that set. It opened up all kinds of avenues
for staging shots.
Once the sets were built, it became like a real live-action set
that you could re-light and use over again. You could also place
the camera anywhere you wanted to and make any kind of moves including
dolly and trucking shots. It gave us tremendous freedom."
Rasoul
Azadani, who has worked on all of Musker & Clements' previous
films during his 17 years at Disney, headed up the Layout department
for "Treasure Planet." He observes, "This film was
really a breakthrough with regard to cinematography. We ended up
building most of the key environments as 3-D virtual sets, which
gave us a lot of freedom to move in and around them and change the
lighting to suit the action and mood. Among the virtual sets we
built were the kitchen galley where Jim first encounters John Silver,
the longboat room, the stockade and Jim's bedroom. Even the RLS
Legacy was built as a 3-D set.
"Deep
Canvas' was a breakthrough because it allowed us to paint brushstrokes
on geometric objects in space," adds Azadani. "That gave
us dimension and a very painterly look. With virtual sets, the entire
set is built in the computer and the painting is done in the same
way with brushstrokes. We paint the objects in a base color which
can be adjusted for lighting and mood. 'Deep Canvas' was limited
to fixed lighting and would typically be used for one particular
shot whereas with virtual sets, once they're built they have unlimited
possibilities."
Dave
Tidgwell was responsible for overseeing a team of 40 effects animators
and technicians in creating all the visual effects in "Treasure
Planet." This includes animating everything from the movements
of the Legacy itself and Jim's solar surfer to such diverse effects
as exploding stars, cosmic storms, steam and hundreds of thousands
of gold drubloons.
"This
is probably the most ambitious animated film the studio has ever
done from a visual effects standpoint," says Tidgwell. "Almost
every scene has some effects in it ranging from something as simple
as shadows or tones to something as substantial as an imploding
planet. Our big challenge was figuring out how to fit our effects
into the style of the film. How do you make a supernova look like
it was created by a Brandywine painter? The directors wanted the
film to have a real painterly look and the effects had to feel like
they were part of that world. Another major challenge for us throughout
the film was figuring out how to combine the hand-drawn and 3D elements.
We had the ability to make our effects seem very realistic but they
had to blend in with the character animation."
Overseeing
the CGI department on "Treasure Planet" was Kyle Odermatt.
Unlike previous films where the CGI team was a separate unit that
would handle an element or two, this film integrated CG experts
into each department and put the tools more directly into the hands
of the artists.
"I
think the thing that John and Ron wanted from the first day I talked
to them was a dimensional place that they could create," recalls
Odermatt. "They wanted it to have impact and they wanted it
to have hybrid characters that had never been done before. And I'm
very proud that those things, which seemed rather daunting at the
time, proceeded along a development path and moved into a production
path that was no more of a hiccup to the normal process than any
of the challenging elements we've tackled in the past. We always
make it hard for ourselves because we want to achieve lofty goals.
And that was true of all the digital elements in this film. We worked
very closely with (associate producer) Peter Del Vecho to educate
all the members of the creative team. Digital production requires
lots of patience. With a hand-drawn element, if I have an idea,
I can draw it for you in two minutes.
With
a digital element, I can have an idea and the first worthwhile thing
that a director might be able to see might be six weeks later. There
is a certain leap of faith involved."
Early
on in the production process, Odermatt and his team did a test of
a cyborg character to show the directors how it might look in the
film. Even before Glen Keane and Eric Daniels were on board, the
CGI team took original drawings of Captain Hook (from the 1953 Disney
classic, "Peter Pan") from the Studio's Animation Research
Library, scanned them into a computer and erased the arm. A CG model
was created to show that the concept was valid. Odermatt recalls,
"It was a test that completely convinced everyone that a cyborg
John Silver was possible."
Thomas
Schumacher concludes, "The lines are very blurred between the
departme now because everybody is interacting with everyone else's
stuff. The computer now plays a large role in what everyone is doing.
The sense of art, the sense of legacy, the history of the hand-made
quality is very much alive inside 'Treasure Planet,' but it requires
people to collaborate in ways that they frankly have never done
before. This is a wonderful thing and I'm so proud of the jaw-dropping
beauty of this movie."
THE
MUSIC
 No
adventure tale is complete without a grand musical score to accentuate
the action and enhance the elements of drama and comedy that accompany
it. To help "Treasure Planet" strike all the right chords,
the filmmakers enlisted the talents of composer James Newton Howard.
This is Howard's third score for a Disney animated feature, following
previous credits on "Dinosaur" and "Atlantis: The
Lost Empire." Producer Roy Conli describes the composer's work
as "romantically transcendent and very much in the tradition
of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's great swashbuckling scores for films
like 'Captain Blood' and 'The Seahawk.' The score is a huge orchestral
piece that pays homage to the great sea adventures of the 1940s.
James is one of the few composers who can write to comedy, adventure,
romance and emotion." Howard notes, "This is probably
the culmination of a lot of things I've attempted in the past. This
movie fits in with the rich tradition of Korngold, Tiomkin, and
Steiner and the swashbuckling films they helped to create.
There
was an expectation on this film that the music had to really perform
on a classic level. Animated films are at once exciting and terrifying
for any composer because there is a ton of work and you realize
this is a very musicdriven medium. The scary thing is you know how
good it could be and you strive towards achieving that. A large
part of my job is to help clarify and emphasize the emotional point
of view at any given time."
In
addition to a great score, the film features two songs by singer/songwriter
John Rzeznik (one of the founding members and lead singer of the
Goo Goo Dolls), who marks his solo artist debut on this project.
The first song, "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" accompanies
a montage of images in which Jim and John Silver develop a friendship.
For this rock ballad, Rzeznik drew on his own memories of adolescence
and infused the song with a great understanding of the character
and emotional feeling. He observes, "Jim became a real person
to me. He goes on an adventure to find his real identity, and though
he winds up with a few scars, he becomes a man. It's a great story
and the animation is absolutely mind-blowing. I found it easy to
relate to Jim because I felt a lot like him when I was his age."
Rzeznik's second song, "Always Know Where You Are," is
heard at the end of the film and into the end credits.
|
