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What is the best movie or TV adaptation of Treasure Island?
I recently watched the limited TV series dramatisation of Les Miserables and really enjoyed it. This made me wonder if there are any recent, faithful adaptations of Treasure Island as either TV serial or movie?
Alright, stick with me on this: The best adaptation of Treasure Island is Muppet Treasure Island.
It has the adventurous spirit of the original story, great musical numbers and is actually relatively faithful to the book.
Not to mention the BEST portrayal of Long John Silver ever.
Tim Curry is a national treasure. If memory serves, this was his favorite role too.
He really is extraordinary! His demon (Darkness) in Legend is the ultimate demon to me (though a lot of that is thanks to the makeup department)
It's such a loss for movies and theatre that he had to stop acting. As a stroke survivor myself (though nowhere near as affected at Tim Curry) I have some idea what it's like when you have to give up what you've done for a living( I'm a journalist and have very little fine motor skill in my left hand after the stroke, so typing on a keyboard is challenging) I'm glad he still does a little acting when he can, both for himself and for the fans. He's truly inspiring.
His Toxic Love in Ferngully made childhood-me hot for pollution. Tim Curry was fantastic at playing a charismatic villain.
I digested the Sabriel audiobooks by Garth Nix solely because Tim Curry narrated them. And he was amazing.
Oh, I believe you. Muppets Christmas Carol is also really rather good. I'll check their Treasure Island!
If anyone is interested in making a pilgrimage, Atlanta's Center For Puppetry Arts has a lot of the original props and puppets from the movie in their wonderful permanent Jim Henson exhibition.
https://puppet.org/
It's astonishing the amount of rapid technical development that went into making the Muppets something special, and the dedication and enthusiasm the entire team shared bringing their visions to life.
I recommend rewatching the original Muppet Movie as well, as I feel it really holds up, and I find it just as hilarious and appreciate the meta commentary much more as an adult.
(P.S. - for the nerds out there loving Tim Curry in his charis-manianic villainy, I loved his camp wizard self in the BBC mini series 'The Color of Magic', an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's book of the same name.
P.S.S. - Personally, I delight in framing the mini-series as LOTR's Samwise retirement adventure, since Sean Austin plays Twoflower, a tourist that lacks a sense of danger.)
I completely agree about the Puppetry Arts Center. It’s fantastic. I have family in Atlanta and I’ve there many times. They also have some of the original puppets from MST3K.
It’s like $15 per person and is one of the best museums in Atlanta.
Fun fact: if you take a trip on Disney Cruise Line, they will almost certainly have a pirate themed night and they will play this movie on the big screen.
Also The Muppet Christmas Carol is great for pretty much the same reasons. It doesn't have Tim Curry, but it does have Michael Caine in what I consider to be his best role as Ebenezer Scrooge.
I love this movie so much, and was thinking that it might not be mentioned since it's too silly. Glad to see i'm not the only one who thinks it's a perfect melding of silly concepts while keeping the spirit of the story.
Came to say that it's the muppets version and it's not even close.
I came here to say this! I loved that movie as a kid. In fact, I need to turn it on for my kids!
Also, Tim Curry.
Need we say anything more?
The 1950s Disney adaptation will forever be my favorite, just because that's the first one I saw when I was a kid, and Robert Newton kills it as Long John Silver. And I'm clearly not alone in thinking that, since almost every person I've seen play Long John Silver after him has emulated his particular dress, speech, and mannerisms to various degrees.
But for fun I decided to check the IMDB ratings for all the English-language movie adaptations listed on Wikipedia:
Treasure Island (1917) - 6.6/10 (28 votes)
Treasure Island (1920) - 7.0/10 (54 votes)
Treasure Island (1934) - 7.1/10 (3k votes)
Treasure Island (1950) - 6.9/10 (9k votes)
Treasure Island (1972) - 5.8/10 (1.4k votes)
Treasure Island (1973) - 5.4/10 (205 votes)
Treasure Island (1987) - 6.8/10 (109 votes)
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) - 6.9/10 (25k votes)
Treasure Island (1999) - 5.2/10 (599 votes)
Treasure Planet (2002) - 7.2/10 (126k votes)
Pirates of Treasure Island (2006) - 2.2/10 (1.1k votes)
Edit: Decided to do the TV adaptations too:
TV movies:
Treasure Island (1990) - 7.0/10 (5.7k votes)
Treasure Island (1995) - 7.4/10 (73 votes)
I watched the 1990s one with Charlton Heston as Long John, and Christian Bale as Jim too. I remember it being quite good, but I can't remember any specifics, and I think I still prefer the 1950s movie.
TV shows/mini-series:
The Adventures of Long John Silver (1955) - 7.1/10 (172 votes)
Treasure Island (1966) - 7.9/10 (553 votes)
Treasure Island (1968) - 7.0/10 (9 votes)
Treasure Island (1977) - 6.9/10 (36 votes)
Treasure Island (Takarajima; 1978) - 8.4/10 (1.3k votes)
The Legends of Treasure Island (1993–1995) - 7.9/10 (178 votes)
Treasure Island (2012) - 6.2/10 (6.2k votes)
I've never seen the 2012 miniseries, but the cast looks impressive. And the anime has piqued my curiosity too due to its high ratings. So now I will have to check them out.
I just finished watching the 1950 version, you're right, Newton is an amazing Silver! I can't believe I haven't seen it before... Next up is the 2012 two part TV version. It has terrible reviews, but I do love Izzard and think she would make a great Silver too! Fingers crossed.
Edit: a letter
Glad you enjoyed it!
And likewise, Izzard is a hero of mine, and has been for decades, so seeing her playing Silver is why I was so excited by the cast in the 2012 miniseries too, and will inevitably watch it now despite its somewhat low ratings. That and Donald Sutherland is a Canadian icon, and I like Elijah Wood as well.
p.s. When I saw the IMDB listing a few days ago, that was the first time I'd learned of Izzard announcing her new preferred pronouns and name; she/her, Suzy Izzard. She has always been very strongly punk rock/counter-culture when it came to nearly everything, but I also remember her being pretty weirdly against the widely accepted LGBT+ culture and terminologies for the longest time too, and even staunchly defending the problematic "transvestite" label on multiple occasions in the past as well. But apparently last month that all changed! Pretty cool, if you ask me. And I'm happy for her. :)
I actually hadn't seen the tweet from last month or seen any mention of it before so thank you very much for the link to the article about Suzy's preferred pronouns.
Treasure Planet and I'll take nothing else as the correct option.
Sadly, I think Treasure Planet got the same treatment that other 2d movies in the early 2000s got. As in limited marketing and other shenanigans, which lead them to not doing great in the box office, mostly to make way for the 3d animated films that would dominate the Western Animation studios way of animating. Which sucks because a lot of my favorite Disney films are the 2d animated films from this time period, like Atlantis (which did got a made for tv sequel) and Treasure Planet.
There's at least one documentary floating around YouTube of the lengths Disney leadership went to tank Treasure Planet. Traditional animation was 'too expensive' compared to the newer computer stuff, and the Deep Canvas(?) blend of traditional and CG was even more expensive. Didn't matter that the project leads had lead the Disney renaissance in order to have the privilege of finally making the project they wanted to.
It released the week after Harry Potter 2, the week before LotR 2, with virtually no marketing. "Killed" is kind of understating it.
Black Sails, while it's not directly about just treasure island, it's %100 one of the best shows about pirates and the whole treasure island story.
Just finished my 3rd rewatch of Black Sails. Can't wait for the 4th!
I was going to say this too. Amazing show that not enough people have seen.
I think I found it after it had been out for a few years, that was my exact thought. I mean, how was this not bigger, GoT was great until it just fizzled out, this went from episode 1 straight to the end with amazing content.
Whole-heartedly agree, but will preface by saving it does start off a little slow, and season 1 absolutely falls a bit into the trope of I over-the-top nudity and sex that almost feels like it was chasing GoT’s high. But, don’t let that throw you off initially.
That's a fair assessment, it did seem to be trying to push the boundaries with it, just to be GoT at sea
2nd for Muppet Treasure Island. Tim Curry is a national treasure
Muppet Treasure Island is fantastic.
For a sci-fi spin on it, Treasure Planet is also a must-watch.
I do love sci-fi but I'm a bit worried Treasure Planet is too Disney. Is it?
It's way less-Disney in tone than other animated films by the studio. It feels closer to a Don Bluth film in many ways, but with the quality and execution of Disney.
And the mixture of traditional and CG animation is done really well.
It's much closer to Titan AE than to Lilo and Stitch.
It's weird that so many people are fans and say that the animation is well blended with the CG. There are many examples of Disney doing a great job with that but Treasure Planet is not one of them. I found it so distracting that I honestly haven't been able to finish watching the movie because I found it so distracting.
Is not seamless bending. There's a stark difference between the CG and the traditional animation.
But they weren't trying to do it seamless. If you want it all to look the same, just do full CG.
Thank you, this was exactly what I needed to know
I just want to give props to Robert Louis Stevenson. He's in my top two writers ever, and the story he came up with here has been beloved for over a hundred years.
I can't really add any new suggestions as others have already said 1950, Muppets, Treasure Planet, and Black Sails, but props on the topic, OP. There's a few iterations here I have not seen, and being a huge lover of the book I will have to check the rest out.
Edit: I just looked at the publishing date-- November 14, 1883-- and Treasure Island will be celebrating its 140th birthday in just a few months.
And rightly so. I would have loved to read the book but I'm having trouble concentrating on reading these days, so I thought I'd find a good adaptation for now.
I recently saw a Russian (Soviet?) cartoon of Treasure Island it was one of the best things ever. It's a whole different experience lol
I have also seen some great theatre adaptations of Treasure Island and it's always going out and supporting your local (independent) theatres!
Im surprised that noone mentioned:
Treasure Island in Outer Space (1987) - 6.5/10 (315 votes)
It's a very good adaption of the book in a 5 episodes TV series which was very inspiring for me as a kid. I saw it again some years ago and it was still holding up to my expectations. I really recommend it to anyone.