Treasure Island

Walt Disney's first fully live action film was born out of necessity more than anything else. Both Disney and RKO had money "frozen" in Great Britain from film revenues there, and they could not be spent anywhere else but England. Disney was still hurting from World War II and so leaving money in Great Britain was not the answer. Walt's solution was to make a movie there, but since he was considered as American as apple pie he wanted to make it a British story so as not to receive resistance from the country. It would have been too expensive to bring over animators and set up a new studio in England so this basically forced Walt's hand into making his first fully live action film. Walt would make three more movies in England to use the frozen funds, but his first would have to be a story that was British, but well known to American audiences. That story would end up being Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Story Background

Treasure Island is probably one of the better known stories that the Disney company had adapted for live action. The story concerns a young boy named Jim Hawkins, who finds himself inexplicably whisked away on a treasure hunt that involves pirates, mutiny, and murder. The book's original title was The Sea Cook: A Story For Boys, so I think we should all be thankful that Stevenson changed it to Treasure Island. Seafaring books about military men, pirates, and explorers were all popular during the 1800's, and Stevenson basically borrowed themes and ideas from many of those books that came before his. That being said, many of the stereotypical things we associate with pirates came from Treasure Island, including treasure maps with an X to mark the spot, parrots on shoulders, peg-legs, tropical locales, and the Black Spot. First released as a serial in the children's magazine Young Folks from 1881-1882, it was later released as a book in 1883 under the title Treasure Island, or the Mutiny of the Hispaniola.Treasure Island proved to be a massive hit for Stevenson, who went on to author other classic stories like The Strange Case of Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped. Treasure Island has been adapted countless times since it's publication and remains Stevenson's seminal work.

Production Background

Walt had been thinking about adapting Treasure Island for quite a few years, but it was meant to be an animated film. Once the issue with frozen assets came about, it ended up being the perfect opportunity to adapt the movie, but in live action instead. Unfortunately, Disney did not own the rights to adapt Treasure Island, so Walt had to make a deal with MGM, the studio that did own the rights, to be able to make his film.RKO, which in the past had only distributed Disney films, partnered with Disney since they also had frozen funds they needed to use too. RKO became a partner production company with Disney, forming the RKO Walt Disney British Productions LTD. Walt was a bit more hands-off with the production, only visiting every once in a while due to the distance. Luckily, Walt trusted the direction of Byron Haskins, who would go on to direct The War of the Worlds (1953) and Long John Silver (1954).Walt had still wanted to include some animation in the film, and planned on having Long John Silver tell Jim Hawkins the story of Reynard the Fox. Obviously this did not happen, but concept drawings for this animated segment would later be used for Disney's animated version of Robin Hood. Of what little drama there was with the production, it all came from the film's pint sized star, Bobby Driscoll. Driscoll was the lone American actor on the film, something that Disney had done on purpose to help appeal the movie to American audiences who had seen Driscoll in Song of the South and So Dear To My Heart. Driscoll did not have a permit to work in England, and incidentally could not receive one since he was under fourteen. Disney was refused in court to allow Driscoll to work, though Disney put in an appeal. Though Driscoll was ordered not to work, production continued and they filmed all of his scenes as quick as possible. By the time the appeals court went back in session and they upheld the original verdict, Driscoll was already done working. The judge was not pleased, as you would imagine, and all the trouble led Walt to scrap the thought of bringing Driscoll back into the country to do a live action Robin Hood. Many of the wide shots that are supposed to be Driscoll are in fact his body double.

Cast

Bobby Driscoll, in his third Disney role, played Jim Hawkins. Driscoll would only go on to do one more project for the Disney company, voicing Peter Pan in the 1953 animated film. After this point he was abruptly dropped from his contract. Walt, who had always been fond of Driscoll, was starting to see the young boy as not a plucky main character, but a young bully. Officially the reason for his canning was a bad case of acne, which necessitated heavy makeup to be used in any production he was in. Driscoll's life quickly fell apart after being let go by Disney and he would die from a heart attack brought on by drug use in 1968. I would highly recommend looking into his whole story if you have the time. Robert Newton plays the menacing but magnetic Long John Silver. Newton plays Long John with such overexaggerated gusto that you can't help but focus in on him when he is on screen. Newton can be thanked for what we know as the "pirate accent". The accent that is now attributed to pirates at large was really just an exaggerated West Country accent, which is where Newton grew up in southwest England. Newton would be so highly regarded for the role of Long John Silver that he would reprise the role in Long John Silver (1954), which was not made by Disney, and a TV miniseries based on that movie.

Release

Much was done to promote the film, with the most ambitious being a country-wide treasure hunt in the U.S that involved more than 400 retailers in 30 cities. The studio provided merchandise, along with a treasure map, and kids could collect items from participating stores to win prizes. In the end, Disney shelled out over $250,000 in prizes. The BBC aired a serial of the story with vocal excerpts from Driscoll and utilized music from the film. The film had its premiere in London on June 22nd, 1950 and was released to a wider audience on July 29th. The film ended up being a smash hit for Disney, with critical reception mostly positive. British film critics weren't fond of Driscoll in the film, seemingly because of him being the sole American in the cast. British critics also considered it a watered-down version of Treasure Island, though it ultimately didn't hurt the film too bad. Praise was heaped on Newton's performance, which would lead to more pirate roles for him in the future, somewhat type-casting him.

The film was actually aired on television in 1955 on The Magical World of Disney before it would be re-issued theatrically in 1975. The MPAA asked for cuts to be made to the film in order to achieve a G rating. The MPAA voluntary film rating system wouldn't be implemented until 1968, so they didn't have the ratings when Treasure Island first came out. The MPAA thought that the film contained just enough violence to warrant a PG rating, which Disney was vehemently against. PG really did mean that you needed parental guidance back in the day, so this would have tarnished Disney's squeaky clean reputation. Disney begrudgingly agreed to the cuts to the film to achieve a G rating. The movie was released on video in its edited form in 1981 and 1986, but restored it to its original form for the 1991 release. Unfortunately for Disney, they forgot to change the rating on the video tapes to PG and got in trouble with the MPAA. Disney had to send out a bunch of stickers to cover up the G rating. Though Disney would relax their no PG ratings on films in the late 70's they would end up retroactively having their very first fully live action film be rated PG. Disney would later adapt the film again, though it ended up being a little bit different. Treasure Planet not only was an animated movie, but also ditched the classic tropical setting for space.