While Treasure Planet wasn’t Disney’s first foray into Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island—Walt Disney Studios also released a live-action version of the story in 1950—this animated version, which takes place in outer space, certainly taught a classic old pirate new tricks. “We took the best of traditional Disney animation and merged it with cutting-edge digital technology to create a one-of-a-kind universe of adventure and exploration,” Roy E. Disney said about Treasure Planet. “They [the animators] had to combine a hand-drawn pirate with a computer-animated arm, but they didn’t know if the combination would work. They knew they had to try it out so they went to the Animation Research Library where they knew there was a pirate in storage—Captain Hook from Peter Pan.” The team tested the computer animation element with the original hand-drawn animation of Captain Hook and they liked what they saw. Treasure Planet was also the first animated feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios where the backgrounds were all painted in the computer. Mix this modern technique with hand-drawn characters and Treasure Planet unveiled a new, dazzling display of Disney animation.
