Treasure Planet review

Disney resets Robert Louis Stevenson's classic swashbuckling yarn Treasure Island to outer space in this futuristic full-length animated feature, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, the double-act responsible for Aladdin and Hercules.

Although Treasure Planet doesn't quite attain the dizzy heights of those two pictures, it does have its moments, and crams plenty of action and thrills into 95 minutes. However, the film faces stiff competition from this spring's other big family release, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, which is both funnier and smarter, if a little rough around the edges.

The bare bones of Stevenson's rollicking plot remain untouched. Fifteen-year-old Jim Hawkins (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a fun-loving teenager, who enjoys zooming around the local spaceport on his thruster board. Abandoned by his father at a young age and consequently starved of a male role model, he has been single-handedly raised by his long-suffering mother Sara (Laurie Metcalf).

Hungry for adventure, Jim leaves behind the security of the family home to join a spaceship captained by plucky feline Amelia (Emma Thompson), searching for the lost bounty of Captain Flint. Aboard the good ship Legacy, Jim is quickly befriended by the ship's gregarious cook, Long John Silver (Brian Murray). The pair become inseparable, and under Silver's expert tutelage, Jim becomes an excellent cabin boy and spaceman, helping the alien crew battle ferocious space storms, supernovas and black holes.

However, Jim soon discovers that Silver isn't the caring surrogate father he always wanted - the cook is really a greedy cyborg pirateer, who plans to stage a mutiny aboard Captain Amelia's boat and steal Flint's treasure for himself. Bumbling medic Dr Doppler (David Hyde Pierce), crazy robot B.E.N. (Martin Short) and a cute shape-shifting creature named Morph (Dane E Davis) help Jim to face his salty nemesis.

Treasure Planet is light and entertaining but for the most part it's film-making on auto-pilot, recycling the same wholesome family morals and winsome comedy sidekicks. There are myriad opportunities for merchandising tie-ins, particularly Morph with his big saucer-shaped eyes and putty-like appearance.

The quality of the animation is impressive as you'd expect from industry leader Disney, including breathtaking use of computer graphics in the big action set pieces, set against lushly painted backgrounds. Vocal performances are solid if unremarkable, including some nice verbal sparring between Thompson and Hyde Pierce which invariably blossoms into mutual affection.

All very ship-shape.