The Seventeen-Year Pitch: How Treasure Planet (2002) Was Made Against Disney's Wishes

Michael Eisner passed on both.

Clements found a workaround for the mermaid. He sent a treatment separately to Jeffrey Katzenberg, got it greenlit over Eisner's objection, and made The Little Mermaid (1989), which launched the Disney Renaissance and became one of the most commercially successful animated films of its decade.

The space pirates waited.

The rejections

After The Little Mermaid's extraordinary success, Clements and Musker pitched the space Treasure Island again. Katzenberg was not interested. They directed Aladdin (1992) and came back. Still no. They directed Hercules (1997) and negotiated a contractual guarantee: after Hercules, they would make the film they had been trying to make for twelve years.

Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew and the person most responsible for the animation division's creative standards, backed the project against Eisner's continuing skepticism. The budget allocated was $140 million, the most ever granted to a traditionally animated feature. Production began in earnest in 1997.

Eight months before the film's release, Disney shuttered the Burbank animation studio that had been making it.

The abandonment and the release

The closure of the Burbank studio meant that Treasure Planet arrived in theaters on November 27, 2002, without the institutional support that a major release requires. The marketing budget reflected a studio that had effectively written the film off. The promotional energy was allocated elsewhere. The McDonald's tie-in had been signed months earlier and could not be broken, so the film opened in the Thanksgiving frame against Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in its fourth week, without a campaign capable of competing for the audience's attention.

The opening weekend produced $12 million. Fourth place, behind Harry Potter, Die Another Day in its third week, and Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights on its opening day.

The total domestic gross was $38.2 million against a $140 million production budget. Disney wrote down $47 million in its fourth-quarter earnings. The loss estimate, once all costs were tallied, reached approximately $74 million. It was the largest financial loss in Disney Animation's history.

The era it ended

Treasure Planet's commercial failure provided the institutional justification for a transition Disney had been considering for years. The studio released Brother Bear (2003) and Home on the Range (2004), both traditional animation, both commercial disappointments. In 2004, Disney Animation was restructured, and the eventual result, following Pixar's acquisition in 2006, was a studio reorganized around computer-generated animation.

Winnie the Pooh (2011) was the last traditionally animated Disney feature. The form that had produced Snow White, Bambi, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King — and, in its final statement, Treasure Planet — closed down over the decade that followed the Thanksgiving weekend of 2002.

The film whose commercial failure ended the era has been growing in reputation ever since.

FAQ: Treasure Planet (2002) Production History

When was Treasure Planet first pitched to Disney?

Ron Clements first pitched the concept of Treasure Island set in space to Disney in 1985, at a meeting where it was rejected by Michael Eisner. The film was pitched again after The Little Mermaid (1989) and after Aladdin (1992), both times unsuccessfully. A contractual guarantee after Hercules (1997) finally enabled production.

How much did Treasure Planet lose?

The film grossed $38.2 million domestically and $71.4 million internationally for a worldwide total of $109.6 million against a $140 million production budget and substantial marketing costs. Disney's fourth-quarter 2002 earnings included a $47 million write-down. The estimated total loss was approximately $74 million.

Did Treasure Planet end Disney traditional animation?

Treasure Planet's commercial failure accelerated the transition away from traditional animation at Disney. It was followed by Brother Bear (2003) and Home on the Range (2004), both of which also underperformed. Winnie the Pooh (2011) was the last traditionally animated Disney feature.

Why was Treasure Planet (2002) so expensive?

The $140 million budget reflected both the scale of the film's visual ambition and the cost of the Deep Canvas and virtual-set technology used to create navigable three-dimensional environments that matched the visual quality of hand-drawn backgrounds. It was the most expensive traditionally animated film in history.

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