So, you've stumbled across this website.

Maybe you were curious about 'Treasure Planet'. Maybe you are a fan already and wanted to find other fans like yourself. Or maybe you, like me, loved Treasure Planet enough to try and find out if there was more to the story; a sequel maybe?.

Well, firstly, if you're new to the movie (or just need a refresher), here's a little information about the movie, its release and its reception...

And just one quick note; I claim that no part of the following information as absolute fact. I can only write about what my research has yielded, and this is a combination of everything I've seen, read, heard, and remembered about Treasure Planet over the last six years...

So, here's a little (actually quite long) introducton.

'Treasure Planet' was realeased to cinemas and IMAX cinemas on November 27, 2002, with far from great success. With a budget of US$140,000,000 and four years in production to create,  it earned approximately US38,176,783 at US cinemas and, internationally, another US$71,401,332. In total, Treasure Planet returned US$109,578,115... thus rendering it a Box Office Bomb. (If you're not sure what that means, it means that Disney lost money on it rather than making a profit... it cost more to make than it earned.)

In spite of this, 'Treasure Planet' garnered mostly positive reviews during its run at the cinemas, by critics, online reviewers, and the general movie-going public. 'Treasure Planet' is actually rated rather highly. Sure there are the occasional harsh reviews here and there, but eight out of ten rate it a 7 out of 10 or higher, usually 7.5 to 7.8.

The reason for Treasure Planet's failure at the cinema is something that was, for sometime at least, under scrutiny from many an online community. Why did it bomb? It wasn't a brilliant movie, but it certainly wasn't bad either, so why? The general agreement seems to come more often than not to the movies release date; it was released at a time when the market was already saturated, and its competition was far too steep; the other movies to come out around time being Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, and latest James Bond flick. If the average family is anything like mine when it comes to going to the movies, then you probably don't go all too often. For me, I usually only go to the cinema if there's a movie on that I've been waiting for, or can't wait a couple of months for the DVD. That leaves me heading for a moie once every couple of months (I'm so uncool, aren't I?). During that one month when Treaure Planet was released, I went to the cinema twice, and neither of the movies I saw was Treasure Planet. Harry and LOTR being higher on my 'must-watch' list at the time (plus I didn't want to ask my mother to fork out another ten bucks for another movie, since I was only a dirt-poor pre-teen at the time.)

Another factor for Treasure Planet's failure, as the general online opinion goes, was its lacklustre advertising campaign. And I personally agree with them completely. All I remember of the Australian teaser trailer, was Jim flying on his solar-surfer, Doppler speaking in flatula (the almighty laguage of the fart!), the alien jolly-roger, and a flash or two of stars; the star feild images being what made me want to see it. Coupled with the fact that the trailers did not showcase the movies well enough, was how frequent the trailers were aired. And truthfully that's probably why I don't remember it all that well; because I only saw the thing twice or so during its entire cinematic run... Shove an eight yeard old in front of the TV and bombard him with six commercials featuring little Danny Radcliff (as Harry Potter!) and shove one Treasure Planet commercial in the middle somewhere. Which one do you think the kid was talking about the next day? Even through other media, like on cereal boxes, or ice-cream cartons, Harry still reighned.

You can see where it started going wrong, can't you? And what really baffles me is why? Why didn't Disney, after investing so much money, time and effort on this movie, give it a better ad campaign? Why didn't they bump Treasure Planet's release date up or push it back? No one seems to be able to tell me, and goodness knows I've tried to find out. But the best answers that I've found are a theory about a having a contract with MacDonalds to release the movie at a particular time, and conspiracy theory concerning the CEO of Walt Disney Studios (who has since resigned) and his want to shut-down the traditional animation department of the Disney animation sudios. (I don't beilieve it, but the theory is out there. And the traditional animation department at Disney did indeed shut down for a while, but that's another story on its own.)

Let's move forward in time a bit now...

'Treasure Planet's home release on April 29, 2003, (in both VHS and DVD format) however, pulled much higher monetary figures. On its first day of sales alone, more 1,000,000 combined units were sold, earning well over the $38mil it took in at the US box office just four months earlier. Treasure Planet's vdeo and DVD sales continued quite nicely for the following month, and stayed on Billboard's Top Ten DVD sales for a solid three weeks. Maybe the trailers stuck after all, and just needed Harry to go home for the holidays before Jim could catch the spotlight...

The total sales figures for the DVD and video I've been unable to find, so I can only guess how much Treasure Planet earned back... but adding together what I have been able to find out... Treasure Planet cost US$140,000,000 to make. It earned US$109,578,115 at the cinema. Plus it earnt at leastanother US$38,000,000 in DVD and VHS sales. That puts it at least US$7,000,000 in the green.

In any case, Disney recouped Treasure Planet's production costs at least, and it seems like it made at least a little profit too... not including lost funds from unsold merchandising and the like, but I can't even guess at the numbers concerning that. So I'll leave them up to you to think about.

Moving along...

Now, about a possible sequel to Treasure Planet... Chances are that if you're reading this you might be a fan who wants to see a sequel and, to be fair, there already is one... a real-time strategy PC game that was released a month before the movie was, on October 31, 2002. 'Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon'. However, its story-line was not written by Treasure Planet's writers Ron Clements and John Musker. The game recieved relatetively good reviews, for both its graphics and game mechanics... I'm yet to meet anyone who conciders it a true sequel.

Disregarding the game... On to the possibility of an actual movie sequel... and the purpose of this website.

Petitions hardly ever do anything to help a cause. And demanding a sequel from Disney with a petition is not going to do any good, fact. Especially with Treasure Planet's circumstances. However, I have never said that they should make a sequel out of the blue and expect the fans to come out of the wood-work to see it. No. Even I can see how stupid and risky that is.

The first thing to do would be for Disney to re-release Treasure Planet the same as they do with every other Disney movie. Have you heard of the Disney Vault? Chances are that you have, but allow me to remind you... bear with me for a moment, or just skip ahead if you already know.

The Walt Disney Vault is a figurative representation of Walt Disney's practice of releasing their animated movies to a home audience (On video, and now DVD) for a finite amount of time before the movie is 'locked away' in the so-called 'vault' to await a new generation of childeren who would watch them. The Walt Disney Company itself has stated that they do this to keep their movies fresh for new generations to come.

Through the 80's and 90's, Disney would re-release its movies on VHS tape every seven years, an amount of time that mimicked that of the time before VHS, when Disney would re-release its older films (such as Snow White) to cinema's and theaters for a limited amount of time. That time-slot has since widened with the creation of DVD (due to the average life-span of the disks) and became a wait of ten years between releases.

Now, back to Treasure Planet...

Treasure Planet was relased in 2003 on both VHS and DVD, and was also discontinued in 2003. Whether this means it was 'put in the vault' or not, I don't know. But concidering how well it sold, I would guess that is was. However, it is sadly not on any 'in the vault' list that I've seen. Assuming that it is in there though, that would make Treasure Planet's re-release from the vault sometime in 2012 or 2013, no? Since VHS tapes have since been discontinued, only the DVD timeframe would apply, which is ten years. Ten years from late 2002, to late 2003, would mean 2012 or 2013. See?

After a re-release, the fanbase for Treasure Planet would expand. It would alse reel back in the fans from before. Enough to warrant a sequel? Who knows. But it's worth a shot isn't it?

After that, if the re-release makes enough money, and if there's a demand for it, then we can really ask for a sequel. Maybe a straight-to-DVD release, maybe a cinematic one. As fans, we can only try, ask, and support the outcome.

That is why I decided to make this website; to gather the fans of Treasure Planet together. To show Disney how much we support the movie and a potential sequel. It may not make a difference, but it could. There is always a chance. Never say never, you know?

I know some of you might be thinking, why bother? Why waste all this time making a website for a cause that's probably pointless?

Well, I say: Why not? I wanted to make the site, even if it's a hopeless cause. Call me childish or naiive or whatever you like, but Treasure Planet is a movie that is special to me.

So, if you agree with me, please sign the petition (There is one for a re-release and one for a sequel).

If you have something to add, or want to talk about what you want to see in a sequel with other fans, check out the forums.

If you want to contact me, or just comment on the design of the site, you can send me an email or sign the guestbook (or message me on the forums).

Thank you for reading,

Yasmin