Treasure Island (1950) Review

I think for most people my age and older, and perhaps a few years younger, they have a favorite animated and a favorite live action Disney film. One of my favorite live action Disney films is the subject of today’s review. On June 22, 1950, a London world premier witnessed Treasure Island. The film hit stateside theaters on July 29. Treasure Island is an important historical milestone on two fronts. First, it’s Disney’s first completely live action film. Second, it’s the first film version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel in color. I liked this film version as a kid. As an adult watching for the first time in over 25 years, Disney’s Treasure Island is hokey, cartoonish, but a solid third shelf selection.

An adaptation, as I wrote, of Stevenson’s novel. Lawrence Edward Watkin wrote the screenplay and for the majority sticks to the novel. Byron Haskin sits in the director’s chair. Walt Disney and Perce Pearce produce this Walt Disney Productions film distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. Filming took place on location in England and at Buckinghamshire’s Denham Film Studios. At 96 minutes, there are worse ways to spend a part of a Saturday night and some black spiced rum.

Stevenson created memorable characters. Robert Newton’s Long John Silver may be cartoonish, but many remember and know him for this role. Honestly, for the time, production, and company he does a fine job. Bobby Driscoll, Disney’s child actor “darling of the day” makes an annoying Jim Hawkins. He appears in a few more Disney films of the era, including the “banned” Song of the South. The other actors, even those of top billing, are unknown to the average person, or necessarily the films they’re best known besides Treasure Island.

The costumes appear as knock off Halloween attire. There’s no actual violence. A few bits of the old playground “you got me” with fake blood in place after “cut.” Still, it’s not the worst adaptation, but certainly not the best. That’s a review for another day, and another childhood favorite.