Their pirates, human or Muppet, were going to be just as dangerous. It also shows that Jim Henson Studios wasn't going to water down their take on the Stevenson classic. But this is Treasure Island and it's a bit more of a thrilling adventure. A Muppet Christmas Carol, which is unexpectedly the most authentic take on the Charles Dickens classic, as MEL recently noted, wrestled with heavy themes, but no one murdered anyone on screen. Someone just murdered a bunch of people in a Muppet movie. As the song goes, "when there's money in the ground, there's murder in the air." The opening number does an extraordinary job in setting up the stakes of the story that is about to follow, with its presentation of pirates slaving away as Flint draws his guns and shoots.
Frankly, there isn't a ton of nuance present, Long John Silver excepted, of course. They're ruthless, cruel, and take any opportunity to better themselves, regardless of the cost to another. The original book is pretty black and white in its portrayal of pirates. Even the most die-hard Treasure Island purists admit that the opening to Muppet Treasure Island with its chanting totems and pirates lugging treasure to Flint's secret burial spot emulates exactly the danger and excitement of the original tale in the book.Įvery man aboard would have killed his mate No, Muppet Treasure Island does the single most important thing a Treasure Island adaptation can - it embraces the adventure and the spirit of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel whole-heartedly.įrom the beginning, this Muppet filled take on the classic pirate tale lets you know you are about to go on an adventure unlike any other the Jim Henson Company has produced.
But Muppet Treasure Island’s isn’t the truest adaptation because it too makes the story more animalistic. That accolade goes to Animal Treasure Island, an anime film made under the consultation of Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiroshi Ikeda. Yes, making Captain Smollet a felt frog is indeed an artistic choice, but it wasn’t even the first to replace major characters with animals. Film is its own medium and with that comes certain artistic freedoms and interpretations, as well as a way to showcase the story in a new visual style. However, the best adaptations of classic novels can and should do more than just imitate the book.
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Some Treasure Island adaptations, like Disney’s live-action 1950 movie or the 1990 made-for-TV movie with Charlton Heston and Christian Bale, are more or less straightforward adaptations. The Muppets may have skewed portrayals of elements of the novel, but despite all the madcap changes and puppeteering, the film still feels like a true, respectful version of the classic novel. There are boars on the island in the novel, they’ve just become a tribe in the film. Ben Gunn is also not, canonically, a spirited ex-lover of Captain Smollet, but Benjamina has a connection to Captain Flint, as does the original.
However, one cannot deny that the ocean is, in fact, a big blue wet thing. Okay, so no, the ocean is not referred to as the “big blue wet thing” in the original novel. Of all the adaptations out there, though, one stands superior, cresting the wave of charismatic yet dastardly Long John Silvers, brave and stubborn Captain Smollets, and wide-eyed Jim Hawkinses - Muppet Treasure Island, which came out 25 years ago this week. It’s even been set in space, in the form of Disney’s Treasure Planet. It was first adapted in 1918 as a silent film directed by Sidney Franklin and then less than twenty years later as a talkie in 1934 starring Jackie Cooper and Wallace Beery.
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Throughout the decades since its publication as a serial from 1881 to 1882, people have sought to adapt the Robert Louis Stevenson novel into various forms. Treasure Islandis a beloved book of pirates, coming of age, danger on the high seas, and the thrill of adventure.