As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- The titular Treasure Planet itself has two rings around it. Why? They're forming a giant X! This makes perfect sense since you don't have to dig in/through a particular spot to get the treasure — you have to get through the very crust of the planet itself! ...Or just go through the right door.
- This has probably already been mentioned, but the name of the ship in the movie was a huge bit of fridge brilliance for me. In the original novel, the ship used to sail to Treasure Island is called "Hispaniola". In Treasure Planet, it is called "R.L.S. Legacy". What are the initials of the original author of Treasure Island?
- There's also the fact that, given the setting ( Treasure Island... IN SPACE! ), the story's been changed enough that the ship isn't really the Hispaniola anymore... but it's carrying on the Hispaniola's Legacy.
- Notice when Jim is next to his mom, Short Teens, Tall Adults is in play. When he comes back, Jim is slightly taller than her now. Why? In a literal sense, Jim had a growth spurt, but in a figurative sense, Jim finally grew up.
- When Scroop cut Mr. Arrow's life line, he didn't just pay him back for the earlier reprimand, he also "paid" Jim back for the "Bright Eyes" comment. The moment he said that Mr. Arrow's lifeline wasn't "secure" he gave a very big emotional payback to Jim, by indirectly "blaming" him for Mr. Arrow's death.
- Sarah mentioned to Doppler that Jim had a habit of always bringing home a pet. And by the end, he does bring home a new pet: Morph.
- Why was Leland Hawkins's face not shown once during the flashbacks of "I'm Still Here"? Jim never looked up to him as a father.
- Or more poignantly, Leland was home so rarely, and paid so little attention to his son, Jim hardly remembers what he looks like. The only impressions he ever made on Jim were the times he neglected his family and ultimately, abandoned them.
- Following the above Fridge Brilliance, it's fitting that towards the end, Jim has a clear picture in his head of his true father-figure: John Silver.
- There's some Fridge Heartwarming when Silver is forced to choose between saving Jim or his treasure. He holds onto the treasure with his mechanical arm, but when he decides to save Jim, he saves him with his human arm. a.k.a his "human" self triumphs.
- Jim at one point asks Silver what happened for him to become a cyborg, to which Silver solemnly replies that "You give up a few things... chasing a dream". In the end, Silver is faced with the decision that he has to let Jim die in order to save the treasure, but he ends up saving Jim instead. Turns out, he was willing to "give up" some of his limbs for his dream, but he ultimately was not willing to give Jim up.
- It also becomes sobering when you realize there's a double meaning when Silver says "Blast me for a fool". He's not just chastising himself for giving up all those riches. If he really did lose his limbs trying to chase Flint's Treasure Trove, then he's recognizing that he's essentially lost his limbs for nothing.
- Alternatively, he might very well be chastising himself for giving up so much for something that was ultimately not worth it, because he had found something far more worthwhile.
- Speaking of limbs, there's a strong symbolism in how Jim reacts to Silver's cyborg arm. Both times, he offers Jim to shake on it (when he's introducing himself, then later when he's making a deal with him). And both times, Jim doesn't take his hand. Why? Because every time Silver offers that particular hand, it only serves to remind Jim of Billy Bones' warning ("Beware the cyborg!"). So Jim feels he can't trust him.
- Jim only high-fives Silver's cybernetic hand after Silver has saved him and they worked together to save the ship, demonstrating that everything's finally out in the open between them.
- Fridge-Heartwarming: Silver is established as being a better father-figure than Jim's father. So what makes him so different from Jim's father if both of them ultimately left Jim? Because he bothered to say good-bye to Jim and gave him closure.
- Not only that, but Silver takes care to give Jim a handful of the treasure he has left over, to make up for him and his crew burning down the Benbow Inn. Unlike Leland Hawkins, he actually makes sure the ones he leaves behind will be provided for in his absence.
- The map-sphere seems like such an arbitrary object — why would Flint need a super-high-tech guide to the one spot in space he'd be bound to remember? — until Jim's discovery that Treasure Planet is the nexus of a Portal Network. Whatever the precursors were, their explorers presumably carried these spheres in case one of them was stranded and had to find their way back through space.
- One has to wonder why exactly Flint removed B.E.N.'s memory chip, beyond paranoia. But then it becomes a Fridge Funny when you realize the key word was "BOOBY TRAP!" It's easy to imagine B.E.N. would be unable to stop saying the words "booby trap" because it amused him. Between that and his outspoken personality, Flint knew B.E.N. wouldn't be able to shut up and did what he did.
- During the dressing-down in her Cabin, Captain Amelia says she'd "love to chat; tea, cakes, the whole shebang, but I've got a ship to launch and you've got your suit to buff up." Then she runs a claw over Doppler's suit. It seems like mockery, and that's how she probably intended it, but since they end up together, it's might subconsciously be affectionate teasing. In fact, it's the same kind of affectionate teasing she did with Mr. Arrow in her Establishing Character Moment. And what does "tea, cakes, the whole shebang" sound like? A date.
- Speaking of that moment, her eyes go wide when she sees Doppler. When else do they do that? Oh, yes, when she looks at the map in the cabin later, fascinated, before putting it away. She also manhandles Doppler on a very thin pretext, and name-drops some battle she participated in. Almost like she's trying to impress him. In fact, she completely ignores Jim until Doppler introduces him.
- Morph's role in the film is essentially that of the archetypal pirate's parrot. Which lends some fridge brilliance to his shape-shifting abilities — he literally parrots people!
- The argument in the cabin between Silver and Scroop can be looked at as both of them trying to turn the crew against the other with what they say:
- Silver reveals that it was Scroop who actually killed Mr Arrow against Silver's orders. As the crew actually seemed angry with Jim for Arrow's death, this would cause them to look at Scroop as a loose cannon.
- Scroop then counters by accusing Silver of becoming compromised by taking a liking to Jim, making the crew doubt where Silver's loyalties lie.
- When B.E.N screams "What's the plan!?" when he and Jim are sneaking past the sleeping crew, it appears Jim shushed him in time as the only response they get is Silver turning over in his sleep. Except, he likely wasn't asleep. Rather, he probably did wake up and instead chose to let Jim return to the Legacy so he could in turn capture Doppler and Amelia for leverage when he returned.
- Billy Bones, the reptilian alien who gave Jim the map sphere, is the last surviving member Captain Flint's crew. But Flint disappeared long ago, at least long enough ago for Treasure Planet to fade into legend. After all, that holographic book from the opening would have taken time to print. So how did Billy Bones live so long? Simple, he's an alien tortoise! Of course he's Long-Lived
- Doppler's surprising accuracy the first time he picks up a gun isn't entirely random. He's a lifelong astronomer and astronomers that don't work in large observatories commonly use devices like hand-held telescopes and telephoto cameras that require good eyesight, steady hands, and precise aim to get the most use out of, all traits that would make him a pretty good shot.
- What happened to Billy Bones' body when the pirates broke in and burned down the Inn?
- On that topic, was there anyone staying there who couldn't get out in time?
- The scene clearly took place after the inn was closed down for the night.
- ...inns are literally places to stay for the night.
- It's easy to surmise that there were no guests there during the attack, unless we want to assume that Jim, Sarah, and Doppler were all feeling callous enough not to have mentioned them in the escape or aftermath. They're clearly only lamenting the loss of the inn, not of anyone inside. Sara said earlier that she could barely keep the restaurant running on her own, so it's doubtful she could've afforded to have rooms rented out at that time. That's probably why there were no guests.
- On that topic, was there anyone staying there who couldn't get out in time?
- More like Fridge Sadness but, Flint's selfish greed brought about the end of what was no doubt one of the greatest archaeological finds in history. First, he twisted and perverted Treasure Planet, then planned to destroy everything, simply to prevent anyone from taking possession of his gold. Even after his death, when he'd no longer need the money, anyway! In the end, what happened to the planet is a criminal waste.
- Not his gold. Remember, Flint was a pirate which makes this even worse; none of this stuff was rightfully his to begin with and yet he refused to let anyone have it even after he was dead.
- During the finale when Jim manages to open the portal, Silver zaps through different worlds and briefly a gigantic monster can be seen. This is Space, millions of uninhabitable planets with unfriendly species must exist. How did Captain Flint and his crew weed out the safe ones? Through trial and error?
- It's possible, but also likely that they raided locations they were already familiar with, being familiar with trade routes between planets and such. After all, Jim was able to find his home space port on the map with ease.
- Bit on the heavy thinking side, but Silver ultimately realizes that he cares more for Jim than the treasure. Knowing this, how would he have felt like had he really ended up killing Jim which was what he intended before the laser beam knocked them off the boat? His realization wouldn't have hit him until after the boy was dead, by his own hands no less. Even if he'd escaped, he'd probably spend the rest of his life regretting the sacrifice he made to achieve his hollow dream.
- The point of the “treasure vs. Jim” scene was to establish that, even with the treasure literally within his grasp and a nice, easy murder by inaction arranged for Jim, Silver has grown to care so much for the boy that killing him for the treasure wasn’t something he was able to stomach. And if he was unable to just sit by and let Jim fall to his death, there’s no way he would’ve been able to actually murder him, either.
- The movie didn't portray it but Mr. Arrow's death is probably one of the most horrifying deaths a Disney character's ever been through. Black holes are collapsed masses of dead stars, distorting matter when it gets close to the event horizon. Spaghettification is where the physical object is thinly distorted as atoms are torn apart in collapsing into the black hole. Mr. Arrow's death couldn't have been quick and painless, he had to have at least felt his body being stretched and torn apart as he fell in — and it must've felt like forever to him.
- Actually, I believe spaghetti fixation happens so fast his brain would spagehttifi before it registered the pain. Or the blast from the black hole feeding fried him, or he suffocated from lack of atmosphere before getting close.
- So, did Silver lose his limbs in an accident, or did he willingly give them up in order to pursue the treasure? Either way, it's terrible to think about what exactly could have happened to him.
- Could be both. An accident could have ruined them and then he had to have them fully removed so he could get Artificial Limbs so he could walk or he knowingly went into a dangerous area and then an accident happened.
