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Treasure Island (1988 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Treasure Island' (, 'Ostrov Sokrovishch' 'Ostriv Skarbiv') is a 1988 Soviet Ukrainian animated film in two parts based on the 1883 novel with the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was created by order of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company by the Ukrainian studio Kievnauchfilm. The film is mostly traditional animation with some live action sequences, which are largely but not entirely separate.
The first part of the film was released in 1986 and the second in 1988, after which the two parts were always displayed together. The film attained a cult classic status almost immediately after release, even though it went directly to TV and never had a theatrical release.
The film won the following awards: Grand Prize in Minsk, 1987; Grand Prize in Kyiv, 1989; 1st Prize on International Cinema Festival of Television films in Czechoslovakia.
An American version of this film called "The Return to Treasure Island" was released direct-to-video in 1992. This version of the film is 34 minutes shorter (episodes with living actors were completely removed) than the Soviet version.
Voice cast
* Valery Bessarab as Jim Hawkins
* Armen Dzhigarkhanyan as John Silver
* Viktor Andriyenko as Captain Smollett and Billy Bones, one reply of John Silver
* Yevgeny Paperny as Dr. Livesey and "dossier" storyteller
* Boris Vozniuk as Squire Trelawney
* Yury Yakovlev as Ben Gunn
* Grigory Tolchinsky as Black Dog
* Georgy Kishko as Blind Pew
* Vladimir Bystryakov as the Blind Pew's dog
* Vladimir Zadneprovsky as the "cowardish pirate"
Cast
* Instrumental ensemble VIA () and theatre company "Grotesque":
** Valery Chiglyayev as Leading
** Yuri Nevganonny as Captain Flint
** Viktor Andriyenko
** Anatoly Dyachenko
** Vyacheslav Dubinin
** Mikhail Tserishenko
** Alexander Levit
** Vitali Vasilkov
** Semyon Grigoriev
** David Cherkassky
** Vladimir Chiglyayev
** Oleg Sheremenko
Background
Treasure Island was a product of collaboration of two very well known people in the USSR: David Cherkassky, a director, who, at the time of inception, produced a number of very popular cartoons, and Radna Sakhaltuev, a cartoonist, who had a long and fruitful history of collaboration with Cherkassky, as well as a history of being a cartoonist for a number of satirical magazines in Kyiv, where he became well known for his distinctive style. Their previous collaborations yielded fruitful results, including the cartoons about the 'Adventures of Captain Wrongel' (from a Russian "tall tales of the sea" kind of book) and 'Doctor Aybolit' (a more children-centric cartoon). This built the duo a reputation that allowed some extra freedom during their future work, and this was fully exploited for the Treasure Island adaptation, which was very liberal as far as Soviet cartoons went.
A distinctive feature of the cartoon was the inclusion of live action "musical pauses" - songs performed by live actors that explained, for example, why it is a bad idea to drink alcohol or smoke, or why Jim Hawkins defeats all the pirates he meets (because he does exercises every morning).
While the subject matter was taken almost literally at times (the cartoon often quotes the original novel line-by-line), the approach towards screen adaptation was very lighthearted, as pirates were quite a distant reality for the Soviet Union. The pirates play obviously goofy roles, and the whole approach to violence is very cartoonish. The movie drew controversy in 2012 as Russia implemented a new law prohibiting showing movies that have scenes of alcohol consumption and smoking to minors. The film uses scenes of rum drinking and smoking among pirates excessively; but, at the same time, it stressed that because the villains had bad habits of drinking and smoking, while the heroes didn't, the heroes always won against all odds, as they were healthier. A public outcry over the fate of such beloved childhood classics as 'Treasure Island' resulted in an adoption of a special exception that allowed the screening of "movies that have significant historical and cultural value", including 'Treasure Island', to be exempt from the law. The cartoon parodied a number of pre-1970's US cartoons, as well as a few Russian movies.
While the movie was shot in the USSR, because the home base for the animation studio behind the film was Kyiv, it features practically no actors of Soviet-wide fame in the voice cast; however, all the people involved in voicing the parts of the cartoon were quite famous in Kyiv as theater actors, even though this recognition didn't necessarily translate to Soviet-wide fame.
Differences from the novel
In order to make the novel more fit for the screen, a number of relatively minor changes and simplifications were made to the story. First and foremost, all the fights are simplified to the point of cartoon violence, even though the participants comment the outcomes with lines lifted straight from the novel, regardless of how much they actually resemble the actions on screen.
Secondly, the characters became a lot more simplified. Jim Hawkins was turned into a "very, very good boy" with a knowledge of karate; Doctor Livesey was turned into a hopeless optimist that managed to satirize each and every person he came across; Squire Trelawney became a cartoon of a not-so-competent, but a very ambitious local executive; and Captain Smollett turned into a cartoonish portrayal of a loyal, yet a bit too straightforward for his own good, army officer. While a number of additional omissions in the plots were made, these simplifications actually allowed the screening to keep relatively close to the letter and spirit of the classic Russian translation of the book, thus making this adaptation a rather faithful one, even though the fight scenes (predictably) have practically nothing to do with the text of the novel. Most notably, Long John Silver was made one of the shortest characters in height, and he is never referred to as "long" throughout the entire film. When the movie was translated back into English, some of the accuracy was predictably lost.
While this adaptation features a number of deliberately silly scenes (i.e. where Billy Bones has a stroke in the novel, he is literally stricken by a wooden beam in the movie after sneezing), it manages to keep relatively close to the book.
The movie took a full advantage of the fact that Russian (or Soviet, for that matter) attitude towards assigning ratings to movies is quite different from the approach of North America: while Russian/Soviet school of censorship was a lot less tolerant towards swearing and sexually suggestive material, it was far more liberal when it came to violence, thus allowing a number of American R-rated movies to be reclassified as PG-13 equivalent once the curses were replaced with more neutral language and sex scenes were cut out. Therefore, as far as cartoons go, this adaptation of 'Treasure Island' is rather gory, while allowing to follow the script pretty closely.
On DVD
On 16 March 2006 the Russian DVD by Krupny Plan (Region 0) contains the original Russian edit of the film with restored images and a Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix (as well as with the original mono sound). This version contains no bonus material, no subtitles and is Russian only.
In 2005 an export version of the Russian edit of the film by RUSCICO (Region 0) is available under the title 'Treasure Island'. This version contains Russian (5.1 and 1.0), English and French (5.1 with one voice voiceover translation) soundtracks as well as several subtitle languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish). The picture was not restored for this edition. As a bonus feature, there are text infos about David Cherkassky.
The US direct-to-video cut from 1992 was published in USA under the title 'Return to Treasure Island' on DVD (Region 1). The picture was not restored. However, the English audio has been remastered in 5.1. This edit of the film does not contain any Russian audio. The VHS edition was distributed by Video Treasures.
Legacy
In 2005, Ukrainian game development studio Action Forms made the official quest PC game "Treasure Island". Director of the film David Cherkassky, as well as the original voice cast members Yevgeny Paperny and Viktor Andriyenko and the animators and artists of former Kievnauchfilm, participated in development of the game.
Dr. Livesey Walk
In August 2022, Treasure Island became the subject of a popular internet meme. The meme is derived from a looped walk cycle scene in which three characters make their way across the room while Dr. Livesey exhibits a highly pronounced swagger. The meme is typically overlaid with the phonk song "Why Not" by Ghostface Playa, with the song's beat closely matching the gait of the characters. Variations of the meme often substitute the Treasure Island characters with ones from other franchises, such as 'Team Fortress 2' or the 'Kirby' series.See also
*Lists of animated feature films
References
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