Treasure Island

Of the Walter J.Hucker-produced I've seen, my favourite is A Christmas Carol. They are not very easy to find, I know them best from my old and almost broken video cassettes(with exception with Moby Dick, which I was disappointed by, which I saw on Youtube having not seen or had it before). They are well worth watching though, maybe it's better to read the stories they're adapted from or watch other adaptations to get the full feel of how the stories are written and all that, but any animated adaptation of a piece of literature is highly laudable even if they are left wanting at the end. This Treasure Island is not left wanting, I'd go as far to say that it is one of my favourites from the Hucker-produced animations. It does start off a little slow, like the animated adaptation of Journey to the Center of the Earth, but once Long-John Silver is introduced it does pick up. The animation is kept simply but is generally fluid and colourful, much better animated than Moby Dick, while the music is rousing and is careful to not overbear the drama. The dialogue is literate with its fun and thoughtful moments, and the story is compelling and faithful in spirit to the original story, which should at least please people. The characters are engaging too, Silver has always been the most interesting character and he is here, though this animated adaptation does have one of the more appealing Jim Hawkins' I've seen too. The voice acting is solid and fitting with the characters, that for Silver in particular standing out, there is a sense of gruffness but you can tell in his scenes with Jim that he does have a caring side. To conclude, really enjoyable animated adaptation. 9/10 Bethany Cox