Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Even if you've never seen Disney's Treasure Island, I guarantee you're well aware of it. If you've ever seen a pirate movie that was made after 1950 or if you've ever participated in some way on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, you're indirectly paying tribute to Treasure Island, and more particularly, Robert Newton, who is singlehandedly responsible for how we all think of pirates today. Before Robert Newton, there was no "Aarrrr!"This movie really is a must-see, if for no other reason, to honor the "original pirate". If you actually like swashbuckling movies, you have to watch this lush, energetic version. Treasure Island is a very entertaining story about a young boy who unknowingly teams up with a famed pirate, Long John Silver, who's trying to recover a lost treasure on an, well, island. Ironically, Bobby Driscoll, who plays young Jim Hawkins, gives the weakest performance of the movie. The whole time, I kept saying, "Why didn't they get the little boy who played in Oliver Twist?" It turns out, John Howard Davies was Disney's first choice, and he would have made a much more endearing lead. Not only was he a better actor and a cuter kid, but he and Robert Newton had already worked together. Robert Newton is the heart and soul of Treasure Island. It's no wonder he reprised a pirate role every two years afterwards until his death. His perpetually squinting spyglass eye, disheveled cheeks, crazed yet lovable grin, iconic accent, peg-legged limp, and green parrot atop his red coat is one of those performances that, once you watch it, you'll never forget.

" FIRE THAT MUSKET! AND I CUTS HIS THRRROAT! "One of the best Technicolor films and probably the best pirate film ever made, Disney's timeless production of Treasure Island hits on all marks and is just as watchable today as it was in 1950. I'd say it's the supremely excellent casting that's the single most important reason why this movie is so good. Robert Newton's iconic performance as Long John Silver never fails to light up the screen and his sidekick, the precocious youth Jim Hawkins (the only American in the cast) is charismatically played by a young Bobby Driscoll; plus several other seasoned English stage actors in varying roles, I say "actors" exclusively, because most unusually, there isn't a single female role in the entire movie. Special mention must be made of the great performances of Long Johns pirate crew, especially surly cut-throats like "George Mary" and "Israel Hands, master mariner for hire" often on the verge of mutiny, some real colorful and salty seamen form the ranks of Captain Long John's posse. But it's Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver that steals the show, in every scene he's in, a superlatively amazing and over-the-top performance. Words fail to sum up just how awesome and entertaining his performance is. Thrilling stuff indeed.Is their anyone who really doesn't know the plot to this story??? Well for those of you who don't (how is that possible) all the hints you need lay within the two words that form it's title. Once on the island you're likely to find yourself chuckling from the ramblings and antics of Old Ben Gunn, a mangy, silver-haired, goat-skin wearing marooned-loon of a man, who "Many's a night I drreeamed of cheese... toasted mostly". This guy's a riot, while making the most of his brief screen-time, watch him run about fleet-footed over the sand dunes and through the tropical foliage, often accompanied by tinkering xylophones, Old Ben Gunn proves to be the zaniest of side-character's. With comic relief aside, rest assured there is plenty of action, bloodshed and treachery with musket's firing and sabre's flashing - cannon fire too. Along with the usual weapons, this movie is armed to the teeth with something else, that being Pirate Slang; the movie is literally swimming in it, practically every single character that has a speaking role has some old-timey sailors slang in their vocabulary, especially Long John Silver he really lay's it on thick and it's a total pleasure to hear all these colorful old sayings, that you don't hear anywhere else. Anyway, as it comes as no surprise the good guys inevitably prevail in the end, in a volley of musket-fire and they find what they were looking for on TREASURE Island, marking the end of an infinitely entertaining, virtually flawless Technicolor adventure film. One of the best films of the year 1950, just maybe thee best.I believe this movie was filmed entirely in various locales in and around merry old England, if so they did an extremely convincing job of projecting the look of a tropical island. Treasure Island maybe not be a super-production by today's standards, but none the less, Walt dropped a sizeable pile of doubloons into this film and I think it shows, boasting consistently strong production values and a rousing musical score by Clifton Parker (newly recorded and available on Chandos Records for those interested). I've seen a few other..... attempts, at this quintessential pirate's tale over the years (MGM's 1934 version and the lifeless Charlton Heston version from 1990) and compared to this one, they all pretty much suck. The resounding excellence that Disney was able to achieve in 1950 has yet to be matched, let alone bettered and proves without a doubt, that this production of Treasure Island is THE definitive version of this classic tale.This classic film got the 1950's off to a great start, it was the 1950's that produced more classic nautical films than any other era. In the end, for a 66 year-old G-Rated Disney production, this movie is PIRATICAL TO THE CORE.Now if only Disney would get off their duff's and give the world the Hi-Def Blu-ray release this movie deserves.

A deadly boring, badly acted movie that has not stood the test of time at all - although it probably wasn't that good when it was made over sixty years ago. Robert Newton overacts as Long John Silver and Bobby Driscoll was badly miscast as Jim Hawkins. His American accent was totally out of place, an English boy should have been cast. Most of the movie takes place in the studio even when they're supposed to be at sea. The worst part of all was a completely unfunny and embarrassing Ben Gunn - thankfully, he wasn't in the film for very long.The 1972 version with Orson Welles is far better, despite the dubbing of the international cast.

It's never easy watching a film you haven't seen for nigh on twelve years and it's especially difficult when you realise in the days of said viewing, you might have even seen it three times during one summer holiday week. Such was the situation with Treasure Island, a film rich in energy and sense of adventure with its glorious Technicolor for 1950 and expansive approach consisting of several exotic locations, both internal and external. Kids these days may well be brought up on Disney's golden goose in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, a trilogy I am not fond of at all, but viewing this for the first time in just over a decade felt more like a nostalgia trip than anything else but it still retains that charm and intrigue.I'll be blunt and put forward the case for the Golden era of Hollywood film-making being the best. If we compare Treasure Island to the much more contemporary 'Pirates' trilogy, we can see that back in the day a pirate was a character with an obscure accent and appearance to match – I am of course talking about Long John Silver played by Robert Newton in a performance that 'invented' the pirate 'cliché' (I use the word cliché with all due respect). As an actor, Newton is up there with Lugosi when it comes to bringing to the screen a filmic caricature; Lugosi's being the vampire. Nowadays, the character of the pirate is relegated to looking like a freak and in POTC's case must inhabit some sort of un-dead un-canniness within him to make it extra interesting. They are not aided when a name and a face in the form of Johnny Depp must stand in front of the camera and burble some nonsense in a silly voice.As a study of the pirate, Treasure Island is the Star Wars of the subject; it is the beginning and the breaking of the mould that allows all the more recent garbage to even get made in the first place so on one hand, you have to pay credit to Treasure Island for its ingenuity even if it is a bad thing in the long run. As a film alone, it just about makes the grade. As an historical piece, it owes a lot to the large scale Hollywood epics like King Kong and The Adventures of Robin Hood which placed its protagonists in strange and somewhat dangerous rural places before having them strive for their lives – once the film gets going, Treasure Island strongly resembles these narrative ideas. Indeed, the film's lone scene of rather extreme for the time violence is a siege on a rural makeshift fort in the jungle, something its hero Jim Hawkins (Driscoll) must endure.Treasure Island switches effortlessly between location scenes and studio based shoots, blending its editing in with its rousing score typical of the classical Hollywood era. There is a particularly well executed scene later on when, at night, a pirate chases young Jim around a boat and up some rigging before a final confrontation plays out. The scene is menacing perhaps purely for the reason it is a young child in quite some peril. But everything begins with an effortless establishment in Bristol, England where Jim (who's accent is American, but that will have to be ignored during viewing) comes across a treasure map hiding something in the region of £100,000. As a protagonist, Jim is a child but that does not mean he is weak. He serves drinks behind his mother's bar to the roughest looking of men and looks as if he can keep straight faced and cool headed when he needs to tell a lie. Jim is a child but he does not adopt typical childish characteristics and this is all helped by some good acting on Driscoll's behalf – Bloom and Knightly take note: get into your character, asses what they should be and then weigh up the predicament they're in and surprise your audience by going against type.As a character, Jim also represents in a meek fashion the target audience itself. The idea that Disney films were produced predominantly for kids was probably truer in 1950 than it is now and to have a young hero like Jim for the tykes to map onto is a good move, speaking from some form of experience I suppose one of the reason's I kept coming back to this film when I was very young was because I rarely saw a child protagonist in a film; either that or my parents realised it was a good way to shut me up and put it on every now and then. So if Jim is the fish-out-of-water child hero then the people around him are a little less-so. Squire Trelawney (Fitzgerald) is a loud, port drinking Englishman and the doctor is the opposite; a quiet and educated Englishman whom is also well-spoken. Equally so, the character of Ben Gunn once on the island comes off as failed comic relief that mercifully, is used in a sparse manner.This is a Disney film about pirates in which you do not get a pretty faced Keira Knightley caked in makeup talking about how she 'wishes to evoke the rule of parlez' in front of a group of characters whom resemble freaks more so than seafarers. The film is quite violent for a 1950s Disney flick and pushes the censorship codes at the time in the sense it allows a killer and a scoundrel to get away with it all. My heart says vote it higher but this is an ordinary tale, albeit interesting, that failed to 'wow' me in the manner other such classical films have done recently.