Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
(#36 on The Big Read. My combined score: 24)
First published as a novel on 23 May 1883. It was originally serialized in a children’s magazine named Young Folks between 1881 and 1882.
Writing: 8
Characters: 9
Story: 7
Overall: 24 out of 30
Overall: A great book. I’m very glad I finally read it and now looking forward to tracking down one of the screen adaptions. (Edited to add: Now having watched the 1990 version and the Muppet version never mind about that last bit.)
Recommendations: I’d have no problem recommending this book to anyone and it would be one of the very first books I would give to a 12 to 14 year old boy.
Available on Amazon.com
Free Kindle Edition: Treasure Island
Paperback Edition: Treasure Island (Dover Thrift Editions)
DVD: Treasure Island (1950 starring Bobby Driscoll and Robert Newton)
DVD: Treasure Island (1990 starring Charlton Heston and Christian Bale)
6/10 Treasure Island (1990) with Charlton Heston and Christian Bale. Man this movie is boring and Bale is just way to intense. Maybe I misread the book but I thought there was more of a touch of fun and adventure. There is none of that in this movie. The problem I think was pretty obvious, Fraser Clarke Heston is a not a good director. Nepotism is bad, okay.
DVD: Muppet Treasure Island (1996 Starring Tim Curry and Kevin Bishop)
4/10 Muppets Treasure Island (1996) with Tim Curry and Kevin Bishop. I was curious how Disney would handle all the death, murder and rum guzzling and turns out they were just straight up okay with it. Sadly that did not do anything to improve the movie. While this had all of the sense of fun missing from the 1990 version, that’s about all it had. Oh my god this movie is terrible. And full of so many needless changes. Why have Cpt Flint kill 15 men instead of 6? Why make Jim Hawkins an orphan? Why all the singing? Okay, I know why all the singing, it’s a muppet movie. But couldn’t they have done some good singing? And really, except for the character names and the fact that pirates and treasure are involved this movie barely follows the story. Man it’s terrible. Even Tim Curry who I normally love is wasted.