It seems that Ahsoka on DIsney+ is a solid hit among fans so far. Certainly those who were looking for a conclusion to the Star Wars: Rebels story are getting everything they could have wanted. Success for Star Wars in the Disney era has been a bit hit or miss over the years, but it turned out that success for Star Wars may have come from following the playbook of an animated Disney movie that famously was a lot less successful.
A fan on TikTok has hilariously pointed out a connection between Ahsoka and Disney’s Treasure Planet. If you were watching the Disney+ series and thought that a 3D spherical puzzle box that held a star chart to a far-off world where a long-lost person was located, sounded awfully familiar, that’s because you’ve apparently seen Disney’s ill-fated 20-year-old sci-fi adventure.
@melialisette ♬ Treasure Planet - Philharmonic Wind Orchestra
My brain exploded when I saw this. I knew I recognized the map concept when I saw it in Ahsoka. There wasn't a question I had seen it before, but I couldn't place why it seemed so familiar. Now I know.
From the “weird that it happened twice” file, we have the fact that the mysterious star chart that led Ahsoka and Sabine across the galaxy in the new Star Wars series is nearly identical to the one that appeared in Treasure Planet. It would be one thing if they were simply both 3D star charts, but as the video points out, even a lot of visuals, including how the device directs its characters, are nearly identical.
Is Dave Filoni a secret fan of a Disney movie that bombed so hard that the studio famously wrote it off the week after release? Perhaps. It’s possible this was all his secret attempt to get more people to watch Treasure Planet. And of course, if you have a Disney+ subscription so you can watch Ahsoka, you can just as easily watch Treasure Planet.
And to be fair, while Treasure Planet is somewhat famous in the history of theatrical flops, it isn’t actually that bad a movie. While it's not the best Disney animated movie, it's far from the worst. I’d argue it’s actually pretty good and seriously underrated. It was released up against the first Harry Potter movie, making it clear Disney didn’t have much faith in it, and people simply didn’t go and see it, making it one of the biggest financial disappointments for Walt Disney Animation Studios ever.
Perhaps if this TikTok goes viral enough, it will convince people to give the movie a chance. Certainly, from a plot perspective, if it has something in common with Ahsoka, which fans seem to love, then it’s already on the right track.
