Skeleton Crew Episode 4 Takes Cues From An Animated Disney Flop

The following contains spoilers for the latest episode of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.”

“Treasure Planet” is historic for being Disney’s biggest animated flop at the time of its release, but the film’s legacy lives on in the year 2024 thanks to the “Star Wars” franchise. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island,” Disney’s sci-fi swashbuckler tells the story of Jim Hawkins (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a teen adventurer who’s obsessed with finding the titular planet that hides legendary space pirate Captain Flint’s stolen gold. “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” episode 4 also borrows ideas from the rip-roaring space adventure — in a way, the plot of the Disney+ series recalls Flint raiding planets and stealing their treasure (in a good way).

At Attin is one of the most mysterious “Star Wars” planets, and that sentiment gains more credibility in “Skeleton Crew” episode 4. After Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) and the show’s young heroes arrive on At Achrann (a planet that’s ravaged by a war between the Troik and Hattan tribes), they learn that there is no record of the kids’ home world in the wider galaxy far, far away. What’s more, they discover that the coordinates to it have been destroyed after stumbling upon directions to other undocumented worlds, indicating that something fishy is going on.

The children’s home is a bona fide secret planet, not unlike the far-off haven of gold in John Musker and Ron Clements’ underrated Disney flick from 2002. Furthermore, there are people (and droids) who want At Attin and Treasure Planet to be kept hidden from the rest of their respective galaxies.

Space pirates and lost worlds are a big part of “Treasure Planet” and “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” so it’s only natural to compare both stories to some degree. However, there are certain elements of “Skeleton Crew” episode 4 that echo specific story beats from the Disney flop, mainly for the way in which they both feature robots that harbor forgotten secrets.

In this episode, we learned that SM-33 (Nick Frost) had his memory wiped by his old captain so that no one would learn about At Attin. Similarly, the droid called B.E.N. (Martin Short) in “Treasure Planet” had his memory circuit removed by Captain Flint so that he wouldn’t tell anyone about the pirate’s stolen loot.

Episode 4 also reveals that the original captain of the Onyx Cinder starship killed everyone who saw the coordinates to At Attin, and ordered SM-33 to eliminate anyone who gets close to discovering their secrets — which he tries to do after relaying the info to the kids. This justifies why Jod Na Nawood hates droids on “Skeleton Crew,” but it also echoes the “Treasure Planet” storyline that details Flint booby-trapping the planet to explode if visitors ever stumbled upon his loot. Let’s just hope that our “Skeleton Crew” heroes don’t return to At Attin to find that it’s also rigged with explosives — they’ve experienced enough trouble as it is.

New episodes of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” drop Tuesdays at 6 pm PST on Disney+. Solana Token Creator