This is no Cinderella story.

For nearly two decades, Walt Disney Co. filmmakers Ron Clements and John Musker dreamed of making an animated movie based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic coming-of-age novel Treasure Island. In their version, the action would unfold in outer space.

Even though the pair would emerge over time as two of the studio's hottest director-producers, with such hits as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Hercules, the studio kept rejecting the pitch.

But the two men refused to let their dream die at the hands of disbelievers. So with the backing of vice chairman Roy Disney himself - and a special contract provision - the duo finally wrote, directed and produced Treasure Planet.

It landed Nov. 27 - with a thud.

Far from being one of the "cinematic treasures" of the holiday season, as promised in Disney's promotional materials, the movie scored a paltry five-day gross of $16.6 million. The early financial results were so bad that Disney this week took the extraordinary step of lowering its annual earnings by tens of millions of dollars.

Treasure Planet is expected to lose more money than any other animated film in Disney's recent history. And, the flop has fueled concerns among some investors and analysts that Disney's storied animation division has lost its once-infallible touch.

Publicly, Disney executives are putting up a brave front amid the fallout. They say the movie was received well by test audiences and was hurt by such stiff box-office competition as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Disney's own The Santa Clause 2.

Even so, chairman Richard Cook said the failure of the movie had forced the studio to look inward.

Clements and Musker, said to be devastated by the film's poor reception, declined to comment.

Unlike the usual stuff of Hollywood legends, where labors of love blossom into multimillion-dollar hits - most recently, My Big Fat Greek Wedding - the failure of Treasure Planet provides a glimpse into the perils of pursuing artistic vision at all costs.

The movie business is, of course, always hit-and-miss. But in this case, there was trouble in the stars nearly from the start. The project was repeatedly set back by other films, and sidelined by concerns about the script. There was friction over whether moviegoers would be able to generate enough sympathy for the main character.

Even Disney chief executive Michael Eisner reportedly raised a red flag about the movie when he viewed an early cut a year ago. But by then it was too late to change course.

Treasure Planet was dreamed up 17 years ago by Clements, who directed and produced the movie with Musker. While the project was enthusiastically embraced, Disney first had something else in mind for the duo - The Little Mermaid.

With that 1989 blockbuster under their belts, Clements and Musker returned to Treasure Planet. But again, they were drafted for another Disney priority: Aladdin.

When the project was revived in 1993, there was a script in hand, and it appeared to be gaining momentum. But again, a higher-profile project, Hercules, was put on the fast track instead, with Clements and Musker set to write and direct.

After Hercules, a new script for Planet was crafted with the help of collaborator Rob Edwards, whose credits include the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

But when the script moved through the bureaucracy onto Katzenberg's desk, the project ground to a halt. "He hated the idea," said a former Disney executive familiar with the history.

Katzenberg didn't even like the film's concept, believing that it was simply a bad idea to take a classic adventure tale of a young boy's coming of age and setting it in outer space.

The source said Katzenberg's objections angered Clements and Musker, who in turn complained to Roy Disney. The dispute drove a wedge between Katzenberg and Disney, who liked the idea and took the matter to the CEO. Eisner backed Disney, which also put also put him at odds with his studio chief, said a company source with knowledge of the matter.

But with Katzenberg fired and out of the way, the project finally moved forward. Clements and Musker were so passionate about the project that when they re-upped their deal with Disney for seven years in 1995, their contract stipulated that after Hercules the studio would commit to making either Treasure Planet or another project mutually agreed upon, sources close to the filmmakers said.

Shortly after Hercules was released in 1997, the studio gave the green light to Treasure Planet.

"It was not without its issues," conceded one Disney executive.

Those included problems with lead character Jim Hawkins, a troubled teen. He seemed too harsh and brooding. The second and third acts of the movie were thought to be flat and without "enough emotional connection" for audiences.

Richard Verrier and Claudia Eller write for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.