The music for TREASURE ISLAND, produced by Walt Disney at Denham Studios, England, may be divided into two sections. First came the question of sea shanties, to be sung in the film. Under the general supervision of Muir Mathieson, (music director to the production) Mrs. Buck, his personal assistant, conducted a research during which over three hundred sea shanties and old maritime songs were examined before a final selection was submitted to the production chief, Perce Pearce. It was essential that the songs chosen should not only be correct for the period (1765) but also that they should be suitable in lilt and tempo to the scenes involved. Walt Disney himself heard a number of test recordings before the final selection was made.

The score for Treasure Island reeks of the spume, salt and ozone. The seven movement suite traverses various scenes. There is a Handelian oceanic majesty in the opening titles woven with references to "Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum!" - a reminiscence that returns momentarily in Looking for the Treasure. Then there is the more impressionistic Baxian ‘wash’ of To Bristol. On the Island is a sort of sinister scherzo with minatory dark clouds scudding across the sky. In Storming the Stockade the shade of Shostakovich and of the Nordic Bax crosses the horizon. The uneasy restfulness of both Shostakovich and Bax also pervades the Jim Hawkins, Ship to Shore movement. Leaving the Island is the final and longest movement - a miniature tone poem - a sort of overture in retrospect. This is music for a grand yarn and although it lacks the emotional reach of Korngold’s pirate scores it is richly orchestrated and full of atmosphere.