With regard to adapting the characters from the book to film, Ron Clements mentioned that the Jim Hawkins in the book is "a very smart, very capable kid", but they wanted to make Jim start out as "a little troubled kid" who "doesn't really know who he is" while retaining the aforementioned characteristics from the original character.
Hen forbehold for at skulle tilpasse karaktererne fra bogen til filmen, nævner Ron Clements at Jim Hawkins i bogen er en "meget meget klog dygtig dreng", men at de gerne ville have Jim til at starte ud med at et "lille problembarn", som "ikke rigtige ved, hvem han er", samtidig med at beholde de fornævnte karaktertræk fra den originale karakter.