My Movie Review on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) · 6:26pm Feb 21st, 2019
Yo, what’s up people? I’ve come back from a dead-on break from reviewing to give you all another motion picture review.
Today, I’ll be reviewing Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. The film from 1954 to be precise.
In 1866, several ships have been mysteriously destroyed, and reports claim that it was all because of a ‘sea monster’. Having been stranded in San Francisco, European scientist Professor Pierre Arronax (played by Paul Lukas) and his assistant Conseil (played by Peter Lorre), are invited by the United States Navy on an expedition to search for the ‘monster’, additionally accompanied by Ned Land the harpooner (played by Kirk Douglas).
However, during the expedition, the ship is attacked by the ‘monster’, and the professor, Conseil, and Ned fall overboard.
In their desperate search for land and safety, the three come across the ‘monster’, which turns out to be a submarine (the first ever made) called the Nautilus, captained by Nemo (played by James Mason).
Forced to come aboard, the trio travel the seas with Nemo, experiencing a great many wonders, encountering enormous dangers, and most of all, digging through the Captain’s core and discovering what kind of man he is.
Let me just say, first of all, that this film is awesome from start to finish!
I have read the actual book a long time, really. Sure, it may not be completely true to the source material, but it is really faithful to it for the most part.
Particular elements that I would like to note that both the film and book share are these:
- The shark that attacks Ned & Conseil.
- The giant squid that attacks the Nautilus.
- The cannibalistic natives.
The only difference between the book and film on the former two elements is that, in the book, there’s more than one of each animal I mentioned, whereas the film only had one of each creature. That, and the circumstances involving all three events were different.
The screenplay done by Earl Felton was overall excellent. Everything tied together perfectly, and it didn’t feel episodic like the book. There was also a great amount of depth in the movie, along with excellent action, drama, and even some humorous moments. In addition, Felton perfectly balanced the creativity of Jules Verne with his own, with some personal touches from Walt Disney on the side.
The direction by Richard Fleischer was astonishing as well. The camera shots and cinematography were on par engaging, and he positioned it all from such stunning viewpoints. Also, in a time where technology wasn’t as advanced as it is today, I was completely blown away by how he was able to film the movie’s scenes underwater. How was it even possible?!
The special effects used on the film were over-the-top awesome in addition, particularly coming from a film of the 1950s. The giant squid that was in the film literally seemed so real, especially underwater. And, whoever made the Nautilus, or how they made it, did such a great job at making it seem like an actual submarine, whether underwater or on the surface.
The music composed by Paul Smith, and orchestrated by Joseph S. Dubin, was likewise groundbreaking. It not only fit every moment it was incorporated, but also with the emotions and feelings of the characters, especially Captain Nemo.
The acting, casting, and characters hands-down rocked the house, by the way. The people that I can’t help but commend the most out of all of them are James Mason and Kirk Douglas, with their portrayals and characters of Captain Nemo and Ned Land.
Douglas gave the character of Ned Land such excellent personality and charm, and there’s even a great humorous side of him to boot. I love how he was so physical with his body and expressions too.
And Mason…oh man, he was terrific! He took on the role of Nemo like he was meant for it and was having the best time of his life. He gave the character of Nemo such realistic emotions, expressions, movements, everything! With his character being an anti-hero, commandeering the Nautilus to attack and destroy ships because of a life-scarring tragedy from his past, only Mason could be able to bring out the complexity of his character and gain sympathy from audiences.
Something I can’t help but enjoy from him among others is this quote he said near the end of the film.
“There is hope for the future. And when the world is ready for a new and better life, all this will someday come to pass, in God’s good time.”
—Captian Nemo
By ‘this’, Nemo was referring to the evil in our world, as well as sin and the curse inflicted on us from long ago. Eventually, when Jesus returns to earth, all of the pain, suffering, death, every sort of evil you could count, will be gone for good. Truly, Jesus is our one and only hope. That’s why the quote is so special to me, because it reminds me of Jesus.
In the end, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” is a masterpiece in every way, and it’s worthy of being called a classic. Especially in contrast to “Gone with the Wind (woes being the fitting term).
As a result, I rate “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)” a full-on 5 out of 5 stars.
Oh yeah, I saw this. I liked it a lot. I really liked underwater stuff a while back, with the Titanic and Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Lego sets and 20,000 and stuff.
Binging on the classics now, are we? 😋
5017642
Yep.
5017646
Same 😉👌
This sounds really good! It was already on my list, but now it sounds even better! I’ll definitely watch it eventually.
Classic
Oh, man, I used to watch this movie all the time as a little kid! What a classic! I remember my Mom made me a 20,000 Leagues themed cake for my 4th birthday. She even put on the Nautilus and the Giant Squid on top.
Nice review!
5017689
Thanks.
Great movie, even though I still need to watch it.
*Deep breath*
The book was better in my opinion
5017824
They're both good in their own way. But I understand.
As I've grown older, I've grown to understand Nemo's motivations in greater detail than ever. Now, whenever I watch the scene after he blows up that one weapons ship, and he rants about his motives to Arronax, I actually feel like crying the way he goes quiet when he talks about how his wife and son were killed.
On a side note, James Mason also starred as Professor Lindenbrook in Journey to the Center of the Earth, another favorite of mine.
5017936
Not to say that I thought the movie was bad...but I just preferred the book
5017824
It’s perfectly alright.
Personally, I prefer this film over the book any day.
5017977
10/10. The squid scene was the best.
There's mainly been two scenes I am most familiar about this movie, considering that I actually have never seen the feature in it's entirety.
One is definitely the battle with the squid which for the final product had to be made to look as if it was filmed during the evening because otherwise it was easy for folks to tell that the squid was fake (Course, this was before CGI what could we expect?).
Two the 'Whale of a Tale' number which you can listen to in it's entirety on YouTube or the condensed version from one of the 'Disney Sing Along' videos that were very popular when I was growing up.
5017708
5018162
The two of you should definitely see this film soon. Especially since this’ll be included in the Disney Chronicles, really.
5018163
Are we for certain that it's included in the series or is it just speculated? In my opinion, nothing is ever made certain unless there's a full commitment to including a series which when I was introduced I initially just assumed it was only the 50 something animated theatrical features that had been released over the years. But if the Chronicles are not just limited to either Handdrawn or computer generated features, but also includes live action, stop-motion, and whatever Disney had developed over the years (Or at least, had a hand in) I suppose it would only be fair.
I'm sure this is a very good feature and perhaps there is some promise on what it could offer. The only thing that makes sense in how this could be incorporated into the series is on account of it being 'slightly' based off the original source material although the feature, as you say, is not entirely the same but it's pretty close to the central themes that made the story so famous. Who knows? Right now, it's probably best to just focus on the present circumstance of the series where it stands now and hope we even get that far into the series.
5018167
Dino has actually offered me the position of co-writer for the film to be an installment of the Disney Chronicles, since he hasn’t entirely seen it yet.
5019312
Well that solves the mystery of where this feature stands on the list and thereby confirming that it'll be included. Course, a deep feeling kept insisting that it makes for a likely applicant since it's based off a famous novel. Still that leaves me uncertain as to whether development for said story is proceeding as we speak, but I'm certain it'll turn out quite all right. I just need to find a means to be able to watch the movie so I can get some idea what to expect and compare that to the 'Disney Chronicles' version...
Why did I never watch this movie when VHS was still a big deal?
5019315
Here’s the link to buy it from Amazon on DVD, in case you’re interested:
https://www.amazon.com/Disneys-Leagues-Under-Two-Disc-Special/dp/B00005JKU0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KYL1RKSA8IU0&keywords=20%2C000+leagues+under+the+sea+dvd&qid=1551026694&s=gateway&sprefix=20%2C000%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-1
5019317
I was hoping to just watch it for 'free' in the meantime. But thanks for the link.
5019318
No problem.
I regret never seeing this movie.