20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Saw this for the first time when I was 9 years old and had to wait 25 years before it came on TV and was made available on video. The UK DVD is very good but only has a few special features. If you want a complete package you need to buy the US 2-disk region 1 only version. The special features are legion and amazing, especially the lengthy "making of" programme. The film itself is well photographed, well scripted, well cast and well acted. Not entirely true to the book but enjoyable nevertheless. James Mason is amazing as Captain Nemo. Other actors have tried to play this part (Herbert Lom, Robert Ryan, Jose Ferrer, Michael Caine, Ben Cross and Patrick Stewart amongst others) but have never come close to James Mason's brilliant potrayal. For 1954 the special effects were pretty good and Walt Disney had another success on his hands. Most people will remember the film for the submarine, a beautiful interpretation by designer Harper Goff of Jules Verne's Nautilus. As a child I thought it was real and not a series of models and a full size mock up of the deck. No other film version has a Nautilus as striking as Harper Goff's and it's a pity the submarine was restricted to one film only as it was the real star of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!

Watched this one recently and was delighted to find it stands the test of time as one of the better Disney live action films on the market. A quality take on Jules Verne's advanced story of subs and the atomic threat that was to become ever so prominent in the public conscious. This adaptation is a corking sci-fi adventure that benefits from great work from all involved. The cast are just smashing, James Mason is the stand out as the barmy but intelligent protagonist Capt. Nemo, gruff and menacing with a dandy slice of camp into the proceedings. Then we have Kirk Douglas who out Popeye's Popeye, tough and rugged with a song and dance to help moral along, and even taking time out to befriend a seal to help jolly the film in heart. Peter Lorre is solid as ever, and Paul Lukas almost steals the show as the conflicted Professor Pierre Aronnax. The sets are wonderful, the direction seamless, and the special effects make it hard to believe this was made back in the early 1950s, but ultimately its a story for adults and an adventure for the kids. Containing a giant squid sequence that sees Mason & Douglas fighting it to the death serves as proof positive that 20000 Leagues Under the Sea is an unadulterated joy. 9/10

In its time (1954) Disney's rendering of Jules Verne's novel was an epic of high adventure. Starring Kirk Douglas at the height of his fame, and cool, enigmantic James Mason, we have all the ingredients for excitement. There's a strange submarine that is so ugly it's beautiful, rather like Cameron's Alien queen many years later. There's battles with an amazingly realistic giant squid that compares favourably with modern CGI. There's conflict, story and wonder. And being Disney - there's also comedy. It's for kids as much as adults. Today, it's not quite so exciting in its impact, but this should be measured against its near-60year vintage. The Disney DVD supplied by Amazon is still an amazingly detailed and clear print. There is no mention of remastering in the blurb, yet I'll swear detailing is finer than the remastered `Journey To The Centre Of The Earth' which followed from another studio a few years later. Colouration is still excellent, the sound score crisp & clear. Run time is given as 122mins, and there's a 2.55:1 widescreen ratio. Viewer rating is `U'. Tastes have changed in the passing of time, and most viewers beyond primary-school age may find the thoughtful interludes begin to drag a little. Nice subtle details abound, but these may pass unnoticed by a modern audience for whom special-effects and CGI can render them commonplace. It is still far superior to a recent Micheal Caine remake. I've given it 4 stars on account of its vintage and quality, but as a piece of entertainment today it might only pass muster for 3. It certainly needs a BIG screen to give its best. There's a bunch of extras, mostly about squids, that I haven't watched yet. Worth a punt, but don't chase the price; it's already jumped 50p since my purchase on 17/8/2011.

What a great film, as great now as when I saw it as a child. True family entertainment with action, adventure, comedy and just pure enjoyment. James mason as Captain Nemo is aloof and menacing but also unpretentious and vulnerable. The nautilus is a marvellous creation and is the iconic version of the submarine boat, it looks like a monstrous fish speeding through the water. Kirk Douglas is a joy, Ned Land is a cocky, swaggering rogue but you dont hate him as he is an everyman hero, perfect for Douglas. The extras include a rejected squid sequence, and you can see why it was rejected, the sequence in the movie is a show-stopping amazing sequence. The rejected sequence is languid and boring! Also included in the extras is a sequence from and old tv "making of" show with Peter Lorre and kirk Douglas, this was worth the price of the dvd for me. An almost perfect film, enjoy!

Great price and fast service

Lovely Disney classic film. Good fun watch.

I reckon this film gives a fairly good depiction of the Jules Verne novel. Older films often do. Jules Verne gave good descriptions of undersea life, which is like another world. That was even before it was began to be explored. The film also does somewhat. Perhaps one can also get some good ideas for nice seafood recipes. There are people similar, or were similar, to Nemo in real life, with a dislike of humanity. And, sometimes escaping from humanity. Nemo in Latin means Nobody. He probably, at least in this film, also considered himself a nobody - having low self-esteem. Thus, contributing towards it. Nemo also didn't want humanity using the Nautilus technology for destructive purposes, but he was. There probably is technology held back from humanity, which humanity would abuse. The Nautilus, in any case, would be a good pleasure submarine - even today. It could just get upgraded. I was wondering if that metal rowing boat would work. The end of the film has a good saying, and is still relevant. I reckon that Kirk Douglas was a good actor. I knew someone who didn't like him, due to the big dimple on his chin. The Whale of a Tale is a good song. There should be an extended version of this film. That's the modern trend of improving them. This time having a section on Atlantis. (Atlantis is said to have been a continent, with a civilisation more advanced than currently. It turned bad, decadent, corrupt, evil, and so on. It thus submerged.) They don't show any faces, and have same sounding voices. It could e.g. just be looking out the window, as in an animated version. I think it was an important part of the book left out. All other film versions tend to have it. I like to sometimes watch films with German, or Dutch in this case, subtitles. Can pick up some of the language. Another good advantage, is usually giving amounts in Metric - the system I'm familiar with. Pity that films don't have optinal Metric subtitles.

The two live-action classic Disney films familiar to most would probably be MARY POPPINS and BEDKNOBS & BROOMSTICKS, but there were many more, and if I had to recommend a third, it would be this one, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. Made ten years before MARY POPPINS and based on the book by 19th century French author, Jules Verne, it's a very significant piece of cinema, as it shows Walt Disney's potential to make films appeal to adults as well as to children. One of the first things that came to mind when I read the book, for obvious reasons, was PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. There are several similarities including the famous giant squid attack. Actors Kirk Douglas and James Mason star in two of their most memorable roles, and are joined by a cast of real-life marine animals. It's also quite dark and perilous for a Golden Age Disney film, and so it was probably the darker side of Walt Disney's vision to which the makers of PIRATES were staying true. The DVD includes the quarter-hour featurette JULES VERNE AND WALT DISNEY - EXPLORERS OF THE IMAGINATION, which documents the connection between the father of science-fiction and the wizard of Hollywood fantasy. In conclusion, 20,000 LEAGUES is a film no Disney DVD collection should be without.

It's a great movie

この作品のノーティラス号（喧しい事を言えば厳密にはナウティルス なのでしょうが）の造形は素晴らしいの一言に尽きます。 PAL形式のDVDでランタイムは122分なので（劇場上映時間は127分） VLCメディアプレイヤーの再生速度をx0.96（122÷0.96≒127)にして 視聴しています。

Producto perfectamente recibido. Con el doblaje original al Castellano y calidad es la de la época, se disfruta perfectamente. Muy aconsejable. Si te gusta el género de aventura no puede faltar en tu colección esta gran película.

Excelente presentación. Gran imágen y calidad en el vídeo y el Audio ! Para todos los amantes del cine fantástico creado en los años 50's éste artículo no los desepcionará.

Good movie bought it for my grandfather he was very happy