Any love for Disney 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea here?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by GuildX700, Apr 18, 2014.

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  1. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    My first question is, WHERE IS THE BLU RAY???? Come on Disney!!!

    With that now out of the way..... What a wonderful movie, 1954 release. I read the book dozens of times as a kid before I finally got to see the movie.

    Ok, it gets corny quite often, but who can't help but love that poor old aging sad sack Peter Lorre in his role and good ol Kirk Douglas and James Mason? IMO it's a wonderfully filmed lush film that deserves red carpet resto/blu ray treatment.
     
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  2. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    The squid. Best special effect. Period.
     
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  3. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    You ever see the original Giant Squid scene? Not too good:



    Walt and the director were very smart reshooting the whole thing at night, in a huge rainstorm, so you couldn't see how awful the giant rubber squid looked. I like a lot of the movie, but there's some real dull parts in there.
     
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  4. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Still great! There's no such thing as a bad giant squid fight!
     
  5. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    I saw this in a one-off packed-house screening of a then-new 35mm print back in the 1980s. Great movie; looked nice on the big screen.
     
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  6. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    I am jealous! :goodie:
     
  7. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    You know, staring at the hideous giant squid mouth, it reminds me of something... :eek:

    20,000 Leagues was a great movie to see as a little kid with a big audience. I think I saw it on a 1960s reissue when I was about 10 or 11. But as an adult, it does drag a little bit. Some really funny, memorable stuff in the movie. To tell you the truth, I think Master of the World -- a very similar story, also written by Jules Verne -- is a better movie overall, even though it's a much lower-budget film.
     
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  8. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident

    20k is my favorite science fiction movie from the 1950s. It has a surprisingly sophisticated environmental message. The production design is outstanding. And all the main cast players are great. I think this film is essential for James Mason fans, Kirk Douglas fans, and Peter Lorre fans....

    Saw it in the theaters about a year ago. Looked great. The blu-ray should have come out by now....
     
  9. jacksondownunda

    jacksondownunda Forum Resident

    I loved the book and movie way back when (still do), but I was surprised watching it a couple decades back how bleak the underwater scenery was (an underwater tank, IIRC?). Perhaps Disney was using the snorkelling seafloor off Huntington Beach as a model? Jacques Cousteau provided far more beautiful vistas years later.
     
  10. apileocole

    apileocole Lush Life Gort

    It has been restored (subsequent to the video restoration on DVD), a proper film restoration this time evidently. Beautiful job. A full 2.55:1 + mag stereo Technicolor / CinemaScope film. Kirk Douglas attended a screening. There's also a lovely HD mastering from the restored elements. Absurd there still isn't a Blu-Ray.

    The superbly suited score was issued on CD recently, from original session elements.

    The visual, set, model, prop and costume designs for this film are among the best ever and the cinematography exemplary:

    twenty-thousand-leagues-016.jpg

    twenty-thousand-leagues-010.jpg

    twenty-thousand-leagues-019.jpg

    Look over each of those shots. Stylish, yet focused upon visually expressing the core of what's going on. The film is full of such shots.

    nautilus-filming-model.jpg
    Filming model of the Nautilus still exists.

    There are more spectacular examples of underwater filming since, but what's in the film works well for its aims and was impressive at the time. It was far, far more restrictive and difficult prior to more modern film, cameras, lenses, lighting, etc (never mind that they were filming this with Technicolor and CinemaScope!), and before more modern diving gear (the invention of the aqualung itself wasn't over a decade old before filming). The undersea costumes with their bronze helmets we see on screen don't just look cool; they wanted not just to show Nemo having an aqualung ahead of his time but to make something that reflected the 1800s future vision actually work. Pre-CGI of course.

    There are slow parts. Upon reflection I suspect it may not be quite as memorable if we sped through it all; perhaps it is better for us having time to live in it more. Also, I suspect it was made at exactly the right time. Earlier and it wouldn't have had the scope (pun intended) and later... well, it may have been better served in 1954 than it would be today. There is or was supposedly a remake planned, but I expect the 1954 film would still be great to see regardless of how well it may turn out. Probably isn't a whole lot of point in comparing it to other films though; there are films that are better in pace or what have you, but they in turn don't offer what it does. It's a creature of its own.

    But the best thing about it, like most worthwhile films, is that it has a human story about characters with very human qualities and flaws at its heart, which it keeps central to its storytelling and quite effectively conveys in its own ways.

    So yeah, big fan. Excellent movie.
     
  11. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
  12. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    Harder to watch every time I do. It hasn't aged well, at least for me.
     
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  13. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    Saw it as a kid at the local cinema one summer. Late 70's. Loved it and still have a soft spot for it. Seen other versions and this one still carries it.

    Have to say the book is a bit lumpy too. One of the worst endings ever.
     
  14. My understanding is that Disney's waiting for the completion and scheduling of a modern theatrical remake of this before releasing it on blu-ray...the restoration work's done, as apileocole's posted above...
     
  15. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    There have been two or three attempts to get a remake off the ground, with some major name directors attached, but last I heard Disney went nuts about the budget and the directors quit. In a way, I could almost see a 20,000 Leagues film becoming a series like Pirates of the Caribbean if they worked at it. But in the wrong hands, it could be a slow, dated mess.

    I think the design of the original film is really beautiful, particularly the interiors and exterior of the Nautilus. Really beautiful. Anybody ever go on the 20,000 Leagues ride at Disneyland? Man, that was cool, particularly with James Mason narrating the ride.
     
  16. theoxrox

    theoxrox Forum Resident

    Location:
    central Wisconsin
    I saw the movie when it was almost NEW, back in the summer of 1955 at a theater in some little town out in the boonies of Texas. I would have been about 8-1/2 years old at the time, and it absolutely blew me away!
     
  17. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    Just saw the underwater Nautilus film prop in "Disney Archive" exhibit traveling through U.S., Sure wish a screen was showing the Restored film!
     
  18. Alan G.

    Alan G. Forum Resident

    Location:
    NW Montana
    Ride? I thought it was an "Exhibit" in Tomorrowland, where you just walked inside the interior set of the Nautilus. They had the organ, the big iris window with the squid. Very ornate. It was there for years. I must have missed the ride. Dang!
     
  19. sparkydog

    sparkydog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    My Mom took me downtown in what must have been 1963 for a surprise. She wouldn't tell me a thing about what we were going to do. We went to a re-issue of "20,000 Leagues", which I knew nothing about, at one of our cool old defunct theaters. One of my favorite memories ever. You guys sure are a tough audience! :nyah:
     
  20. sparkydog

    sparkydog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    I rode it. It was in Walt Disney World, narrated by a Mason sound-alike Peter Renaday. Disneyland's original ride was the Submarine Voyage.
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2014
  21. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

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    Maybe that was it -- it was only at Disney World. I certainly rode it a half-dozen times when the park first opened. Maybe I was still affected by the pot smoke from Tom Sawyer's Island. (Wait -- wasn't that just at Disneyland? So confusing.)
     
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  22. nsmith1002

    nsmith1002 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Monticello, IN USA
    It certainly was effective on me as a child when I saw a re-release in the early 1960's.
    I must have only been about 6 or 7 years old and that squid made it most difficult for me to get to sleep that night after we got home from the theater!
     
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  23. sparkydog

    sparkydog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    I can appreciate your confusion. Tom Sawyer's Island is at both parks. Honestly, Marc, at times in Disneyland I really nearly forgot which state I was in (as in United States, not "mental state"...)
    Big Thunder and Splash Mountains and parts of Main Street are really similar.
     
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  24. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

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    There are some surprising differences. For example, at Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion's outer room actually does drop down into the ground; in Florida, because of the high water table, they couldn't dig down too deep... so the ceiling goes up instead!

    In the 1970s, I think teenagers were getting stoned out of their minds at both Tom Sawyer's Island! (I, however, never inhaled.)
     
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  25. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
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