20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) – Review

Author Jules Verne has often been called the “Father of Science Fiction” and with such titles as From the Earth to the Moon and Journey to the Center of the Earth in his bibliography that’s a fair assumption but it was his novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea that is most heralded as the title which was most ahead of its time, and today we will be looking at Walt Disney’s seminal movie masterpiece based on that classic piece of literature.

Walt Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea follows most of the story beats found in Verne’s novel, though often out of sequence, with the story maintaining the premise of the United States government hiring Professor Pierre Aronnax (Paul Lukas) and his assistant, Conseil (Peter Lorre) to set sail aboard a U.S. Navy expedition so as to investigate the possible existence of a mysterious creature that has been seeking their ships. Turns out it’s not some mythological sea monster but a submarine operated by the enigmatic Captain Nemo (James Mason) who has seemingly declared war on the surface world. The frigate they are on is attacked by Nemo’s submarine, called the Nautilus, and Conseil, Aronnax and the ship’s harpooner Ned Land (Kirk Douglas) are thrown overboard only to be saved from drowning by the Nautilus itself. The key difference between the book and the movie is that Verne’s novel is a scientific expedition into the mysteries of the depths, with long and I do mean long passages describing the various forms of sea life they encounter, while the Disney movie is a rousing adventure more akin the writings of Robert Louis Stevenson than that of Jules Verne.

Note: In the book, Nemo’s submarine the Nautilus is described as a “streamlined, cigar-shaped sub” while the movie gives us a beautifully ornate vessel that looks like a Victorian steampunk craft come to life.

The movie also takes quite a few liberties with the characters themselves, Nemo is no longer of East Indian descent and as depicted by James Mason is a more cold and calculating murderer than his movie counterpart – he threatens Ned Lands’ life on a regular basis – and Mason’s Nemo is given more of a concrete backstory than what Verne provided in his novel, though more backstory was later introduced in the sequel The Mysterious Island. In the movie, we learn that Nemo was held captive in the penal colony of Rura Penthe, where a foreign government tried to force him to reveal his scientific breakthroughs and when he refused to break they tortured his wife and child to death.  Needless to say, Nemo didn’t take it well.

Note: In the book, Nemo only attacked ships belonging to this unnamed country and the ramming of the warship carrying Professor Aronnax and company was only in self-defence.

What nationality was responsible for the death of Nemo’s family is never mentioned and all the enemy ships in the movie fly no flag, yet in the book, it’s fairly obvious that with Nemo being East Indian his major nemesis would have been the British but Disney certainly didn’t want to call out Britain as the film’s main antagonist as that could have affected the overseas box office, thus they are just faceless bad guys from some unknown fictional country. Nemo and the crew of the Nautilus come across more as members of a cult rather than isolationists who have sworn off humanity. This aspect is made more obvious at the film’s conclusion when a fatally wounded Nemo institutes a ship-wide suicide pact.

Nemo may have had many faults but he could never be accused of not having style.

The only character in the movie that stays rather true to his book depiction would be that of Professor Pierre Aronnax as actor Paul Lukas’s bland and one-note portrayal of the French scientist is about as boring as the one found within Verne’s pages, on the other hand, the movie’s version of the Professor’s assistant Conseil is quite a radical departure from the source material as the Conseil in the book was selfless and loyal to a fault while in the movie he’s being played by Peter Lorre, an actor not known for playing noble and loyal characters, and he works behind the Professor’s back with Ned Land on his plans to escape the Nautilus, something the book Conseil would have died before even contemplating. The character of brash harpooner Ned Land is greatly expanded from the source material which was mostly due to the casting of Kirk Douglas. In the book, Ned barely has a presence within the pages of Verne’s novel, with him being relegated to occasionally pointing out to the Professor their need for escape, but Disney wasn’t going to waste their big-name star on such a small part and so his role was greatly expanded, in fact, Douglas himself insisted that not only should they add some women into the movie – in the opening scene he is given some local ladies to hang off his arm – but as he was a burgeoning action hero they needed to add several fight scenes to the script.

He also got to sing with a seal for some reason.

The greatest deviation from the book would be in the film’s conclusion. In the book, the three protagonists escape aboard a skiff while the Nautilus is pulled into the deadly whirlpool of the Maelstrom, with Nemo crying out in anguish “O almighty God! Enough! Enough!” The fate of the great submarine remained a mystery until the release of the sequel The Mysterious Island but in this Disney movie, we get Ned Land tossing notes in bottles overboard that contain the location of Nemo’s secret island lair, so as to alert interested parties as to where they can find Nemo and his sub. When the Nautilus arrives at Vulcania they find the island surrounded by warships, of that same unknown nationality, and rather than let his great secrets fall into those unscrupulous hands he plants charges and blows up the island.

Note: Nemo’s island base in the book was just an unnamed volcanic crater, it’s where he mined the coal needed to fuel his submarine’s electric power, while the Nautilus in the movie was clearly atomic-powered and Vulcania was an island lair worthy of a Bond villain.

Stray Observations:

• The movie opens with the Disney classic approach of showing the book itself but for some reason, they get the title of the first chapter wrong.
• The first two ships destroyed by the Nautilus explode on impact but Nemo’s submarine sank its prey by simply piercing their hulls, so unless these ships were carrying nitroglycerin there was no reason for them to blow up as they did.
• Ned Land is seen eating a banana during a gale aboard his ship but bananas were considered bad luck among fishermen and would not have been something he would have been snacking on.
• The Nautilus has terrible security. While overseeing an underwater burial Captain Nemo leaves his submarine on the surface with the door wide open so that our heroes can just wander in.
• At one point Nemo goes ashore with Professor Aronnax which is something book Nemo would never have done having disavowed the surface world.
• In the book the Nautilus was attacked by a school of giant squid while in the movie there’s just one.

I’m not sure what threat a squid even this size would have against an iron submarine.

Walt Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea may not have been all that faithful to Jules Verne’s novel but anyone trying to do so would have ended up with a three-hour nature documentary on their hands, that’s just not something Disney was interested in providing, instead, what we got was a pure unadulterated adventure film with James Mason providing one of his most iconic performances – Kirk Douglas and his attempts at comedy I found less engaging – but the true star of the film was the Nautilus herself, from its steel-plated exterior to the gorgeous organ in Nemo’s cabin this is what people will take away with them after seeing this film.  Now, not to throw any shade on director Richard Fleischer as it was his stalwart direction that made this film such an enduring classic and the nail-biting battle with the giant squid is a pretty unforgettably sequence by anyone’s standards, but one can’t help but admire the amount of work that went into the design and overall look of this movie. If you have somehow gone through life without seeing Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea do yourself a favour and rectify that as soon as possible.

Note: if you want to see Captain Nemo’s amazing organ it’s still residing in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion even after all these years.