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20,000
Leagues Under the Sea
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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10
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10 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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I've
already waxed nostalgic about my childhood love
of all things Nemo and Nautilus in my November
2002 review of Columbia's Mysterious
Island DVD. Needless to say I was utterly
thrilled to finally see Disney's greatest live-action
film, 20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea, arrive on DVD in an absolutely
superb two-disc set. It's pretty much everything
I could've hoped for and more.
Jules Verne's famous story needs but a brief summary.
Shortly after the American Civil War, ships are
being rammed and sunk on the high seas by a huge
underwater "monster". The warship U.S.S. Abraham
Lincoln is dispatched to investigate. The
American government asks marine biologist Prof.
Arronax, an eminent French scientist traveling
in the United States, to join the expedition.
Accompanied by his assistant Conseil, the professor
takes ship aboard the Lincoln on a cruise
through the South Pacific. Also onboard is merchant
seaman Ned Land, hired for his skill as a master
harpooner. The monster is eventually encountered;
the Lincoln is attacked and disabled by
the beast. Only the beast isn't an animal at all,
but rather a fabulous submarine boat more than
a century ahead of its time. This exciting discovery
is made by Arronax, Conseil and Ned, who, after
being thrown into the sea by the collision, find
themselves 'guests' of the submarine's commander,
the enigmatic Captain Nemo. Because he cannot
allow them to return to civilization and reveal
his secrets, Nemo takes the castaways on a cruise
beneath the world's oceans in the Nautilus,
a technological marvel sprung entirely from his
own tortured genius. Nemo, for very personal reasons,
hates the very concept of war. He uses the Nautilus
as an engine of destruction, making war on
war — sinking the warships of the world's navies
and cargo vessels carrying munitions. Arronax
temporarily puts aside questions of morality in
order to learn all he can from the brilliant Nemo,
but the professor's companions have a different
agenda: escape.
While
Verne's original novel is essentially an oceanography
lesson partially disguised as a ripping yarn,
the 1954 Disney film version focuses squarely
on exactly what a sci-fi/fantasy adventure movie
needs to: thrills and spectacle. (No dissertations
on the mating habits of Mediterranean starfish
here!) The special effects —
absolute state-of-the-art in their time —
still hold up wonderfully today, even the battle
with the animatronic giant squid. (A sequence
costing over $250,000 to shoot a half century
ago, it'd run in the millions today.) The production
design of unsung genius Harper Goff is superb;
his steam-punk vision of Victorian futurism results
in the coolest-looking submarine to ever sail
across the silver screen. James Mason, as Captain
Nemo, made Verne's conflicted anti-hero an enduring
icon of fantasy cinema, while Paul Lukas (Prof.
Arronax) and Peter Lorre (Conceil) lend solid
support.
Then
there's Kirk Douglas as Ned Land.
It's the most common criticism
of the film... Many people tend to pooh-pooh the
deliberate hamminess of Douglas' gregarious performance.
Actually, I think it works rather well in contrast
to the stern, stoic character of Nemo and the
scientific reserve of Arronax. He brings needed
energy and humor to the proceedings. Douglas is
simply being Douglas here, not even allowing a
trained seal to upstage him in the film's 'kiddie'
moments.
Today's kids (those 12 and
under) will likely be bored stiff by 20,000
Leagues. It'll prove too slow and too talky,
with special effects that aren't 'special' enough.
No CGI, no quick-cut, MTV style edits to satiate
their ADD-addled brains. What a shame. As a youngster
I saw the film at a Memphis theater during a revival
run in the early 1970s. Enthralled, I was glued
to my seat for every minute of the two hour-plus
picture. It filled me with awe and wonder, sparking
my fertile young imagination.
Over three decades later, for
me — and for the 8-year old boy still inside me
— 20,000 Leagues
stands as one of the absolute pinnacles of fantasy
entertainment.
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First
and foremost, the new DVD is the way to see
this movie other than in an actual theater. After
years of only being available on home video via
fullframe, pan and scan VHS the film can finally
be enjoyed in all its widescreen Cinemascope glory.
Very widescreen in fact... A note to those
with 27-inch TVs or smaller: Forget it. Either
that, or sit really close. This is a film with a
large canvas; director Richard Fleischer (The
Vikings) utilizes the 2.55:1 aspect ratio to
the full. In the old VHS edition the Nautilus
would glide across the width of the screen and you
couldn't see the entirety of the vessel in a single
shot. Now we get to see it all. Beautiful! The same
adjective will serve to describe the actual transfer.
The film looks magnificent — it can't have looked
this good since the first prints ran in theaters
in 1954. There's practically no print damage to
speak of and colors are astounding. (Some grain
is occasionally noticeable; nothing unusual for
a flick this old.) Sound quality, too, is absolutely
first rate, with the audio track remastered to THX
specifications. This is a 50-year old film with
the A/V specs of a modern day blockbuster, or at
least as close as one can get. Kudos to Disney on
this glorious restoration.
More kudos
are earned for the excellent, all-encompassing bonus
features packed into the two-disc set. In addition
to the main feature, Disc 1 offers a full-length
audio commentary with Fleischer and film historian
Rudy Behlmer. It's a congenial chat, loaded with
anecdotes both technical and personal about the
production, but is often rendered moot if you've
seen the "Making Of" featurette included on the
second disc (see below). Disc 1 also offers viewers
the chance to see the original Donald Duck cartoon,
Grand Canyonscope, that played with 20,000
Leagues on its initial
theatrical run.
Disc 2
is crammed full of so much stuff I can only really
catalogue it here given the limited space at hand.
The crown jewel is the 90-minute documentary The
Making of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. This
fascinating, comprehensive featurette —
packed with stills, film clips and behind-the-scenes
footage — covers all
major aspects of the film's production, and is constructed
around interviews with Fleischer, Behlmer, Kirk
Douglas, Roy Disney (brother of Walt and company
vice chairman), the late Harper Goff (via archival
footage), matte artist Peter Ellsenshaw, frogmen
Bill Stropahl and Al Hansen (who participated in
the underwater diving scenes), and others. Even
memorabilia collector extraordinaire Bob Burns gets
to weigh in, which is a nice touch.
Still want
more? Well, here's what you get... Five additional
featurettes: Jules Verne and Walt Disney: Explorers
of the Imagination (16 min.), comparing how
the two visionaries came to enthrall the public
in the 19th and 20th centuries respectively; The
Musical Legacy of Paul Smith (11 min.), a tribute
to the film's composer and his work on other Disney
projects; Monsters of the Deep (7 min.),
a bit of promotional ballyhoo put together by Disney
to tout the film prior to release; The Humbolt
Squid: A Real Sea Monster (7 min.), featuring
a marine biologist discussing and showing video
clips of this particularly aggressive aquatic creature;
and Movie Merchandise (9 min.), an inspection
of 20,000
Leagues collectibles.
Additional goodies: Touring the Nautilus,
which uses computer animation, photos, and clips
from the film to showcase the main compartments
of Nemo's submarine; image galleries loaded with
stills and promotional art; a split-screen storyboard-to-film
comparison; animation clips that were created for
the movie but never used; a script excerpt ("Nemo's
Death"); some brief outtakes ("Trims"); talent bios;
and a selection of audio-only extras (radio spots,
Captain Nemo's organ music, and a recording of a
post-production dialog looping session with Peter
Lorre). Oh, and you get the original theatrical
trailer, too.
But I'm
still not finished! Of special interest is a 3-minute
video clip entitled Lost Treasure: The Sunset
Squid. For the first time the public is able
to get a glimpse of the disastrous original staging
of the famous giant squid sequence. Fortunately
good sense intervened; money was raised to completely
reshoot it after a major rewrite. Fans of the film
should find this 'lost' footage fascinating.
5/26/03 |
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