20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [DVD]

The Kirk Douglass adaption from 1954 will always be my favorite adaption of the classic novel. It had the perfect cast, story line but the one problem with that one was to an extent it followed the novel and changed the novel around the movie with a cold war feeling set back in the 1866. Now i do not have a problem with that there were certain elements i liked changed with the original movie, and made the movie well! But in 1997 it was decided the movie would be remade for television, one for CBS and one for ABC. I didn't like the CBS one with Ben Cross, but it did follow the novel like the original movie to an extent. Like the other two versions this one had more points of the novel in the movie but at the same time it didn't. The movie starts out with Pierre Arronax played by Patrick Dempsey saying he thinks a giant narwal is whats been attacking ships, using the same text from the novel to tell his fathers peers his father mocks him out and he is made a joke. But the cunard line with the US government wants to hunt the beast, and with him, a guy he befriended on the train who was African American, and Ned Land they go to hunt the monster only to find out it isn't a monster. Now this movie has the volcano sequence from the novel, the south pole sequence, Brings up his Indian background, the girl they help, and Atlantis,thou different from the novel a lot of Nemos dialogue from the novel. It does have a lot of stuff written for it. It tries to bring in the issue with slavery, Ned Land is made his character from the novel who wants freedom at whatever the cost, Nemo is brutal to his guests, and he is also part robot. Now however i liked these changes, i also liked how it told the prospective from the US government trying to hunt the beast, i thought these scenes MADE this special. It depends on how much you like the novel or the movie back from the 1950s but either way i liked all three the 1954, the novel and this adaption from 1997. If you want something completely faithful to the novel, theirs the cartoon versions from the 1980s and there was one from nickelodeon from 2002 that was faithful other then having a lead female character in it, like this adaptation.

Contains more elements of the original story, wanders off a bit with out destroying what Verns was trying to do, but it would nice if Hollywood could just recognize the Author is the star, which is draws people to it and leave perfection alone it doesn't need fixing.

Good old movie. Showed up on time neatly packaged. Video quality is good but not great.

I remember watching this movie on TV and thought it was the best adaptation of Jules Verne's twenty thousand leagues under the sea. It took me forever to find a DVD copy (my VCR ate my last copy) and it was wonderful to watch this exciting tale of adventure and romance. Its also awesome to see some of the star in this movie, how they were basically no bodies but now are quite well known (ex Patrick Dempsey) I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves the classics and to a love of Jules Verne as well.

As others have said, this isn't a faithful reproduction of the book. Purists will never like anything but a copy of the book, or something closer to the movie they saw as kids. It's the same with songs that have been remade by newer artists. A lot of people will only ever like the original, or the version of the song they heard first and came to believe is the best version. This movie is still good and tells it's own story while using enough parts of the original to make the connection to the book. And lets face it, while many people read books, I think there are more people who have not read the book than have. So they will never know the difference. If this movie had followed the book, 1/3rd of the movie would have been a National Geographic documentary of plant and animal life of the oceans. So, I'm fine with the path they took.

I grew up on James Mason's portrayal of Captain Nemo in the Disney version. I never thought it would ever be bested and for many it never will. But Michael Caine was fantastic as was the entire cast. this is a much longer telling then the Disney film but I never once looked at a clock. I was thrilled the film far exceeded my expectations. it is a treasure

Needed editing - I fast forwarded through the last 30 minutes, because I just wanted it to end. Then the ending was very unsatisfying. SPOILER ALERT. Spoiler Alert. The ending reminded me of Hamlet, because so many main characters die in the end. I read all of Jules Verne's story as a kid; but this sure made for a boring incredibly slow moving story.

This DVD presentation follows the book most closely. It is a terrific film with powerful cast.