Many people consider Walt Disney to have been a visionary much like Jules Verne. It is therefore appropriate that many of Disney’s adventure films were based on Verne’s work and that the first big budget live action feature was built from Verne’s most popular novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. With Walt close to the production, the risky film went wildly over-budget, making the film’s success crucial to the longevity of the studio.

Verne’s novel is an astonishing examination of future technology, but like his other works, the story is basically a series of events connected by a thematic structure. This was the first thing that Disney addressed in bringing the Nautilus to life. They hired a screenwriter who built a more cohesive arcing story that became a template for hundreds of Disney films to come. To helm the picture, Disney hired Richard Fleischer, the son of one of Disney’s most venomous competitors from their early animation days. Not only did that hiring mend many wounds between the two moguls, it delivered a wonderful film.

The Disney story follows a Professor Arronax, a scientist interested in disproving the existence of a killer sea monster. Teamed with his assistant played by Peter Lorre and an adventurous Kirk Douglas, the find the sea monster is actually a fantastical water transport. A submersible laboratory commanded by the phenomenal brain, Captain Nemo. At first Arronax is taken under Nemo’s scholarly spell, but eventually learns to understand where the megalomaniac has gone astray. The story takes them into battle with natives, into the belly of Nemo’s private hideout inside of a volcano, and most excitingly – into battle with a giant squid.

Bringing the squid to life as well as all the fantastical locations fell to the special effects team including the beautiful matte painting work of Peter Ellenshaw. With a sweeping musical score by Disney composer Paul Smith is nicely heroic and mysterious, a good click track for the film in general.

Kirk Douglas’ tongue in cheek portrayal begins a long line of Disney heroes, following his well designed character template. But it is James Mason’s powerful performance as Nemo that keeps the Nautilus afloat and the fantastical story somehow believable.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a wonderful film in the studio canon, well worthy of study or just an evening’s entertainment. There are great behind the scenes elements available that are well worth hunting down, most interestingly –footage of the squid battle done on a clear day with a beautiful colored sunset.

I swear by my tattoo.