As with many Jules Verne novels, the title is the plot. This one was not only written in 1872 but set in the same year as well. It's a mixture of 4 genres: Adventure, Crime Drama, Romance and Western. Put some very interesting characters in the mixture and you have a classic! A fault of many hour long animated adaptations of classics is that they leave out too much. Here the abridgement works perfectly. I'm sure they did the best animation they could with the budget and it works sufficiently. This story would by most accounts be #3 of Verne's big three. The others- 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (+) Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was the 3rd of the 3 date wise. What is missing from many classic adventure stories, including the 2 previously mentioned is a strong female lead, and that's what sets this apart from the rest, in a positive way. The voice characterizations are excellent. The Phileas Fogg character is obviously patterned after David Niven from the 1956 live action movie version. Not a bad idea! And what actress did they choose to play the female lead? None other than the star of that all time favorite model animation film, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer! What a great job she does, with a pretty good accent. For the character of Passepartout, don't worry, he is a true blue Frenchman! In comparison to some other animated movies, the train segment may contain a little more violence than usual. This was an Emerald City and Animundi co- production. Other ECP films include A Tale of Two Cities; Oliver Twist; Phantom of the Opera, Ben Hur; Call of the Wild.
