The Making of '20000 Leagues Under the Sea'

I have been a fan of Disney's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea ever since I was a kid. When the special edition DVD came out a little more than a year ago, I immediately purchased it. The DVD comes with 2 disks: one shows the movie, and the other is the making of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. This documentary includes information you would have never thought of, and commentary from the director and cast members. Deleted scenes are shown as they would have appeared in the final version of the film; the "sunset squid battle," for example. Pick up the special edition DVD of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea today, as you will be most impressed with the movie, and this bonus documentary.

I have a strange confession. I really,really enjoyed this 'making of' film but I am not particularly a fan of the original film. Yet, oddly, I gave this making of documentary a 10! Why? Well, because among the many similar documentaries I've seen for many films over the years, it's among the very best. Here is a list of the reasons I loved "The Making of '20000 Leagues Under the Sea'": 1. Like a good documentary, it instilled excitement and was very convincing. You couldn't watch it without having more excitement about the original film.

2. It's long. All too often, I've seen similar films that are only 20-30 minutes long (such as one for "The Searchers")--and for most films that just isn't enough time. Now when I say long, I am NOT saying over-long--it was just comprehensive.

3. The production values were great. The music, in particular, was great--very inspiring.

4. The film had many different neat stories and interesting tidbits--LOTS.

5. Despite there being many, many years between the original film and this documentary, it had TONS of interviews with surviving cast members and staff. Kirk Douglas (post-stroke), the director, writers, special effects people, etc. all contributed--as well as some archival interviews.

6. There were TONS of interesting photos and clips--many of which had been assumed lost. Outtakes, pictures with and without the added matte paintings, moments where the actors were on breaks, etc. were nice touches.

7. John Rhys-Davies narration was fitting and his lovely resonant voice was just perfect.

8. I loved the ironic comment by the director, Richard Fleischer, when he said it was the toughest time he ever had directing a seal. This was funny because Fleischer AGAIN directed a seal when he helmed "Dr.Dolittle"! 9. The logistics (which were amazing) were discussed--the many different film sets at various studios, the shoot at Jamaica, etc. all were quite fascinating.

Overall, this is just a wonderful film--entertaining, fun and fascinating from start to finish. Well worth seeing.

Highly detailed look at the making of 20,000 Leagues.

Watching this adds to the entertainment value of the movie itself. Once you know all the nuts and bolts about the production you respect the movie itself even more. Being a fan of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (movie & TV series) I found it interesting that the submarine Nautilus and submarine Seaview both used the same studio tank for miniatures (at 20th Century Fox studios).

As explained here, there were two filmed versions of the giant squid attack. The unused "sunset" version and the version we got in the final cut. The deleted version is more clear and pleasing to the eye.

It is not often we get a 90 minute documentary about a 50s science fiction movie...they are normally much shorter. Great stuff.

This documentary pretty much covers most everything you wanted to know about the Making of Disney's classic 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

This is exceptionally well done and culls footage from practically all the people involved, sometimes using archival footage where needed. The only downside is it pretty much renders the commentary also provided on said DVD useless as most all of the same information is covered and in fact is perhaps even more detailed in the documentary. Still it's very cool to put faces to the people who worked so hard behind the scenes on making this classic. A very thorough job covering its subject matter as all good documentaries should do.

This 88 minute documentary on the Making of 20,000 Leaques under the Sea can be found on the second disc of the 2-dvd set of the aforementioned movie. It features rare interviews with much of the still living cast and is pretty darn informative. It goes into how the project came to be, as well as various remembrance of the filming and historian viewpoints. Liking the movie that it was based on, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this documentary and I would have to problem at all recommending this to anyone, and would do so without any hesitation on my part. Anyone who loves 20,000 leagues owes it to themselves to watch and savor this as well.

My Grade: A