Review: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (DMC #19)
“Got a whale of a tale to tell ya, lads, a whale of a tale or two!” Last night we watched Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea—and we’re definitely glad we’re not quarantined on that submarine! If you watched with us last night, skip on ahead to our review. If you need a refresher, here’s our synopsis.
Synopsis
The film opens in 1868 San Francisco, where rumors have spread of a sea monster attacking the shipping lanes of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Navy invites Professor Pierre M. Aronnax and his assistant, Conseil, to join one of their expeditions to prove whether or not the monster exists. Also aboard the voyage is the cocky master harpooner Ned Land. After months of searching and no monster sightings, the captain of the voyage is about to give up when a nearby steamship explodes. The monster soon appears and attacks their ship, sending Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned overboard. The Professor and Conseil cling to a piece of flotsam and eventually drift toward the “monster” which they discover is not truly a monster but a machine—a submarine. The two explore the ship which seems to be deserted, but they soon spot the crew of this vessel holding an underwater funeral on the ocean floor just outside the submarine. Ned floats over on an overturned life boat and joins Aronnax and Conseil, but the crew of the submarine has spotted the Professor watching them and they hurry back to the submarine, capturing the three trespassers before they can escape the submarine. The captain of the submarine introduces himself as Captain Nemo, and orders his crew to abandon Conseil and Ned in the sea. Nemo sees Aronnax as an equal, however, and offers him the chance to remain aboard. Only when Aronnax proves that he is willing to die alongside his friends does Captain Nemo allow all three of them to remain aboard.
Nemo shares the science of his vessel (the Nautilus) and his research with Aronnax, and eventually reveals to the professor that he and his crew used to be prisoners on a small island where Nemo’s wife and child were tortured to death. Nemo explains that he attacks ships, like the one those prisoners load with munitions, in order to save the world from further wars. While Aronnax disagrees with Nemo’s methods, he begins to understand the man’s motives. Meanwhile, Ned and Conseil aren’t interested in staying on the Nautilus any longer than they have to, and they plot an escape. Ned discovers the location of Nemo’s lab, writes it down on several slips of paper, and places the messages in bottles which he tosses into the sea, hoping someone will find them. When the Nautilus runs aground of a reef, Nemo allows Ned and Conseil to head to shore to collect specimens. Ned attempts to use this opportunity to escape, but he soon encounters cannibals on the island who chase Ned and Conseil all the way back to the submarine where Nemo scolds Ned and locks him in the brig. Then a warship fires upon the Nautilus and they’re forced to submerge, whereupon they encounter a giant squid that attacks their vessel. Unable to fight the beast below, they surface during a storm to fight off the squid. Ned manages to escape the brig in the chaos and delivers the killing blow to the squid, saving Captain Nemo’s life against his own better judgment. Nemo has a change of heart and declares that he wants to make peace with the world.
As the Nautilus reaches the secret island of Nemo’s lab, they realize that the island is surrounded by warships. Fearing what his research could do in the wrong hands, Nemo decides to detonate the entire island and destroy his research. Ned tries to signal to the oncoming soldiers that he’s the one that sent the messages in the bottles, but no one seems to care. While Nemo goes to set the timed detonation, he’s severely wounded, and when he returns to the Nautilus he tells the crew he will be taking her down for the last time, and his crew agrees to go down and die with him. Ned, Conseil, and Aronnax protest but are confined to their rooms. Ned manages to escape, and surfaces the submarine, but it strikes a reef in the process and begins to flood. Nemo dies in his study looking out at the sea from his window. Ned gets Conseil and Aronnax out, but when the professor insists on going back to retrieve his journal Ned knocks him out and carries him to safety. From the Nautilus’s small skiff, the three watch the island explode in a mushroom cloud and Aronnax concedes that maybe it’s for the best that his journal should sink to the sea along with Nemo and his research.
Thoughts Before Watching
Kevin: I’ve heard a lot about this movie, but I haven’t gone out of my way to watch it until this point. What was surprising to me was to later discover that the song “A Whale of a Tale” was from this movie; I thought it came elsewhere for some reason. All I really know about this film prior to us watching it that it has a character named Nemo and he is the captain of the Nautilus.
Megan: I never read the book by Jules Verne, and I’ve only seen this movie once before, but I can say without a doubt that the best scene in the entire movie is the “A Whale of a Tale” song! I remember it was on one of the Disney Sing-Along videos I used to watch as a kid, and I loved it! I don’t remember too much else about the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie other than a seal that I remember being entertaining.
Thoughts After Watching
Megan: I stand by what I said before—the “A Whale of a Tale” song is still the best part of this movie. I can now see why I didn’t really remember much of this movie—so much of what is happening is not what’s seen on screen but rather a commentary that one has to infer from what is said and what we witness. (More on that later.) Because of this, the movie also seems to drag on. The movie seems to suffer in some ways from what made Treasure Island so dull—too strictly adhering to a novel plot structure causes a film’s plot structure to fail, especially with today’s audiences who are used to a more traditional movie plot structure. Also, as a woman, there are no female characters to root for here, so it’s not surprising that my younger self didn’t find anything to connect with beyond a funny song.
Kevin: When the credits rolled, I turned to Megan and said it was “pretty good.” As I started writing this out, that turned into a “just okay” sort of feeling. I initially liked what I watched, but after an hour had passed and I collected my thoughts I found myself losing interest. I share the view with Megan that this movie drags on, and like the sea itself, there were wavelengths of highs and lows. None of the characters are particularly likable (except maybe the seal Esmerelda), and there are, yet again, more outdated cultural depictions that detract slightly from the enjoyment. For me, the real and only highs are the production design and sets.
Where are the women?
Megan: If you’ve been reading our reviews long enough, you knew this was coming. The only two women we see in the entire film are the women hanging on Ned’s arms as he first strolls onto the screen. The women don’t really say much of anything other than to react to the brawl that Ned gets himself into, thus this fails the Bechdel test. One could argue that Esmerelda should count toward the number of female characters, but she is a seal in a live-action movie who doesn’t talk, and she’s still the object of Ned’s affections, so it doesn’t really change things for me. For the rest of the movie the only mention of women is when Ned or the other male characters mention them, and in Ned’s case, it’s usually a generalization about how sexually desirable the women of exotic locales are presumed to be, or how much he imagines they would desire him. Even the song “A Whale of a Tale,” which I thoroughly enjoy, is, at its core, a song about wooing several different women, some of them described in less than flattering words. The only other “female” references are to the presumed “monster” - referring to the vessel as “she” or “her” like any other sailing vessel. Strange, though, that they immediately begin referring to a monster, that they don’t yet know is a submarine, as a “she.” Not even the white whale in Moby Dick was presumed to be female. I wonder, is it a good thing that they’re being equal opportunity monster-namers? Or is this yet another way of being sexist?
The downside of masculinity
Megan: So I think we can assume that this is a movie that was made by and for men, not women. But with this in mind, they aren’t really doing men any favors, either. Instead, the film perpetuates problematic male stereotypes, like toxic masculinity. For example, since all the characters on screen for 98% of the movie are male, we get the subliminal message that only men are responsible for the wars, slavery, and other attacks. Nemo fears for what his research could lead to in the hands of the wrong “man.” No one seems worried about women being involved in such matters. Further perpetuating the stereotypical connection between men and violence, how do Ned and Conseil seal their friendship? Not with a handshake or a friendly gesture, but by punching each other. Then, toward the end of the movie, when Nemo is seriously wounded, he refuses to ask for help and not a man aboard the Nautilus moves to help him. The entire time I was watching this scene I kept waiting for someone to run to his aid. It felt unnatural to me that no one would move to help him, and even more unnatural that he would try to stoically carry on as if nothing was wrong, even though he was bleeding to death. It isn’t until he physically can no longer stand unassisted that his first mate moves to help him. Perpetuating the “manly man” stereotype is quite literally deadly for Captain Nemo. Had he sought help immediately, might he have been saved? Had his crew rushed to help him, and had Nemo accepted their aid, perhaps could he have died peacefully among friends instead of alone looking out at the sea? I get that Nemo is the antagonist here, and we’re not really supposed to root for him, but by this point in the movie we, much like the professor, find it hard to truly despise him, and so we (like any empathetic human being) are concerned for him when he is wounded. The lack of empathy from the men around him, and Nemo’s unwillingness to ask for help, don’t really paint a great picture for men to follow. Sure, Ned saves his friends in the end, so he shows some empathy, but he also bashes the professor over the head in order to make him leave. All in all, not a great group of guys to look up to.
Kevin: There are a lot of issues with how men are depicted here. Coupled with what Megan said, these characters are simply not very appealing. Captain Nemo could be argued as the main antagonist. Although the other three main characters did stow aboard his submarine without permission, Nemo’s willingness to keep them against their will and have them go down with him at the end is atrocious. Further, his moodiness and stoicism long before this point just doesn’t make him likable. The film tries hard to make the audience like him and sympathize with his past, but I’m not exactly feeling him here. While we could say that his goal of ending wars is noble, can we say his actions are? I don’t think so. Ned Land, on the other hand, is supposed to be the most likable, what with his more upbeat personality, but he’s often times just so immature and that it’s hard to root for him. His brief moments of heroism aren’t being dismissed, it’s just they’re overshadowed by his negative traits. As for Aronnax and Conseil, there’s almost no character depth at all to help us like or dislike them. Aronnax is kind of annoying in how he idolizes Nemo so much despite having little reason for it, and Conseil seems to just be along for the ride, no pun intended. Also, couldn’t Nemo’s crew have had just a bit more personality?
The sets hold up very well.
Kevin: As I said before, the only real positive thing I really see in this film is the production set. For being from the 1950s, this film barely shows its age at all. The set pieces were designed very well. I think this may have have to do with the majority of the film taking place entirely on the Nautilus, so the crew could spend the most of their budget on the look and feel of the submarine. To me, every scene on the submarine looks totally convincing, as if we could actually walk the halls of the Nautilus, sleep in her bunks, eat at her table, or visit the captain’s quarters. The underwater scenes are fantastic, too—though they get some of the facts wrong (more on that below). The shots where Ned and Conseil are moving through a sunken ship are well done. Add in the on location scenes of the Caribbean, it’s no wonder this film won the Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. The film is known for massively going over its budget (80% over, according to Wikipedia), and could’ve been a huge financial risk for Disney had it flopped. Luckily, it was ultimately successful. It’s clear that the look of the submarine is a result of fantasy, and it gives off a slightly futuristic vibe. Still, it’s an amazing accomplishment that it feels totally real. I was a bit too young when Disneyland permanently closed the ride, and although I enjoy its Finding Nemo replacement, I wish I had more memories of the original ride.
For all the cool science, they get the marine biology wrong.
Megan: While the sets and the camera work are truly impressive for the 1950s, I gotta say that as someone who once aspired to be a marine biologist, I had a hard time believing some of the “science” here. I was willing to suspend disbelief for most of the film, but I just can’t when it comes to the giant squid. Now, granted, much of what we know about them has only come about in the last decade or two, but even so, I don’t think the creators really spent enough time looking at how real tentacled creatures swim. For one thing, the way the squid in the movie swims is completely backwards—tentacles first rather than head first. Also, giant squid live in the depths of the ocean for a reason—they cannot survive near the surface, and the only reason we knew they existed for the longest time was because every once in a while a dead one would wash up on shore, having floated to the surface after death. So, according to science, the battle with the giant squid never would have happened because by surfacing they likely would have dislodged the squid, and, if they hadn’t, the squid wouldn’t have been able to survive with so much of its body above water.
Megan: Also, shame on the creators for manhandling sea turtles in that way and insinuating that those sea turtles were then killed by Nemo and his crew. I don’t know what the laws were in the 1950s, but I can easily believe this sort of disregard for sea turtles likely had something to do with the endangered species rules that are now in place. When Kevin and I swam with sea turtles in the aquarium at Epcot we were given very specific instructions to not reach out and touch any of the sea turtles in the tank because of their endangered species standing, so watching the divers not only touch the sea turtles but hold them hostage so they couldn’t swim just seemed unnecessarily cruel.
More racist cultural depictions
Kevin: I think it’s important that we keep calling this out when we see it, as a couple of white people. Disney was not alone in their views of other cultures at the time, but it’s still astonishing just how many of their earlier films are guilty of this. The island natives are non-white people described as cannibals, completely primitive in their ways. After Ned wanders into the jungle, he catches the attention of the tribe, who are determined to give chase long enough to use their own boats to follow Ned and Conseil back to the Nautilus. Nemo’s way to get the natives off the submarine is to literally shock them, and the scene is clearly intended to be comical. And all of it happened because Ned, a white man, just couldn’t leave well enough alone. These types of scenes really shouldn’t be played out, much less for laughs.
A warning about nuclear energy?
Megan: Though the movie never outright says it, it seems to be implied that the important scientific discovery Captain Nemo has made is that of nuclear energy. This seems most clearly illustrated in the scene where Captain Nemo takes the professor to some sort of engine chamber and has him wear a special mask so he can look straight into the blindingly white-hot fireball of energy that powers the submarine. I wanted to confirm this, so I did a bit of research on the original book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It turns out that in the book the submarine was described as electrically powered, and much of the plot of the book has been changed for the purposes of the film. For example, in the ending of the film, Nemo blows up his research lab, whereas no such thing happened in the book. What’s striking about this change is that in blowing up the research lab, we see the explosion as a giant mushroom cloud. Now, this film came out in the 1950s. The atomic bomb—the iconic mushroom cloud that was probably seared in everyone’s minds at the time—was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and in the years that followed, every country was trying to develop their own nuclear weapons. It seems to me that this was Disney’s way of commenting on nuclear energy, and also warning how such technology could be used for good or evil, depending on who had access to it. I think the most poignant message of the film is echoed in the final line of the movie: “There is hope for the future. And when the world is ready for a new and better life, all this will someday come to pass…in God’s good time.”
Verdict
Kevin: 3
Megan: 3
Final Score: 3
What did you think of this film? Tell us in the comments below!
