Product Details

• Actors: Richard Crenna, Ben Cross, Julie Cox, Paul Gross, Michael Jayston
• Directors: Michael Anderson
• Writers: Joe Wiesenfeld, Jules Verne
• Producers: Joe Wiesenfeld, John Davis, Robert Halmi Sr.
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Hallmark
• VHS Release Date: September 18, 2001
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1574924486
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,902 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent interpretation, great family film, visually superb, December 12, 2004

By 

Robert Pratte (charleston, il USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (DVD)

Any interpretation of Jules Verne's novel will have limitations. Mostly, this is due to the fact that our images of his fantastic technologies are colored by our own experience with what would be his future. Thus, the inside of the Nautilus becomes cheesy (the 1950s Disney version), or too close to reality (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). This film, however, does a good job of tempering Verne's own time with ours. The ships in the film look very period - including the Nautilus.

Moreover, the story line itself, while modified, does a good job of portraying the complexity of Nemo's character, leaving the viewer (like Professor Aronnax) torn between admiration and disdain. Yet, this is a television version - thus we see romance and jealousy introduced into the story. Instead of a faithful servent, the Professor is accompanied by his beautiful daughter (Julie Cox), leading to contention between Nemo and the whaler Ned Land. If you are a purist, the story changes may be aggravating.

Where this film excels is in the visuals. Aside from the previously mentioned ships, the underwater shots are great. My kids really enjoyed the shots of the sea life - cuttlefish, tangs, rays - and were drawn into Nemo's underwater world.

While aspects of the movie were not true to Verne's original tale (and how many are), I found it an entertaining movie. Moreover, my kids really liked the movie, and wanted to read about Captain Nemo after the movie was over. I would recommend this DVD. While my rating is 3 stars, I would give it 3.5 if I could.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Voyage to the Bottom of the Ratings, July 25, 2000

By 

S Kaczmar - See all my reviews

This review is from: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [VHS] (VHS Tape)

1997 saw two, count 'em, two TV versions of the classic Jules Verne adventure "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." The least literate, this version tosses out much of Verne's loftier discussions of Victorian science and philosophy and replaces them with watered-down romance of the drugstore bookrack variety. Ben Cross is a stone-cold Nemo (how sadly far we've come from James Mason's tortured nobleman in the 1954 Disney version), skulking about his steel-plated creation, the Nautilus, with a seemingly nameless and faceless crew. Into his nomadic existence comes a group of castaways, led by the sympathetic, if tired-looking Richard Crenna as marine biologist Pierre Arronax. There's also a joyless love-story between Nemo and Arronax's outspoken daughter (not featured in the book) that struggles to add emotional fireworks, but simply results in a lurching distraction from the main plot about Nemo's quest for an end to war and human strife. Hammy acting by the supporting cast will make you feel like this is a movie aimed at kids, even with the story's darker overtones. About the only aspects of the film that rise above mediocrity are the production values and special effects. Though this Nautilus is nowhere near as imaginative as the Disney version, it is more faithful to the submarine described in the book, and overall, the look of the film is suitably impressive. Still, fans of Jules Verne will likely appreciate the 1954 film version more, even if poor Kirk Douglas is forced to sing. (The other TV version, by the way, with the usually likeable Michael Caine isn't much better; dark and murky, it bogs down under the weight of its pychobabble script.)

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars appalling, atrocious, and absolutely horrible, September 8, 2006

By 

Drury L. Woodson III (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (DVD)

In my 40 years, there have been about 3 movies that I walked out of. My wife and the thought of writing this review is the only reason this poor excuse for a movie wasn't the fourth. Other than havine a submarine and a captain named Nemo, this movie had nothing to do with the book. Nemo now appears to be a righteous Middle Eastern terrorist of sorts whose kingdom was robbed from him by the "Armies of the West". He is smitten with the professor's daughter, who of course is in love with the no good harpoonist who I am sure will provide for her needs wonderfully and be very supportive of her future research efforts. Nemo of course keeps the submarine well stocked with makeup, hairdryers, curlers, and dresses, but inexplicably our heroine only manages to find one dress worth wearing for the entire voyage. Incidentally, the crew is all dressed in uniforms constructed from the silk of some exotic shellfish, unfortunately, the producers couldn't be bothered to show the room containing the first operational deep sea weaving loom for making a variety of fine silk fabrics while cruising beneath the waves. Amazingly, Ned the harpoonist is now the only man on the ship with enough testosterone to throw a harpoon into a sea monster. I have a newfound respect for the lifetime of learning it must take to be able to properly through a spear into a large animal at the mind boggling distance of "four harpoon lengths". Also, you'll be intrigued to know that Nemo no longer wrestles with the giant squid, but the new monster du jour is a "proto-leviathan" created to prove the theory of "static evolution". Proto-Leviathans apparently look like a giant manta ray, swim at 5000 fathoms beneath the ocean, and somehow manage to keep their mouth full of air while attempting to swallow their underwater prey.

If you long for bad dialog on the level of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", bad science on the level of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", and plot holes big enough for a blue whale to swim through, this is the movie for you. Don't hesitate! Click buy it now! I laughed through the entire movie, despite the fact that I don't believe the scriptwriter put a single joke in the movie!