20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Timing: 2:7 (127 min)

7.034/10
847

6.096/10
574

5.8/10
216

All about film

Video 3

Photo 27

Actors and characters

Release date

1954-12-23

Country

United States

Production

Walt Disney Productions

Genre

Adventure, Drama, Family, Science Fiction

Budget

$5 000 000

Revenue

$28 200 000

Website

Director

Richard Fleischer

Actors

Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Robert J. Wilke, Ted de Corsia, Carleton Young, J.M. Kerrigan, Percy Helton, Gloria Pall
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Walt Disney

Operator

Franz Planer

Composer

Paul J. Smith

Artist

Audition

Editing

Elmo Williams, Frederic Leahy
All team (23)

• The bulk of the underwater filming was done in the Bahamas in the same area where filming of the silent film from 1916 took place.
• One of the Nautilus models used in the filming is on display at Disney World's EPCOT Center.
• Richard Fleischer was very surprised to learn of his candidacy for the director's chair, as he was the son of Max Fleischer, the main competitor of the Disney studio's animator. He asked Walt Disney himself for clarification, but he replied that he knew perfectly well who he was and considered him the most suitable choice for the job.
• The scale of the filming process was so large that Disney Studios had to seek assistance from other Hollywood studios to utilize their resources. Thus, the initial scenes were filmed on one of the Universal Pictures soundstages, and 20th Century Fox provided one of the largest water tanks at the time for work with large-scale models.
• Production designer Harper Goff, among other things, taught Kirk Douglas to play the guitar for his number, “Whale of a Tale.” His cameo can also be spotted at the very beginning of the film in the office of a shipping company in San Francisco.
• The role of Professor Aronnax could have gone to Charles Boyer, who had to decline due to commitments to other projects.
• The boat in which the heroes land on the island of cannibals was made of wood, specially painted to resemble metal. To make it sit lower in the water, specially stockpiled sandbags were used.
• Average shot length: 9 seconds.
• Gregory Peck auditioned for the role of Captain Nemo. The candidacy of British actor Ralph Richardson was also discussed.
• Walt Disney's initial idea was to create a full-length animated film, but detailed preliminary sketches by production designer Harper Goff and his persistent urging to opt for a live-action film prompted a change of decision.
• The overturned lifeboat in which Kirk Douglas's character reached the 'Nautilus' was supported from below by a hidden scuba diver for greater stability.
• Roland Hill designed the complex interiors of the 'Nautilus', and later became the creator of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland.
• Until the end of the 1960s, many sets representing the interior of the 'Nautilus' were fully preserved and used as an attraction at the Disney studio. These included the navigation room, saloon, the legendary organ, and one of the large portholes, above which a giant squid was attached. The squid's beak could extend, click several times, and retract.
• “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” was the first Disney project released by the studio’s internal distributor, Buena Vista.