Trivia for
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

photos

board

trailer

details

• One of the models of the Nautilus used for filming is on display at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center's attraction, "The Living Seas".
  
  
• Charles Grodin's first movie.
  
  
• Richard Fleischer was surprised at being considered for the director's chair for this film, as he was the son of Disney's biggest competitor, Max Fleischer. He approached Walt Disney to inquire if Disney knew who he was. Disney told him that he was well aware of who he was and hired him because he thought he was the best man for the job.
  
  

• Stage 3 and its tank were built at the Disney studio for the production of this film.
  
  
• This production was so large that Disney had to use facilities at other studios. This included Universal International (exterior sets redressed for the opening scenes) and 20th Century Fox (large exterior tank for the larger models).
  
  
• One of the models of the Nautilus created by Harper Goff was a "squeezed" version which could be filmed with a standard lens and still look normal when projected in Cinemascope.
  
  
• The actual undersea footage was shot in the Bahamas in the same location that was used for the original 1916 silent version.
  
  
• Peter Lorre claimed that the giant squid got the role that was usually reserved for him.
  
  
• The skiff was made of wood, painted to look like metal, and had to be weighted with sandbags to look heavy in the water. When towing it to the cannibals' island, the crew took the sandbags out to make their job easier, and they forgot to put them back in. When filming the scene where Ned and Conseil get in the boat to row away from the cannibals, Kirk Douglas expected the boat to be low in the water. He didn't lower the oars far enough to catch the water, and when he started to row, he fell on his back. Director Richard Fleischer thought the shot was so funny he left it in the film. When Ned starts to row, he clearly tips back, and his legs shoot up in the air.
  
  
• In 1969, Captain Nemo's pipe organ, which had been on display in Disneyland, was redressed and now resides in the ballroom of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. A duplicate was constructed for the ballroom of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion, which opened in 1971, and over a decade later another duplicate was built for Tokyo Disneyland.
  
  
• In addition to his many contributions as the production designer, Harper Goff also taught Kirk Douglas to play the guitar for the "Whale of a Tale" number.
  
  
• Charles Boyer was originally considered for the role of Professor Arronax. He had to turn down the role due to prior commitments.
  
  
• When the "Nautilus" rams a ship and we see how it sinks down through the water, some of the bubble-streams are animated to hide the wires that support the ship-model.
  
  
• The whole movie, except for the scenes where Ned Land and Conseil go ashore at New Guinea and meet the cannibals, and most of the underwater scenes with the divers, were filmed at the Disney Studio.
  
  
• When Disney executives saw some underwater scenes their photographers had filmed in the new VistaVision wide-screen format, they decided to make "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and incorporate some of the shots in it.
  
  
• Sections of the film were photographed on location in Jamaica and the Bahamas, by director Richard Fleischer and a crew of over 400 technicians.
  
  
• Actors portraying the cannibals chasing Ned Land painted humorous messages on their foreheads (not legible on-screen). In particular, one actor wrote "Eat at Joe's" while another actor behind him wrote "I ate Joe".
  
  
• Average Shot Length (ASL) = 9 seconds
  
  
• During the underwater shooting of the Treasure Chest scene, an unscripted nurse shark approached Ned, Conseil and the camera crew. All underwater personnel, as seen in Disney's Wonderful World of Color Sunday Night television episode highlighting the upcoming film, attempted to warn the shark off, but the interruption was considered so exciting that portions were left in the final film.
  
  
• CASTLE THUNDER: Right at the start of the storm sequence with the giant squid.
  
  
• The world's first functional replica of Captain Nemo's diving helmet, built by Pat Regan of Vulcania Submarine, Hawaii, is on display in the Florida Keys History of Diving Museum in Islamorada, along with items from the film.
  
  
• Gregory Peck auditioned for the role of Captain Nemo.
  
  
• This was the first Disney live-action movie with no animation sequences to be made at Walt Disney's studio.
  
  
• According to Kirk Douglas in his autobiography, "Ragman's Son", the scene at the beginning of the film where Ned Land strolls up (with a beautiful girl on each arm) to the lecturing sailor--and the ensuing fight--was written into the film at his request. At the time this film was shot, Douglas was in the prime of his career and very concerned about promoting and preserving his reputation with the movie-going public as both a dashing ladies man and a "macho" actor known for tough, physical roles that showcased his image as an action hero (fight scenes and so forth). When he first read the first draft script for this film, he was somewhat disappointed to find that his character Ned Land made no appearances with any women whatsoever, had no real rousing fight scenes, other than the battle with the squid, and spent most of the movie talking instead of being in action. Having expressed these concerns both to Walt Disney and director Richard Fleischer, the San Francisco street scene at the beginning of the film--featuring his character involved with two beautiful women in addition a rousing action/fight scene--was added especially for him (in at least two later films Douglas also made sure his character would be seen with two beautiful women at the same time and be involved in plenty of rough & tumble action: The Vikings (1958) [also directed by Fleischer] and The War Wagon (1967).
  
  
• This was Walt Disney's first feature in CinemaScope and one of the first productions outside of 20th Century-Fox to sign up for CinemaScope. The CinemaScope lens had to be leased from Fox. At the time Bausch & Lomb had not been able to manufacture enough anamorphic lenses to meet demand. Only one CinemaScope lens was available to Disney. This prevented multiple units from shooting at the same time, which contributed to the lengthy production schedule.
  
  
• In the scene where Kirk Douglas arrives at the Nautilus on a lifeboat that lies upside-down in the water, a diver under the boat holds it to keep it steady.
  
  
• The interiors of the Nautilus were designed by Roland Hill, who subsequently designed the Disneyland "Sleeping Beauty's Castle."
  
  
• In the opening credits, the title banner does not have a comma between the first and second zeroes ("20000 Leagues Under the Sea"), although a comma does appear on the poster and all related print advertisements.
  
  
• The climactic squid battle on the Nautilus was originally shot with a serene sunset and a calm sea. Director Richard Fleischer was troubled by the look of it because the cams and gears that operated the squid could easily be seen, making it look obviously fake. Walt Disney visited the set one day and Fleischer told him about the problem. Disney came up with the idea of having the squid battle take place during a fierce storm (another story is that it was actually screenwriter Earl Felton who came up with the idea). The scene was reshot that way and is considered by many to be the highlight of the film.
  
  
• Until the late 1960s, many of the sets representing the interior of the Nautilus were used as an attraction at Disneyland. This included the chart room, the salon, with organ, and one of the observation windows. The squid from the movie was fastened over the observation window and was animated so that the beak would emerge, snap several times, and then retract. When the building housing the "20,000 Leagues" display was needed for a newer attraction, the sets were removed and many were destroyed.
  
  
• This was the first full-length Disney film released by Buena Vista, Disney's new in-house distributor. Previous Disney films had been released by RKO.
  
  
• This was the first Disney film shown in a two-hour time slot on television (although very slightly edited). Previous telecasts of Disney films, all shown on the anthology series "Disneyland (aka "The Wonderful World of Color" and "The Wonderful World of Disney") had either shown the films edited down to fit a one-hour time slot, or broken them up into two or more one-hour segments shown over a period of several weeks.
  
  

Related Links