My personal history with this movie: I first saw this movie on television — The Wonderful World of Disney. I can still recall frames from the Disney comic book that my uncle had. The public library in the 'Bach had a copy of Walt Disney Presents Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which I listened to (love those enormous headphones!) in amongst their LP records. And when our family moved to Winnipeg in the late 70s Walt Disney Presents Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was projected onto a school hallway wall during one of the Movie Nights in our church. I told one of the kids to go into the gymnasium and get brown paper bags of popcorn with splotches of grease, because that signified melted butter. I finally got a bag that was entirely shiny with grease but by then I was sick of popcorn.
When we visited the Magic Kingdom during our Florida honeymoon I insisted we ride one of the Nautilus submarines. We could see the strings and the "submarines" never broke the surface of the water. We laughed about the "tottering call-YOOMZ."And for years I saw the plastic case of the DVD in the Children's Section of our local video store but never picked it up (I was tempted to, boy oh boy!).
So this is a movie that dredges up memories.
You and me both! Like you, this movie was a huge part of my childhood. Although, like you, I actually only saw it a couple of times as a kid, and most of my nostalgia for this comes from the book and accompanying record that you listened to while you read along. (I wonder if this was the same LP that you listened to in your library.)
ReplyDeleteThe actual movie is... Well, it's something, isn't it? Very epic, surprisingly violent in places for a Disney movie, and yet... is it just me, or does it drag a bit in the middle?
Although the last time I saw it was back in 2007, when I was on my Peter Lorre kick: https://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2007/08/maltese-falcon.html
I'm due for another re-watch at some point.
This movie is pretty bad, actually, and the Kirk Douglas character is especially awful. Famous lalast words but I have probably watched this movie for the last time.
ReplyDeleteBTW, your Peter Lorre idea? Pure genius.
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