20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 

In 1886, a French marine biologist aboard an American warship is scouring the Atlantic Ocean in search of a sea monster that routinely attacks and sinks passing ships.

Stars:

Michael Caine, Patrick Dempsey, Mia Sara

Cast

Series cast summary:
Michael Caine	...	Captain Nemo 2 episodes, 1997
Patrick Dempsey	...	Pierre Arronax 2 episodes, 1997
Mia Sara	...	Mara 2 episodes, 1997
Bryan Brown	...	Ned Land 2 episodes, 1997
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	...	Cabe Attucks 2 episodes, 1997
John Bach	...	Thierry Arronax 2 episodes, 1997
Nicholas Hammond	...	Saxon 2 episodes, 1997
Peter McCauley	...	Admiral McCutcheon 2 episodes, 1997
Kerry Armstrong	...	Lydia Rawlings 2 episodes, 1997
Cecily Chun	...	Imei 2 episodes, 1997
Ken Senga	...	Shimoda 2 episodes, 1997
Gerry Day	...	Nitongu 2 episodes, 1997
Steven Grives	...	Garfield 2 episodes, 1997
Boe Kaan	...	Ivanda 2 episodes, 1997
Damian Monk	...	Dennison 2 episodes, 1997
Jeff Dornan	...	American Scientist 2 episodes, 1997
Gabriel Carr	...	Russian Scientist 2 episodes, 1997
Peter Settle	...	British Scientist 2 episodes, 1997
Peter Scheidel	...	Austrian Scientist 2 episodes, 1997
Duke Bannister	...	Scientist #2 2 episodes, 1997
Christopher Pate	...	Conductor 2 episodes, 1997
Cal Rein	...	Seaman 2 episodes, 1997

Storyline

The year is 1886, when New England's fishing harbors are the scene for a "creature of unknown origin" destroying ships at sea. It is the job of Professor Pierre Arronax, a marine expert, and Ned Land, the iron-willed sailor, to learn the truth of the "monster" roaming the seas. The great novelist, Jules Verne, described this perilous journey to the darkest depths of the sea with Captain Nemo aboard the Nautilus.

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Plot Keywords:

sea | jules verne | monster | captain nemo | male female relationship | 

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Taglines:

Welcome to the last place on earth.

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Genres:

Adventure | Romance | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Filming Locations:

Movieworld Studios, Australia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Frederick S. Pierce Company, Village Roadshow Pictures Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min (3 episodes) 175 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The second of two competing adaptations of the Jules Verne novel to be released in 1997. The other was a Hallmark presentation with Ben Cross as Captain Nemo.

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Goofs

As Thierry Arronax makes his speech from the ship's gangway, a woman waives a U.S. flag with the stars in the pattern that became official in 1890 or 1896. The film is set in 1886.

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Quotes

Ned Land: [suspicious that the dinner laid out before them is poisoned] I'd feel better if I saw you eating some of it first.
Captain Nemo: I promise you... that if I wanted to kill you, I would resort to more direct means.

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Connections

Referenced in ABC TGIF: 3-D Undersea TGIF (1997)

User Reviews

James Mason's mantle is safe around his shoulders

I have nothing against fun and fantasy. But this piece has so little to do with Verne's story that I wonder why the writers didn't just dispense with their token analogies to it and create new characters!

Yes, Caine's performance is "intense", but also utterly meaningless: his Nemo has none of the subtlety, the pensiveness, the drivenness of James Mason's; the two can no more be compared than Kevin Costner's Robin Hood can be compared to Errol Flynn's, or Marlon Brando's performance as Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty to Charles Laughton's. The ballyhooed "intensity" of Caine's portrayal resolves itself into very little more than hypermanic nuttiness. (Maybe Caine was trying so hard to avoid being compared to Mason that he couldn't figure any other way to do the role than to toss all subtlety overboard?)

The character of Attucks, of course, is the "man of action" that the plot needs, thus totally eclipsing Ned Land and making the latter's presence gratuitous. So if the writers were so obsessed with political correctness that they needed to add a nonwhite character, why in the world not just make Ned himself nonwhite?

And haven't we had enough of upstarts trying to improve on Verne by adding a love interest? Apparently not: this version gives Nemo a daughter, who sails with him on the Nautilus and with whom Aronnax (here depicted as a young sexpot) has an affair.

Of course, the fact that this Nautilus has a multi-ethnic crew (an idea hinted at, but not developed by, Verne himself) is a nice touch, but one that doesn't take us very far because this version tells us so little about Nemo's and the crew's background. In conclusion, a lot of fine acting talent is wasted on this philosophically confused piece of work.

Verne has suffered a bewildering number of bad adaptations, but this is ridiculous.