Rankin Bass' 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Well we got a two-parters for some reason with the next episode of Festival of Family Classics, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

A bunch of ships near Australia were being destroyed by a “sea monster”, as a crew were set to hunt for the “sea monster” only to have their ship being destroyed with three known survivors. The three survivors are. The sea monster reveals to be the first unofficial submarine named Nautilus, powered by Captain Nemo and his possibly cloned crew. Nemo hated humanity in the surface world, so he lives the rest of his life in the seas with the survivors as guest than slaves.

Thankfully I don’t have nostalgia connection with the Disney version, and known them from Captain Nemo bursting out, “You’re calling it murder?” and Michael Douglas singing “Whale of a Tale” to the point my music teacher sings that in high school. I’ve seen the Nautilus in two version of Mysterious Island (Journey 2 counts, sadly), and part of the squid was seen in The Pagemaster as it came from the book of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas.

It’s strange that two of the characters, Ned Land and Nemo look very close in design to Kirk Douglas and James Mason in the Disney version. Despite this is the abridged version of story, the performances are not going to be as the obvious popular version. The minor difference is they trade Esmeralda the Seal for Fifi the Blue Dolphin, which is kind of an improvement that Fifi is actually more useful than Esmeralda, somehow. What’s a downgrade is trading Peter Lorre’s character for Professor Aronnax’s son, who I’ll describe him as proto-Spike Witwicky, yet as useful as Sam Witwicky. Pick your own brunette everyman to compare!

This is probably the first dynamic design for Rankin Bass. As much as I like Paul Coker’s round design, it is a different take. The downside of being dynamic here is that it’s so detailed it’ll stiffen the animation, as it won’t be as energetic as their other animation, and would almost be on par with The Red Baron in energy level. It’s not too stiff as those crappy cut-out animations that uses live action mouths instead, or never moving their lips at all. It might be what would be used later in Thundercats. It’s not entirely aims for kids under 12, as there’s a scene where they Nemo throws a harpoon at a hammerhead shark. The shark got stabbed, bleeds, and swam away with the harpoon still intact. You know, for Family, Festival of Family Classics! Now why is this story need to be a 2-parter is beyond me.

This is simple an OK episode. I can’t recommend this animated version to everyone, yet I haven’t seen an animated version that’s on par or better than the Disney, despite it’s impossible to be better than a groundbreaking film. Think of this as shorter lived Sealab. If you’re interested, give it a cannonball….

(A viewer pulled out cannon to aim at the animated film.)

Of A Dive to watch the film! Geez, I’m trying to some variety from diving without going literal. At least aim the cannon at the Dic version. Oh right, what’s the next episode for Festival of Family Classics? Jack O’Lantern, finally, but I’ll save that for October. What’s after that? Johnny Appleseed! Dammit, I’m going to need Ziegler’s Apple Cider for this!