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Movies & TV

Disney’s other Nemo

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA screens 2 pm Saturday at TIFF Bell Lightbox.


You may have heard that TIFF Bell Lightbox has been running a series of Disney films as Saturday matinees over the past couple of months. What you may not know is that those films are not in general circulation – these are rare prints snatched from the deepest vaults in the House Of Mouse, carefully ferried to the Lightbox by house elves and offered for Toronto families as a very special treat.

Okay, not all of that is true – Disney would never use house elves that’s another studio’s franchise – but the “rare” and “special” parts? Dead-on. Particularly when it comes to tomorrow’s feature, a presentation of Richard Fleischer’s 1954 CinemaScope epic 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

I will not lie to you: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea has not dated well at all. It feels every inch like a studio prestige picture that’s nearly six decades old, from the self-conscious literariness of the screenplay (it’s based on a proper leather-bound classic by Jules Verne, don’t you know) to Fleischer’s insistence that the action must stop dead so the audience has enough time to properly appreciate the elaborate set design and visual effects. And if we’re being totally honest, I’m still amazed that the collision of Kirk Douglas and James Mason’s diametrically opposed acting styles didn’t open some sort of polarity vortex and turn the universe inside-out.

All that said, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea still sort of works. The storyline’s innocence feels quaint, but it’s also appropriate to its 19th-century setting, and Verne’s themes of conservation and protection that remain absolutely relevant today. Who is Paul Watson, after all, if not a modern-day version of Captain Nemo, defying man’s law to protect the natural world he values above all else?

Not a bad place to start a conversation about stewardship and morality, if your kids are ready for it. Besides, this is likely to be their only chance to see it on a big screen for a very long time.

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