20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 3, 2021

Note: This version of this film is available as part of the Early Universal Vol. 2 set from Eureka! Entertainment's Masters of Cinema series.

Universal Pictures branded itself variously as Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-Jewel when the silents included in this package were released, and those slight if kind of quaint differences in names may point to the fact that Universal, in any of its "versions", has been around a long time, and is in fact the oldest surviving film studio in the United States. Some of Universal's earliest product has been getting released globally on Blu-ray, and in that regard Kino Lorber has already released two of the three films in this collection for the Region A market (links can be found in the reviews of this release's offerings). These early Universal films are noted for sometimes rather impressive technical achievements, with this collection in particular offering then innovative location filming, including underwater sequences for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and wide open prairie material for The Calgary Stampede.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is one of two films in this set that has been released for Region A by Kino Lorber, and those interested may want to read Neil Lumbard's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Blu-ray review of that version. As Kim Newman gets into in his comments included on this disc, the story here actually incorporates elements of Verne's Mysterious Island and In Search of the Castaways in what Newman perhaps cheekily likens to current day "franchise building" by the likes of Marvel. Allen Holubar portrays Captain Nemo (in some probably unfortunate blackface) who has some interactions with some shipwreck survivors that he actually put in that predicament. Also entering into the plot dynamics are Civil War soldiers who have crash landed on an island where they meet a feral woman called Child of Nature (Jane Grail).

This is a rather awesome production given its era, and one of the actually rather sweet things about the film is a brief "introduction" of the Williamson brothers, whose technical expertise aided in the underwater sequences in particular (see screenshot 9 for the brothers).

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is presented on Blu-ray by Eureka! Entertainment's Masters of Cinema imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.35:1. Eureka! sent only check discs for the purposes of this review, so I'm not privy to any information about the transfer which might be included in an insert booklet, but the press sheet mentions that the film has been restored in 4K. When this is at its best, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea looks very good indeed, with surprisingly fulsome detail levels, consistent contrast and some especially impressive blacks. As with many silents, however, there is a rather huge variance in image quality, and there is manifest damage that can be spotted, especially in the already hazy looking underwater scenes, where scratches and other nicks and blemishes tend to be even more noticeable. Clarity is widely variant as well, and grain structure can run the gamut from relatively tight to pretty chunky.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea features an LPCM 2.0 track that offers a newly done score by Orlando Perez Rosso. It doesn't sound like this is a huge ensemble, but the orchestral cues are generally full sounding, and some of the brass writing in particular sounds nicely burnished. There are no issues whatsoever with regard to damage or any other problems.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Kim Newman Interview (HD; 22:26) is another entertaining sit down with the typically affable Newman, who discusses Jules Verne's output and potential stumbling blocks of this presentation, including the use of blackface for Nemo.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is unusually impressive given the era of its production, and if some of its depictions probably won't pass muster with contemporary, arguably more PC, eyes, the overall film is visceral and exciting. Video definitely has pretty substantial signs of age related wear and tear, but those who are fans of silent cinema won't find anything overly unsettling. Audio is fine and the Kim Newman featurette very enjoyable. Recommended.