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Adapted from the Jules Verne novel, 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea was Disney's first live-action film to be made in this country and the second CinemaScope feature ever to go into production. Though Disney's first thoughts were to make the Verne story as an animated feature, after a few month of development, he decided that the story would be cheaper, easier and faster to make in live action. 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea would be the showcase effort of his Burbank studio's first all-live-action feature film, with a S4.5 million budget.

The film, which won Academy Awards for art direction and special effects, was directed by Richard Fleischer, and is principally remembered for James Mason's definitive portrayal of Captain Nemo, a number of exciting underwater sequences and the Nautilus submarine designed by Harper Goff.

"It all began," remembers Goff, "with some exceptional footage shot in a laboratory aquarium by Dr. McGinnitie of Cal Tech's marine biology lab in Corona Del Mar. I was assigned the task of putting together a 'true-life adventure' using the footage. Walt thought that inasmuch as 20.000 Leagues was in public domain, we might do worse than to use the title for our true-life adventure short subject. While Walt Walt went to England, I stayed in Burbank storyboarding a live-action version of the classic, using MacGinnitie's footage as a sort of ballet episode in which Nemo shows Professor Aronnax the wonders of the deep. Walt liked the storyboard well enough to give me an 'A.R.I.' (audience reaction ininquiry) to a group of exhibitors who were in town. They were enthusiastic, and the rest is history."

Co-starring with James Mason as the lonely, embittered Captain Nemo were Kirk Douglas as harpooner Ned Land, Paul Lukas as the truth seeking Professor Aronnax and Peter Lorre as his assistant, Conseil. Cameras rolled on six months of principal photography after more than a year of pre-production planning.
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