|
Mysterious Island (Widescreen) |  | Directors: Cy Endfield, Richard Schickel
Actors: Michael Craig, Joan Greenwood, Michael Callan, Gary Merrill, Herbert Lom
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
Buy New: $5.49
as of 9/10/2010 06:36 EDT details
You Save: $9.45 (63%)
New (44) Used (23) Collectible (1) from $3.99
Seller: book_it_
Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 16242
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 99
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.8
MPN: 043396078949
ISBN: 076788289X
UPC: 043396078949
EAN: 9780767882897
ASIN: B00006JDRG
Theatrical Release Date: December 20, 1961
Release Date: October 29, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Tell A Friend
Add to Wishlist
Add to Wedding Registry
Add to Baby Registry
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Prisoners who escape from a Confederate prison by balloon find themselves stranded on a mysterious island filled with gigantic animals.
Amazon.com
Jules Verne's classic adventure is perfectly matched with Ray Harryhausen's timeless movie magic in Mysterious Island. Based on Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, this rousing Civil War-era fantasy begins when a band of Union war prisoners (and one Confederate straggler) escape in a hot-air balloon, which crash-lands on the titular island of mystery. Verne's novel doesn't include any gigantic creatures, but Harryhausen's version--under the capable direction of genre specialist Cy Endfield--features giant oysters, bees, a prehistoric Phororhacos (a giant chickenlike bird!), an undersea cephalopod, a giant crab, and enough danger to keep its resourceful ensemble on constant alert. Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom, ably filling James Mason's shoes) is a third-act hero, pursuing an ill-fated dream to save humanity from hunger and war. The action may be too intense for younger viewers, but Endfield's pacing and Harryhausen's stop-motion mastery make Mysterious Island a wondrous precursor to Harryhausen's follow-up classic, Jason and the Argonauts. --Jeff Shannon
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 56
 DISCOVERING NEMO October 25, 2004
Michael Butts (Martinsburg, WV USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
From its opening raindrenched hot air balloon sequence to its catastrophic volcanic eruption, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND is one of Ray Harryhausen's most brilliantly realized films. The master special effects wizard who long before CGI defined stop motion animation brings us fantastic sequences, including the giant crab, bees, chicken (or whatever) and squid. By 1961, Harryhausen had honed his art to where one can only marvel at how much a single man and his team could do.
Herbert Lom (Phantom of the Opera, the Pink Panther series) is remarkable as the gentlemanly Captain Nemo, whose only goal is to rid the world of war; Gary Merrill is the crusty newspaper correspondent who admires Nemo; Michael Craig is the dashing leader of the Union soldiers; teen hearthrob Michael Callan is the somewhat cowardly young man who achieves his manhood after rescuring the fair Beth Rogan from the aforementioned giant chicken; Joan Greenwood is the snooty but earthly Lady; Percy Herbert, one of Britain's finest character actors, shows up as a confederate stowaway; and Dan Jackson is the black naval officer who helps everyone out. The revered Bernard Hermann offers one of his bombastic, but brilliant, scores, and the movie just sails along on its own energetic level.
Children should be delighted to watch this movie, simply because it doesn't rely on gore, and one can show them what movies were like before computers.
It may not be Verne, but it is Harryhausen September 18, 2002
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Another Stop-Motion tour de force by the undisputed master of the art form.If you have to write a book report, make sure you read the book , it's very loosely adapted. The creatures scenes of note include a fight with a giant crab, and a giant bee sealing people in a honeycomb.While giantism abounds on the Mysterious Island, Harryhausen does slip in a prehistoric bird, in context most people assume it's a giant chicken.It may not be Harryhausen's best, but he's never made a bad film.Collect them all.
The Island of Gigantic Creatures March 11, 2007
susumu-5 (Japan)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Jules Verne is one of my favorite classic science fiction writers so Verne based movies are on my must-see list. In Japan Mysterious Island is not that well-known Verne stories just as Around The World In Eighty Days, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea or Adrift In The Pacific. So this 1961 movie gives me a great clue because I haven't yet read the original novel.
The story in this movie seems to blend elements of various classic adventure stories such as Defoe's "Robinson Cruisoe", Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", as well as Verne novels such as "Around The World...", "20,000 leauges..." and "Adrift In The Pacific". Special effects in this movie reminds me of "Boy I Shrank The Kids". It seems not like that the creature got bigger but humans shrank before the creatures. Special effects seems outdated viewing from CG-accustommed modernists. Yet the film is vivid because of the splendid acting particularly Captain Nemo. Cartoon like adventures galore.
Verdict: Despite its outdated F/X the movie delivers
Rating: 89 out of 100
Recommended for: Wide range of classic Sci-fi movies fans.
Mysterious Dynamation November 7, 2006
General Breadbasket
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Mysterious Island" is a 1961 adaption of the book of the same name by Jules Verne, a film that features effects animated with stop motion by Ray Harryhausen. It was a lot of fun to watch, and the special features on the DVD were great.
In the midst of the American civil war, a group of prisoners escape and hijack a balloon. Unfortunately gets caught in a storm and blown all the way through to the Pacific Ocean. The group manage to survive the squall and the seas and wash up on a mysterious island, lush, fertile and crowned with a still active volcano. Together with a couple of women from a shipwreck, they make a living, gather goats and work on making a ship to get back home. Blunt and primitive axes are the least of their problems. This mysterious island is full of giant animals: giant crabs, giant birds and giant bees, all of them rather defensive when they come in contact with people. There's also the threat of pirates, and the curious Captain Nemo. Will the group ever make it off the island? Is there something about this island they should know?
There's a lot to like about this film, I reckon. It's well paced, it's got a memorable bunch of characters who have great little conversations. My favorite character is probably Mr Spilitt, the war journalist whose a bit rough around the edges, and the only civilian man washed up on the island. They're always giving him a hard time, it's kind of funny. Ray Harryhousen's stop motion special effects are really cool too, as they always are. The matte paintings used for the backgrounds are beautifully done, and really added to the mystery and depth of the island. The tropical location helped too.
Special features include an hour length documentary called "The Harryhousen Chronicles", narrated by Leonard Nimoy (he gets around, doesn't he?). It's covers Ray Harryhousen's stop motion career, from it's beginnings in his parent's garage, all the way to his Oscar win in 1992 for his contributions. It features interviews with Ray Harryhousen, Ray Bradbury and George Lucas, to name a few people, and also features a little bit (not a whole lot, but a little bit) of previously unseen stop-motion footage from a couple of Ray Harryhousen's rejected and unfinished projects. It was all really interesting. There's also an original 1960s featurette called "This is Dynamation", which is mostly a promotional showcase for Harryhousen's effects in "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad", plus a featurette specifically about Harryhausen's effects in "Mysterious Island", featuring Ray Harryhausen once again. There's also a photo gallery of various shots and promotional material. A good selection of special features, I thought. It's thorough, but not overwhelming.
I'd recommend this film to anyone with a love of adventure and anyone with an eye for old time special effects. It's worth a look.
Mysterious Island June 10, 2009
Frances Pipkin (Butler, Pa)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Great storyline, awsome music, survivors, monsters, and a volcano. What more can this classic adventure need? Great for kids and adults alike.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 56
|
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Copyright © 2009 Cheap.CD All rights reserved. | |
