"island at the top of the world"

[sergebroom]

I've been doing some research for the steampunk-movie talk I'll be giving at FiestaCon/WesterCon in July. That means my watching at least 2 versions of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with two more Captain Nemo offshoots on my list. Last night, for a change of story setting, I took a look at Disney's 1973 movie Island at the Top of the World. I wasn't sure how steampunky it was, but I went ahead. The steampunk aspect was minimal and a bit of a cheat: we are given the impression that the French dirigible airship used to travel to the North Pole is rather revolutionnary and will allow France to dominate the air. That's strange, because, while the film is set 1907, Germany's Zeppelin had already flown his own airship 7 years before. Well, we know how those two countries felt toward each other in those days.

That being said, the movie was better than I expected. I was impressed by their not having the Vikings speak English. And I was amused by their not translating the airship inventor's insults to his mechanic.

"Tu es aussi bête que ton frère!"

Which translates as "You're as stupid as your brother!" He was much nicer to his poodle Joséphine.

Comments

[marydell.livejournal.com]

That sounds like the coolest research project ever.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

It is. I had not realized until now that there is an almost separate subgenre of films about Captain Nemo. Mind you, I haven't try to watch most of them, especially when something called 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea is described as a modernized cross beteen Jules Verne and Tom Clancy, and having been directed by someone called Bologna.

I also skipped whatever is being done by Japanese animators. Sure, I saw Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, but it really is fantasy and my ownn definition of steampunk considers only SF, crackpot as it science may be.