20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film) that the film "may occasionally succumb to some of the problems inherent in the source material (the episodic nature does slow the pace), but the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses, making this one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made." Audiences remember it primarily for its giant-squid battle sequence as well as the "Nautilus" itself and James Mason's portrayal of Nemo. The film currently holds an 89% approval rating at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus being: "One of Disney's finest live-action adventures, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" brings Jules Verne's classic sci-fi tale to vivid life,
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne in which its heroes directly acknowledged their fondness for reading Verne. The second of Zeman's Verne-based films was "Vynález zkázy"; the later ones were "The Stolen Airship", based on "Two Years' Vacation", and "On the Comet", based on "Hector Servadac". The main literary source material for "Vynález zkázy" was Verne's 1896 novel "Facing the Flag". However, rather than a straightforward literal adaptation of the novel, Zeman conceived the film as if the story were being retold by one of its characters, the young engineer Simon Hart. Moreover, since "Facing the Flag" included many memorable Vernian motifs—including submarines, volcanoes, mysterious figures