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,
Jules Verne magazine. (The manuscript, believed lost for some time after Verne's death, was finally published in 1994.) The relationship between publisher and writer changed significantly around 1869, when Verne and Hetzel were brought into conflict over the manuscript for "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". Verne had initially conceived of the submariner Captain Nemo as a Polish scientist whose acts of vengeance were directed against the Russians who had killed his family during the January uprising. Hetzel, not wanting to alienate the lucrative Russian market for Verne's books, demanded that Nemo be made an enemy of the slave trade, a situation