20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

image for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

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Not suitable under 7; parental guidance to 10 (violence, sexual references, scary scenes, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
  • a review of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 January 2026.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 7 Not suitable due to violence, sexual references and scary scenes.
Children aged 7–10 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, sexual references and themes.
Children aged 11 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: The content is mild in impact
Length: 128 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

In 1868, after rumours of a sea monster attacking ships at sea, scientist Professor Aronnax (Paul Lukas) and his assistant Conseil (Peter Lorre) join a Navy ship to investigate, and there they meet Ned Land (Kirk Douglas). On board, the crew spots the sea monster and after shooting it with cannons, the sea monster attacks the ship, knocking Aronnax, Conseil and Ned overboard. While floating through the wreckage, they find an abandoned vessel and when they look closer, they realise there was no sea monster, just this man-made submarine, the Nautilus – and it is not abandoned. Subsequently, they are captured and kept aboard the Nautilus, as prisoners/guests by its captain, Captain Nemo (James Mason). The Professor befriends Nemo, however, Conseil and Ned send out bottled messages of the submarine’s expected coordinates in hopes of rescue. For a short while, the Nautilus becomes trapped on a coral reef, so Conseil and Ned are allowed to explore the beach of a nearby island for wildlife specimens. Ned takes his chance, running into the bush and there, he finds a colony of cannibal natives. They chase Ned and Conseil back to the Nautilus where Nemo sets off electrical charges, electrocuting and shocking the cannibals. A warship then fires at the Nautilus so Captain Nemo sends the ship deeper, where they come face-to-face with a giant squid. Nemo ends up caught by one of the tentacles but is saved by Ned who harpoons the squid, sending it back into the ocean. As the Nautilus approaches its destination, Nemo takes the Nautilus through a secret passage into the centre of the island to avoid detection, and he runs ashore to activate a time bomb to destroy all evidence on the island of his discoveries. He is shot as he runs back to the Nautilus and states that he is dying and he plans to take the Nautilus down one last time, taking all aboard with him to die. After being locked in their cabins, Ned, Conseil and the Professor must try to escape as the ship heads towards the bottom of the ocean.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Crime; Suicide; Death; Animal distress; Justice; Hypocrisy.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Many ships get blown up or destroyed in a dramatic way.
  • People get hit in the head with an oar.
  • The crew of the Nautilus fight with the Professor, Conseil and Ned.
  • Scenes of whipping and violence are seen in the penal colony.
  • Ned is chased by cannibals with arrows and spears.
  • The cannibals are electrocuted by the submarine.
  • Captain Nemo gets shot and dies.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • The sea monster: a glowing dark figure is seen moving through the ocean.
  • A shark swims after some characters as they are diving.
  • A scary-looking giant squid with a large beak attacks the crew.
  • The cannibals keep skulls on sticks in the bush of the island.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Animals are put in distress, scenes of catching turtles and other fish as well as electrocuting and harpooning a squid.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Captain Nemo threatens to sink the Nautilus with everyone aboard.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Ned sings a sea-shanty song about girls he meets ashore, “When we kissed I bubbled up like molten lava”.
  • In the first scene, Ned is seen with two girls hanging on his arms and it is assumed he is ‘good with the ladies’.
  • Ned mentions the “native” women on the island are longing for touch.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Ned is shirtless on a few occasions.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • People smoking cigars – although they are not filled with tobacco but seaweed instead.
  • Wine is drunk with dinner.
  • Ned drinks the alcohol that was used to preserve dead animals in jars and is visibly drunk afterwards.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • “Hell” is said on a few occasions.

In a nutshell

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is an action-adventure movie, and a reimagining of Jules Verne's 1870 novel by the same name. The film is best suited for families with children over 10. A caution of frequent but not gory violence should be noted and warrants parental guidance from 7 to 10 years old.

The main messages of justice and the value of human life have questionable morality as violence or blowing things up is the main solution posited throughout the film. Parents may like to know that there are negative and stereotyped portrayals of native people from New Guinea as they are portrayed as uncivilised cannibals.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Working hard
  • Justice
  • Resilience
  • Honesty
  • Invention and ingenuity.

This movie could give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Understanding that while sometimes violence is used in a movie, if it happens in real life, somebody could be hurt and it is not a good way to solve problems.
  • The natural consequences of stealing and lying.
  • Good vs Evil.
  • The grey area between good and evil, does intent make the wrong decision right?