This will be a very short one because I’m feeling very lazy. The Mysterious Island is also a movie, with fantastic stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen. It’s one of my favorite movies and has been since I was a child. Harryhausen uses incredible techniques, such as manipulating an actual crab shell (purchased at Harrod’s in London) into a gigantic monster crab that the protagonists fight. They also fight a giant cassowary-like bird, giant bees, and late in the movie a horrifying sea monster. The use of practical effects certainly has that uncanny valley look of stop motion but ages well and gives the movie a strong style. I couldn’t wait to see how these creatures work in the source material.
None of the monsters are in the novel.
The Mysterious Island tells a story in the vein of Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson. Plucky adventurers land on a well, mysterious island, and they use the natural abundance around them and their nineteenth century vim and vigor with a dash of stiff upper lip to make a life from their hopeless situation. The story continues that frankly bizarre nineteenth century adventure trend of fixating around one ultra-manly character who can do anything, to the point where the secondary protagonists were all ready to lay down and die when that character briefly disappears. Also Captain Nemo reappears, which was one of the reasons I picked this up after 20,000 Leagues.
This novel was pretty boring and disappointed me by revealing how little of the source material is in one of my favorite movies. This is a rare do-not-recommend for me.