“Giant squid astern, sir!”

In 1954, Walt Disney and company decided to tackle their first science-fiction venture, a full-length live-action adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1870 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Originally, the plan was to animate Verne’s story–after all, Disney’s animation studio had found undeniable success in adapting literary works ranging from Felix Salten’s environmental novel Bambi, A…