Wikipedia film pages

Meet the Robinsons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Page semi-protected

Meet the Robinsons
Meet the robinsons.jpg
Theatrical poster

Directed by
Steve Anderson
Produced by
Dorothy McKim
John Lasseter

Screenplay by
Jon A. Bernstein
Michelle Spritz
Nathan Greno

Based on
A Day with Wilbur Robinson
 by William Joyce
Starring
Jordan Fry
Wesley Singerman
Harland Williams
Tom Kenny
Steve Anderson
Angela Bassett
Laurie Metcalf
Adam West
Tom Selleck
Nicole Sullivan

Music by
Danny Elfman
Edited by
Ellen Keneshea
Production
   company
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Distributed by
Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)
March 23, 2007 (United Kingdom)
March 30, 2007 (United States)

Running time
95 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Box office
$169,333,034[1]
Meet the Robinsons is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy family film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 30, 2007. The 47th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics was released in standard and Disney Digital 3-D version. The film is very loosely based on characters from the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce. The film originally had the same title as the book. The voice cast includes Jordan Fry, Wesley Singerman, Harland Williams, Tom Kenny, Steve Anderson, Laurie Metcalf, Adam West, Tom Selleck and Angela Bassett. It was released on DVD-Video and Blu-ray on October 23, 2007. This film was the first movie made after John Lasseter became chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release 4.1 Home video
5 Reception 5.1 Critical reception
5.2 Box office
6 Soundtrack
7 Video games
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Plot
Lewis is an aspiring young inventor at an orphanage whose inventions have been scaring off potential parents. He decides that his mother, who abandoned him at the orphanage as an infant, is the only one who ever truly loved him and works on a machine to scan his memory to locate her. Unfortunately, this keeps his roommate Michael "Goob" Yagoobian awake, which then causes Goob to fall asleep during an important Little League game.
Taking his memory scanner to his school's science fair, Lewis meets Wilbur Robinson, a mysterious boy claiming to be a time cop from the future. Wilbur needs to recover a time machine that a man wearing a bowler hat has stolen. Lewis tries to demonstrate the scanner, but it falls apart, throwing the science fair into chaos. Upset, Lewis leaves while the Bowler Hat Guy, with the help of a robotic bowler hat named Doris, repairs and steals the scanner.
Wilbur meets Lewis at the orphanage and asks him to repair the scanner. Lewis agrees to do so only if Wilbur can prove he is telling the truth, which Wilbur does by taking them to the year 2037 in a second time machine. When they arrive, however, Lewis says he can use the time machine instead of the scanner, and he and Wilbur get into an argument and crash. Wilbur then asks Lewis to fix the time machine, but Lewis has another condition: Wilbur has to take him to visit his mother afterwards. Reluctantly, Wilbur agrees and hides Lewis in the garage. Lewis doesn't stay there for long, however, and ends up meeting the rest of the Robinsons except for Cornelius, Wilbur's father.
Following Lewis, the Bowler Hat Guy and Doris unsuccessfully try to kidnap him. Meanwhile, the Robinsons offer to adopt Lewis, but change their mind when they learn that he's from the past. Lewis learns that Cornelius Robinson is, in fact, a future version of himself, and that Wilbur is a son he hasn't had yet. Wilbur also admits to lying to Lewis about taking him back to see his mom, causing Lewis to run off in disgust.
Lewis then discovers that the Bowler Hat Guy is a grown-up version of Goob. After losing the Little League game, Goob had become so bitter that he was never adopted and remained in the orphanage long after it closed. Doris was "DOR-15," one of Lewis' failed and abandoned inventions. They both blamed Lewis for their misfortunes and decided to ruin his career by stealing the memory scanner and claiming credit for it. Leaving Lewis behind, they take off with the scanner, drastically altering the future to a world minus Wilbur and dominated by Doris clones who mind control the human population into slavery. In a video camera, it is shown that Bowler Hat Guy is shocked by Doris' takeover of everyone and is presumably killed by the Doris clones. Lewis repairs the second time machine, goes to confront Doris and destroys her by promising to never invent her, restoring the future to its Utopian self. After persuasion from Lewis, Wilbur tries to ask the adult Goob to join the family, but he has disappeared, apparently ashamed at what he has done.
Back in Wilbur's time, Lewis finally meets Cornelius face to face. Cornelius explains how the memory scanner had started their successful career, which persuades Lewis to return to the science fair. Wilbur takes Lewis back, but makes one stop first: as he promised, he takes Lewis back to the moment when his mother abandoned him. Lewis nearly stops her from leaving his infant self at the orphanage, but decides not to, explaining to Wilbur that he already has a family.
Wilbur drops Lewis off in his own time and leaves. Lewis heads to the fair, but en route wakes up Goob just in time for him to make the winning catch, changing his future. Back at the fair, Lewis asks for one more chance to demonstrate his scanner, which this time succeeds. He is adopted by Lucille, one of the science fair judges, and her husband Bud, who nicknames him "Cornelius" and takes him to their home. As Lewis leaves, he turns and waves at Goob, who is also leaving the orphanage with a family of his own and a Little League trophy. The movie ends with a quote by Walt Disney containing Lewis/Cornelius' motto: "Keep Moving Forward."
Cast
Jordan Fry as Lewis. Nik Ranieri served as the supervising animator for Lewis. Daniel Hansen voiced a younger version of Lewis.
Wesley Singerman as Wilbur Robinson. Dale Baer served as the supervising animator for Wilbur.
Steve Anderson as: The Bowler Hat Guy. Dick Zondaq served as the supervising animator for the Bowler Hat Guy.
Grandpa Bud
Cousin Tallulah. Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator for Tallulah.
Nicole Sullivan as Franny Robinson. Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator for Franny. Jessie Flower voiced Franny as a child.
Harland Williams as Carl
Angela Bassett as Mildred. Ruben A. Aquino served as the supervising animator for Mildred.
Matthew Josten as Michael "Goob" Yagoobian
Laurie Metcalf as Lucille Krunklehorn
Ethan Sandler as: DOR-15 (Doris). Jay N. Davis served as the supervising animator for Doris.
Uncle Fritz and Aunt Petunia. Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator for Fritz and Petunia.
Uncle Dimitri and Uncle Spike
Cousin Laszlo. Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator for Laszlo.
The CEO of InventCo.
Don Hall as Uncle Gaston. Jason Anastas served as the supervising animator for Gaston. Hall also provided the voice of the Gym Coach.
Kelly Hoover as Aunt Billie
Adam West as Uncle Art
Tom Kenny as Mr. Willerstein. Ruben A. Aquino served as the supervising animator for Mr. Willerstein.
Tracey Miller-Zarneke as Lizzy
Joe Mateo as Tiny
Aurian Redson as Frankie the Frog
Jamie Cullum as Frankie the Frog (singing voice)
Tom Selleck as Cornelius
Paul Butcher as Stanley
Dara McGarry as InventCo Receptionist, Mrs. Harrington
John H. H. Ford as Mr. Harrington
Nathan Greno as Lefty
Additional Voices by Cameron Covell, Cooper Cowgill, David Cowgill, Makeena Cowgill, Terri Douglas, Jackie Gonneau, Mick Hazen, Shannon O'Connor, Jordan Del Spina, Lynwood Robinson, Grace Rolek, Greyson Spann, Krista Swan, and Fred Tatasciore.
Production
Originally titled A Day with Wilbur Robinson, production on the film began in June 2004, and was scheduled for a 2006 release.[2][3] However, as the fusion between Disney and Pixar occurred during the production of the film, John Lasseter became the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios. When he saw an early screening for the movie, he told the director Stephen Anderson that he did not find the villain scary or threatening enough, and suggested that he make some changes.
Ten months later, almost 60% of the movie had been scrapped and redone. The villain had improved and was given a new sidekick, a dinosaur chase had been added, and the ending was changed.[4]
Release
Over 600 REAL D Cinema digital 3D-equipped theaters presented Disney Digital 3-D version of the film.[5] The 3D version was preceded by the 1953 Chip 'n Dale 3D short Working for Peanuts.[6] The final credits of the 3D version were left two-dimensional, except for the names of those who converted the film to 3D.
Home video
The DVD & Blu-ray Disc versions were both released on October 23, 2007.[7] Both versions feature 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, plus music videos, the "Family Function 5000" game, deleted scenes, and other bonus features. The DVD's audio commentary contains Steve Anderson's narration, occasionally interrupted by himself as the Bowler Hat Guy. As of January 2008 the DVD had sold approximately 4,000,000 copies.[1] The Blu-ray also includes uncompressed 5.1 audio and a BD-J game, "Bowler Hat Barrage!". You can see more details on the releases here for DVD [2] and Blu-ray [3]. The UK release was in September, and became number one in the DVD charts. Although the Blu-ray features on the site said that it features a 5.1 Effects-Only Audio track, it is also on the DVD, unexpectedly to many people who buy the DVD.
Reception
Critical reception
The film received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 66% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 136 reviews with an average score of 6.3/10.[8] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.[9]
Realmovienews stated that it has "a snappy plot that demands close attention as it whizzes back and forth in the space-time continuum, touching on serious ideas and proposing some rather disturbing alternate realities. And the witty story twists are handled with rare subtlety and intelligence. In the end it may get a little weepy and inspirational. But it's so charming that we don't mind at all".[10] Danny Minton of the Beaumont Journal said that "The Robinsons might not be a family you want to hang out with, but they sure were fun to meet in this imaginative and beautiful 3-D experience".[11] Andrew L. Urban of Australian Urban Cinefile said that "Walt Disney stood for fantasy on screen and this is a loving tribute to his legacy".[12] Kyle Smith of the New York Post named it the 10th best film of 2007.[13]
Conversely, A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote: "Meet the Robinsons is surely one of the worst theatrically released animated features issued under the Disney label in quite some time",[14] while Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C" and said "This is one bumpy ride".[15]
Box office
The film grossed $25,123,781 on its opening weekend, falling behind Blades of Glory. Over its theatrical run, it grossed $97,822,171 in the United States and Canada and $71,510,863 in other territories, totaling $169,333,034 worldwide.[1]
Soundtrack

Meet the Robinsons

Soundtrack album by Various artists

Released
March 27, 2007
Length
52:46
Label
Walt Disney
Producer
Danny Elfman
Walt Disney Animation Studios chronology

Chicken Little
 (2006) Meet the Robinsons
 (2007) Bolt
 (2008)


Singles from Meet the Robinsons
1."Little Wonders"
 Released: March 13, 2007

The soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on March 27, 2007. Contributors to the album beyond the Danny Elfman score include Jonas Brothers, Rufus Wainwright, Rob Thomas, Jamie Cullum, The All-American Rejects, and They Might Be Giants. The Track "Little Wonders", recorded by Rob Thomas, has reached #5 on the Billboard AC chart.
Track list:
All music composed by Danny Elfman, except as noted.

No.
Title
Artist
Length

1. "Another Believer"   Rufus Wainwright 4:39
2. "Little Wonders"   Rob Thomas 3:45
3. "The Future Has Arrived"   The All-American Rejects 3:05
4. "Where Is Your Heart At?" (written by Rufus Wainwright) Jamie Cullum 2:23
5. "The Motion Waltz (Emotional Commotion)"   Rufus Wainwright 2:35
6. "Give Me the Simple Life"   Jamie Cullum 2:04
7. "The Prologue"     1:24
8. "To the Future!"     1:16
9. "Meeting the Robinsons"     1:56
10. "The Science Fair"     2:47
11. "Goob's Story"     1:01
12. "A Family United"     1:37
13. "Pop Quiz and the Time Machine Montage"     3:45
14. "The Evil Plan"     4:13
15. "Doris Has Her Day"     4:58
16. "Setting Things Right"     6:00
17. "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow"   They Might Be Giants 2:00
18. "Kids of the Future"   Jonas Brothers 3:18
Total length:
 52:46 
The song "This Much Fun" by Cowboy Mouth, which was featured in the trailer for this movie, was not featured in the movie or on the soundtrack. The song "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" was originally from the Disneyland attraction General Electric's Carousel of Progress.
Video games
Main article: Meet the Robinsons (video game)
Disney's Meet the Robinsons is available from Buena Vista Games for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, and PC. The independent England-based company Climax Group developed their own adaption for the Game Boy Advance. Nintendo created a version of the movie for Game Boy Advance Video.
See also

Portal icon Disney portal
Portal icon Film portal
Portal icon Animation portal
Disney Digital 3-D
List of animated feature-length films
List of computer-animated films
List of 3D films
References
1.^ Jump up to: a b "Meet the Robinsons". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
2.Jump up ^ "Walt Disney Feature Animation Set To Spend 'A Day With Wilbur Robinson' With New Animated Feature Slated For 2006". PR Newswire. January 11, 2004. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
3.Jump up ^ Dunkley, Cathy (January 11, 2004). "Mouse re-tooning animation strategy". Variety. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
4.Jump up ^ M. Holson, Laura (March 5, 2007). "John Lasseter: Disney's new boss reimagines the Magic Kingdom". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2012.
5.Jump up ^ Carolyn Giardina (2007-03-07). "New dimension at Real D". HollywoodReporter.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
6.Jump up ^ Peter Sciretta (2007-03-23). "3D Meet the Robinsons Advertisement, Featurette, and Fun Facts". /Film. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
7.Jump up ^ "Meet The Robinsons (English/French/Spanish DVD)". Archived from the original on 2007-07-12.
8.Jump up ^ "Meet the Robinsons - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
9.Jump up ^ "Meet the Robinsons (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
10.Jump up ^ "Meet The Robinsons (2007) Movie Review". Real Movie News.
11.Jump up ^ Minton, Danny (March 29, 2007). "Meet the Robinsons - Critic Review". Beaumont Journal. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
12.Jump up ^ Louise Keller, Andrew L. Urban. "Meet the Robinsons". Australian Urban Cinefile.
13.Jump up ^ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
14.Jump up ^ A. O. Scott (2007-03-30). "FILM REVIEW; A Nerdy Orphan Plows Ahead With a Lot of Familiar Novelties". The New York Times.
15.Jump up ^ Lisa Schwarzbaum (2007-03-28). "Meet the Robinsons (2007)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
External links
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Meet the Robinsons
Official website
Meet the Robinsons at the Internet Movie Database
Meet the Robinsons at the Big Cartoon DataBase
Meet the Robinsons at Rotten Tomatoes
Meet the Robinsons at Metacritic
Meet the Robinsons at Box Office Mojo
Meet the Robinsons at AllMovie


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Disney theatrical animated features









































































































Wikipedia book
Category




[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Walt Disney Animation Studios





































































































































































































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works of William Joyce





































































 


Categories: 2007 films
English-language films
2007 computer-animated films
Computer-animated films
American films
Films about families
Films based on children's books
Disney animated features canon
Time travel films
Films set in the 1990s
Films set in the 2030s
Films about orphans
Directorial debut films
American animated films
2000s 3D films
Walt Disney Pictures films
Film scores by Danny Elfman
American comedy films
Animated comedy films






Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

View source

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
Български
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
ދިވެހިބަސް
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
Magyar
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Simple English
Suomi
Svenska
ไทย
Tiếng Việt
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 19 July 2014 at 11:32.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_the_Robinsons














Wreck-It Ralph
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Page semi-protected

Wreck-It Ralph
Theatrical release poster depicting Ralph along with various video game characters
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Rich Moore
Produced by
Clark Spencer
Screenplay by
Phil Johnston[1]
Jennifer Lee[1]
Story by
Rich Moore
 Phil Johnston
Jim Reardon
Starring
John C. Reilly
Sarah Silverman
Jack McBrayer
Jane Lynch
Music by
Henry Jackman
Edited by
Tim Mertens
Production
   company
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Distributed by
Walt Disney Studios
 Motion Pictures
Release date(s)
October 29, 2012 (El Capitan Theatre)
November 2, 2012 (United States)

Running time
101 minutes[2]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$165 million[3]
Box office
$471,222,889[3]
Wreck-It Ralph is a 2012 American computer-animated fantasy-comedy film[4] produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.[5] It is the 52nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The film was directed by Rich Moore, who has directed episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama, and the screenplay was written by Jennifer Lee and Phil Johnston from a story by Moore, Johnston and Jim Reardon. John Lasseter served as the executive producer. The film features the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch. The film tells the story of the eponymous arcade game villain who rebels against his role and dreams of becoming a hero. He travels between games in the arcade, and ultimately must eliminate a dire threat that could affect the entire arcade, and one that Ralph himself inadvertently started.
Wreck-It Ralph premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on October 29, 2012,[6] and went into general release on November 2. The film has earned $471 million in worldwide box office revenue, $189 million of which was earned in the United States and Canada; it was met with critical and commercial success, winning the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and receiving nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.[7][8][9] Wreck-It Ralph was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 5, 2013.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Video game cameos and references
4 Production
5 Release 5.1 Marketing
5.2 Home media
6 Reception 6.1 Box office performance
6.2 Critical response
6.3 Accolades
7 Soundtrack 7.1 Track listing
8 Video games
9 Sequel
10 References
11 External links

Plot
When Litwak's Arcade closes at night, the various video game characters leave their normal in-game roles and are free to travel to other games through the power cables. The characters within the game Fix-It Felix, Jr. celebrate its eponymous hero, but loathe the game's villain character, Wreck-It Ralph. At a support group for video game villains, Ralph reveals his desire to stop being a villain. Ostracized from his game's 30th anniversary celebration, Ralph believes he can be accepted by earning a medal, just as Felix does in their game. He learns he can find one in the first person rail shooter Hero's Duty and enters the game, collecting the medal between game sessions. In the process, he accidentally hatches a Cy-Bug, one of the game's enemies. The Cy-Bug clings to Ralph as he stumbles into an escape pod that launches him out of the game. Meanwhile, with Ralph missing, a player reports Fix-It Felix, Jr. to arcade staff as malfunctioning. Broken games will be unplugged, leaving their characters homeless, so Felix leaves to retrieve Ralph.
Ralph crash-lands in Sugar Rush, a candy themed kart-racing game. As he searches for his medal, he meets Vanellope von Schweetz, a glitchy character who takes the medal and uses it to buy entry into a race that determines the game's roster. The other racers, including the game's ruler King Candy, refuse to let Vanellope participate, claiming she was never intended to be part of the game. Sympathetic toward the friendless Vanellope, Ralph helps build her a kart and teaches her how to drive. Meanwhile, Felix enters Hero's Duty and encounters Sergeant Calhoun, the game's no-nonsense leader, who warns that Cy-Bugs will destroy any game they enter. As the pair search for Ralph and the Cy-Bug in Sugar Rush, they separate when Felix, enamored with Calhoun, inadvertently reminds her of her late fiancé. Calhoun finds an enormous clutch of Cy-Bug eggs underground, and Felix becomes imprisoned in King Candy's castle.
Desperate, King Candy hacks the game's code to retrieve Ralph's medal and offers it to Ralph, claiming that letting Vanellope race would be disastrous for both her and the game. Fearing for Vanellope's safety, Ralph wrecks her kart and returns to his own game, but finds everyone has fled, expecting the game to be unplugged in the morning. Ralph then notices Vanellope's image on the Sugar Rush cabinet and realizes she is an intended part of the game. Ralph returns to Sugar Rush, rescues Felix and Vanellope, and has Felix fix the wrecked kart. With the race ongoing, the Cy-Bugs attack. When Vanellope catches up to King Candy, her glitching reveals that he is actually Turbo, a rogue character from an older racing game who sabotaged a newer game out of jealousy, causing both to be unplugged. Vanellope escapes from Turbo, who is consumed by a Cy-Bug.
The populace flees Sugar Rush, but Vanellope cannot pass through the exit because she is a glitch. Calhoun remarks that the game cannot be saved without a beacon to attract and kill the Cy-Bugs. Ralph heads to Diet Cola Mountain, an unfinished game track, where he plans on collapsing its Mentos stalactites into its cola pool to cause a blinding eruption to use as a beacon. Before he can finish, Turbo, merged with the Cy-Bug that had consumed him, carries Ralph into the sky. Ralph breaks free and dives toward the mountain, intending to sacrifice himself to start the eruption on impact. Vanellope uses her glitching to save Ralph, and the eruption draws Turbo and the Cy-Bugs to their destruction. Vanellope crosses the finish line, restoring her memory and status as Princess Vanellope, the game's ruler and lead character. Felix and Ralph return to their game in time to save it from being unplugged. Calhoun and Felix marry, and the characters of Fix-It Felix, Jr. gain a new respect for Ralph.
Cast



Sarah Silverman and John C. Reilly presenting Wreck-It Ralph at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con InternationalJohn C. Reilly as Wreck-It Ralph, the villain of Fix-It Felix, Jr.[5]
Sarah Silverman as Vanellope von Schweetz, a racer/glitch in Sugar Rush[5]
Jack McBrayer as Fix-It Felix, Jr., the hero of Fix-It Felix, Jr.[5][10]
Jane Lynch as Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun, the lead character of Hero's Duty[5]
Alan Tudyk as King Candy, the ruler of Sugar Rush/Turbo, the former star racer of TurboTime.
Mindy Kaling as Taffyta Muttonfudge, a racer in Sugar Rush[11]
Joe Lo Truglio as Markowski, a soldier from Hero's Duty that Ralph meets in Tapper's
Ed O'Neill as Mr. Litwak, owner of Litwak's Family Fun Center & Arcade[11]
Dennis Haysbert as General Hologram, a general in Hero's Duty
Adam Carolla as Wynnchel, an éclair who is a member of the Sugar Rush police station[11]
Horatio Sanz as Duncan, a doughnut who is a member of the Sugar Rush police station[11]
Rich Moore as Sour Bill, King Candy's sour ball henchman[12][13]
The cast also includes the Fix-It Felix, Jr Nicerlanders, Edie McClurg as Mary,[11] Raymond Persi as Mayor Gene,[14][15] Jess Harnell as Don, Rachael Harris as Deanna,[11] and Skylar Astin as Roy; Katie Lowes as Candlehead, Jamie Elman as Rancis Fluggerbutter, Josie Trinidad as Jubileena Bing-Bing, and Cymbre Walk as Crumbelina DiCaramello, racers in Sugar Rush; Phil Johnston as Surge Protector, Game Central Station security;[16] Stefanie Scott as Moppet Girl, a young arcade-game player[11] John DiMaggio as Beard Papa, the security guard at the Sugar Rush candy-kart factory; Raymond Persi as a Zombie,[14] Brian Kesinger as a Cyborg (based on Kano from Mortal Kombat);[14] and Martin Jarvis as Saitine, a devil-like villain, who attend the Bad-Anon support group; Tucker Gilmore as the Sugar Rush Announcer; Brandon Scott as Kohut, a soldier in Hero's Duty; and Tim Mertens as Dr. Brad Scott, a scientist and Sgt. Calhoun's fiancé in Hero's Duty (voiced by Nick Grimshaw in the UK release).[17]
The film features several cameos from real world video game characters including: Root Beer Tapper (Maurice LaMarche), the bartender from Tapper;[18] Sonic the Hedgehog (Roger Craig Smith);[11][16] Ryu (Kyle Hebert), Ken Masters (Reuben Langdon), M. Bison (Gerald C. Rivers), and Zangief (Rich Moore) from Street Fighter;[1][11][19] Clyde (Kevin Deters) from Pac-Man;[20] and Yuni Verse (Jamie Sparer Roberts) from Dance Dance Revolution[21] A character modeled after dub-step musician Skrillex makes an appearance in Fix-It Felix, Jr. as the DJ at the anniversary party of the game.[22]
Video game cameos and references



 The "Bad-Anon" villain meeting features various well-known video game characters, such as Bowser, Clyde, Doctor Eggman, M. Bison, Neff, and Zangief amongst the generic video game villains.
In addition to the spoken roles, Wreck-It Ralph contains a number of other video game references, including characters and visual gags. At the meeting of video game villains, the above characters include, in addition to any mentioned above: Bowser from Super Mario Bros.,[1][10][19] Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog,[1][19] and Neff from Altered Beast.[14]
Characters from Q*bert, including Q*bert, Coily, Slick, Sam, and Ugg, are shown as "homeless" characters and later taken in by Ralph and Felix into their game (Q*bert also speaks to Felix at one point using the signature synthesized gibberish and word-balloon symbols from his game, called Q*bert-ese).[18][23] Scenes in Game Central Station and Tapper's bar include Chun-Li, Cammy, and Blanka from Street Fighter,[19][24] Pac-Man, Blinky, Pinky, and Inky from Pac-Man,[18][25] the Paperboy from Paperboy,[14][26] the two paddles and the ball from Pong,[27] Dig Dug, a Pooka, and a Fygar from Dig Dug,[27] The Qix from Qix,[25] Frogger from Frogger, and Peter Pepper from BurgerTime.[28] Additionally, Lara Croft and Mario are mentioned in reference.[29]
Additional references are based on sight gags. The residents of Niceland and the bartender from Tapper are animated using a jerky motion that spoofs the limited animation cycles of the sprites of many eight- and sixteen-bit arcade games.[30] King Candy uses the Konami Code on an NES controller to access the programming of Sugar Rush.[31] Throughout Game Central Station is graffiti that includes "Aerith lives" (referencing the character of Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII),[26][32] "All your base are belong to us" (an Engrish phrase popularized from the game Zero Wing), "Sheng Long Was Here" (referencing an April Fool's joke around a made-up character Sheng Long from Street Fighter), and "Jenkins" (a nod to the popular Leeroy Jenkins meme from World of Warcraft).[33] There is also a reference to the Metal Gear series when Ralph is searching for a medal in Tappers Lost and found, finding first a Super Mushroom from Super Mario Bros., and then Metal Gear's "Exclamation point" (with the corresponding sound effect from the game).[30] Mr. Litwak wears a black and white striped referee's shirt, a nod to the iconic outfit of Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day.[30] One of the songs in the credits is an original work from Buckner and Garcia, previously famous for writing video game-themed songs in the 1980s.[30] The Walt Disney Animation Studios opening logo is animated in an 8-bit pixelated fashion,[34] whereas the Walt Disney Pictures closing production logo appears in a glitched state, a reference to the kill screen from many early arcade games such as Pac-Man.[33]
Production
The concept of Wreck-It Ralph was first developed at Disney in the late 1980s, under the working title High Score. Since then, it was redeveloped and reconsidered several times: In the late 1990s, it took on the working title Joe Jump, then in the mid-2000s as Reboot Ralph.[35][36]



 Director Rich Moore at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International
John Lasseter, the head of Walt Disney Animation Studios and executive producer of the film, describes Wreck-It Ralph as "an 8-bit video-game bad guy who travels the length of the arcade to prove that he’s a good guy."[23] In a manner similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Toy Story films, Wreck-It Ralph featured cameo appearances by a number of licensed video-game characters.[23] For example, one scene from the film shows Ralph attending a support group for the arcade's various villain characters, including Clyde from Pac-Man, Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Bowser from Super Mario Bros.[23] Rich Moore, the film's director, had determined that for a film about a video-game world to feel authentic, "it had to have real characters from real games in it."[14] Moore aimed to add licensed characters in a similar manner as cultural references in Looney Tunes shorts, but considered "having the right balance so a portion of the audience didn’t feel they were being neglected or talked down to."[37] However, Moore avoided creating the movie around existing characters, feeling that "there’s so much mythology and baggage attached to pre-existing titles that I feel someone would be disappointed," and considered this to be a reason why movies based on video game franchises typically fail.[37] Instead, for Ralph, the development of new characters representative of the 8-bit video game was "almost like virgin snow," giving them the freedom to take these characters in new directions.[37]
Before production, the existing characters were added to the story either in places they would make sense to appear, or as cameos from a list of characters suggested by the film's creative team, without consideration if they would legally be able to use the characters.[14] The company then sought out the copyright holders' permissions to use the characters, as well as working with these companies to assure their characters were being represented authentically.[14] In the case of Nintendo, the writers had early on envisioned the Bad-anon meeting with Bowser as a major character within the scene; according to Moore, Nintendo was very positive towards this use, stating in Moore's own words, "If there is a group that is dedicated to helping the bad guy characters in video games then Bowser must be in that group!"[26] Nintendo had asked that the producers try to devise a scene that would be similarly appropriate for Mario for his inclusion in the film. Despite knowing they would be able to use the character, the producers could not find an appropriate scene that would let Mario be a significant character without taking away the spotlight from the main story, and opted to not include the character.[26][38] Moore debunked a rumor that Mario and his brother character Luigi were not included due to Nintendo requesting too high a licensing fee, stating that the rumor grew out of a joke John C. Reilly made at Comic-Con.[29] Dr. Wily from Mega Man was going to appear, but was cut from the final version of the film.[39] Overall, there are about 188 individual character models in the movie as a result of these cameo inclusions.[14]
An earlier draft of the screenplay had Ralph and Vanellope spending time going around the game world to collect the pieces for her kart for Sugar Rush, and at times included Felix traveling with the pair. During these scenes, Ralph would have lied to Felix regarding his budding relationship with Calhoun, leading eventually to Ralph becoming depressed and abandoning his quest to get his medal back. At this point, a fourth game world, Extreme Easy Living 2, would have been introduced and was considered a "hedonistic place" between the social nature of The Sims and the open-world objective-less aspects of Grand Theft Auto, according to Moore.[40] Ralph would go there to, wallowing in his depression, and would find happiness by gaining "Like It" buttons for doing acceptable actions in the party-like nature of the place. Moore stated that while it was difficult to consider dropping this new game world, they found that its introduction in the second half of the film would be too difficult a concept for the viewer to come to grasp.[40] They further had trouble working out how a social nature game would be part of an arcade, and though considered having the game be running on Litwak's laptop, found it too convoluted to take Ralph there. Line art sketches and voiceover readings of the scene were included on the home media release of the film.[40]
The film introduced Disney's new bidirectional reflectance distribution functions, with more realistic reflections on surfaces, and new virtual cinematography Camera Capture system, which makes it possible to go through scenes in real-time. To research the Sugar Rush segment of the film, the visual development group traveled to trade fair ISM Cologne, a See's Candy factory, and other manufacturing facilities. The group also brought in food photographers, to demonstrate techniques to make food appear appealing. Special effects, including from "smoke or dust," looks distinct in each of the segments.[41]

Release



 Disney promoted the film at the 2012 E3 convention using a mock arcade cabinet.
The film was originally scheduled for a release on March 22, 2013, but it was later changed to November 2, 2012 due to it being ahead of schedule.[42][43] The theatrical release was accompanied by Disney's Oscar-winning, animated short film Paperman.[44][45]
Marketing
The first trailer for Wreck-It Ralph was released on June 6, 2012, debuting with Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Rock of Ages.[46] This also coincided with the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo, for which Disney constructed a mock aged arcade cabinet for the fictional Fix-It Felix, Jr. game on display on the show floor.[47] Disney also released a browser-based Flash-based version of the Fix-It Felix, Jr. game as well as iOS and Android versions, with online Unity-based versions of Sugar Rush and Hero's Duty.[48] A second trailer for the film was released on September 12, 2012, coinciding with Finding Nemo 3D and Frankenweenie.
To promote the Blu-ray/DVD release of Wreck-It Ralph, director Rich Moore produced a short film titled Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives. Set within the movie's universe, the mockumentary film was designed as a parody of The King of Kong.[49]
Home media
Wreck-It Ralph was released on Blu-ray Disc (2D and 3D) and DVD in North America on March 5, 2013 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.[50] The film was made available for digital download in selected regions on February 12, 2013.[51] Wreck-It Ralph debuted at #1 in Blu-ray and DVD sales in the United States.[52]
Reception
Box office performance
Wreck-It Ralph grossed $189,422,889 in North America, and $281,800,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $471,222,889.[3] It is the 14th-highest-grossing film of 2012,[53] the fourth-highest-grossing 2012 animated film, and the fifth-highest-grossing film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.[54]
In North America, the film debuted with $13.5 million, an above-average opening-day gross for an animated film released in November.[55] During its opening weekend, the film topped the box office with $49.0 million, making it the largest opening for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film until 2013, when it was surpassed by Frozen ($67.4 million).[56][57]
Outside North America, Wreck-It Ralph earned $12 million on its opening weekend from six markets.[58] Among all markets, its three largest openings were recorded in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($7.15 million), Brazil ($5.32 million with weekday previews), and Russia and the CIS ($5.27 million).[59] In total grosses, the three largest markets were the UK, Ireland and Malta ($36.2 million), Japan ($29.6 million), and Australia ($24.0 million).[59]
Critical response
Wreck-It Ralph received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 86% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 163 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10. The site's consensus reads: "Equally entertaining for both kids and parents old enough to catch the references, Wreck-It Ralph is a clever, colorful adventure built on familiar themes and joyful nostalgia."[60] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 72 based on 36 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[61] The film earned an "A" from audiences polled by CinemaScore.[62]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, "More than in most animated films, the art design and color palette of Wreck-It Ralph permit unlimited sets, costumes and rules, giving the movie tireless originality and different behavior in every different cyber world."[63] A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "The movie invites a measure of cynicism – which it proceeds to obliterate with a 93-minute blast of color, noise, ingenuity and fun."[64] Peter Debruge of Variety stated, "With plenty to appeal to boys and girls, old and young, Walt Disney Animation Studios has a high-scoring hit on its hands in this brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed toon, earning bonus points for backing nostalgia with genuine emotion."[65] Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times said, "The movie's subversive sensibility and old-school/new-school feel are a total kick,"[66] while Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "With a mix of retro eye-candy for grown-ups and a thrilling, approachable storyline for the tykes, the film casts a wide and beguiling net."[67] Conversely, Christopher Orr of The Atlantic found it "overplotted and underdeveloped."[68]
Accolades

Awards

Award
Category
Recipients and nominees
Result

Academy Awards[9] Best Animated Feature Rich Moore Nominated
Annie Awards[69][7] Best Animated Feature  Won
Animated Effects in an Animated Production Brett Albert Nominated
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production Bill Schwab, Lorelay Bove, Cory Loftis, Minkyu Lee Nominated
Directing in an Animated Feature Production Rich Moore Won
Music in an Animated Feature Production Henry Jackman, Skrillex, Adam Young, Matthew Thiessen, Jamie Houston, Yasushi Akimoto Won
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production Leo Matsuda Nominated
Lissa Treiman Nominated
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production Alan Tudyk Won
Writing in an Animated Feature Production Phil Johnston, Jennifer Lee Won
Editorial in an Animated Feature Production Tim Mertens Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Best Animated Feature  Nominated
Critics' Choice Movie Awards[70] Best Animated Feature  Won
Golden Globe Awards[71] Best Animated Feature Film  Nominated
Golden Reel Awards[72] Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in an Animation Feature Film  Won
Golden Trailer Awards[73] Best Animation/Family "Dreams" Won
IGN's Best of 2012 Awards Best Movie  Nominated
Best Animated Movie  Won
IGN People's Choice Award for Best Animated Movie  Won
Best 3D Movie  Nominated
Best Movie Poster  Nominated
National Board of Review Awards[74] Best Animated Feature  Won
Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards Favorite Animated Movie  Won
Online Film Critics Society Award Best Animated Feature  Nominated
Producers Guild of America Award Best Animated Motion Picture Clark Spencer Won
Satellite Awards[75] Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature Rich Moore Nominated
Saturn Awards[76] Best Animated Film Rich Moore Nominated
Visual Effects Society[77][78] Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Sean Jenkins, Scott Kersavage, Rich Moore, Clark Spencer Nominated
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture John Kahwaty, Suzan Kim, Michelle Robinson, Tony Smeed (for Vanellope) Nominated

Soundtrack
The film's score was composed by Henry Jackman. The soundtrack also features original songs by Owl City, AKB48, Skrillex, and Buckner & Garcia.[79][80]


Wreck-It Ralph: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Soundtrack album by Various artists

Released
October 30, 2012
Recorded
2012
Sony Scoring Stage (Score)
Length
70:36
Label
Walt Disney
Producer
Chris Montan ·
 Tom MacDougall
 

Walt Disney Animation Studios chronology

Winnie the Pooh
 (2011) Wreck-It Ralph
 (2012) Frozen
 (2013)

Henry Jackman chronology

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
 (2012) Wreck-It Ralph
 (2012) G.I. Joe: Retaliation
 (2013)

Singles from Wreck-It Ralph
1."When Can I See You Again?"
 Released: 2012

Track listing
All music composed by Henry Jackman (except 1–6)[81].

No.
Title
Writer(s)
Artist
Length

1. "When Can I See You Again?"   Adam Young, Matt Thiessen, and Brian Lee Owl City 3:38
2. "Wreck-It, Wreck-It Ralph"   Jamie Houston Buckner & Garcia 2:59
3. "Celebration"     Kool & the Gang 3:40
4. "Sugar Rush"   Yasushi Akimoto and Jamie Houston AKB48 3:14
5. "Bug Hunt (Noisia Remix)" (featuring John C. Reilly) Skrillex Skrillex 7:04
6. "Shut Up and Drive"     Rihanna 3:32
7. "Wreck-It Ralph"       1:33
8. "Life in the Arcade"       0:43
9. "Jumping Ship"       1:06
10. "Rocket Fiasco"       5:48
11. "Vanellope von Schweetz"       2:57
12. "Royal Raceway"       3:23
13. "Cupcake Breakout"       1:12
14. "Candy Vandals"       1:39
15. "Turbo Flashback"       1:42
16. "Laffy Taffies"       1:35
17. "One Minute to Win It"       1:17
18. "Vanellope's Hideout"       2:33
19. "Messing with the Program"       1:20
20. "King Candy"       2:11
21. "Broken-Karted"       2:49
22. "Out of the Penthouse, Off to the Race"       2:51
23. "Sugar Rush Showdown"       4:15
24. "You're My Hero"       4:16
25. "Arcade Finale"       3:19
Total length:
 70:36 
Video games
In addition to the Flash version of the Fix-It Felix, Jr. game, Disney released a tie-in side-scrolling platform game called Wreck-It Ralph for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo DS, to mostly negative reviews.[82][83] The arcade style side-scrolling game was produced in collaboration between Disney Interactive and Activision and serves as a "story extension" to the film. Taking place following the events of the film, players may play as Wreck-It Ralph or Fix-It Felix, causing damage as Ralph as well as repairing as Felix where necessary following another Cy-Bug incident. Game levels are based on the locations in the film like the Fix-It Felix, Jr., Hero's Duty, and Sugar Rush games as well as Game Central Station. It was released in conjunction with the film's release, in November 2012.[84]
In October 2012, Disney released fully playable browser-based versions of the Hero's Duty and Sugar Rush games on the new official film site.[85] A mobile game titled Wreck-it Ralph was released in November 2012 for iOS and Android systems,[86] with a Windows Phone 8 version following almost a year later.[87] Initially, the game consisted of three mini-games, Fix-it Felix Jr., Hero's Duty and Sweet Climber, which were later joined by Turbo Time and Flight Command.[88][89]
Ralph also appears in Sega's Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed as a playable guest character.[90] Ralph and Vanellope appear as playable characters in Disney Infinity as well; the Disney Store released their individual figures on January 7, 2014.[91][92][93] A combo "toy box pack" of the two figures with Sugar Rush customization discs was released April 1, 2014 from the Disney Store.[94]
Sequel
In an interview on October 25, 2012, director Rich Moore said that he and Disney have ideas about a sequel that would bring the characters up to date and explore online gaming and console gaming.[95] Moore stated that many of the crew and voice cast are open to the sequel, believing that they have "barely scratched the surface" of the video game world they envisioned.[26] He also stated that he plans to include Mario and Tron in the sequel.[96][97] In a 2014 interview, the film's composer Henry Jackman said that a story for the sequel is being written.[98]
References
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Frye, Jim (Spring 2012). "Ralph's Wrecking Crew". Disney twenty-three (Disney Enterprises) 4 (1): 43.
2.Jump up ^ The Walt Disney Studios (January 3, 2013). "Golden Globe Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film". DVDizzy.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c "Wreck-It Ralph (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Wreck-It Ralph". Allmovie.com. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Disney Announces CG Comedy Adventure Wreck-It Ralph" (Press release). Walt Disney Animation Studios via ComingSoon.net. June 13, 2011. Archived from the original on December 29, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
6.Jump up ^ Derschowitz, Jessica (October 30, 2012). "'Wreck-It Ralph' Premiere Brings Out Stars". CBS News. Archived from the original on December 29, 2012. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
7.^ Jump up to: a b King, Susan (February 2, 2013). "40th Annie Award nominees and winners list". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
8.Jump up ^ Globe, Golden (December 13, 2012). "Golden Globes 2013: full list of nominations". guardian.co.uk (London). Retrieved January 3, 2013.
9.^ Jump up to: a b "'2013 Oscar Nominees". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. January 10, 2013. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Eisenberg, Eric (August 21, 2011). "'Wreck-It Ralph' Footage from D23 Features 8-Bit Action, Plenty of Cameos". CinemaBlend.com. Archived from the original on December 29, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
11.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i "Walt Disney Animation Studios Reveals Key Cast Members Joining 'Wreck-It-Ralph'" (Press release). Walt Disney Animation Studios. July 19, 2012. Archived from the original on December 29, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
12.Jump up ^ Chitwood, Adam (September 28, 2012). "New Character Images and Descriptions from WRECK-IT-RALPH". =Collider. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
13.Jump up ^ "'Wreck-It Ralph Movie Production Notes". Walt Disney Animation Studios via CineMovie. October 22, 2012. Archived from the original on December 29, 2012.
14.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Schedeen, Jesse (June 8, 2012). "The Familiar Faces of Wreck-It Ralph". IGN. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
15.Jump up ^ Cruz, Tiffany (October 14, 2012). "Wreck-It Ralph Voice Recording Session and Press Day". Fabulous Finds by Tiffany. Archived from the original on December 29, 2012. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
16.^ Jump up to: a b Vespe, Eric "Quint" (July 13, 2012). "Wreck-It Ralph shows 10 minutes at Comic-Con and wins the audience by being the Who Framed Roger Rabbit for video game geeks!". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
17.Jump up ^ "Nick Grimshaw lands Wreck-It Ralph film role". The Sun (UK). Retrieved December 9, 2012.
18.^ Jump up to: a b c "Wreck-It Ralph Trailer #2". Walt Disney Animation Studios via YouTube. September 12, 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
19.^ Jump up to: a b c d Breznican, Anthony (April 25, 2012). "CinemaCon 2012: Classic video game characters to cameo in Disney's 'Wreck-It Ralph'". Entertainment Weekly (Time Warner). Retrieved April 25, 2012.
20.Jump up ^ "Characters – Wreck-It Ralph". Disney.com. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
21.Jump up ^ "Wreck-It Ralph "Game Changer" TV Spot". Walt Disney Animation Studios via YouTube. September 24, 2012. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
22.Jump up ^ Ashurst, Sam (September 17, 2012). "Wreck-It Ralph's Skrillex Cameo Revealed". Total Film. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
23.^ Jump up to: a b c d Breznican, Anthony (August 20, 2011). "Disney's D23: Secret lives of video game characters revealed in 'Wreck-It Ralph'". Entertainment Weekly. Time Warner. Retrieved February 7, 2012.
24.Jump up ^ Connelly, Brendon (February 16, 2012). "Chun-Li, Q-Bert and Plenty of Video Game Gags in Superb New Image from 'Wreck-It Ralph'". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
25.^ Jump up to: a b Cooper, Hollander; Gilbert, Henry (October 19, 2012). "Wreck-it Ralph – 9 amazing things you couldn't possibly know about the movie". Games Radar. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
26.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Hillard, Kyle (February 11, 2013). "Wreck-It Ralph's Director Answers Our Questions". Game Informer. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
27.^ Jump up to: a b Patches, Matt. "How 'Wreck-It Ralph' Unlocked Its Unbelievable Cast of Video Game Legends". Hollywood.com. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
28.Jump up ^ "Wreck-It Ralph Interview (SDCC 2012)". YouTube. July 12, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
29.^ Jump up to: a b Pearson, Ben (October 30, 2012). "Video Interview: 'Wreck-It Ralph' Director Rich Moore on Mario & More". FirstShowing.net.
30.^ Jump up to: a b c d Orland, Kyle (November 5, 2012). "From Zangief to Hero’s Duty: A gamer’s guide to Wreck-It Ralph". Ars Technica. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
31.Jump up ^ Robinson, Tasha (November 1, 2012). "Wreck-It Ralph". A.V. Club. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
32.Jump up ^ Kohler, Chris (October 26, 2012). "Gaming In-Jokes Don’t Overpower Heartwarming Wreck-It Ralph". Wired. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
33.^ Jump up to: a b McKinney, Luke (November 12, 2012). "Leeroy Jenkins Lives! The 6 Best Video Game References In 'Wreck-It Ralph'". MovieLine. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
34.Jump up ^ Lussier, Germain (August 2, 2012). "50 Things You Didn’t Know About Disney Animation’s ‘Wreck-It Ralph;’ Plus New Images". Slash FIlm. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
35.Jump up ^ Rose, Nathan (October 28, 2012). "Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, Sunday, October 28, 2012". Magical Definition. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
36.Jump up ^ Hill, Jim (February 19, 2013). "Rich Moore Looks Back at the Roads Not Taken With Disney's Wreck-It Ralph". The Huffington Post. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
37.^ Jump up to: a b c Langsworthy, Billy (February 8, 2013). "INTERVIEW: Wreck-It Ralph director talks bringing games to film". MCV. Retrieved February 10, 2013.
38.Jump up ^ Ashurst, Sam (September 17, 2012). "Wreck-It Ralph's Skrillex cameo revealed". Total Film.
39.Jump up ^ Rockman Corner: Dr. Wily Hitting the Big Screen in November
40.^ Jump up to: a b c Sullivan, Kevin (February 12, 2013). "Exclusive: 'Wreck-It Ralph' Deleted Scene Travels To Entirely New Game World". MTV. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
41.Jump up ^ "'Wreck-It Ralph' Shines Bright with New Lighting and Effects Technology | Animation World Network". Awn.com. November 2, 2012. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
42.Jump up ^ Gallagher, Brian (April 4, 2011). "Monsters University Pushed to 2013". Movieweb.com. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
43.Jump up ^ Collura, Scott (September 2, 2011). "Wreck-It Ralph Screenshots". IGN. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
44.Jump up ^ Gettell, Oliver (February 24, 2013). "Oscars 2013: 'Paperman' wins animated short prize". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
45.Jump up ^ Amidi, Amid (April 25, 2012). "The Poster for Disney’s 'Paperman'". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
46.Jump up ^ "Spread the word: The first trailer...". Disney Animation via official Twitter page. May 25, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2012. "Spread the word: The first trailer for Wreck-It Ralph will debut June 6."
47.Jump up ^ Kohler, Chris (June 11, 2012). "Disney’s Amazing Fake Wreck-It Ralph Arcade Machine". Wired. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
48.Jump up ^ Nath, Debabrata (June 12, 2012). "Wreck-It Ralph gets official game". VG247. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
49.Jump up ^ "Wreck-It Ralph spoofs King of Kong with "Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives"". Warp Zoned. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
50.Jump up ^ West, Kelly. "Wreck-It Ralph Gets An Early Digital Release, DVD/Blu-ray Set For March". Cinema Blend. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
51.Jump up ^ "Disney announces Wreck-It Ralph will arrive for download before DVD, Blu-ray". Engadget. Retrieved January 11, 2013.
52.Jump up ^ "'Wreck-It Ralph' wrecks 'Breaking Dawn Part 2's' DVD reign". The Hollywood Reporter. March 28, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
53.Jump up ^ 2012 WORLDWIDE GROSSES
54.Jump up ^ "All Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses" at Box Office Mojo.
55.Jump up ^ Subers, Ray (November 3, 2012). "Friday Report: 'Ralph' Rules, 'Flight' Blasts Off". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
56.Jump up ^ Subers, Ray (November 4, 2012). "Weekend Report: 'Ralph' Wrecks It, 'Flight' Cruises". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
57.Jump up ^ Subers, Ray (December 1, 2013). "Weekend Report: 'Catching Fire,' 'Frozen' Set Thanksgiving Records". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
58.Jump up ^ Subers, Ray (November 4, 2012). "Around-the-World Roundup: 'Skyfall' Adds Incredible $156 Million Overseas". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
59.^ Jump up to: a b Wreck-It Ralph (2012) – International Box Office Results
60.Jump up ^ "Wreck-it Ralph (2012)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
61.Jump up ^ "Wreck-It Ralph". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
62.Jump up ^ Wreck-it Ralph at The Wrap
63.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (October 31, 2012). "Wreck-it Ralph". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
64.Jump up ^ Scott, A.O. (November 1, 2012). "Wreck-it Ralph". The New York Times. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
65.Jump up ^ Debruge, Peter (October 26, 2012). "Wreck-it Ralph". 'Variety. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
66.Jump up ^ Sharkey, Betsy (November 2, 2012). "Wreck-it Ralph". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
67.Jump up ^ Lowe, Justin (October 26, 2012). "Wreck-it Ralph". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
68.Jump up ^ Orr, Christopher. "'Wreck-It Ralph' Aims for Pixar ... and Misses". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
69.Jump up ^ "40th Annual Annie Awards > Nominees: Outstanding Achievement, Music in an Animated Feature Production". International Animated Film Society. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
70.Jump up ^ Hammond, Pete (December 11, 2012). "'Lincoln', 'Les Miserables', 'Silver Linings' Top List Of Nominees For 18th Annual Critics Choice Movie Awards". Deadline.com. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
71.Jump up ^ "70th Golden Globe Awards Nominations". Deadline.com. December 13, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
72.Jump up ^ "2013 Golden Reel Award Winners & Nominees: Feature Films". Motion Picture Sound Editors. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
73.Jump up ^ "Disney, 'Iron Man 3' Dominate 2013 Golden Trailer Awards". Deadline.com. May 5, 2013. Archived from the original on May 10, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
74.Jump up ^ Breznican, Anthony (December 5, 2012). "National Board of Review highlights 'Compliance' actress Ann Dowd and 'Zero Dark Thirty'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
75.Jump up ^ Kilday, Gregg (December 3, 2012). "Satellite Awards Nominates 10 Films for Best Motion Picture". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
76.Jump up ^ Truitt, Brian (February 20, 2013). "'The Hobbit' leads Saturn Awards with nine nomination". USA Today.
77.Jump up ^ "Nominations for the 11th Annual VES Awards". ComingSoon.net. January 7, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
78.Jump up ^ "VES Awards: ‘Life Of Pi’ Wins 4 Including Feature, ‘Brave’, ‘Game Of Thrones’ Other Big Winners". Deadline. February 5, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
79.Jump up ^ "Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Wreck-It Ralph" Scores Big with Composer Henry Jackman, Plus Original Music from Skrillex, AKB48, Owl City and Buckner & Garcia" (Press release). Walt Disney Record via PR Newswire. September 13, 2012. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
80.Jump up ^ Green, Scott (October 30, 2012). "Video: AKB48 'Wreck-It-Ralph' Theme Preview". CrunchyRoll.com. Archived from the original on November 21, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
81.Jump up ^ "Wreck-It Ralph (Soundtrack)". Amazon. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
82.Jump up ^ "Welcome to Failure Town.". November 15, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
83.Jump up ^ "Wreck-It Ralph game review – cinematic disaster". February 8, 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
84.Jump up ^ "Wreck-It Ralph Video Game Official Press Release". June 25, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
85.Jump up ^ "Play Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph’s Fix-It Felix Jr and other Games from the New Animated Film!". Beyond the Marquee. October 29, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
86.Jump up ^ Prasad (November 18, 2012). "Wreck-It Ralph’ for iOS and Android game review". GSM Arena. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
87.Jump up ^ Sabri, Sam (September 3, 2013). "Disney’s Wreck-it Ralph game now available for Windows Phone, nearly a year after the movie". Windows Phone Central. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
88.Jump up ^ Calimlim, Aldrin (December 14, 2012). "It's Time To Drive Fast And Go Turbo In Wreck-It Ralp". AppAdvice. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
89.Jump up ^ Calimlim, Aldrin (March 7, 2013). "Take Flight And Take Command In The New Mini-Game In Wreck-It Ralph". AppAdvice. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
90.Jump up ^ Keegan, Rebecca (July 13, 2012). "Comic-Con: How ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ infiltrated the game industry". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
91.Jump up ^ McIsaac, Colin (January 15, 2013). "Disney Infinity Revealed—Features Wreck-It Ralph, Jack Skellington, Davy Jones, and More!". Zelda Informer. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
92.Jump up ^ "Vanellope Figure - Disney Infinity". Disney Store. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
93.Jump up ^ "Wreck-It Ralph Figure - Disney Infinity". Disney Store. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
94.Jump up ^ "Disney Infinity Wreck-It Ralph Toy Box Pack - Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope -- Pre-Order". Disney Store. Retrieved January 13, 2014. "We expect this item to be available by 04/01/2014."
95.Jump up ^ Disney Wreck-It Ralph Director Rich Moore Is a Huge Gamer. GamerHub Videos. October 25, 2012. Event occurs at 4:22. Retrieved October 25, 2012.
96.Jump up ^ Dekel-Daks, Tal (February 8, 2013). "'Wreck-It Ralph' director Rich Moore wants Nintendo's Mario for sequel". Digital Spy. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
97.Jump up ^ Vejvoda, Jim (February 4, 2013). "Wreck-It Ralph Director Wants Tron in the Sequel". IGN. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
98.Jump up ^ Roberts, Sheila (April 1, 2014). "Composer Henry Jackman Talks Captain America: The Winter Soldier, His Influences, Wreck-It Ralph 2, The Interview, and More". Collider.com. Retrieved April 3, 2014. "I can’t tell you more, not because I’m being coy, but I believe that it is officially on the cards. I don’t know any more other than a story is indeed being written."
External links

Portal icon Film in the United States portal
Portal icon 2010s portal
Portal icon Cartoon portal
Portal icon Disney portal
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wreck-It Ralph.
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Wreck-It Ralph
Official website
Wreck-It Ralph at the Internet Movie Database
Wreck-It Ralph at the Big Cartoon DataBase
Wreck-It Ralph at Box Office Mojo
Wreck-It Ralph at Rotten Tomatoes
Wreck-It Ralph at Walt Disney Animation Studios


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Disney theatrical animated features









































































































Wikipedia book
Category




[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Walt Disney Animation Studios





































































































































































































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
John Lasseter















































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Annie Award for Best Animated Feature




























[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature






























 


Categories: 2012 films
English-language films
2012 3D films
2012 American animated films
2012 computer-animated films
2010s comedy films
2010s fantasy films
American animated films
American action comedy films
American children's fantasy films
Animated comedy films
Animated fantasy films
Annie Award winners
Best Animated Feature Annie Award winners
Best Animated Feature Broadcast Film Critics Association Award winners
Computer-animated films
Crossover animation
Crossover films
Directorial debut films
Disney animated features canon
Films about video games
Films featuring anthropomorphic characters
Parallel universes (fiction)
Science fantasy films
Walt Disney Pictures films








Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

View source

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
Azərbaycanca
Български
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Español
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Íslenska
Italiano
עברית
ქართული
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Oʻzbekcha
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Simple English
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Türkçe
Tiếng Việt
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 18 July 2014 at 11:51.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreck-It_Ralph













Ice Spiders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Ice Spiders
Icespidersdvd.jpg
DVD Cover Image for Ice Spiders

Distributed by
Regent Worldwide Sales
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Directed by
Tibor Takács
Produced by
Paul Colichman
Andreas Hess
Sylvia Hess
Stephen P. Jarchow
James R. Rosenthal
Written by
Eric Miller
Starring
Patrick Muldoon
Vanessa A. Williams
Thomas Calabro
David Millbern
Noah Bastian
Music by
Penka Kouneva
Vivek Maddala
Cinematography
Barry Gravelle
Editing by
Danny Draven
Country
United States
Language
English
Release date
June 9, 2007

Running time
86 minutes
Ice Spiders is a 2007 horror/Sci-fi movie that premiered on June 9, 2007 on the Sci Fi Channel. Ice Spiders stars Patrick Muldoon, Vanessa A. Williams, Noah Bastian, K. Danor Gerald and Matt Whittaker and was released on DVD in 2007.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Home Media
4 External links

Plot[edit]
Dan "Dash" Dashiell (Patrick Muldoon) is a retired Olympic skier who works at a ski resort in the mountains of Utah. On a restricted side of the mountain, Dr. April Sommers (Vanessa A. Williams) is working on creating a new breed of spider with several others. When a group of teen skiers arrives at the mountain, Chad (Noah Bastian) challenges Dash to a race. The two show some impressive moves as the others look on. When Dash reaches a large rocky slope, he turns back and goes down another way rather than risk a leg injury like the one that ruined his career. As Dash makes it to the bottom, he meets Dr. Sommers. While they talk for a while, Frank (Stephen J. Cannell) takes the teens inside the resort. After a brief discussion, Dr. Sommers returns to the lab, where she finds dead scientists everywhere. She finds the sole survivor cocooned in a spider web. He warns Dr. Sommers about the spiders escaping and then slowly dies. When she turns to leave, the last spider remaining at the lab, a mutated Black Widow, attacks her and forces her into a locked office. She finds an alarm and engages it, which alerts Professor Marks (David Millbern) and Army Captain Baker (Thomas Calabro), who are elsewhere on the mountain, to her location.
Meanwhile, back at the lodge, Dash meets up with Ranger Rick (a pun on the children's nature magazine) who asks Dash to assist him in finding two hunters who did not return to their homes. When they find the hunters' truck parked, they dismount their snowmobiles and take a look around. Dash finds a mutilated Elk and thinks it was killed by a bear. He shoots a flare to summon Rick. When Rick arrives, they find the body of one of the hunters. When they reach a huge spider web, they find the other hunter, cocooned in the web. As they turn to run, Rick is snagged by a web and is dragged to a spider that kills him as Dash watches in horror. Dash makes it back to the hunters' truck and hot-wires it to get away.
Back at the lab, Professor Marks, Captain Baker, and a squad of soldiers enter the compound and find Dr. Sommers, who tries to warn them of the danger. Inside the lab, the spider attacks and kills a soldier. Dr. Sommers steals records of the experiment and realizes Professor Marks deliberately accelerated the spiders' growth, which makes them larger, faster, and stronger. She drives back to the lodge.
When Dr. Sommers meets up with Frank and Johnny, a man comes in and screams for help. Frank and Dr. Sommers watch as the spiders kill several guests, including the teens' ski coach. Frank sees the teens hiding in a shed, leads them to a bus and gets them safely inside. Chad gets the keys and drives off, crashing the bus into a snow bank and causing it to fly off of the road.
Dash returns to the hotel and helps secure it. When he and Dr. Sommers search the basement, a spider gets in and almost attacks them, but they stun it with a fire extinguisher and lock it in the basement. Back in the lobby, a spider crawls in through the chimney and kills two guests before Dash impales it with the antlers of a mounted deer head.
Meanwhile, on the crashed bus, after checking the area, Frank makes sure the kids are okay. However, one of them is unconscious and injured. They think of a way to get out as the black widow tries to get in. Eventually, Franks traps the spider and the kids escape. Frank is almost killed but is rescued thanks to the timely arrival of Captain Baker and his squad.
Back at the lodge, Dash devises a plan with Captain Baker over a radio to trap the spiders. He takes his skis and leads the spiders to a snowboard half-pipe, which Baker and his men are blocking off. Johnny heads toward an avalanche cannon ands waits for Dash's signal.
At the half-pipe, the spiders are captured and Dash signals Johnny, who blows the spiders up. Professor Marks, who had been opposed to killing the spiders, charges at Dash and tries to kill him. Marks falls down the side of the half-pipe to the last spider, which kills him as Baker shoots the beast.
A government agent then arrived with a group of military soldiers that begins erasing all traces of evidence. The agent demands that the survivors keep quiet about recent events and explains the cover up, being a spill of hallucinogenic chemicals.
Cast[edit]
Patrick Muldoon as Dan 'Dash' Dashiell
Vanessa A. Williams as Dr. April Sommers
Thomas Calabro as Capt. Baker
David Millbern as Prof. Marks
Noah Bastian as Chad Brown
Carleigh King as Brittany
Stephen J. Cannell as Frank Stone
Matt Whittaker as Steven
Clayton Taylor as Quintin
Charles Halford as Coach Mike
Steve Bilich as Coach Palmer
Kiernan Ryan Daley as Rosen (as Kiernan Daley)
Cory McMillan as Perez (as Cory McMillian)
Connie Young as Mrs. Stewart
Marc Raymond as Mr. Stewart
K. Danor Gerald as Ranger Rick Dickerson
Angel Fisher as Cleaning Maid Gretchen
Home Media[edit]
Ice Spiders was released to DVD on October 16, 2007
External links[edit]
Ice Spiders at the Internet Movie Database
Ice Spiders at AllMovie
Ice Spiders at Rotten Tomatoes
 


Categories: English-language films
2007 television films
2007 horror films
2000s science fiction films
American horror films
Giant monster films
Monster movies
Mad scientist films
Natural horror films
Syfy original films
2007 films


Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Français
Русский
Српски / srpski
Edit links
This page was last modified on 25 March 2014 at 19:07.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Spiders











Kingdom of the Spiders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Kingdom of the Spiders
Kingdomofthespiders.png
Directed by
John "Bud" Cardos
Produced by
James Bond Johnson
 Henry Fownes
 Igo Kantor
 Jeffrey M. Sneller
Screenplay by
Alan Caillou
 Richard Robinson
Story by
Stephen Lodge
 Jeffrey M. Sneller
Starring
William Shatner
 Tiffany Bolling
 Woody Strode
 Lieux Dressler
Music by
Dorsey Burnette
Cinematography
John Arthur Morrill
Edited by
Igo Kantor,
 Steven Zaillian
Distributed by
Dimension Pictures
Release date(s)
November 23, 1977

Running time
97 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$1million[1]
Box office
$17,000,000[2]
Kingdom of the Spiders is a 1977 horror science-fiction film directed by John "Bud" Cardos and produced by Igo Kantor, Jeffrey M. Sneller and James Bond Johnson. The screenplay is credited to Richard Robinson and Alan Caillou, from an original story by Jeffrey M. Sneller and Stephen Lodge: although the film itself is very loosely based on the H G Wells short story of the same name. The film was released by Dimension Pictures (not to be confused with the distributor Dimension Films). It stars William Shatner (of Star Trek fame), Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler, and Altovise Davis.[3]
The film is one of the better-remembered entries in the "nature on the rampage" subgenre of science fiction/horror films in the 1970s, due in part to its memorable scenes of people and animals being attacked by tarantulas; its availability on home video and airing on cable television, particularly on the USA Network; but primarily because of Shatner's starring role.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Influences and criticism
3 Production
4 Concerns over animal cruelty
5 Sequel
6 Background
7 In popular culture
8 Release
9 References
10 External links

Plot[edit]
Robert "Rack" Hansen (William Shatner), a veterinarian in rural Verde Valley, Arizona, United States, receives an urgent call from a local farmer, Walter Colby (Woody Strode). Colby is upset because his prize calf has become sick for no apparent reason, and brings the animal to Hansen's laboratory. Hansen examines the calf, which dies shortly afterward. Hansen tells Colby he cannot explain what made the animal so ill so quickly, but takes samples of the calf's blood to a university lab in Flagstaff.
A few days later, Diane Ashley (Bolling), an arachnologist, arrives looking for Hansen. Ashley tells Hansen that the calf was killed by a massive dose of spider venom, which Hansen greets with skepticism. Undaunted, Ashley tells him the problem is serious and that she wishes to examine the animal's carcass and the area where it became sick. Hansen escorts Ashley to Colby's farm. Moments after they arrive, Colby's wife, Birch (Altovise Davis), discovers their dog is dead. Ashley performs a quick chemical test on the dog's carcass and concludes that like the calf, it died from a massive injection of spider venom. Hansen is incredulous, until Colby states that he recently found a massive "spider hill" on a back section of his farmland. He takes Hansen and Ashley to the hill, which is covered with tarantulas. Ashley theorizes that the tarantulas are converging together due to the heavy use of pesticides, which are eradicating their natural food supply. In order to survive, the spiders are joining forces to attack and eat larger animals.
Hansen and Ashley return to the Colby farm. As the scientists and the Colbys are walking past a barn, a bull stampedes out; it is being attacked by tarantulas. Ashley notes that the spiders likely will not be afraid to attack people either. Colby douses the spider hill with gasoline and lights it on fire, seemingly destroying the spider menace. However, many of the spiders escape out of a tunnel. Colby is attacked in his truck the next day, sending it over the side of a hill and killing him. Hansen happens upon the accident scene and helps the sheriff, Gene Smith (David McLean), examine the wreckage. Colby's body is found encased in a cocoon of spider webs. Meanwhile, Ashley is notified by her colleagues that a sample of venom from one of the spiders is five times more toxic than normal. Hansen is then told by the sheriff that several more spider hills have been located on Colby's property.
Hansen, Ashley and the sheriff examine the hills along with the mayor of Camp Verde (Roy Engel), who orders the sheriff to spray the hills and the surrounding countryside with a pesticide. Ashley protests, arguing that pesticide use is what caused the problem to begin with and that the town would be better off using birds and rats (tarantulas' enemies in nature) to eradicate them. The mayor dismisses the idea, fearing that having a large number of spiders and rats all over the countryside will scare away patrons of the annual county fair. A crop duster is enlisted to spray the pesticide. Once the pilot is airborne, he is attacked by tarantulas, and crashes the plane before he can disperse the spray.
The spiders begin their assault on the local residents, killing Birch and Hansen's sister-in-law, Terri (Marcy Lafferty). Hansen arrives at their home and rescues Terri's daughter, Linda from the spiders. Hansen and Ashley take Linda to the Washburn Lodge. They consult with the sheriff, who tells them that the spiders are everywhere and Camp Verde cut off from the outside world. Smith drives into town, while Hansen and the other survivors at the lodge plan to load up an RV and escape. However, the spiders trap them in the lodge, and they barricade themselves inside. Meanwhile, Smith arrives in Camp Verde and finds the town under siege by the spiders. Smith tries to escape, but is killed when another car crashes into a support post under the town's water tower, causing it to fall on his vehicle.
Back at the lodge, the power goes out, and Hansen is forced to venture into the lodge's basement to change a blown fuse. He succeeds, but is besieged by spiders who break through one of the basement windows, by using their combined weight. He makes it upstairs just in time to be saved by Ashley.
The film concludes the next day, with the survivors rigging up a radio receiver and listening for news of the attacks. To their surprise, the radio broadcast doesn't mention the attacks, indicating that the outside world is oblivious to what has happened. Hansen pries off the boards from one of the lodge's windows, and discovers that the entire building is encased in a giant web cocoon. The camera pulls back, and all of Camp Verde is encased in cocoons as well.
Influences and criticism[edit]
Kingdom of the Spiders was one of several horror and science fiction films of the 1970s that reflected a growing sentiment of environmentalism in North America, such as Day of the Animals, Night of the Lepus, Killer Bees, Frogs and Silent Running. It also reflected a horror trend that suggested that mankind's worst enemy was not supernatural monsters, but creatures already present in nature, as seen in Jaws and the numerous copycat films that arrived in its wake, as well as the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds.
A particular parallel to Jaws is that, in both films, local civic officials are more concerned with making money from tourism than with properly dealing with a very serious environmental problem. In both films, these decisions lead to unsuccessful attempts to eradicate the "monsters", ultimately with horrific consequences.
Production[edit]
Kantor told Fangoria magazine in 1998 that the film did indeed use 5,000 of the large, hairy spiders, though a number of rubber model spiders were also used during production. The live tarantulas were procured by offering Mexican spider wranglers US$10 for each live tarantula they could find; this meant that $50,000 of the film's $500,000 budget went towards the purchase of spiders.
The large amount of tarantulas kept on-hand led to some unusual production difficulties. Not only did each spider have to be kept warm, but because of the creatures' cannibalistic tendencies, all 5,000 spiders had to be kept in separate containers. Additionally, tarantulas are usually shy around people, so fans and air tubes often had to be used to get the spiders to walk towards their "victims". Indeed, in a number of the scenes where the tarantulas are "attacking" people, it is obvious to the viewer that the spiders are merely moving around, usually away from their intended victims.
Contrary to popular belief, the venom of most tarantulas is not dangerous to humans, causing no more harm than a bee sting (unless the person is allergic to the venom). The worst injury most of the actors suffered was troublesome itching caused by the spiders shedding their bristles (Tarantula urticating bristles has been used to make itching powder sold in joke and novelty stores).
Due to the film's low budget, most of the music used in the film (particularly the "startle cues") was taken from the logs of stock music used on suspense TV series. For example, most of the music used in the film during the scenes with the spiders can also be heard in notable episodes of The Twilight Zone, including "To Serve Man" and "The Invaders", as well as in at least one episode of The Fugitive. The country music songs heard on the radio in the movie, as well as over the opening and closing credits, were performed by country singer Dorsey Burnette.
Although Shatner and Bolling were ostensibly the "stars" of the film, many who have seen it[citation needed] (along with the producers[citation needed]) have said that the movie's "great performances" came from the extras (according to Kantor, usually friends and family of the crew) who were required to stay motionless (since they were supposed to be dead) as several live tarantulas crawled all over them.
Concerns over animal cruelty[edit]
Another common notion about the film is that it could not be made today due to the increased attention paid by animal rights organizations to film production. Indeed, many tarantulas died during production. This was partly because some of the creatures could not handle the constant changes in temperature and climate during the production process, but more because of the nature of the script. During the scenes where the survivors are trapped in the lodge, many spiders were stomped and crushed because the script called for the characters to kill them (as the spiders were supposed to be so dangerous to humans). Further, many more were crushed inadvertently during the scene where the creatures attack the town; several were stepped on and many others were run over by vehicles. In the scene where Gene Smith drives into town, the squad car's wheels clearly run over several spiders right in front of the camera.
With animal rights organizations now working with most film productions to ensure that animals are not harmed, a movie such as Kingdom of the Spiders would have to be made differently. During production of the similarly themed 1990 horror comedy Arachnophobia, for example, when the script called for a spider to be killed on-screen, the crew would substitute a fake rubber spider model or the carcass of a spider that had died of natural causes. Another method would be to use CGI models.
Sequel[edit]
Rumors have occasionally surfaced that a sequel to Kingdom of the Spiders was in production, however no such film has yet been made. Shatner told Fangoria in 1998 that he was working with Cannon Films in the late 1980s to produce a sequel, titled simply Kingdom of the Spiders 2. The actor claimed that he supplied the film's premise, which would have featured a man being tortured by his enemies, preying upon his intense fear of spiders, to get him to reveal a secret. Cannon went so far as to take out a full-page ad in Variety magazine announcing that Shatner would direct and star in the film, however the studio went bankrupt before production could begin.
In 2003, the website for Port Hollywood, a film production company run by Kantor and Howard James Reekie, posted a brief synopsis of the plot of another proposed sequel, to be titled Kingdom of the Spiders II, suggesting that the villainous spiders would this time be driven to attack humans due to secret government experiments involving extremely low frequency (or ELF). The synopsis also details Native American imagery that would factor into the plot.[4]
Background[edit]
At the time of filming, Shatner was married to Marcy Lafferty, the woman who plays his sister-in-law in the movie. The couple have since divorced. Altovise Davis, who plays Birch Colby, was the wife of Sammy Davis, Jr.
Woody Strode, who plays Walter Colby, was probably best known to film audiences for his role in the Lee Marvin/Burt Lancaster western film The Professionals. Sports historians know Strode as one of the first two African-American football players to break the National Football League's color barrier in the 1940s, when he joined the Los Angeles Rams.
The film was nominated for the Best Horror Film award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, but lost to The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, which starred a young Jodie Foster. At the awards ceremony (which was broadcast in TV syndication), Shatner performed one of his noted spoken-word versions of a pop song, in this case Elton John's "Rocket Man". Footage of this performance was featured in the Comedy Central Roast of Shatner.
Two people involved in the film's production went on to win Oscars. Ve Neill, a makeup artist on the movie, won shared Oscars for her work on Mrs. Doubtfire and Ed Wood. Steven Zaillian, a co-editor on the film, won for his screenwriting of the Steven Spielberg film Schindler's List.
Kantor hinted in his Fangoria interview that Arachnophobia, which Spielberg produced, bears several similarities to Kingdom of the Spiders. "I thought it was a copy", Kantor stated, "but you don't go and sue Spielberg!"[5]
According to Cardos, several actresses were considered for the role of Diane Ashley but were rejected when they showed apprehension towards handling live tarantulas. (Cardos kept two of the hairy spiders in an aquarium on his desk while meeting with actresses to gauge their reaction). Ironically, two such actresses, Barbara Hale and Donna Mills, appeared in other "killer spider" pictures: Hale in The Giant Spider Invasion and Mills in the made-for-TV Curse of the Black Widow, though in neither of these films did the aforementioned actresses work as closely with the spiders as they would have in Kingdom of the Spiders.
In popular culture[edit]
The film is mentioned on an episode of the animated sitcom The Critic. In the season 2 episode "From Chunk to Hunk", Jay Sherman reviews a new action movie starring Jean Paul LePope (a thinly-veiled parody of Jean-Claude Van Damme). Sherman remarks, "Jean Paul LePope is the worst actor I've ever seen... and I've seen all of William Shatner's movies, even Kingdom of the Spiders!"
Rifftrax used the movie as a subject of ridicule in an April 23, 2013 video on demand download featuring the movie with a running mocking commentary by Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett.[6]
Release[edit]
Shout! Factory released Kingdom of The Spiders: Special Edition on DVD in early 2010.[7]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Fred Olen Ray, The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors, McFarland, 1991, p 157
2.Jump up ^ "Kingdom of the Spiders, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "Kingdom of the Spiders -- The Best of William Shatner". DreadCentral.
4.Jump up ^ Port Hollywood: Kingdom of the Spiders
5.Jump up ^ Kingdom of the Spiders/Fun Facts The Deuce: Grindhouse Cinema Database. 29 Jan 2009. Last accessed 27 Jan 2012.
6.Jump up ^ http://www.rifftrax.com/vod/kingdom-spiders
7.Jump up ^ http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5257082
External links[edit]
Kingdom of the Spiders at the Internet Movie Database
Kingdom of the Spiders at AllMovie
Behind-the-scenes production photos Collection of crew member Stephen Lodge.[dead link]
 


Categories: 1977 films
English-language films
1977 horror films
American science fiction horror films
Monster movies
Natural horror films
Films about spiders







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Français
Italiano
日本語
Edit links
This page was last modified on 17 July 2014 at 14:51.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Spiders












Ishmael (Moby-Dick)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Ishmael
Moby Dick character
Created by
Herman Melville
Information

Gender
Male
Occupation
Sailor
Nationality
American
Ishmael is a fictional character in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851). A minor character, his importance derives from his function as the narrator of the book. In early literary criticism of Moby-Dick, he was either mistaken for the author himself or was wholly overlooked. Yet from the mid-twentieth century onward, increasing attention to narrative technique, in addition to ongoing biographical research, revealed that Melville's prose was no mere autobiography and served to establish Ishmael as a central force in the book. By contrast with his namesake Ishmael from Genesis, who is banished into the desert, Ishmael is wandering upon the sea. Each Ishmael, however, experiences a miraculous rescue; one from thirst, the other as the lone surviving crewmember.


Contents  [hide]
1 Characteristics
2 Biography
3 And Ishmael (Old Testament)
4 As Narrator
5 History of criticism
6 Actors who have played Ishmael
7 Trivia
8 External links
9 Notes
10 Sources

Characteristics[edit]
Both Ahab and Ishmael are fascinated by the whale, but whereas Ahab perceives him exclusively as evil, Ishmael keeps an open mind. Ishmael's worldview is not static, as Ahab's is, but flux. "And flux in turn ... is the chief characteristic of Ishmael himself."[1] In the chapter "The Doubloon," Ishmael reports how each spectator sees his own personality reflected in the coin, but does not look at it himself. Only fourteen chapters later, in "The Guilder," does he participate in "what is clearly a recapitulation" of the earlier chapter.[2] The difference is that the surface of the golden sea in "The Guilder" is alive, whereas the surface of the doubloon is unalterably fixed, "only one of several contrasts between Ishmael and Ahab."[3]
Biography[edit]
Ishmael moves from New York to New Bedford to sign up for a whaling voyage aboard the Pequod, under Captain Ahab. The voyage ends in disaster: Ahab is obsessed by a white whale named Moby Dick, and when he finally encounters him Ahab loses all sense of carefulness and responsibility for his crew, with the result that the whale sinks the ship. All crewmembers drown, with the exception of Ishmael, who keeps himself afloat on a coffin until he is picked up by another whaling ship, the Rachel. It is not known how long after the voyage he begins to tell his adventure, the second sentence's "some years ago" being the only clue. The shaping of his narrative with use of many different genres including sermons, stage plays, soliloquys, emblemetical readings, is itself one important theme.
"The second Ishmael," Bezanson insists, "is not the narrator, not the informing presence, but is the young man of whom, among others, narrator Ishmael tells us in his story. He is simply one of the characters in the novel. ... This is forecastle Ishmael or the younger Ishmael of 'some years ago.'... Narrator Ishmael is merely young Ishmael grown older."[4] In a later essay, Bezanson calls character-Ishmael an innocent "and not even particularly interesting."[5] According to F.O. Matthiessen, the reader would do well not "to forget that the first reason Ishmael gave for going to sea was 'having little or no money in my purse'."[6]
And Ishmael (Old Testament)[edit]
The name Ishmael is Biblical in origin: in Genesis 16:1-16; 17:18-25; 21:6-21; 25:9-17, Ishmael was the son of Abraham by the servant Hagar. In 16:11-12, the most significant verses for Melville's allegory,[7] Hagar was cast off after the birth of Isaac, who inherited the covenant of the Lord instead of his older half-brother.
Melville shapes his allegory to the Biblical Ishmael as follows:
Biblical Ishamel is banished to "the wilderness of Beer-sheba," while the narrator of Moby-Dick wanders, in his own words in "the wilderness of waters."[8] In the Bible the desert or wilderness is a common setting for a vision of one kind to another.[9] By contrast, Melville's Ishmael takes to sea searching for insights.
In Genesis, Hagar was visited by an angel who instructed her to call her still unborn child Yishma'el, meaning "God shall hear." The prophecy in the name was fulfilled when Ishmael, perishing in the desert, was saved by a miracle: the sudden appearance of a well of water.[10] In Moby-Dick, only Ishmael escapes the sinking of the Pequod, and "that by a margin so narrow as to seem miraculous."[11]
And so the name points to a Biblical analogy that marks Ishmael as the prototype of "wanderer and outcast,"[12] the man set at odds with his fellows. Wright says that all Melville's heroes--with the exception of Benito Cereno and Billy Budd--are manifestations of Ishmael, and four are actually identified with him: Redburn, Ishmael, Pierre, and Pitch from The Confidence-Man.[13]
As Narrator[edit]
According to M.H. Abrams, Ishmael ranks among the middle category of first-person narration types. Abrams's outer categories are: a narrator who is only "a fortuitous witness," or a narrator who is "the central character in the story." Ishmael, then, is "only a minor or peripheral" character in the story he tells (Abrams cites Nick of The Great Gatsby as another example of this device).[14] "The first Ishmael is the enfolding sensibility of the novel, the hand that writes the tale, the imagination through which all matters of the book pass. He is the narrator"[15] From time to time shifts of tense indicate that "while forecastle Ishmael is busy hunting whales narrator Ishmael is sifting memory and imagination in search of the many meanings of the dark adventure he has experienced."
The narrator explicitly states that he has experienced but not yet fully understood his adventures: "'It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me. But how can I hope to explain myself here; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain myself I must, else all these chapters might be naught.'"[16] Narrator-Ishmael demonstrates "an insatiable curiosity" and an "inexhaustible sense of wonder."[17] This Ishmael must be equated with Melville himself, and Bezanson suggests "we resist any one-to-one equation of Melville and Ishmael."[18] As the phrase "Ishmael's richly allusive text" indicates, Bezanson even attributes characteristic Melvillean features to the narrator, who in the Epilogue, likens himself to "another Ixion".[19]
Thanks to Joyce and Faulkner, the modern reader of Moby-Dick may easily get used to "the discontinuities in manner and genre."[20] Critic Robert Zoellner sees no breaking down of Ishmael's role as narrator, for if Ishmael can "speculate on Ahab's purposes" in chapter 46, then he can also "imagine a soliloquy" by Ahab.[21] Of the book is "frequently said" that Melville did not pay a great deal of attention to point of view, "and of course this is true" in the sophisticated Jamesian sense of the technique. Yet Bezanson insists that it would be a mistake "to think the narrator indifferent to how his tale is told," because the narrator's "struggle" with the shaping of his narrative is "under constant discussion, is itself one of the major themes of the book."[22] Ishmael uses, among other genres and styles, a sermon, a dream, a comic set-piece, a midnight ballet, a meditation, an emblematic reading.[23]
History of criticism[edit]
Abrams cites the publication of The Art of the Novel, Henry James's collected prefaces to his various novels, in 1934 as one contribution that made point of view "one of the most prominent and persistent concerns in modern treatments of the art of prose fiction."[24] His list of further reading includes Norman Friedman, "Point of View in Fiction", PMLA 70 (1955). The development of the critical view of Ishmael as a fictional narrator rather than Melville under another name reflects this growing sophistication in the study of narrative technique.
During the early decades of the Melville revival, Ishmael has been confused with Melville, whose works were perceived as straight autobiography by his early biographers. Matthiessen complained that "most of the criticism of our past masters has been perfunctorily tacked onto biographies" and to expose the "modern fallacy" of the "direct reading of an author's personal life into his works."[25]
In 1948 Howard P. Vincent, in his study The Trying-Out of Moby-Dick, had "warned against forgetting the narrator."[26] Robert Zoellner says that "traditional criticism" argues that Ishmael's role as narrator "breaks down" either when Ahab and Stubb "have a conversation off by themselves" in chapter 29 or else when Ishmael reports "the soliloquy of Ahab sitting alone" in chapter 37.[27]
Actors who have played Ishmael[edit]
Richard Basehart, in Moby Dick, a 1956 film adaptation in which Gregory Peck plays Ahab.
Henry Thomas, in Moby Dick, a 1998 television miniseries adaptation in which Patrick Stewart plays Ahab.
Tim Guinee (voice), in Animated Epics: Moby Dick, a 2000 animated movie in which Rod Steiger provides the voice of Ahab.
Terry O'Neill, in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a 2003 film based on the comic book of the same name, as the first mate of Captain Nemo.
Jack Aranson (and 8 other characters) in a 2003 stage adaptation of the book.
Renee O'Connor plays Michelle Herman, a female counterpart of Ishmael in Moby Dick, a 2010 modern-day film adaptation in which Barry Bostwick plays Ahab.
Charlie Cox, in Moby Dick, a 2010 television miniseries adaptation in which William Hurt plays Ahab.
Stephen Costello plays Greenhorn, the renamed Ishmael character, in the 2010 opera version by Jake Heggie.
PJ Brennan, in Moby Dick as a young man in the BBC Radio 4 radio-play.
Trivia[edit]
Though the novel famously begins with the words "Call me Ishmael," only once in the whole book is the narrator called Ishmael, self-address aside: when he signs up for the Pequod voyage in chapter 16, Captain Peleg refers to him as Ishmael.[28]
In the early twenty-first century the Melville Sociaty and Hofstra University supported a Melville email discussion list named ISHMAIL.
Ishmael does not appear in the 1930 film adaptation, loosely based on Melville's novel, in which John Barrymore plays Ahab.
External links[edit]
s:Moby-Dick/Chapter 1 — Loomings — First (numbered) chapter of Moby-Dick, introducing Ishmael.
Librivox: Moby Dick Audiobook - Public Domain Audiobook
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 94
2.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 93
3.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 95
4.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1953), 644
5.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 185
6.Jump up ^ Matthiessen (1941), 400
7.Jump up ^ Mansfield and Vincent (1952), 587
8.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 48
9.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 49
10.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 48
11.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 50-51
12.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 47
13.Jump up ^ Wright (1940), 187
14.Jump up ^ Abrams (1999), 233-4
15.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1953), 644
16.Jump up ^ Cited in Bezanson (1953), 645
17.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1953), 646 and 647
18.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1953), 647
19.Jump up ^ Herman Melville (1851) [U.S. edition November 14, 1851]. "Epilogue". Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers. Retrieved June 5, 2014. "Round and round, then, and ever contracting towards the button-like black bubble at the axis of that slowly wheeling circle, like another Ixion I did revolve...."
20.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 188
21.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 184
22.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 185
23.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 185
24.Jump up ^ Abrams (1999), 231
25.Jump up ^ Matthiessen (1941), xi-xii
26.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 183
27.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 184
28.Jump up ^ Quirk (1992), 636
Sources[edit]
Abrams, M.H. (1999). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Seventh edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishers. ISBN 9780155054523
Bezanson, Walter E. (1953). "Moby-Dick: Work of Art". Reprinted in Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. Second Norton Critical edition 2002. Edited by Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford. W.W.Norton ISBN 9780393972832
Bezanson, Walter E. (1986). "Moby-Dick: Document, Drama, Dream". In John Bryant (ed.), A Companion to Melville Studies. Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press.
Mansfield, Luther S. and Howard P. Vincent. (1952). "Introduction" and "Explanatory Notes." In Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Hendricks House.
Matthiessen, F.O. (1941). American Renaissance. Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Tenth Printing 1966, New York, London and Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Quirk, Tom. (1992). "Explanatory Notes." In Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Penguin Books.
Sweeney, Gerard M. (1975). Melville's Use of Classical Mythology. Amsterdam: RodopiN.V.
Wright, Nathalia. (1940). "Biblical Allusion in Melville's Prose". American Literature, May 1940.
Wright, Nathalia. (1949). Melville's Use of the Bible. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)


Main characters
Captain Ahab ·
 Ishmael ·
 Queequeg
 

Ships
Pequod
 

Special subjects
Cetology
 

Film
The Sea Beast (1926 silent) ·
 Moby Dick (1930) ·
 Moby Dick (1956) ·
 Moby Dick (1971) ·
 Moby Dick (1978) ·
 Moby Dick (2010)
 

Television
Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick (1997 Japanese) ·
 Moby Dick (1998) ·
 Moby Dick (2011)
 

Stage
Moby Dick—Rehearsed (1955) ·
 Moby Dick (1990 musical) ·
 Moby-Dick (2010 opera)
 

Other
 adaptations
Age of the Dragons ·
 The Call of the Wretched Sea ·
 Capitaine Achab ·
 Dopey Dick the Pink Whale ·
 Dicky Moe ·
 Leviathan ·
 "Möbius Dick" ·
 Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor ·
 Railsea ·
 Samson & Sally
 

Related
Adaptations ·
 Moby Dick Coin
 

 


Categories: Moby-Dick
Fictional sailors
Characters in American novels of the 19th century
19th-century American novels
Fictional sole survivors
Fictional characters introduced in 1851


Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Edit links
This page was last modified on 11 June 2014 at 17:03.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_(Moby-Dick)












Captain Ahab (Moby-Dick)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Ahab
Moby Dick character
Moby Dick final chase.jpg
Ahab in his final chase with Moby Dick

Created by
Herman Melville
Information

Gender
Male
Occupation
Captain
Family
married
Significant other(s)
wife
Children
one boy
Nationality
American
Captain Ahab is a fictional character in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851). Ahab, the captain of the whaling ship Pequod, is the protagonist of the book. Melville biographer Andrew Delbanco calls Ahab "a brilliant personification of the very essence of fanaticism."[1] F.O. Matthiessen recognized a kindred spirit in contemporary British literature: "The most comparable character in the literature of the time is Heathcliff."[2] D.H. Lawrence felt little sympathy for Ahab and found that the whale "[s]hould have torn off both his legs, and a bit more besides."[3]
Instead of leading the Pequod on a regular whaling voyage, Ahab sets out to seek revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale who bit off his leg during his last voyage, and now he walks with a prosthesis made out of whalebone. His spell over the crewmembers assures him of their cooperation. When Moby Dick is finally sighted and hunted down, Ahab's intense hate for the whale robs him of all caution. Instead of getting the revenge he was seeking for, Ahab is the first casualty caused by the whale.
The character of Ahab is created under the influence of a lecture by Coleridge on Hamlet. Several allegories compare Ahab with characters drawn from biblical and classical literature to Shakespeare and Milton. His prosthesis, for instance, alludes to the Oedipus myth.[4]
Ahab is firmly established in popular culture by cartoons and comic books. Most famously, he provided J.M. Barrie with the model for his Captain Hook character, who is obsessed not with a whale but a crocodile.[5][6][7]


Contents  [hide]
1 Biography
2 Concept and creation 2.1 Elements from real life
3 Ahab allegorically regarded 3.1 King Ahab (Old Testament)
3.2 King Lear (Shakespeare)
3.3 Satan (Milton)
3.4 Prometheus (Aeschylus)
3.5 Oedipus (Sophocles)
3.6 Narcissus (Ovid) 3.6.1 Ahab's Fedallah as Narcissus's Echo

4 Reception 4.1 Critical
4.2 In popular culture 4.2.1 Movies
4.2.2 Comic books, cartoons, jokes

5 Notes
6 References
7 Sources

Biography[edit]
Ahab was named by his crazy, widowed mother, who died when he was twelve months old. At 18 years old, Ahab first took to sea as a boy-harpooner. Less than three voyages ago, Ahab married a sweet, resigned girl, with whom he has a young son. He has been in colleges and among the cannibals, and has seen deeper wonders than the waves. He has fixed his lance, the keenest and surest on the isle of Nantucket, in stranger foes than whales.
Years ago, Peleg, now the co-owner of the Pequod, sailed as mate under Ahab. During that voyage, a typhoon near Japan swung her three masts overboard. Every moment the crew thought the ship would sink, the sea breaking over the slip. Yet instead of thinking of death, Captain Ahab and Peleg thought of how to save all hands, and how to rig jury-masts in order to get into the nearest port.
According to Elijah's mysterious words, Ahab long ago lay for dead for 3 days and 3 nights off Cape Horn, was involved in a deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa, and spat into the silver calabash. Last voyage, a whale, the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a boat, bit off Ahab's leg, and the pains in his stump made him, never jolly, desperate moody. Adding insult to injury, Ahab is dependent upon a whalebone for a prosthesis. Neither sick nor well, Ahab keeps close inside the house.
Ahab is 58 years old at the time of the Pequod's last voyage. Peleg and Bildad pilot the ship out of the harbor, and Ahab first appears on deck when the ship is already at sea. Instead of embarking on a regular whaling voyage, Ahab declares he is out for revenge and attaches a doubloon on the mast by way of reward for the crewmember who first sights Moby Dick, the white whale. When Moby Dick is eventually sighted, a disastrous three-day chase begins. Entangled by the line of his own harpoon, Ahab falls overboard and drowns as the whale dives and takes him along.
Peleg refers to Ahab respectfully as a grand, ungodly, god-like man, but he is also nicknamed Old Thunder.
Concept and creation[edit]
The creation of Ahab, who apparently does not derive from the several captains Melville sailed under, was heavily influenced by the tutelage in Coleridge's statement in his lecture on Hamlet that "one of Shakespeare's modes of creating characters is to conceive any one intellectual or moral faculty in morbid excess, and then to place himself ... thus mutilated or diseased, under given circumstances."[8] Whenever in Moby-Dick the narrator comments on Captain Ahab as an artistic creation, the language of Coleridge's lecture appears. "at all detract from him, dramatically regarded, if either by birth or other circumstances, he have what seems a half-wilful over-ruling morbidness at the bottom of his nature." All men "tragically great," Ishmael says, "are made so through a certain morbidness." All mortal greatness "is but disease,"[9] According to Howard, "Ahab is a Shakespearean tragic hero, created according to the Coleridgean formula."[10]
Elements from real life[edit]
There is no model for Ahab in real life, but his death seems to be based on an actual event. On May 18, 1843, Melville was aboard The Star which sailed for Honolulu. Aboard were two sailors from the Nantucket who could have told him that they had seen their second mate "taken out of a whaleboat by a foul line and drowned, as is Captain Ahab of Moby-Dick."[11]
Ahab allegorically regarded[edit]
The highly complex character of Ahab is shaped by making use of a number of mythic and literary patterns that overlap and reinforce each other in such a complementary way, that "the apparent irony of one allusion is frequently the truth of another."[12] For instance, the allusions to Oedipus flesh out Ahab's fundamental ignorance and lack of self-knowledge, complemented by the references to Narcissus to shape the psychological causes for his ignorance.[13] In "The Sphynx," Ahab uses a spade for a crutch, and so the reader is reminded that he is lame, like Oedipus, and also wounded, like Prometheus.[14] However, Ahab should not only be considered in relation to the allusions, buty also in context to the other characters. [15]
King Ahab (Old Testament)[edit]
Ahab is named for the Biblical story of Ahab in the Books of Kings 16:28–22:40. For Melville's allegory the single most important thing was that Ahab "did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him" in 16:30–31. [16] The Biblical Ahab foreshadows the tragic end of Captain Ahab and the essential duality of his character. Both Ahabs are shrewd in their secular associations. The captain is successful in whaling, with a record of forty years. "The very evidence of this success," Wright observes, "is fantastically like that in King Ahab's story: Captain Ahab, too, lives in an ivory house, 'the ivory Pequod' as it is often called, tricked out in trophies of whale bones and teeth from profitable voyages."[17] The ship's last voyage, however, is not entirely commercial: from the moment Ahab attaches the golden doubloon on the mast, it becomes a pursuit of a perceived enemy, under a captain unable to compromise. King Ahab, an able politician but a patron of foreign gods, offended Jehovah by introducing Baal as a god. Jehovah tolerated no other gods and contrived with false prophets to destroy King Ahab.[18]
Like his namesake, Captain Ahab worships pagan gods, particularly the spirit of fire. Fedallah the Parsee, his harpooner, is a fire-worshipping Zoroastrian. This false prophet contributes to his death by forecasting that:
before Ahab dies, he must see two hearses;
he promises to precede his captain as a pilot;
he assures Ahab that only hemp can kill him.
These prophesies, accurate as they may be, deceive Ahab, who perceives them to be an assurance of victory.[19]
King Lear (Shakespeare)[edit]
Olson mentions three modes of madness in King Lear, the King's, the Fool's, and Edgar's, which are allegorized in a reduced way, with Ahab taking the role of Lear and Pip the roles of both the Fool and Edgar.[20] The allegory is shaped by way of contrasts to the source. Olson identifies the typhoon in chapter 119, "The Candles," with the storm in Lear, and later in chapter 125, "The Log and Line," Ahab says to Pip his heart feels with him, as Lear says to his Fool.[a] "Ahab, unlike Lear," Olson observes, "does not in this night of storm discover his love for his fellow wretches. On the contrary, this night Ahab uncovers his whole hate."[21]
Satan (Milton)[edit]
In "The Candles," Ahab's harpoon is called a "fiery dart." The phrase is taken from book XII of Paradise Lost, as Pommer recognized, where Michael promised Adam "spiritual armour, able to resist/ Satan's assaults, and quench his fiery darts" (XII, 491-2).[22] The example shows that Milton's work was an immediate source, more immediate than Shakespeare, Pommer argues, because while some of Melville's soliloquies appear to find their prototypes in Shakespeare, "there is a slight step from dramatic monologue to fictional thought," and Milton "had already taken that step, using, in his own extended narrative, soliloquies precisely like Melville's."[23]
Allusions that identify Ahab with Satan[b] include the scene in Milton's Hell Melville used most frequently includes the following image: "Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit/Chew'd bitter ashes, which the offended taste/With spattering noise rejected" (X, 565–567).[24] In chapter 132, "The Symphony," Ahab, "like a blighted fruit-tree he shook, and cast his last, cindered apple to the soil."[25] On the last day of the chase, Ahab muses in terms of the Creation: ""What a lovely day again! were it a new-made world, and made for a summerhouse to the angels, and this morning the first of its throwing open to them, a fairer day could not dawn upon that world." On that day Moby Dick, "seemed combinedly possessed by all the angels that fell from heaven," sinks the ship. Tashtego hammers a sky-hawk to the mast: "And so the bird of heaven, with archangelic shrieks, and his imperial beak thrust upward, and his whole captive form folded in the flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven with her, and helmeted herself with it." Yet Pommer finds "most impressive of all" evidence the Latin in chapter 113, "The Forge," with which Ahab baptizes his crew in name of the Devil: "Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli."[26]
Ahab's scar may have been modeled on the description of Satan's face in I, 600-601, which "Deep scars of thunder had intrench'd."[27]
The greatness and woe of both Satan and Ahab lies in pride. "The proud person," Pommer explains, "believing that he deserves treatment appropriate to his self-inflated dignity, is quick to anger when he receives a less welcome treatment. At the exaltation of the Messiah, Satan 'could not bear/Through pride that sight, and thought himself impair'd.'" Satan's "sense of injur'd merit" is reported in his first speech in Hell. Ahab's story, caused by Moby Dick biting off his leg, follows the same psychological pattern of being spiritually and physically impaired.[28]
Satan from Paradise Lost is "not the least element of which Captain Ahab is compounded."[29] The words with which Ishmael and Starbuck portray him—infidel, impious, diabolic, blasphemous—describe him as a towering rebel.
Prometheus (Aeschylus)[edit]
Overlapping with Lear, the typhoon scene in "The Candles" also seems to be Melville's recreation of the mythic theft of fire. Prometheus accomplished his theft by the stealthy hiding of the divine spark in a fennel stalk. In contrast, "Ahab's theft is a boldly defiant deed, set amidst elemental nature in furious eruption."[30] The whole business of whaling is a theft of fire, for the sperm whale's oil is used as fuel for flames. The hunt for the White Whale, described by Ishmael as "the fiery hunt," thus represents a conflict with a deity—hence the references to Moby Dick as a god.[31] Ahab waving the fiery harpoon is Melville's "modified equivalent of Prometheus's smuggling from heaven the fire-laden fennel stalk."[32] Both Prometheus and Ahab try to alter or reverse "the supernatural design, and herein lies the acme of their tragic hybris." Prometheus, mistakenly convinced that Zeus planned the destruction of man, stole fire in order to contravene the will of the god; Ahab, thinking his mind can penetrate the mystery of evil, is convinced that killing Moby Dick will "expel evil from the cosmos."[33]
In a tragedy a hero has a mad counterpart: Prometheus has Io, Moby-Dick has Pip. The madness of Io and Pip is caused by their unintentional contact with the primal elements or with the deity. "The Pip who dances and shakes his tambourine before Queequeg's coffin," Sweeney compares, "is clearly a maniac, completely detached from his former personality." Likewise, Io, tortured by the gadfly, "bursts upon the stage in a wild dance...While on the stage, Io speaks with a disjointed frenzy much the same as Pip's."[34]
Oedipus (Sophocles)[edit]
In "The Candles," Ahab is temporarily stricken by blindness, an allusion to the Oedipus myth.[35] In the chapter "The Sphynx," Ahab stands before a sperm whale's head hanging from the side of his ship: "it seemed the Sphynx's in the desert." Ahab orders the head to "tell us the secret thing that is in thee." Here Ahab resembles Oedipus and the monster of Thebes, the more for his using a spade alternatively as both a crutch and as a tool to dissect the whale with. Oedipus' staff, Sweeney notes, is both "a walking tool and the murder weapon with which he killed his father."[36] The Promethean and Oedipean sides of Ahab connect in this chapter by way of the crutch. In addition to this, blindness is alluded to. Oedipus and Ahab are intelligent and ignorant at the same time, excessively proud, and both face a riddle (the mystery of evil).[37]
Narcissus (Ovid)[edit]
The opening chapter contains an extended allusion to "that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned" (Ch. 1, "Loomings"). Ahab does not realize that the malice he sees in the White Whale is his own, "wildly projected."[38] His Narcissistic self-delusion (he is unaware that he sees himself in the whale) complements "his Oedipean self-ignorance" (he does not know who he really is). The Narcissus myth also explains why Ahab, unlike Oedipus, remains self-ignorant. While two messengers enlight Oedipus and separate him fromhis obsession, Narcissus and Ahab are never interrupted from theirs. The contrast between Narcissus and Ahab is that the first contemplates a beautiful image which he loves, while Ahab projects an evil image which he hates, which Sweeney calls "an ironic reversal on Melville's part."[39] In several ways Ahab and Moby Dick resemble each other:
both are described with images of royalty, divinity, and archeology.
both share physical features, they are scarred or wounded, and each has a prominent brow or forehead.
both share the same internal characteristics: isolated, stubborn, vengeful, quickly enraged.
Finally, both are "ultimately unknowable." According to Ishmael in "The Nut," all things that are mighty wear "a false brow to the common world."[40] Ahab hates the mask as much as he does the thing itself.
Ahab's Fedallah as Narcissus's Echo[edit]
A subtle connection between Ahab, Moby Dick and Fedallah is formed by the imagery of the brow and forehead. According to Sweeney, Fedallah is "clearly an external projection of Ahab's own depravity" and at the same time a double of what Ahab finds most evil in the whale.[41] Fedallah is several times described using "phantom" imagery in the chapter "Ahab's Boat and Crew. Fedallah." In Ovid's myth Narcissus has an airy counterpart in the speech-deprived nymph Echo, who can only repeat the sounds she hears. Echo is an auditary complement to the visual reflection and a foreshadowing of Narcissus' death. In the same way Fedallah, who only says what Ahab wants to hear, is an auditory reflection of Ahab's evil, of which Moby Dick is the visual reflection. Fedallah foreshadows Ahab's death.[42]
Reception[edit]
Critical[edit]
When the book was first published, reviewers mostly focused on Ahab and the whale. According to George Ripley in Harper's New Monthly Magazine for December 1851, Ahab "becomes the victim of a deep, cunning monomania; believes himself predestined to take a bloody revenge on his fearful enemy; pursues him with fierce demoniac energy of purpose."[43] Ripley admires the creation of Ahab, who "opens upon us with wonderful power. He exercises a wild, bewildering fascination by his dark and mysterious nature."[44]
During the onset of Melville's rediscovery there was no change of emphasis on Ahab and his struggle with the whale.[45] During the 1950s and 1960s literary scholars shifted their attention to narrative technique and point of view, which for Melville studies meant that the spotlight switched from Ahab to Ishmael.[46]
In popular culture[edit]
Movies[edit]
The first two film adaptations show "the radical surgery that Hollywood performed on Herman Melville's masterpiece."[47] The first was a silent movie, The Sea Beast, a romantic love story in which the character of Ahab (John Barrymore), is transformed into "a handsome young sailor"[48] a New Bedford harpooner who has little in common with Ahab, not even his name, which is extended to Ahab Ceeley. Though in the book Ahab has already lost his leg, in the film a "crude papier mache monster" bites it off.[49] When the movie opened on Broadway it made $20,000 a week and ran longer than any Warner film up to that time.[50]
Barrymore is also Ahab in the 1930 Moby Dick, this time with his voice. Ahab is "shrieking in pain" as the ship's (called Mary-Ann) blacksmith holds a fiery, hot-bladed tool against his stump.[51] Again, the whale is just a means to separate lovers. In another diversion from the book, Ahab's sweetheart is the minister's daughter, Faith Mapple. Once again, it became a hit at the box office.[52]
Warner Brothers' third effort was directed by John Huston, with a script by Ray Bradbury, the first serious attempt to follow the book.[53] Completion of the script took a year, filming another year, and editing and scoring a third year. Gregory Peck's Ahab is a "stern authoritarian Lincoln in black." Peck was unsuited for the part of Ahab, was the common opinion among the otherwise overwhelmingly positive reviewers.[54]
Comic books, cartoons, jokes[edit]
Ahab appears quite frequently in humorous comic strips and cartoons. Without effort an entire anthology of this material (caricature, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons) could be assembled. The one strip that most often refers to Melville is Peanuts by Charles Schulz.[55] There is even the futuristic superhero Ahab (comics) who has harpoons for weapons.
Fish restaurants called Moby Dick abound, and Inge even mentions a Moby Dip Ice Cream Store in Margate, New Jersey.[56] Besides all of the more or less cultural references, there are also common jokes, funny and less funny ones. ("What periodicals does Ahab subscribe to?" Answer: "The Whale Street Journal and Ports Illustrated.")[57]
Notes[edit]
a.Jump up ^ While Sweeney (1975, 43) endorses Olson's identification, he finds exaggerated the claim that Ahab learns from his cabin-boy just as Lear does from the Fool. Ahab learns "little or nothing" throughout the book.
b.Jump up ^ This type of allusions would typically be perceived as sacrilegious and be expurgated from the English edition (Tanselle (1988, 681–2 and 784)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Delbanco (2005), 166
2.Jump up ^ Matthiessen (1941), 457 n.5
3.Jump up ^ Lawrence (1923), 157
4.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 73-4.
5.Jump up ^ "Moby-Dick – a modern tragedy." The Telegraph, 27 October 2008.
6.Jump up ^ David Park Williams (1965)."Hook and Ahab: Barrie's Strange Satire on Melville." PMLA, December 1965. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
7.Jump up ^ Barbour (1986), 16
8.Jump up ^ Cited in Howard (1940), 231. Howard's italics
9.Jump up ^ Cited in Howard (1940), 231. Howard's italics.
10.Jump up ^ Howard (1940), 235
11.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 189
12.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 14
13.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 72
14.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 73
15.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 15
16.Jump up ^ Mansfiel and Vincent (1952), 637
17.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 62
18.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 63
19.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 65
20.Jump up ^ Olson (1937), 273
21.Jump up ^ Olson (1947), 60
22.Jump up ^ Cited in Pommer (1950) 93. Pommer's italics.
23.Jump up ^ Pommer (1950), 55.
24.Jump up ^ Cited in Pommer (1950), 66
25.Jump up ^ Cited in Pommer (1950), 67 (Pommer's italics), and 93
26.Jump up ^ Pommer (1950), 93
27.Jump up ^ Mansfield and Vincent (1952), 641
28.Jump up ^ Pommer (1950), 95
29.Jump up ^ Wright (1949), 64
30.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 37
31.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 37
32.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 38
33.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 41–42
34.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 43
35.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 75
36.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 73
37.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 74
38.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 84
39.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 85
40.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 86
41.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 87
42.Jump up ^ Sweeney (1975), 88
43.Jump up ^ Cited in Lee (2001), 331
44.Jump up ^ Cited in Lee (2001), 332
45.Jump up ^ Sealts (1997), 64
46.Jump up ^ Sealts (1997), 66
47.Jump up ^ Stone (1975), 179
48.Jump up ^ Stone (1975), 172
49.Jump up ^ Inge (1986), 697
50.Jump up ^ Inge (1986), 699
51.Jump up ^ Stone (1975), 176
52.Jump up ^ Inge (1986), 701
53.Jump up ^ Stone (1975), 180
54.Jump up ^ Inge (1986), 703–5
55.Jump up ^ Inge (1986), 716–7
56.Jump up ^ Inge (1986), 724
57.Jump up ^ Inge (1986), 725
Sources[edit]
Barbour, James. (1986). "Melville Biography: A Life and the Lives." In John Bryant (ed.), A Companion to Melville Studies. New York, Westport, London: Greenwood Press.
Delbanco, Andrew. (2005). Melville: His World and Work. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 9780375403149
Heflin, Wilson. (2004). Herman Melville's Whaling Years. Edited by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Thomas Farel Heffernan. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Howard, Leon. (1940). "Melville's Struggle with the Angel." Modern Language Quarterly, June 1940. Reprinted in Hershel Parker (ed.), The Recognition of Herman Melville. Selected Criticism since 1846. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 1967, Paperback printing 1970.
Inge, M. Thomas. (1986). "Melville in Popular Culture." In John Bryant (ed.), A Companion to Melville Studies. New York, Westport, Connecticut, London: Greenwood Press.
Lawrence, D.H. (1923). Studies in Classic American Literature. Reprinted London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140183771
Lee, A. Robert (ed.). (2001). Herman Melville: Critical Assessments. Volume I. The Banks, East Sussex: Helm Information.
Mansfield, Luther S. and Howard P. Vincent. (1952). "Introduction" and "Explanatory Notes". In Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Hendricks House.
Matthiessen, F.O. (1941). American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Tenth Printing 1966, New York, London and Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Olson, Charles. (1937). "Lear and Moby-Dick". Reprinted in Brian Higgins and Hershel Parker (eds.), Critical Essays on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. New York & Toronto: G.K. Hall & Co., and Maxwell Macmillan Canada, 1992.
Olson, Charles. (1947). Call Me Ishmael. Reprint: City Lights Books, San Francisco, [no year stated].
Pommer, Henry F. (1950). Milton and Melville. University of Pittsburgh Press.
Sealts, Merton M., Jr. (1997). "Whose Book is Moby-Dick?""In John Bryant and Robert Milder (eds.), Melville's Evermoving Dawn. Centennial Essays. Kent, Ohio, and London, England: The Kent State University Press.
Stone, Edward. (1975). "Ahab Gets Girl, or Herman Melville Goes to the Movies." Reprinted in Kevin J. Hayes (ed.), The Critical Response to Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1994.
Sweeney, Gerard M. (1975). Melville's Use of Classical Mythology. Amsterdam: Rodopi N.V.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. (1988). "Historical Note Section VI". In Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Six. Edited by Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University and the Newberry Library.
Williams, David Park. (1965)."Hook and Ahab: Barrie's Strange Satire on Melville." PMLA, December 1965. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
Wilson, A.N. (2008). "Moby-Dick – a modern tragedy." The Telegraph, 27 October 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
Wright, Nathalia. (1949). Melville's Use of the Bible. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)


Main characters
Captain Ahab ·
 Ishmael ·
 Queequeg
 

Ships
Pequod
 

Special subjects
Cetology
 

Film
The Sea Beast (1926 silent) ·
 Moby Dick (1930) ·
 Moby Dick (1956) ·
 Moby Dick (1971) ·
 Moby Dick (1978) ·
 Moby Dick (2010)
 

Television
Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick (1997 Japanese) ·
 Moby Dick (1998) ·
 Moby Dick (2011)
 

Stage
Moby Dick—Rehearsed (1955) ·
 Moby Dick (1990 musical) ·
 Moby-Dick (2010 opera)
 

Other
 adaptations
Age of the Dragons ·
 The Call of the Wretched Sea ·
 Capitaine Achab ·
 Dopey Dick the Pink Whale ·
 Dicky Moe ·
 Leviathan ·
 "Möbius Dick" ·
 Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor ·
 Railsea ·
 Samson & Sally
 

Related
Adaptations ·
 Moby Dick Coin
 

 


Categories: Moby-Dick
Characters in American novels of the 19th century
19th-century American novels
Fictional characters introduced in 1851
Fictional amputees


Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Français
Italiano
Edit links
This page was last modified on 23 July 2014 at 10:12.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Ahab_(Moby-Dick)













Queequeg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Queequeg
Moby Dick character
Queequeg.JPG
Created by
Herman Melville
Information

Gender
Male
Occupation
Sailor
Nationality
American
Queequeg is a fictional character in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by American author Herman Melville. The chief harpooner aboard the Pequod, Queequeg is the first principal character encountered by the narrator, Ishmael, and plays an important role in many of the events of the book, both in port and during the whaling voyage. Although a "savage" cannibal, he is described with great sympathy and much admiration by Ishmael, who befriends him early in the book.
Description[edit]
Queequeg is a native of a fictional island in the South Pacific Ocean named Kokovoko or Rokovoko. The island is the home to his primitive tribe, who practice cannibalism, in particular devouring the flesh of enemies slain in battle. Queequeg claims that the only case of indigestion he has suffered was after a feast in which fifty slain enemies were eaten. He displays no shame regarding the practice, describing his people in a matter-of-fact fashion. In port he prefers a diet of rare red meat, but will settle for whatever is on the menu, such as clam chowder -- which is described as "his favorite fishing food".
Although the son of a chief, he chose to leave his island out of curiosity to see more of the world and to experience and evaluate the civilization of the Christian world. At first rejected by the whaler that landed on his island, he skillfully jumped from a canoe and clamped to the side of the boat as it was leaving for the open sea, at which point the captain relented. At the opening of the novel, he is in the port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, having returned from a whaling voyage. Queequeg and Ishmael first meet when Queequeg returns late to the inn where he is staying, not knowing that Ishmael has been booked into the same room with him. Although Queequeg initially threatens to kill Ishmael on the spot, the landlord persuades him to relent and the two soon become good friends. Ishmael convinces him, based on this friendship, to ship on another whaling expedition with him. At the time of the novel, he has been away from his home island for many years, so long that it is possible that his father is dead and that he would become the chief if he returned.
He is a young man, in the prime of life, tall and powerfully athletic, heavily tattooed, and an excellent swimmer who does not hesitate an instant to dive into cold water to save the life of a troublesome passenger aboard the ferry from New Bedford to Nantucket.
He practices a form of animism using a small idol named Yojo, for whom he builds small ceremonial fires. As part of his religion, he practices a prolonged period of fasting and silence (which Ishmael calls his "Ramadan"), at one time locking himself in his room in Nantucket. Even after Ishmael enters the room, he keeps his fast and silence without acknowledging the presence of others. Nevertheless he spontaneously attends a Christian sermon of Father Mapple in New Bedford, although he slips out before the end.
He is unflappable and extremely easy-going among white society, never grudging an insult. He immediately takes to Ishmael and decides (based on advice from his idol) that Ishmael should decide on the ship for both of them together.
He is an extraordinary harpooner, impressing the money-tight owners of the Pequod so much that they immediately offer him a 90th lay (1/90 of the ship's profit) in exchange for his signing on with the crew. By contrast, Ishmael (who has experience in the merchant marine but none as a whaler) is initially offered a 777th lay but eventually secures a 300th. In port, Queequeg carries his sharpened harpoon with him at all times, unless prevented from doing so. He shaves with his harpoon as well and smokes regularly from a tomahawk that he carries with him.
Although he fades in importance toward the end of the novel, he is ultimately responsible for saving Ishmael's life. After the Pequod is destroyed, Ishmael survives by clinging to a life buoy that had originally been built as a coffin for Queequeg when he believed he was dying of fever.
Cultural references[edit]
A version of Queequeg appears as a character in the Futurama episode "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid".
On The X-Files, Special Agent Dana Scully's named her dog Queequeg (last appearance Season 3 Episode 22) after the Moby-Dick character. The name was also taken as an email handle by Scully.
Queequeg is mentioned in the song "Seabeast" by American metal band Mastodon. The line is "Dear Mr. Queequeg you have been informed your life's been saved, You are not a black-hearted vicious mess so it has been claimed."
Queequeg's is the name of a coffee chain in the video game universe of Deus Ex: Invisible War. Its rival chain is named Pequod's.
The Queequeg is the submarine captained by Captain Widdershins in The Grim Grotto, the eleventh novel in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Queequeg is mentioned in a song title on Philadelphia based band Man Man's third album "Rabbit Habits".
Queequeg is a main character in the direct-to-video Hey Vern! It's My Family Album segment "Pops", in which he lives in an abandoned school bus near Silver Creek outside Richmond, Kentucky.
Queequeg is mentioned in the first episode of Pinky and the Brain. Pinky asks the Brain if he can be Queequeg after the Brain asks Pinky to call him Captain Brain. Their sea adventure is a search for crab meat at the wreckage of the Titanic which Brain plans to use as a hypnotic food additive in order to conquer the world.
External links[edit]
Moby-Dick: Chapter 12 - Biographical - Queequeg's biographical information, as presented in Chapter 12 of Moby-Dick.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)


Main characters
Captain Ahab ·
 Ishmael ·
 Queequeg
 

Ships
Pequod
 

Special subjects
Cetology
 

Film
The Sea Beast (1926 silent) ·
 Moby Dick (1930) ·
 Moby Dick (1956) ·
 Moby Dick (1971) ·
 Moby Dick (1978) ·
 Moby Dick (2010)
 

Television
Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick (1997 Japanese) ·
 Moby Dick (1998) ·
 Moby Dick (2011)
 

Stage
Moby Dick—Rehearsed (1955) ·
 Moby Dick (1990 musical) ·
 Moby-Dick (2010 opera)
 

Other
 adaptations
Age of the Dragons ·
 The Call of the Wretched Sea ·
 Capitaine Achab ·
 Dopey Dick the Pink Whale ·
 Dicky Moe ·
 Leviathan ·
 "Möbius Dick" ·
 Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor ·
 Railsea ·
 Samson & Sally
 

Related
Adaptations ·
 Moby Dick Coin
 

 


Categories: Fictional cannibals
Fictional sailors
Moby-Dick
Characters in American novels of the 19th century
Fictional Oceanian people
Fictional characters introduced in 1851


Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Français
Edit links
This page was last modified on 1 July 2014 at 12:15.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queequeg











Pequod (Moby-Dick)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Question book-new.svg
 This article relies on references to primary sources. Please add references to secondary or tertiary sources. (April 2013)
The Pequod is a fictitious 19th century Nantucket whaleship that appears in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by American author Herman Melville. The Pequod and her crew, commanded by Captain Ahab, are central to the story, which, after the initial chapters, takes place almost entirely aboard the ship during a long three-year whaling expedition in the Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific oceans. Most of the characters in the novel are part of the Pequod's crew, including the narrator Ishmael.
The ship is first encountered by Ishmael after he arrives in Nantucket and learns of three ships that are about to leave on three-year cruises. Tasked by his new friend the Polynesian harpooner Queequeg - or more precisely, Queequeg's idol-god, Yojo - to make the selection for them both, Ishmael, a self-described "green hand at whaling" goes to the Straight Wharf and chooses the Pequod.
It is revealed that the Pequod was named for the Algonquian-speaking Pequot tribe of Native Americans. The Mashantucket (Western Pequot tribe)and Eastern Pequot tribe still inhabit their reservation in Connecticut.





Contents  [hide]
1 Description
2 Discrepancies
3 Cultural references
4 References

Description[edit]
The Pequod has endured the years and the elements, but not without sustaining damage. The ship is three-masted, like most Nantucket whalers of the time, but all three masts are replacements, taken on when the originals were lost in a typhoon off Japan.[1]
The Pequod is not unlike Ahab in this respect, since many of the rest of these missing elements have been replaced by the bones of the whales she hunts. She is not a new vessel, and with age would usually come some veneration and respect, which Ishmael tries to convey by using several historical references in his description of her. But in the Pequod's case this has been negated by the thick veneer of barbarity that has been overlaid onto the ship in the form of fantastic scrimshaw embellishment. Far from enjoying mere utilitarian replacements out of available whalebone, she has been ornately decorated, even to the whale teeth set into the railing that now resemble an open jaw. Like a fingerbone necklace on a cannibal, these adornments are clear evidence of the Pequod's prowess as a successful hunter and killer of whales.

... a rare old craft...She was a ship of the old school, rather small if anything; with an old fashioned claw-footed look about her. Long seasoned and weather-stained in the typhoons and calms of all four oceans, her old hull's complexion was darkened like a French grenadier's, who has alike fought in Egypt and Siberia. Her venerable bows looked bearded. Her masts...stood stiffly up like the spines of the three old kings of Cologne. Her ancient decks were worn and wrinkled, like the pilgrim-worshipped flag-stone in Canterbury Cathedral where Beckett bled. But to all these her old antiquities, were added new and marvellous features, pertaining to the wild business that for more than half a century she had followed...She was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, his neck heavy with pendants of polished ivory. She was a thing of trophies. A cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies. All round, her unpanelled, open bulwarks were garnished like one continuous jaw, with the long sharp teeth of the Sperm Whale, inserted there for pins, to fasten her old hempen thews and tendons to. Those thews ran not through base blocks of land wood, but deftly travelled over sheaves of sea-ivory. Scorning a turnstile wheel at her reverend helm, she sported there a tiller; and that tiller was in one mass, curiously carved from the long narrow lower jaw of her hereditary foe...A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 16 [2]
The principal owners of the vessel are two well-to-do Quaker retired whaling captains, therefore "the other and more inconsiderable and scattered owners, left nearly the whole management of the ship's affairs to these two."

Captain Bildad, who along with Captain Peleg was one of the largest owners of the vessel; the other shares, as is sometimes the case in these ports, being held by a crowd of old annuitants; widows, fatherless children, and chancery wards; each owning about the value of a timber head, or a foot of plank, or a nail or two in the ship. People in Nantucket invest their money in whaling vessels, the same way that you do yours in approved state stocks bringing in good interest..
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 16 [3]
Peleg served as first mate under Ahab on the Pequod before obtaining his own command, and is responsible for all her whalebone embellishments.

...during the term of his chief-mateship, [he] had built upon her original grotesqueness, and inlaid it, all over, with a quaintness both of material and device, unmatched by anything except it be Thorkill-Hake's carved buckler or bedstead...
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 16 [4]
The depiction of life aboard the ship, although fictionalized, was based on Melville's own experiences in whaling (specifically aboard the Achushnet in the 1840s) and thus can be taken in many ways as representative of mid-19th century Nantucket whaling.
Discrepancies[edit]
The Pequod is initially described as having by a tiller made from a whale's lower jaw, yet in one instance the helm is described as having "spokes", which refers to a wheel. (Interestingly, the 1956 movie had a tiller comprised of a whale's lower jaw and wooden spokes, the 1998 movie had a regular steering wheel and the 2011 movie had a steering wheel made from a whale's jaw to retain this anomaly, showing both steering elements aboard the same ship).

During the most violent shocks of the Typhoon, the man at the Pequod's jaw-bone tiller had several times been reelingly hurled to the deck by its spasmodic motions, even though preventer tackles had been attached to it - for they were slack - because some play to the tiller was indispensable.
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 123

"Clear away the boats! Luff!" cried Ahab. And obeying his own order, he dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes.
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 61[5]

...every day when Ahab, coming from his cabin, cast his eyes aloft, the vigilant helmsman would ostentatiously handle his spokes...
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 118
Cultural references[edit]
In Stephen King's book, The Stand, it is noted early in the story that the full name of the character Glen Bateman is "Glendon Pequod Bateman," possibly in reference to either the ship or the Pequot tribe.
The band Umphrey's McGee has a song called "The Pequod" on their album Anchor Drops.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Chapter xviii — HIS MARK". Princeton.edu. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
2.Jump up ^ "Chapter xvi — THE SHIP". Princeton.edu. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
3.Jump up ^ "Chapter xvi — THE SHIP". Princeton.edu. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
4.Jump up ^ "Chapter xvi — THE SHIP". Princeton.edu. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
5.Jump up ^ Chapter 61 - Stubbs Kills A Whale


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)


Main characters
Captain Ahab ·
 Ishmael ·
 Queequeg
 

Ships
Pequod
 

Special subjects
Cetology
 

Film
The Sea Beast (1926 silent) ·
 Moby Dick (1930) ·
 Moby Dick (1956) ·
 Moby Dick (1971) ·
 Moby Dick (1978) ·
 Moby Dick (2010)
 

Television
Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick (1997 Japanese) ·
 Moby Dick (1998) ·
 Moby Dick (2011)
 

Stage
Moby Dick—Rehearsed (1955) ·
 Moby Dick (1990 musical) ·
 Moby-Dick (2010 opera)
 

Other
 adaptations
Age of the Dragons ·
 The Call of the Wretched Sea ·
 Capitaine Achab ·
 Dopey Dick the Pink Whale ·
 Dicky Moe ·
 Leviathan ·
 "Möbius Dick" ·
 Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor ·
 Railsea ·
 Samson & Sally
 

Related
Adaptations ·
 Moby Dick Coin
 

 


Categories: Fictional ships
Moby-Dick





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Edit links
This page was last modified on 21 July 2014 at 20:28.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pequod_(Moby-Dick)













Adaptations of Moby-Dick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)
Moby-Dick is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville which describes the voyage of the whaleship Pequod, led by Captain Ahab, who leads his crew on a hunt for the whale Moby-Dick. The novel has been adapted a number of times in various media.


Contents  [hide]
1 Film
2 Television
3 Radio
4 Stage
5 Music
6 Comics and graphic novels
7 Literature
8 Other 8.1 Significant deviations from the novel
9 References

Film[edit]
A 1926 silent movie, The Sea Beast, starring John Barrymore as a heroic Ahab with a fiancée and an evil brother, loosely based on the novel.[1] Remade as Moby Dick in 1930,[2] a version in which Ahab kills the whale and returns home to the woman he loves (played by Joan Bennett).
Moby Dick—Rehearsed, a "play within a play" directed by Orson Welles. A performance of the play was filmed in 1955, but is now considered lost.[3]
Moby Dick, a 1956 film directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, with screenplay by Ray Bradbury.
Woody Woodpecker: Dopey Dick the Pink Whale was directed by Paul J. Smith and released in 1957. Woody is shanghaied onto the Peapod by Dapper Denver Dooley to go after the whale that bit him.
Tom and Jerry: Dicky Moe was directed by Gene Deitch and released in 1962. The peg-legged but unnamed Ahab-like captain of the Komquot is maniacally obsessed with hunting the great white whale Dicky Moe. When his crew desert, he shanghais Tom and makes him do the work of the whole crew while seamouse Jerry bedevils him. When Dicky Moe is finally sighted, the captain fires a harpoon gun but Tom is holding onto the end of the rope attached to the harpoon and is dragged off the ship. The whale swims off with Tom lashed to its side and the captain screaming, "Come back with my whale!"
The Bedford Incident, a 1965 film adapting Moby Dick to the Cold War, with a destroyer (the USS Bedford) substituted for the Pequod and an anonymous Soviet diesel submarine taking the part of Moby Dick.
Moby Dick, an unfinished 1971 film featuring readings from the book by Orson Welles. The footage was unedited in Welles' lifetime, but was posthumously compiled in 1999 by the Munich Film Museum.
Moby Dick, featuring Jack Aranson as Captain Ahab, was filmed in 1978 and released in November 2005 on DVD. The director was Paul Stanley.[4]
The 1984 animated film Samson & Sally: Song of the Whales involves a young white whale named Samson who searches for Moby-Dick after hearing a legend that Moby-Dick would one day return to save all the whales. The sinking of the Pequod is shown as the young whale's mother tells him the story of Moby Dick. The film was alternately titled "The Secret of Moby Dick" in some other countries.
The 1986 animated film Dot and the Whale involves the character Dot embarking on a search for Moby-Dick in hope of helping a beached whale.
In 1999, a 25-minute paint-on-glass-animated adaptation was made by the Russian studio Man and Time, directed by Natalya Orlova. [1] It was made for the British market, and so was in English. [2] Rod Steiger was the voice of Captain Ahab. The film came in third place at the 5th Open Russian Festival of Animated Film. It is currently sold on DVD as part of the "World Literary Classics" series.
Capitaine Achab a 2004 French movie directed by Philippe Ramos, with Valérie Crunchant and Frédéric Bonpart.[5]
Moby Dick, a 2010 film starring Barry Bostwick as Ahab and made by The Asylum.[6]
In the 1994 film, The Pagemaster, Moby Dick and Captain Ahab are briefly seen both as paintings on the center rotunda and characters Richard visits. Ahab is later seen congratulating Richard on overcoming his fears. In this version, Ahab is voiced by George Hearn.
The 2011 movie, Age of the Dragons, filmed in Provo, Utah features Danny Glover as a mountain-roaming Ahab maimed by fire instead of a peg-leg, in which the great white whale is a white dragon.
The 2014 television film The Whale, written by Terry Cafolla.
Television[edit]
In a 1957 episode of Woody Woodpecker, the bird conspires against the captain with a pink whale named Dopey Dick in Dopey Dick the Pink Whale.
In a 1962 episode of Tom and Jerry, the two are on a boat with a disabled captain trying to defeat a whale named Dicky Moe (see above in "Film").
A 1964 episode of Mr. Magoo saw Ishmael Quincey Magoo hunting the great white whale.[7]
A 1964 episode of The Flintstones called Adobe Dick saw Fred and the gang encounter the great "whaleasaurus" during a Lodge fishing trip. This episode also mixed in aspects of Mutiny on the Bounty by sailing on the HMS Bountystone commanded by Captain Blah.
In 1967, the Hanna-Barbera series Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor featured the whale in adventures with two boys he had rescued.
A 1991 episode of the cartoon series Beetlejuice titled "Moby Richard" had Beetlejuice and Lydia putting on 'Disasterpiece Theatre,' and deciding to do Moby Dick as their first episode. But Moby "Richard" refuses to change the classic to suit Beetlejuice's notions of what a classic should be, and quits - but not without insulting BJ first. BJ lets the character of Captain Ahab take him over, and leads the others on a dangerous mission through Sandworm Land to get revenge on the whale.[8]
A Japanese animated adaptation of Moby-Dick, called Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick, was produced in 1997.
Moby Dick, a 1998 television movie starring Patrick Stewart as Ahab, won a Golden Globe for Gregory Peck as Father Mapple[9]
"The Day The Earth Stood Stupid" is a third-season episode of the series Futurama that first aired on February 18, 2001. Fry and Leela pursue the giant brain through a number of novels including Moby Dick.
Moby Dick et le Secret de Mu, a 2005 Luxembourgian/French animated series produced by Benoît Petit.[10]
Moby Dick, a 2011 television mini series directed by Mike Barker, starring William Hurt as Ahab and Ethan Hawke as Starbuck.[11]
Age of the Dragons is a 2011 made-for-television fantasy film. It was directed by Ryan Little and adapts the Moby-Dick story to a fantasy setting with a white dragon.[12]
On the April 29, 2011 broadcast of Phineas and Ferb, in the episode "Belly of the Beast", the boys create a giant mechanical shark for the annual Danville Harbor celebrations. Candace and her friend Stacy join a peg-legged Ahab-like captain aboard his ship The Pea-quad in chasing the giant shark, hurling harpoons made of toilet plungers. When the captain is supposedly devoured by the shark, Candace assumes command and an Ahab-like personality, even paraphrasing Ahab's curse: "From Danville Harbor I stab at thee; for bustings' sake I spit my last spit at thee!". The rope attached to one of the plunger harpoons fired from the cannon gets looped around her ankle and she becomes lashed to the side of the shark in Ahab-fashion.
"Möbius Dick" is a sixth-season episode of the series Futurama that first aired on August 4, 2011. Leela becomes obsessed with hunting a four-dimensional space whale.
"Ramlak Rising" is a first-season episode of the 2011 ThunderCats series that first aired on August 5, 2011. The captain of a ship obsessively hunts a creature called a Ramlak.
In the One Piece manga, Yonkou Whitebeard's ship is named Moby Dick.
In the Simpsons episode "Last Exit to Springfield", Mr. Burns exclaims "From hell's heart, I stab at thee!" when shutting off all the power in Springfield in retaliation to the Homer-led union protests.
Radio[edit]
On October 19 and 26, 1947, Columbia Workshop broadcast a two-part adaptation starring Neil O'Mally, Sidney Smith, and Charles Irving.
On February 4, 1947, NBC's Favorite Story, hosted by Ronald Colman, broadcast a half-hour adaptation starring Howard Duff as Ishmael, Frank Lovejoy as Starbuck and William Conrad as Ahab.
The 1949 CBC radio adaptation starred Lorne Greene as Captain Ahab.
On November 8, 1953, NBC Star Playhouse broadcast a one-hour production starring Fredric March and Nelson Olmsted.
The 2006 BBC Radio 4 broadcast play stars F. Murray Abraham as Ishmael and Fritz Weaver as Captain Ahab.
In October 2010, BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial broadcast a new two-part adaptation of the novel by Stef Penney, produced and directed by Kate McAll with specially composed music by Stuart Gordon and starring Garrick Hagon as Ahab, Trevor White as the narrating Ishmael, PJ Brennan as the young Ishmael of the story, Richard Laing as Starbuck and Sani Muliaumaseali'i as Queequeg.
Stage[edit]



 Featured: Martin Epstein as Ahab and Michael Berry as Starbuck in Works Productions' Moby Dick.Moby Dick—Rehearsed, a "play within a play" directed by Orson Welles. Welles starred in the original London production, while Rod Steiger starred in the original Broadway production.
Writer Julian Rad and Director Hilary Adams created a bare stage adaptation of Moby Dick that premiered in New York City in 2003. The Off-Off Broadway "play with music" was nominated for three 2004 Drama Desk Awards: Outstanding Play (Julian Rad, writer/Works Productions, producer), Outstanding Director of a Play (Hilary Adams) and Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Michael Berry as Starbuck). Moby Dick was the first Off-Off Broadway production to ever be nominated in the Play and Director categories in the 50 year history of the Drama Desk Award.[13]
Moby Dick! The Musical, a 1990s West End musical about a girls' boarding school production of the classic tale
In the late 1990s, performance artist Laurie Anderson produced the multimedia stage presentation Songs and Stories From Moby Dick. Several songs from this project were included on her 2001 in music CD, Life on a String.
In 2000, Jim Burke's adaptation of Moby Dick toured the UK aboard Walk-the-Plank's theatre ship, the Fitzcarraldo, in a co-production with Liverpool company Kaboodle. It won Best New Play and Best Fringe Production in the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards.
In 2008, a production of Moby Dick was commissioned by and performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada. The adaptation was written and directed by Morris Panych and was unique, among other things, for being performed on a revolving stage, for stage movement that was more like ballet, and for having no dialogue actually spoken by the cast (all narration/speech was pre-recorded and played over the action) until the very end when Ishmael is rescued by the Rachel; holding Queequeg's little idol close to him, he speaks aloud "Call me Ishmael." The production was performed at the Studio Theater from July 22 to October 18, 2008 and starred David Ferry as "Captain Ahab", Shaun Smyth as "Ishmael", Eddie Glen as "Flask", Marcus Nance as "Queequeg" and Kelly Grainger, Alison Jantzie, and Lynda Sing as "The Sirens/Whale".
Composer Jake Heggie composed Moby-Dick for the Dallas Opera's inaugural season in the Winspear Opera House. It premiered on April 30, 2010 with Ben Heppner as Captain Ahab. The opera has since been mounted by the State Opera of South Australia (August 2011), Calgary Opera (January 2012), San Diego Opera (February 2012), and San Francisco Opera (October 2012).
Music[edit]
Moby Dick, a cantata for male soloists, chorus and orchestra, written in 1938 by the composer Bernard Herrmann, and dedicated to Charles Ives. Sir John Barbirolli conducted the New York Philharmonic in its premiere.
Led Zeppelin's eighth track from the Led Zeppelin II album was also known by other names throughout the years ("Pat's Delight" and "Over the Top") but is most well known as carrying the title of the Herman Melville's novel.
"Queequeg and I - The Water Is Wide" is a composition included on the 1987 album Whales Alive, a collaboration between Paul Winter and Paul Halley.
W. Francis McBeth composed a five-movement suite for wind band named Of Sailors and Whales which is based on scenes from the book Moby-Dick. The bombastic suite begins with the quiet "Ishmael", which builds to a heavy climax. "Queequeg" follows with a flitting melody and ends with bleak chords and finally a quick note at the end. The middle movement "Father Mapple" is supposed to be a hymn that an imaginary man sings during the voyage. This movement is actually sung by the band, and begins very wearily but has a rather strong ending. The next movement is "Ahab" which readily depicts the captain. The same is true of "The White Whale", the final movement of the suite and by far one of the most fearsome pieces composed for a wind band. Each movement is preceded by some text supposed to be read to give an indication of the movement.
Composer Peter Westergaard has composed Moby Dick: Scenes From an Imaginary Opera, an operatic work for five soloists, chorus and chamber orchestra entitled The work was premiered in October 2004 in Princeton, New Jersey. Its libretto draws on the parts of the novel that deal with Ahab's obsession with the whale.
Progressive metal band Mastodon released Leviathan in 2004. The album is loosely based on the Herman Melville novel Moby-Dick.
Funeral doom metal group Ahab take their band's name after the captain of the Pequod and draw many of their lyrics from events in the novel Moby-Dick.
Composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer wrote the opera Moby-Dick that premiered in 2010.
Comics and graphic novels[edit]



 Adaptation from Classic Comics #5In 1946 Gilberton Publications adapted the story in Classic Comics #5.[14][15]
In 1956 Dell Comics adapted the story in Four Color #717[16]
In 1965 Adventure Comics #332 featured "The Super-Moby Dick of Space" with the Legion of Super-Heroes' Lightning Lad in a role analogous to that of Captain Ahab, after he has to have a robotic arm replace his own due to the Creature making his lightning bolts reflect back at him, and concussion from a crash gives him a more aggressive personality. However, instead of killing the creature he shrinks it down to its original size; it is revealed to be a metal-eating creature that was accidentally grown to gigantic size by a Scientist.
In 1976 Marvel Comics adapted the story in Marvel Classics Comics #8.[17]
In 1977 King Features adapted the story in King Classics #3.[18]
A 1990 Classics Illustrated graphic novel by artist Bill Sienkiewicz and writer D.G. Chichester



 Cover of Classics Illustrated graphic novel done by Bill SienkiewiczAlso in 1990, Pendulum Press adapted the story in issue #1 of Pendulum's Illustrated Stories.[19]
A 1998 graphic novel by artist Will Eisner
2000AD's series A.H.A.B. borrows the storyline and the names of several characters from Moby Dick.
A French BD from 2005 takes a sci-fi approach similar to Bradbury's, below.
In 2008 Marvel Comics released Marvel Illustrated: Moby Dick, a six-issue adaptation.[20]
In 2011, Tin House Books released Matt Kish's Moby Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page.
Literature[edit]
China Miéville's 2012 novel Railsea, set on an ocean of railroad tracks instead of on the sea, has been described as an "affectionate parody" of Moby-Dick.[21]
Other[edit]
Speed-talking actor John Moschitta, Jr., as part of his audio tape, Ten Classics in Ten Minutes, read a rapid-fire one-minute summarization of the lengthy novel, concluding with the line "And everybody dies... but the fish... and Ish."
On June 5, 1966 the BBC radio series Round the Horne broadcast a parody of the story entitled Moby Duck ("the great white Peking Duck ... eighty foot long it be with a two hundred foot wingspan and they do say as how when it lays an egg in the China Seas there be tidal waves at Scarborough!") starring Kenneth Horne as the Ishmael-like hero "Ebenezer Cuckpowder" (Kenneth Williams: "This fine stripling with his apple cheeks and his long blond hair, aye and his ... cor', you don't half have to use your imagination!") who is shanghaied in Portsmouth aboard Captain Ahab's ship The Golden Help-Glub-Glub ("the woman who was launching it fell off the rostrum and drowned!"). Kenneth Williams played "Captain Ahab", who after the great duck is sighted has himself stuffed into the harpoon gun and fired at his prey (Betty Marsden: "Oh, congratulations! A direct hit!" Kenneth Horne: "Where?" Betty: "Well, I can't actually say, but if Captain Ahab was an orange ..."). At the end of the story, Kenneth Horne stated that "Hugh Paddick played the part of the duck ... it was the part that most people throw away."
In 1973, a simplified version of the novel by Robert James Dixson was published by Regents Pub. Co.
The Star Trek franchise has made several references to (and been inspired by) Moby-Dick, most significantly in two films: 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was essentially Moby Dick in space, with Khan taking the Ahab role (the whale and object of his revenge obsession obviously being Admiral Kirk) Khan even quotes Ahab extensively throughout the film, right up to his last lines: "From Hell's heart...I stab at thee! For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.".
1996's Star Trek: First Contact also references the novel, with Picard seeking revenge for the emotional scarring inflicted upon him by the Borg: "And he piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it."
MC Lars' 2006 album The Graduate contains the track "Ahab", in which Lars raps the story of Moby-Dick.
In 2004, the heavy metal band Mastodon released Leviathan, a concept album based on Moby-Dick.
In 2006 The funeral doom metal band Ahab released an album titled The Call of the Wretched Sea, adapting the novel.
The music video for the song "Into the Ocean", from the "Foiled" album released April 4 of 2006 by the band Blue October, depicts an outdoor theater in which the band plays said song and also acts out a rendition of Moby Dick in which the lead singer, Justin Furstenfeld, plays the part of Captain Ahab.
The Demons & Wizards song "Beneath These Waves" is based on Moby-Dick.
The novella Leviathan '99 (2007) by Ray Bradbury is a direct spin-off of Moby-Dick set in the year 2099. The whale is replaced by a comet, the sailing ship by a space ship, and the character names are either the same or nearly the same.[22] In 1968, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a ninety-minute adaptation starring Christopher Lee.
Philip Jose Farmer wrote a sequel called The Wind Whales of Ishmael in which Ishmael is transported to the far-future where flying whales are hunted from aircraft.
A parody exists in the 2010 Chick-fil-A calendar "Great Works of Cow Literature" in July where the novel is referred to as Mooby Dick.
In 2010, the band Glass Wave recorded a song entitled "Moby Dick." The song recounts the story from the perspective of the mariners and of the whale itself after the decimation of the ship.
In 2011, The illustrator Seumas Doherty created a redesign of the story as if it were a Scifi video game titled "Moby Dick: A Space Odyssey".
In the video game Skies of Arcadia for the Sega Dreamcast, the character Drachma's relationship to the arcwhale Rhaknam is a parallel to the relationship between Captain Ahab and Moby Dick.
Significant deviations from the novel[edit]
Elijah: The vague and uncertain prophet of the text, ambivalent about religion, is replaced in both the 1956, 1998 and 2010 movie adaptations with a prescient Elijah who foretells the fate of the Pequod with confident precision. The 1956 film has Elijah waving his lame arm in pantomime foretelling Ahab's demise, and Ahab (played by Gregory Peck) moves his own arm in fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy.[23] In the 1998 television adaptation, Elijah warns that captain and crew shall all perish except one, and that by signing on they have effectively signed away their souls; Queequeg asks Ishmael what a soul is, to which Ishmael responds by leading Queequeg to a Christian church where Father Mapple (played by Gregory Peck) preaches the story of Jonah.[24] (In the text, the Jonah sermon occurs before Ishmael meets Elijah, and Queequeg leaves the chapel "before the benediction some time."[25]) The 2011 television miniseries has Elijah confront Ahab's wife (played by Gillian Anderson) as she leaves the church where Father Mapple has just preached his sermon, to openly reveal to her that on this voyage Ahab will die, and that he knows it. When she haughtily demands to know the reason for this prophecy, all he tells her is that he would never sail with Ahab again.[26]
Ahab's wife: Described by Ahab as his "girl-wife" in the text, we know no more about her, as she has no name. In the 2011 television mini-series, her name is Elizabeth and she and Ahab's son are used to show his home life and lay the foundation of his obsession with seeking the whale. Shown as a loving wife, she begs her husband to come to church with her, and Ahab refuses, stating he has no belief that God exists.[26]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ IMDb link
2.Jump up ^ IMDb link
3.Jump up ^ IMDb link
4.Jump up ^ IMDb link
5.Jump up ^ IMDb link
6.Jump up ^ 2010: Moby Dick at the IMDB
7.Jump up ^ The Famous Adventures of Mister Magoo Cartoon Guide
8.Jump up ^ TV.com link
9.Jump up ^ Moby Dick TV movie on IMDb
10.Jump up ^ Moby Dick et le Secret de Mu at the Internet Movie Database
11.Jump up ^ Moby Dick at the Internet Movie Database
12.Jump up ^ Preview at Quiet Earth
13.Jump up ^ For more information see the company website (Works Productions) and the director's website (Hilary Adams).
14.Jump up ^ http://www.comics.org/issue/125434/
15.Jump up ^ http://www.comics.org/issue/717254/
16.Jump up ^ http://www.comics.org/issue/12961/
17.Jump up ^ http://www.comics.org/issue/66443/
18.Jump up ^ http://www.comics.org/issue/375007/
19.Jump up ^ http://www.comics.org/issue/740659/
20.Jump up ^ Weekend Preview: Marvel Illustrated: Moby Dick #1
21.Jump up ^ Hsiang, Chris (10 May 2012). "Ride China Miéville’s Crazy Train in Railsea". io9. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
22.Jump up ^ Write-up on Ray Badbury's web site about the collection that contains this novella.
23.Jump up ^ "Moby Dick (1956)". Imdb.com. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
24.Jump up ^ "Moby Dick (1998) (TV) - Full cast and crew". Imdb. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
25.Jump up ^ "Chapter x - A BOSOM FRIEND". Etcweb.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
26.^ Jump up to: a b "Moby Dick (2011) (TV) - Full cast and crew". Imdb. Retrieved 2011-08-11.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)


Main characters
Captain Ahab ·
 Ishmael ·
 Queequeg
 

Ships
Pequod
 

Special subjects
Cetology
 

Film
The Sea Beast (1926 silent) ·
 Moby Dick (1930) ·
 Moby Dick (1956) ·
 Moby Dick (1971) ·
 Moby Dick (1978) ·
 Moby Dick (2010)
 

Television
Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick (1997 Japanese) ·
 Moby Dick (1998) ·
 Moby Dick (2011)
 

Stage
Moby Dick—Rehearsed (1955) ·
 Moby Dick (1990 musical) ·
 Moby-Dick (2010 opera)
 

Other
 adaptations
Age of the Dragons ·
 The Call of the Wretched Sea ·
 Capitaine Achab ·
 Dopey Dick the Pink Whale ·
 Dicky Moe ·
 Leviathan ·
 "Möbius Dick" ·
 Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor ·
 Railsea ·
 Samson & Sally
 

Related
Adaptations ·
 Moby Dick Coin
 

 


Categories: Moby-Dick
Works based on novels





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Edit links
This page was last modified on 22 May 2014 at 19:36.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptations_of_Moby-Dick











Moby Dick (1956 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Moby Dick
Moby dick434.jpg
1976 theatrical re-release poster

Directed by
John Huston
Produced by
Associate producers:
Jack Clayton
Lee Katz
Co-producer:
Vaughn N. Dean
Producer:
John Huston

Screenplay by
Ray Bradbury
John Huston

Based on
Moby-Dick by
Herman Melville

Starring
Gregory Peck
Richard Basehart
Leo Genn
Orson Welles

Music by
Philip Sainton
Cinematography
Oswald Morris
Edited by
Russell Lloyd
Production
   company
Moulin Productions
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Release date(s)
June 27, 1956

Running time
116 min.
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
US$ 4,500,000
Box office
$5.2 million (US)[1]
Moby Dick is a 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. It was directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Huston and Ray Bradbury. The film starred Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, and Leo Genn.
The music score was written by Philip Sainton.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Changes from the original novel
5 Reception
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Plot[edit]
Set in 19th Century New England, the story follows the whaling ship Pequod and its crew. Leading them is Captain Ahab, who was almost killed by the "great white whale," Moby-Dick. Now he is out for revenge. With the crew that has joined him, Ahab is out to destroy the huge sea mammal, but his obsession with vengeance is so great that he cannot turn back, eventually leading to the death of Ahab and all of his crew, save his newest able seaman, Ishmael.
Cast[edit]
Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab
Richard Basehart as Ishmael
Leo Genn as Starbuck
James Robertson Justice as Captain Boomer
Harry Andrews as Stubb
Bernard Miles as The Manxman
Noel Purcell as Ship's Carpenter
Edric Connor as Daggoo
Mervyn Johns as Peleg
Joseph Tomelty as Peter Coffin
Francis de Wolff as Captain Gardiner
Philip Stainton as Bildad
Royal Dano as Elijah
Seamus Kelly as Flask
Friedrich von Ledebur as Queequeg
Orson Welles as Father Mapple
Tamba Allenby as Pip (uncredited)
Tom Clegg as Tashtego (uncredited)
Ted Howard as Perth (uncredited)
John Huston as the voice of Peter Coffin and a Pequod lookout (uncredited)
Peck was initially surprised to be cast as Ahab (part of the studio's agreement to fund the film was that Huston use a "name" actor as Ahab). Peck later commented that he felt Huston himself should have played Ahab. Ironically, Huston had originally intended to cast his own father, the actor Walter Huston in the role, but his father had died by the time the film was made. Peck went on to play the role of Father Mapple in the 1998 television miniseries adaptation of Melville's novel, with Patrick Stewart as Ahab.
Welles later used the salary from his cameo to fund his own stage production of Moby Dick, in which Rod Steiger played Captain Ahab.
The Pequod was portrayed by, appropriately, the Moby Dick. Built in England in 1887 as the Ryelands, the ship came into the hands of the film industry in the 50s, and was also used in Treasure Island. It was destroyed by fire in Morecambe, England in 1972.[2]
The schooners used were Harvest King and James Postlethwaite, both from Arklow, Ireland.[3]
According to Gregory Peck, between his performances in this film and the 1998 Moby Dick miniseries, he liked the miniseries better because it was more faithful to the novel.
Production[edit]
During a meeting to discuss the screenplay, Ray Bradbury informed John Huston that regarding Melville's novel, he had "never been able to read the damned thing". According to the biography The Bradbury Chronicles, there was much tension and anger between the two men during the making of the film, allegedly due to Huston's bullying attitude and attempts to tell Bradbury how to do his job, despite Bradbury being an accomplished writer. Bradbury's novel Green Shadows, White Whale includes a fictionalized version of his writing the screenplay with John Huston in Ireland. Bradbury's short story "Banshee" is another fictionalized account of what it was like to work with Huston on this film. In the television adaptation of the story for The Ray Bradbury Theater the Huston character was played by Peter O'Toole and the Bradbury surrogate by Charles Martin Smith.
Huston had always wanted to make a film of Moby-Dick, and wanted to cast his father Walter as Ahab. Unfortunately, Walter had died in 1950, before the film was financed.[4] The film was bankrolled by brothers Walter, Harold, and Marvin Mirisch, who financed Huston's Moulin Rouge. The Mirisches made a deal with Warner Bros. in order to release the film. Under the agreement, Warners would distribute Moby Dick for seven years, after which all rights would revert to the Mirisch brothers' company, Moulin Productions.[5]
The film began shooting in Wales at Huston's request.[6] Parts of the movie were shot at the sea in front of Caniçal, a traditional whaling parish in Madeira Islands, Portugal, with real action of whaling, done by whalers of Madeira Island. It was also filmed in Las Canteras beach, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. Captain Alan Villiers commanded the ship for the film.[7]
Many exterior scenes set in New Bedford were shot on location in Youghal, Co. Cork, Ireland. The town has a public house, originally called Linehan's and at that time owned by Paddy Linehan, whose exterior appears in the movie. It was renamed Moby Dick's shortly after filming by Mr. Linehan. It is still owned and run by the Linehan family and boasts a fine collection of photographs taken of the cast and crew during the making of the film. While there, John Huston used the bar as his headquarters to plan each day's filming. The town's harbor basin, in front of Moby Dick's bar, was used to stand in as New Bedford's harbor, and some local people appear as extras in the ship's departure scene. Youghal's nineteenth century lighthouse also appears in a scene of the Pequod putting to sea (at sunset) on her fateful voyage.[8][9]
Of the three film versions of Moby Dick made between 1926 and 1956, Huston's is the only one which is faithful to the novel and uses its original ending.
A myth that was put to rest in cinematographer Oswald Morris' autobiography, Huston, We Have A Problem, is that no full length whale models were ever built for the production. Previous accounts have claimed that as many as three 60-foot rubber "white whales" were lost at sea during filming making them "navigational hazards". In fact the titular whale shown in the film was constructed by Dunlop in Stoke-on-Trent, England.[10] Moby Dick was 75 ft long and weighed 12 tons, and required 80 drums of compressed air and a hydraulic system in order to remain afloat and operational.[10] However the artificial whale came loose from its tow-line and drifted away in a fog.[10] Peck confirmed in 1995 that he was aboard the prop.[11] According to Morris, after the prop was lost the Pequod was followed by a barge with various whale parts (hump, back, fin, tail). 90% of the shots of the white whale are various size miniatures filmed in a water tank in Shepperton Studios in London. Whales and longboat models were built by a special effects man, August Lohman, working in conjunction with art director Stephen Grimes. Studio shots also included a life-size Moby jaw and head - with working eyes. The head apparatus which could move like a rocking horse was employed when actors were in the water with the whale.[clarification needed] Gregory Peck's last speech is delivered in the studio while riding the white whale's hump (a hole was drilled in the side of the whale so Peck could conceal his real leg).
The film's problems were further escalated by rising costs. The film went overbudget, from $2 million to around $4.4 million, which crippled Moulin Productions; Moby Dick was ultimately sold to United Artists in order to recoup some of the Mirisch brothers' debt (Warners still distributed the film, corresponding to their original licensing agreement).[12] Moby Dick did not recoup its budget upon its initial release.[12]
Peck and Huston intended to shoot Herman Melville's Typee in 1957, but the funding fell through. Not long after, the two had a falling out. According to one biography, Peck discovered to his disappointment that he had not been Huston's choice for Ahab, but in fact was thrust upon the director by the Mirisch brothers to secure financing. Peck felt Huston had deceived him into taking a part for which Peck felt he was ill-suited. Years later, the actor tried to patch up his differences with the director, but Huston, quoted in Lawrence Grobel's biography The Hustons, rebuked Peck ("It was too late to start over," said Huston) and the two never spoke to each other again.[13] Nevertheless, Huston's daughter Anjelica stated in a 2003 Larry King Live interview that her father had "adored" Peck.[14]
In the documentary accompanying the DVD marking the 30th anniversary of the film, Jaws, director Steven Spielberg states his original intention had been to introduce the Ahab-like character Quint (Robert Shaw), by showing him watching the 1956 version of the film and laughing at the inaccuracies therein. However, permission to use footage of the original film was denied by Gregory Peck as he was uncomfortable with his performance.
At the age of four, Anjelica Huston met Peck dressed as Ahab when she visited the set of her father's film. Decades later, she and Peck would meet again and become close friends with each other until the latter's death.[14][15]
Changes from the original novel[edit]
Although the film was quite faithful to the original novel, even down to the retention of Melville's original poetic dialogue, there were several slight changes:
In the film, Elijah's prophecy: "A day will come at sea when you'll smell land and there'll be no land, and on that day, Ahab will go to his grave, but he'll rise again, and beckon, and all save one shall follow", foretells exactly what will happen to the Pequod and her crew in the film. In the novel, Elijah does not make a prophecy, but subtly hints that something will happen.[16]
In the film Ishmael and Queequeg meet in and sail out of New Bedford while in the novel they meet in New Bedford but sail out of Nantucket.
The demonic harpooneer Fedallah is totally omitted from the film. In the novel, it is the dead Fedallah who ends up lashed to the back of Moby Dick,[16] but in the film, this happens to Ahab. In the novel, Ahab is merely dragged into the water by the harpoon rope and is never seen again.
In the film, when the dead Ahab "beckons" to the crew (an incident caused by the whale rolling back and forth while Ahab is tied to its back), Starbuck, who had previously bitterly opposed Ahab's quest for vengeance, is so moved by the sight that he becomes like a man possessed, and orders the crew to attack Moby Dick. This leads to the death of all except Ishmael, as the whale leaps on them in a fury. In the novel, Starbuck does not participate in the final hunt and the ship and her crew are lost after the Pequod is rammed by Moby Dick. In the movie, the Pequod is also rammed by the whale, but only after Moby Dick has killed the whole crew except Ishmael. Pip, the African-American cabin boy, has stayed on board the ship at Ahab's command, and is killed when the mast falls on him after the whale rams the ship.
Reception[edit]
The film has an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus that "It may favor spectacle in place of the deeper themes in Herman Melville's novel, but John Huston's Moby Dick still makes for a grand movie adventure."[17]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "The Top Box-Office Hits of 1956". Variety Weekly. 2 January 1957.
2.Jump up ^ "Morecambe Archives". Morecambe Online. Retrieved 2013-07-13.
3.Jump up ^ *Forde, Frank (1981, reprinted 2000). The Long Watch. Dublin: New Island Books. p. 138. ISBN 1-902602-42-0.
4.Jump up ^ Mirisch, p. 72
5.Jump up ^ Mirisch, p. 74
6.Jump up ^ Mirisch, p. 76
7.Jump up ^ "Alan Villiers". Oxford Index. doi:10.1093/oi/authority.20110803115857565 (inactive 2014-03-10).
8.Jump up ^ "Moby Dick Youghal". YoughalOnline.com. 14 August 2010. Retrieved 2013-07-13.
9.Jump up ^ "Moby Dick's Pub - Youghal, East Cork, Ireland - Chamber Members". Youghal Chamber of Tourism and Commerce. Retrieved 2013-07-13.
10.^ Jump up to: a b c "The Memory: Moby Dick started life in Stoke-on-Trent". The Sentinel. 13 December 2008. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
11.Jump up ^ "A Conversation with Gregory Peck". American Masters. Season 15. Episode 6. 14 October 1999. PBS.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Mirisch, p. 77
13.Jump up ^ Grobel, Lawrence (October 1989). The Hustons. Scribner. p. 812. ISBN 0-684190-19-2.
14.^ Jump up to: a b "Tribute to Gregory Peck". CNN.com. 13 June 2003. Retrieved 2014-06-26.
15.Jump up ^ Adrian, Wootton (11 December 2006). "Anjelica Huston". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-26.
16.^ Jump up to: a b "The Project Gutenberg EBook of Moby Dick; or The Whale, by Herman Melville". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2013-07-13.
17.Jump up ^ Moby Dick (1956) at Rotten Tomatoes
Further reading[edit]
Mirisch, Walter (2008). I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin. ISBN 0-299-22640-9.
External links[edit]
Moby Dick at the Internet Movie Database
Moby Dick at AllMovie
Moby Dick Pub Youghal - Location


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by John Huston















































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works of Ray Bradbury





































































































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)
































































 


Categories: 1956 films
English-language films
American films
1950s adventure films
American adventure films
Elstree Studios films
Films about whales
Films about whaling
Films based on Moby-Dick
Films directed by John Huston
Films set in the 1840s
Films set in Massachusetts
Films shot in Portugal
Films shot in the Canary Islands
Warner Bros. films
Works by Ray Bradbury
Monster movies








Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Català
Deutsch
Español
Euskara
Français
Italiano
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Русский
Suomi
Svenska
Edit links
This page was last modified on 26 June 2014 at 17:38.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_(1956_film)












Moby-Dick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Changes must be reviewed before being displayed on this page.show/hide details



Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Moby-Dick (disambiguation).
Page protected with pending changes level 1
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Moby-Dick FE title page.jpg
Title page, first American edition of Moby-Dick

Author
Herman Melville
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Adventure novel, Epic, Sea story
Publisher
Richard Bentley(Britain)
Harper & Brothers(U.S.)

Publication date
 October 18, 1851 (Britain)
November 14, 1851 (U.S.)
Pages
927 (British first edition, 3 vols.)
635 (U.S. first edition)
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale(1851) is the sixth book by American writer Herman Melvilleand an epicsea storyof Captain Ahab's voyage in vengeful pursuit of Moby Dick, a sperm whalewho bit off Ahab's leg at a previous encounter. The book received mixed reviews and became a contemporary commercial failure. Out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation rose during the twentieth century. D.H. Lawrencecalled it "the greatest book of the sea ever written."[1]Jorge Luis Borgespraised the style: "Unforgettable phrases abound."[2]Today it is considered one of the Great American Novelsand a leading work of American Romanticism.
The opening line, "Call me Ishmael", is one of the most recognizable opening lines in Western literature. Ishmaelthen narrates the voyage of the whaleshipPequod,commanded by Captain Ahab. Ahab has one purpose: revenge on Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white whalewhich on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale huntingand the process of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God.
Melville uses a wide range of styles and literary devicesranging from lists and catalogs to Shakespeareanstage directions, soliloquies, and asides.


Contents [hide]
1Plot
2Characters2.1Ishmael
2.2Ahab
2.3Elijah
2.4Captain Boomer
2.5Moby Dick
2.6Mates
2.7Harpooneers
2.8Other notable characters
2.9Ships
3Autobiographical elements
4Structure4.1Ahab and Ishmael
5Style
6Major themes6.1Subjectivity of perception
6.2Race
7Background7.1Melville's sources7.1.1Whales and whaling
7.2Composition
8Publication history8.1Last-minute change of title
8.2American vs. English edition8.2.1Melville's corrections and revisions to the English edition
8.2.2Censorship of the English edition

9Critical reception9.1Melville's expectations
9.2Contemporary
9.3Underground
9.4The Melville Revival
9.5Post-revival
10Adaptations
11Editions
12Notes
13Footnotes
14Sources
15External links

Plot[edit]
See also: List of Moby-Dick characters




Voyage of the Pequod (illustrated by Everett Henry).
The narrator, Ishmael, is an observant young man setting out from Manhattan Islandwho has experience in the merchant marinebut has recently decided his next voyage will be on a whaling ship. On a cold, gloomy night in December, he arrives at the Spouter-Inn in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and agrees to share a bed with a then-absent stranger. When his bunkmate, a heavily tattooedPolynesianharpoonernamed Queequeg, returns very late and discovers Ishmael beneath his covers, both men are alarmed, but the two quickly become close friends and decide to sail together from Nantucket, Massachusetts, on a whaling voyage.
In Nantucket, the pair sign on with the Pequod, a whaling ship that is soon to leave port. The ship’s captain, Ahab, is nowhere to be seen; nevertheless, they are told of him — a "grand, ungodly, godlike man,"[3]who has "been in colleges as well as 'mong the cannibals," according to one of the ship's owners. The two friends encounter a mysterious man named Elijah on the dock after they sign their papers and he hints at troubles to come with Ahab. The mystery grows on Christmas morning when Ishmael spots dark figures in the mist, apparently boarding the Pequodshortly before it sets sail that day.
The ship’s officers direct the early voyage while Ahab stays in his cabin. The chief mate is Starbuck, a serious, sincere Quakerand fine leader; second mate is Stubb, happy-go-lucky and cheerful and always smoking his pipe; the third mate is Flask, short, stout, thoroughly reliable. Each mate is responsible for a whaling boat, and each whaling boat of the Pequodhas its own pagan harpooneer assigned to it. Some time after sailing, Ahab finally appears on the quarter-deckone morning, an imposing, frightening figure whose haunted visage sends shivers over the narrator. One of his legs is missing from the knee down and has been replaced by a prosthesis fashioned from a sperm whale's jawbone.

He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness... Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing, you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish. It resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded.
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 28
Soon gathering the crewmen together, with a rousing speech Ahab secures their support for his single, secret purpose for this voyage: hunting down and killing Moby Dick, an old, very large sperm whale, with a snow-white hump and mottled skin, that crippled Ahab on his last whaling voyage. Only Starbuck shows any sign of resistance to the charismatic but monomaniacal captain. The first mate argues repeatedly that the ship’s purpose should be to hunt whales for their oil, with luck returning home profitably, safely, and quickly, but not to seek out and kill Moby Dick in particular — and especially not for revenge. Eventually even Starbuck acquiesces to Ahab's will, though harboring misgivings.
The mystery of the dark figures seen before the Pequodset sail is explained during the voyage's first lowering for whales. Ahab has secretly brought along his own boat crew, including a mysterious harpooneer named Fedallah (also referred to as 'the Parsee'), an inscrutable figure with a sinister influence over Ahab. Later, while watching one night over a captured whale carcass, Fedallah gives dark prophecies to Ahab regarding their twin deaths.




Moby Dick
The novel describes numerous "gams," social meetings of two ships on the open sea. Crews normally visit each other during a gam, captains on one vessel and chief mates on the other. Mail may be exchanged and the men talk of whale sightings or other news. For Ahab, however, there is but one relevant question to ask of another ship: “Hast thou seen the White Whale?” After meeting several other whaling ships, which have their own peculiar stories, the Pequodenters the Pacific Ocean. Queequeg becomes deathly ill and, fearing an ordinary burial at sea, requests that a coffin be built for him by the ship’s carpenter. Just as everyone has given up hope, Queequeg changes his mind, deciding to live after all, and recovers quickly. His coffin becomes his sea chest, and is later caulked and pitched to replace the Pequod's lifebuoy.
Soon word is heard from other whalers of Moby Dick. The jolly Captain Boomer of the Samuel Enderbyhas lost an arm to the whale, and is stunned at Ahab's burning need for revenge. Next they meet the Rachel, which has seen Moby Dick very recently. As a result of the encounter, one of its boats is missing; the captain’s youngest son had been aboard. The Rachel's captain begs Ahab to aid in the search for the missing boat, but Ahab is resolute; the Pequodis very near the White Whale now and will not stop to help. Finally the Delightis met, even as its captain buries a sailor who had been killed by Moby Dick. Starbuck begs Ahab one final time to reconsider his thirst for vengeance, but to no avail.
The next day, the Pequodmeets Moby Dick. For two days, the Pequod's crew pursues the whale, which wreaks widespread destruction, including the disappearance of Fedallah. On the third day, Moby Dick rises to the surface, revealing Fedallah's corpse, held to the whale by a tangle of harpoon ropes. Even after the initial battle on the third day, it is clear that while Ahab is a vengeful whale-hunter, Moby Dick, while dangerous and fearless, is not motivated to hunt humans. As he swims away from the Pequod, Starbuck exhorts Ahab one last time to desist, observing that:

"Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!".
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 135
Ahab ignores this voice of reason and continues with his ill-fated chase. As the three boats sail out to hunt him, Moby Dick damages two of them, forcing them to go back to the ship and leaving only Ahab's vessel intact. Ahab harpoons the whale, but the harpoon-line breaks. Moby Dick then rams the Pequoditself, which begins to sink. As Ahab harpoons the whale again, the unfolding harpoon-line catches him around his neck and he is dragged into the depths of the sea by the diving Moby Dick. The boat is caught up in the whirlpool of the sinking ship, which takes the crew on board to their deaths. Only Ishmael survives, clinging to Queequeg’s coffin-turned-lifebuoy for an entire day and night before the Rachelrescues him.
Characters[edit]
The crew-members of the Pequodare carefully drawn stylizations of human types and habits; critics have often described the crew as a "self-enclosed universe". There are 30 crew members, and as there were thirty states in the union at the time, it has been suggested that, in its diversity, Melville meant the Pequodto be a metaphor for America.[citation needed]
Ishmael[edit]
Main article: Ishmael (Moby-Dick)
Ishmael, the only surviving crewmember of the Pequod, is the narrator of the book. As a character he is a few years younger than as a narrator. His importance relies on his role as narrator; as a character, he is only a minor or peripheral crewmember. The name has come to symbolize orphans, exiles, and social outcasts[4] — in the opening paragraph of Moby-Dick, Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of alienationfrom human society. In the last line of the book, Ishmael also refers to himself symbolically as an orphan, which maintains the Biblical connection and emphasises the representation of outcasts. In the Book of Genesis, Ishmael is the son of Abraham and his wife's maidservant, Hagar, whom his barren wife, Sarah, gives to her husband so he may have a son. When Sarah finally bears a son, Isaac, she decides Ishmael would not be a good influence on Isaac and therefore has Abraham exile Hagar and Ishmael into the desert (Genesis 21:10).
Ishmael has a rich literary background (he has previously been a schoolteacher), which he brings to bear on his shipmates and events that occur while at sea. His assurance that "only I alone escaped to tell you" (tell thee) is the messenger's admonishment in Job 1: 15–17, 19. He also likens himself to " another Ixion."
Ahab[edit]
Main article: Captain Ahab (Moby-Dick)




Moby Dick
Ahab is the tyrannical captain of the Pequodwho is driven by a monomaniacaldesire to kill Moby Dick, the whale that had maimed him off the coast of Japan[5]during a previous whaling voyage. Although he is a Quaker, he seeks revenge in defiance of his religion's well-known pacifism. Ahab's Biblical namesake is the evil idol-worshipping ruler in the Book of Kings, and this association prompts Ishmael to ask, after first hearing Ahab's name:

When that wicked kingwas slain, the dogs, did they not lick his blood?
—Moby-Dick, Chapter 16. "The Ship"[6]
When Ishmael remarks upon the ill associations of such a name, he is rebuked by one of Ahab's colleagues, who points out that "He did not name himself."
Little information is provided about Ahab's life prior to meeting Moby Dick, although it is known that he was orphanedat a young age. When discussing the purpose of his quest with Starbuck, it is revealed that he first began whaling at eighteen and has continued in the trade for forty years making him 58 years of age[7]and having spent less than three on land. He also mentions his "girl-wife", whom he married late in life, and their young son, but does not give their names.
Ahab ultimately dooms the crew of the Pequod(save for Ishmael) to death by his obsession with Moby Dick. During the final chase, Ahab hurls his last harpoon while yelling his now-famous revenge line:

...to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.
—Moby-Dick, Chapter 135. "The Chase.—Third Day"[8]
The harpoon becomes lodged in Moby Dick's flesh and Ahab, caught around the neck by a loop in his own harpoon's rope and unable to free himself, is dragged down into the cold oblivion of the sea by the injured whale. The mechanics of Ahab's death are richly symbolic. He is killed by his own harpoon, a victim of his own twisted obsession and desire for revenge. The whale eventually destroys the whaleboats and crew, and sinks the Pequod.
Ahab's motivation for hunting Moby Dick is explored in the following passage:

The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung. That intangible malignity which has been from the beginning; to whose dominion even the modern Christians ascribe one-half of the worlds; which the ancient Ophites of the east reverenced in their statue devil;—Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.
—Moby-Dick, Chapter 41. "Moby Dick"[9]
Elijah[edit]
The character Elijah (named for the Biblical prophetElijah, who is also referred to in the King James Bibleas Elias), on learning that Ishmael and Queequeg have signed onto Ahab's ship, asks, "Anything down there about your souls?" When Ishmael reacts with surprise, Elijah continues:

Oh, perhaps you hav'n't got any," he said quickly. "No matter though, I know many chaps that hav'n't got any — good luck to 'em; and they are all the better off for it. A soul's a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon."
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 19 [10]
Later in the conversation, Elijah adds:

Well, well, what's signed, is signed; and what's to be, will be; and then again, perhaps it wont be, after all. Any how, it's all fixed and arranged a'ready; and some sailors or other must go with him, I suppose; as well these as any other men, God pity 'em! Morning to ye, shipmates, morning; the ineffable heavens bless ye; I'm sorry I stopped ye.
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 19 [10]
Captain Boomer[edit]
Captain of the Samuel Enderbyof London, Ahab encounters him at sea. Boomer has not only seen Moby Dick recently, but lost his arm to him in a previous attack. Like Ahab, he has replaced the missing limb with a prosthesis made of sperm whale bone. Ahab immediately assumes he has found a kindred spirit in his thirst for vengeance, but Boomer is yet another representation of the duality to be found throughout the novel; in this instance, a sane and rational counterpart to Ahab. While Boomer also anthropomorphizes Moby Dick, describing the "boiling rage" the whale seemed to be in when Boomer attempted to capture him, he has easily come to terms with losing his arm, and harbors no ill-will against Moby Dick, advising Ahab "he's best left alone". The Enderby'sdoctor provides solid reasoning for this attitude, informing the gathering:

Do you know, gentlemen, that the digestive organs of the whale are so inscrutably constructed by Divine Providence, that it is quite impossible for him to completely digest even a man's arm? And he knows it too. So that what you take for the White Whale's malice is only his awkwardness. For he never means to swallow a single limb; he only thinks to terrify by feints.
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 100
Boomer jokingly tells a long yarn about the loss of his arm; this attitude, coupled with a lack of urgency in telling where he sighted Moby Dick, infuriates Ahab, leading Boomer to query, "Is your captain crazy?" Ahab immediately quits the Enderbyand is so hasty in his return to the Pequodthat he cracks and splinters his whalebone leg, then further damages it in admonishing the helmsman. While appearing to be whole, the leg is badly damaged and cannot be trusted; it now serves as metaphor for its wearer.
Moby Dick[edit]
He is a giant, largely (but not completely) white, bull sperm whaleand arguably the main antagonistof the novel. Melville describes him as having prominent white areas around his wrinkled forehead and dorsal fin, the rest of his body being of stripes and patches between white and gray.[11]The animal's exact dimensions are never given but Melville claims in the novel that sperm whales can reach a length of ninety feet[12](larger than any officially recorded[13]) and that Moby Dick is possibly the largest sperm whale that ever lived. Other notable physical traits are an unusual spout, a deformed jaw, three punctures in his right flukeand several harpoons imbedded in his side from unsuccessful hunts.[14]Having a near legendary reputation among whalers, several fatal encounters have been attributed to him over a number of years, his attacks interpreted by some as being deliberate acts not of "an unintelligent agent."[15]He bit off Ahab's leg, leaving Ahab to swear revenge. The cetaceanalso attacked the Racheland killed the captain's son. At the end of the story he kills the entire crew of the Pequod, with the exception of Ishmael. The story does not tell whether he survives his own wounds after that. Although he is an integral part of the novel, Moby Dick appears in just three of the 135 chapters and the reader does not have access to his thoughts and motivations. Moby Dick is considered to be a symbol of a number of things, among them God, nature, fate, the ocean, and the very universe itself.
The symbolism of the White Whale is deliberately enigmatic, and its inscrutability is a deliberate challenge to the reader. Ishmael describes the whale’s forehead as having wrinkles and scars on it that look like hieroglyphics, and recounts:

If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant’s face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of the Sperm Whale’s brow? I put that brow before you. Read it if you can.
—Moby-Dick, Ch. 79
All the reader can know is that the White Whale symbolizes many things to various characters in the novel. It is their personal interpretations of Moby-Dick, in addition to their individual ruminations on the gold doubloonAhab has nailed to the mast to motivate his crew, that serve as a further clue to their own inner makeup.
Mates[edit]
The three mates of the Pequodare all from New England. Starbuck, the young chief mateof the Pequod, is a thoughtful and intellectual Quakerfrom Nantucket. He is married with a son. Such is his desire to return to them, that when nearly reaching the last leg of their quest for Moby Dick, he considers arresting or even killing Ahab with a loaded musket, and turning the ship back, straight for home. Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal, which lacks reason; such a desire is blasphemous to his Quaker religion. Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. But he lacks the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and is unable to persuade them to turn back. Despite his misgivings, he feels himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain. Starbuck was an important Quaker family name on Nantucket Island, and there were several actual whalemen of this period named Starbuck, as evidenced by the name of Starbuck Islandin the South Pacificwhaling grounds. The multinational coffee chain Starbuckswas named after Starbuck, not due to any affinity for coffee, but because the name "Pequod" was first rejected by one of the co-founders.
Stubb, the second mateof the Pequod, is from Cape Cod, and always seems to have a pipe in his mouth and a smile on his face. "Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests." (Moby-Dick, Ch. 27) Although he is not an educated man, Stubb is remarkably articulate, and during whale hunts keeps up an imaginative patter reminiscent of that of some characters in Shakespeare. Scholarly portrayals range from that of an optimistic simpleton to a paragon of lived philosophic wisdom.[16]
Flaskis the third mateof the Pequod. He is from Martha's Vineyard.
Harpooneers[edit]




Queequeg
Main article: Queequeg
The harpooneers of the Pequodare all non-Christians from various parts of the world. Each serves on a mate's boat.
Queequeghails from the fictional island of Rokovoko in the South Seas, inhabited by a cannibaltribe, and is the son of the chief of his tribe. Since leaving the island, he has become extremely skilled with the harpoon. He befriends Ishmael early in the novel, when they meet before leaving for Nantucket. He is described as existing in a state between civilized and savage. Queequeg is the harpooneer on Starbuck's boat, where Ishmael is also an oarsman. Queequeg is best friends with Ishmael in the story. He is prominent early in the novel, but later fades in significance, as does Ishmael.
Tashtegois described as a Gay Head(Wampanoag) Native Americanharpooneer. The personification of the hunter, he turns from hunting land animals to hunting whales. Tashtego is the harpooneer on Stubb's boat.
Daggoois a tall (6 ft 5 in or 196 cm) African harpooneer from a coastal village with a noble bearing and grace. He is the harpooneer on Flask's boat.
Fedallahis the harpooneer on Ahab's boat. He is of Persian Zoroastrian("Parsi") descent. He is described as having lived in China. At the time when the Pequodsets sail, Fedallah is hidden on board, and he later emerges with Ahab's boat's crew. Fedallah is referred to in the text as Ahab's "Dark Shadow". Ishmael calls him a "fire worshipper" and the crew speculates that he is a devil in man's disguise. He is the source of a variety of prophecies regarding Ahab and his hunt for Moby Dick.
Other notable characters[edit]
Pip(nicknamed "Pippin," but "Pip" for short) is a African-Americanyouth said to be from Tolland County, Connecticut, although he is referred to as "Alabama Boy". He is "the most insignificant of the Pequod's crew". Because he is physically slight, he is made a ship-keeper, (a sailor who stays aboard the ship while its whaleboats go out). Ishmael contrasts him with the "dull and torpid in his intellects" — and paler and much older — steward Dough-Boy, describing Pip as "over tender-hearted" but "at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe". Ishmael goes so far as to chastise the reader: "Nor smile so, while I write that this little black was brilliant, for even blackness has its brilliancy; behold yon lustrous ebony, panelled in king's cabinets."[17]
The after-oarsman on Stubb's boat is injured, however, so Pip is temporarily reassigned to Stubb's whaleboat crew. The first time out, Pip jumps from the boat, causing Stubb and Tashtego to lose their already-harpooned whale. Tashtego and the rest of the crew are furious; Stubb chides him "officially" and "unofficially," even raising the specter of slavery: "a whale would sell for thirty times what you would, Pip, in Alabama." The next time a whale is sighted, Pip again jumps overboard and is left stranded in the "awful lonesomeness" of the sea while Stubb's and the others' boats are dragged along by their harpooned whales. By the time he is rescued, he has become (at least to the other sailors) "an idiot," "mad." Ishmael, however, thought Pip had a mystical experience: "So man's insanity is heaven's sense." Pip and his experience are crucial because they serve as foreshadowing, in Ishmael's words, "providing the sometimes madly merry and predestinated craft with a living and ever accompanying prophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove her own." Pip's madness is full of poetry and eloquence; he is reminiscent of Tom in King Lear.[17]Ahab later sympathizes with Pip and takes the young boy under his wing.
Dough Boyis the pale, nervous steward of the ship. The Cook(Fleece), Blacksmith(Perth), and Carpenterof the ship are each highlighted in at least one chapter near the end of the book. Fleece, a very old, half-deaf African-American with bad knees, is presented in the chapter "Stubb's Supper" at some length in a dialoguewhere Stubb good-humoredly takes him to task over how to prepare a variety of dishes from the whale's carcass. Ahab calls on the Carpenter to fashion a new whalebone leg after the one he wears is damaged; later he has Perth forge a special harpoon that he carries into the final confrontation with Moby Dick. Perth is one of the few characters whose previous life is given in much detail: his life ashore has been ruined by alcoholism.
The crew as a wholeis international, having constituents from both the United States and rest of the world. Chapter 40, "Midnight, Forecastle," highlights, in its stage-play manner (in Shakespeareanstyle), the striking variety in the sailors' origins. A partial list of the speakers includes sailors from the Isle of Man, France, Iceland, the Netherlands, the Azores, Sicilyand Malta, China, Chile, Denmark, Portugal, India, Tahiti, England, Spain, and Ireland.
Ships[edit]
Main article: Pequod (Moby-Dick)
The Pequodis named for the now extinct Pequot tribeof Native Americans. The Jerobeam, the Rachel, and the Jungfrauare ships with Biblical names, with the last ship representing "the Five Foolish Virgins of Jesus's parable, who, going to meet the Bridegroom without oil in their lamps, tried to borrow from their five wise sisters. For Master Derick de Deer of the Jungfrau, or Virginas Ishmael obligingly translates, eagerly boards the Pequodto obtain oil from Ahab for his empty lamp-feeder."[18]
Autobiographical elements[edit]
Moby-Dickis based on Melville's actual experience on a whaler. On December 30, 1840, he signed on as a green hand for the maiden voyage of the Acushnet,planned to last for 52 months. Its owner, Melvin O. Bradford resembled Bildad, who signed on Ishmael, in that he was a Quaker: on several instances when he signed documents, he erased the word "swear" and replaced it with "affirm".[19]Its captain was Valentine Pease, Jr., who was 43 years old at the start of the voyage.[20]Although 26 men signed up as crew members, two did not show up for the ship's departure and were replaced by one new crew member. Five of the crew were foreigners, four of them Portuguese. The Scottish carpenter was one of the two who did not show for the ship's departure. There were three black men in the crew, two seaman and the cook. Fleece, the cook of the Pequod, was also black, and therefore probably modeled on this Philadelphia-born William Maiden, who was 38 years old when he signed for the Acushnet.[21]
Only eleven of the 26 original crew members completed the voyage. The others either deserted or were regularly discharged.[22]The First Officer, Frederic Raymond, left the ship after a "fight" with the captain.[23]A first mate, actually called Edward C. Starbuck, was on an earlier voyage with Captain Pease, in the early 1830s, and was discharged at Tahitiunder mysterious circumstances.[24]The second mateon the Acushnet'was John Hall, English-born but a naturalized American.[25]He is identified as Stubb in an annotation in the book's copy of crew member Henry Hubbard, who, like Melville, had joined the voyage as a green hand. Hubbard also identified the model for Pip: John Backus, a little black man added to the crew during the voyage.[26]Hubbard's annotation appears in the chapter "The Castaway" and reveals that Pip's falling into the water was authentic; Hubbard was with him in the same boat when the incident occurred.
Ahab seems to have no model in real life, but his death seems to be based on an actual event. On May 18, 1843, Melville was aboard The Star, which sailed for Honolulu. Aboard were two sailors from the Nantucketwho could have told him that they had seen their second mate "taken out of a whaleboat by a foul line and drowned".[27]The model for the Whaleman's Chapel of chapter 7 is the Seamen's Bethel on Johnny Cake Hill. There Melville heard the chaplain, the 63 year old Reverend Enoch Mudge, who is at least in part the model for Father Mapple. Even the topic of Jonah and the Whalemay be authentic, for Mudge was a contributor to Sailor's Magazine, which printed in December 1840 the ninth of a series of sermons on Jonah.[28]
Structure[edit]
Despite its length and its apparent wanderings, Moby-Dickis "a remarkably tight fiction."[29]
Ahab and Ishmael[edit]
The novel is structured around the two consciousnesses of Ahab and Ishmael, with Ahab as a force of linearity and Ishmael a force of digression.[30]While both have an angry sense of being orphaned, they try to come to terms with this hole in their beings in different ways: Ahab with violence, Ishmael with meditation. And while the plot in Moby-Dickmay be driven by Ahab's anger, Ishmael's desire to get a hold of the "ungraspable" accounts for the novel's lyricism.[31]
One of the most distinctive features of the book is the variety of genres that appear. Bezanson mentions sermons, dreams, travel account, autobiography, Elizabethan plays, epic poetry.[32]Some scholars have tried to identify a single genre underlying the whole. Charles Olson saw the Elizabethan play as a likely model, but the experiment of establishing acts only revealed that the chapters resist inclusive arrangements.[33]F.O. Matthiessen joined Olson's enterprise, only to admit that some two hundred central pages delay the forward movement of the drama.[34]Northrop Fryefound the book to be the best illustration of the "romance-anatomy," but Bezanson cautions us not to forget that the book's "deepest anxieties" stem not from whales but from the Bible and Shakespeare. Newton Arvin tried to link the book to the heroic poem or epic, but found that the book escapes epic form.[34]In the words of scholars John Bryant and Haskell S. Springer, "Moby-Dickis a classic because it defies classification."[35]It is both drama and meditation, a tragedy and a comedy, a stage play and prose poem. Essay, myth, and encyclopedia.[36]
One level of the book is its documentary guise, emphasized by the presence of explanatory footnotes by Ishmael--"a Nabokovian touch."[37]Besides the books on whaling, Melville's experiences in the Pacific constitute the documentary validation.[38]
Style[edit]
Most of all, the book is language, or, as Bryant and Springer sum up: "nautical, biblical, Homeric, Shakespearean, Miltonic, cetological, alliterative, fanciful, colloquial, archaic, and unceasingly allusive."[36]The last two words are the most significant, for they describe the most Melvillean of the characteristics of Melville's prose. Yet Bryant and Springer mention another one: "Most amazing are the paragraph-long sentences that defy the gravity of normal syntax, and yet stay grammatical and alive."[36]
Major themes[edit]
Subjectivity of perception[edit]
Chief among the thematic content are Melville's epistemological views. The American edition has Ahab "discover no sign" (Ch, 133) of the whale when he is staring in the deep. In fact, Moby Dick is then swimming up at him. In the British edition, Melville changed the word "discover" to "perceive." And with good reason, for "discovery" means finding what is already there, but "perceiving," or better still, perception is "a matter of shaping what exists by the way in which we see it."[39]The point is not that Ahab would discover the whale as an object, but that he would perceive it as a symbol of his making.[39]This theme pervades the whole book, perhaps never so emphatically as in "The Doubloon" (Ch. 99), where each crewmember perceives the coin in a way shaped by his own personality.
Race[edit]
While it may be rare for a mid-nineteenth century American book to feature black characters in a non-slavery context, slavery is frequently mentioned. The theme of race is primarily carried by Pip, the diminutive black cabin boy.[40]When Pip has almost drowned, Ahab, genuinely touched by Pip's suffering, questions him gently, Pip "can only parrot the language of an advertisement for the return of a fugitive slave: 'Pip! Reward for Pip!'"[41]
All races are represented among the crewmembers of the Pequod. Ishmael and Queequeg's sensual friendship initiates a kind of racial harmony that is shattered when the crew's dancing erupts into racial conflict in "Midnight, Forecastle" (Ch. 40).[30]Fifty chapters later, Pip suffers mental disintegration after some incidents where he is reminded that as a slave he would be worth less money than a whale. Commodified and brutalized, "Pip becomes the ship's conscience."[42]
Background[edit]
Melville's sources[edit]
Whales and whaling[edit]
In addition to his own experience on the whaling ship Acushnet, two actual events served as the genesis for Melville's tale. One was the sinking of the Nantucketship Essexin 1820, after it was rammed by a large sperm whale2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the western coast of South America.[43]First mate Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, recorded the events in his 1821 Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex.
The other event was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the albinosperm whale Mocha Dick, in the waters off the Chileanisland of Mocha. Mocha Dick was rumored to have twenty or so harpoons in his back from other whalers, and appeared to attack ships with premeditated ferocity. One of his battles with a whaler served as subject for an article by explorer Jeremiah N. Reynoldsin the May 1839 issue of The Knickerbockeror New-York Monthly Magazine.[44]Melville was familiar with the article, which described:

This renowned monster, who had come off victorious in a hundred fights with his pursuers, was an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength. From the effect of age, or more probably from a freak of nature... a singular consequence had resulted – he was white as wool![44]
Significantly, Reynolds writes a first-person narrationthat serves as a framefor the story of a whaling captain he meets. The captain resembles Ahab and suggests a similar symbolism and single-minded motivation in hunting this whale, in that when his crew first encounters Mocha Dick and cowers from him, the captain rallies them:

As he drew near, with his long curved back looming occasionally above the surface of the billows, we perceived that it was white as the surf around him; and the men stared aghast at each other, as they uttered, in a suppressed tone, the terrible name of MOCHA DICK!
"Mocha Dick or the d----l [devil],' said I, 'this boat never sheers off from any thing that wears the shape of a whale."[44]
Mocha Dick had over 100 encounters with whalers in the decades between 1810 and the 1830s. He was described as being gigantic and covered in barnacles. Although he was the most famous, Mocha Dick was not the only white whale in the sea, nor the only whale to attack hunters.[45]
While an accidental collision with a sperm whale at night accounted for sinking of the Unionin 1807,[46]it was not until August 1851 that the whaler Ann Alexander, while hunting in the Pacific off the Galapagos Islands, became the second vessel since the Essexto be attacked, holed and sunk by a whale. Melville remarked:

Ye Gods! What a commentator is this Ann Alexanderwhale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster.[47]
While Melville had already drawn on his different sailing experiences in his previous novels, such as Mardi, he had never focused specifically on whaling. The eighteen months he spent as an ordinary seaman aboard the whaler Acushnetin 1841–42, and one incident in particular, now served as inspiration. It was during a mid-ocean "gam" (rendezvous at sea between ships) that he met Chase's son William, who lent him his father's book. Melville later wrote:

I questioned him concerning his father's adventure; . . . he went to his chest & handed me a complete copy . . . of the Narrative [of the Essex catastrophe]. This was the first printed account of it I had ever seen. The reading of this wondrous story on the landless sea, and so close to the very latitude of the shipwreck, had a surprising effect upon me.[48]
The book was out of print, and rare.[49]Knowing that Melville was looking for it, his father-in-law, Lemuel Shaw, managed to find a copy and buy it for him. When Melville received it, he fell to it almost immediately, heavily annotating it.[50]




Herman Melville
Moby-Dickcontains large sections—most of them narrated by Ishmael—that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot but describe aspects of the whaling business. Although there had been a successful earlier novel about Nantucket whalers, Miriam Coffin or The Whale-Fisherman(1835) by Joseph C. Hart,[51]which is credited with influencing elements of Melville's work, most accounts of whaling tended to be sensational tales of bloody mutiny, and Melville believed that no book up to that time had portrayed the whaling industry in as fascinating or immediate a way as he had experienced it. Early Romantics also proposed that fiction was the exemplary way to describe and record history, so Melville wanted to craft something educational and definitive.
Composition[edit]
Nathaniel Hawthorneand his family had moved to a small red farmhouse near Lenox, Massachusetts, at the end of March 1850.[52]He became friends with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.and Melville beginning on August 5, 1850, when the authors met at a picnic hosted by a mutual friend.[53]Melville had just read Hawthorne's short story collection Mosses from an Old Manse, and his unsigned review of the collection, titled "Hawthorne and His Mosses", was printed in the The Literary Worldon August 17 and 24.[54]The essay is "so deeply related to Melville's imaginative and intellectual world while writing Moby-Dick," Bezanson finds, "as to be everybody's prime piece of contextual reading; it could be printed almost as a preface, as relevant to Moby-Dickas Whitman'sPreface would be to his 1855 Leaves of Grass."[55]Hawthorne is compared to Shakespeare and Dante, and it is "impossible to miss Melville's self-projection" in the repeats of the word "genius, the more than twenty-five references to Shakespeare, and in the insistence that "Shakespeare's unapproachability" is nonsense for an American.[55]
It is unknown whether Melville first conceived of the book as just another personal story, or as a more ambitious project in the vein of Mardi.[56]He may either have found a plot before writing, or discovered his plot as the writing process was underway. Considering his elaborate use of sources, "it is safe to say that Melville's reading in them...helped him shape his whaling narrative, including its plot."[57]
The earliest surviving mention of the composition of the then unnamed work[55][58]is the final paragraph of the letter Melville wrote to Richard Henry Dana, Jr.on May 1, 1850:

About the "whaling voyage"--I am half way in the work, & am very glad that your suggestion so jumps with mine. It will be a strange sort of book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you may get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree;--& to cook the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy, which from the nature of the thing, must be ungainly as the gambols of the whales themselves. Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this.[59]
Less than two months later, in a letter of June 27, Melville reported to Richard Bentley, his English publisher:

My Dear Sir,--In the latter part of the coming autumn I shall have ready a new work; and I write you now to propose its publication in England.The book is a romance of adventure, founded upon certain wild legends in the Southern Sperm Whale Fisheries, and illustrated by the author's own personal experience, of two years & more, as a harpooneer.[60]
The most intense work on the book was done during the winter of 1850–1851, when Melville had changed the noise of New York City for a farm in Pittsfield. During these months, he wrote several letters to Hawthorne which show that "Melville's moods are cyclical, from letter to letter (and even within one letter)." A letter from June 1851 summarizes Melville's career in three sentences: "What I feel most moved to write, that is banned,--it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the otherway I cannot. So the product is a final hash, and all my books are botches."[61]This is still the same stubbornness of the Melville who stood by Mardiand talked about his other, more commercial books with contempt. The letter contains a revealing passage of how Melville experienced his development from his 25th year: "Three weeks have scarcely passed, at any time between then and now, that I have not unfolded within myself. But I feel that I am now come to the inmost leaf of the bulb, and that shortly the flower must fall to the mould."[62]Bezanson's analysis of the evidence implies the conclusion that Melville's imagination unfolded in a way that he did not anticipate in the spring of 1850, an unfolding that led his book to evolve and expand along the lines of its original conception rather than departing from it.
The book would be finished a year later than announced (the author's role of harpooner was not accurate either[55]), giving room for scholars to develop a theory about the work's course of completion which holds that Melville's original conception was a straight narrative of a whaling voyage, only changed into the book it became after he met Hawthorne.[63][64]The theory has been harpooned in two ways by Bezanson: he disagrees with both the underlying assumption about Melville's intellectual development before 1850 and the way scholars have been evaluating the evidence. "The implication here," Bezanson argues, "is that Melville was notready for the kind of book Moby-Dickbecame, that he despaired of picking up where he had left off with Mardi, that the critics, or financial need, or self-doubt, or a combination of these for six months had him tied down. But the profile that emerges from reading the documents, beginning with the almost rudely bold letter he wrote to John Murray on 25 March 1848, a virtual declaration of literary independence, takes quite another shape."[55]Melville's letters of this period show him denouncing his last two straight narratives, Redburnand White-Jacket, as two books written just for the money, and he firmly stood by Mardias the kind of book he believed in. His language is already "richly steeped in seventeenth century mannerisms," which are characteristic of the style of Moby-Dick.
The Dana letter quoted above has led scholars to argue that Melville started out writing another kind of book than it became, but the language of the letter contains many ambiguities. The usual assumption, Bezanson argues, "is that Dana's 'suggestion' would obviously be that Melville do for whaling what he had done for life on a man-of-war in White-Jacket."[55]But J. Ross Browne had already accomplished that, said Melville in his 1847 review. In addition, Dana had experienced how incomparable Melville was in dramatic story telling when he met him in Boston, so perhaps "his 'suggestion' was that Melville do a book that captured that gift."[55]And the long sentence in the middle of the above quotation simply acknowledges that Melville is struggling with the problem, not of choosing between fact and fancy but of how to interrelate them. The most positive statements are that it will be a strange sort of a book and that Melville means to give the truth of the thing, but what thing exactly is not clear.[55]
Melville's four "quite wonderful" letters from November 1848 to April 1849 to Evert A. Duyckinck are evidence of the "immense leap of his ambitions" since the writing of Mardi.[55]The second letter, dated February 24, 1849, dates the beginning of the development of the Shakespearean style of Moby-Dick: Melville, just having acquired a Shakespeare edition, describes his discovery of Shakespeare "as if he had never heard of him before."[55]

It is an edition in glorious great type, every letter whereof is a soldier, & the top of every "t" like a musket barrel. Dolt & ass that I am I have lived more than 29 years, & until a few days ago, never made close acquaintance with the divine William. Ah, he's full of sermons-on-the-mount, and gentle, aye, almost as Jesus. I take such men to be inspired. I fancy that this moment Shakespeare in heaven ranks with Gabriel Raphael and Michael. And if another Messiah ever comes twill be in Shakespeare's person. --I am mad to think how minute a cause has prevented me hitherto from reading Shakespeare. But until now, every copy that was come-atable to me, happened to be in a vile small print unendurable to my eyes which are tender as young sparrows. But chancing to fall in with this glorious edition. I now exult over it, page after page.[65]
Less than two weeks later, on March 3, Melville wrote again on Shakespeare, already with a hint of self-projection[a]when he described the superior writing circumstances Shakespeare would have experienced in present-day America as opposed to Elizabethan England.

I would to God Shakspeare had lived later, & promenaded in Broadway. Not that I might have had the pleasure of leaving my card for him at the Astor, or made merry with him over a bowl of the fine Duyckinck punch; but that the muzzle which all men wore on their souls in the Elizabethan day, might not have intercepted Shakspere's full articulations. For I hold it a verity, that even Shakspeare, was not a frank man to the uttermost. And, indeed, who in this intolerant Universe is, or can be? But the Declaration of Independence makes a difference.[66]
Publication history[edit]
Melville first proposed the English publication, in his letter from June 27, 1850 to Richard Bentley. Usually, Tanselle explains, "proof sheets of the American edition were sent to the English publisher and...American publication was held up until after the work had been set in type and published in England. Given the uncertain legal status of the English copyright for an American work, this procedure was generally regarded as providing the strongest claims for such a copyright".[67]Eventually the new book was finished almost a year later than Melville had announced, and the lack of income from the delayed book forced him to borrow money, as the Harpers had denied him an advance.[b]
Probably to save time in advance of finding an American publisher, Melville arranged for the typesetting and plating of his book: the Harper publishing contract signed on September 12 mentions "the stereotype plates now in the possession of R. Craighead."[68]Robert Craighead, who had printed Typeebefore, had a shop in New York. There would be less delay in publishing once an agreement was reached, plus proceedings for the English publication could move forward.[69]
In June he found himself in New York, in a "third-story room, and work and slave on my 'Whale' while it is driving through the press", as he wrote to Hawthorne.[70]By the end of the month he was back in Pittsfield, now writing to Hawthorne that "'The Whale' is only half through the press; for, wearied with the long delay of printers" Melville came back to the grass to "end the book reclining on it, if I may."[70]Three weeks later, the typsesetting was almost done, as he announced in a letter to Bentley from July 20: "I am now passing thro' the press, the closing sheets of my new work."[70]Melville was simultaneously working on his manuscript and proofreading what had been set. After the returning of his corrected proof the type would be plated, so that the text of earlier parts of the book was already fixed when he was revising the later parts, and Melville must have "felt restricted in the kinds of revisions that were feasible."[71]Tanselle suggests that the following quotation from Melville's next book, Pierre, or the Ambiguities(1852) reflects the experience of finishing Moby-Dick.

At length, domestic matters—rent and bread—had come to such a pass with him, that whether or no, the first pages must go to the printer; and thus was added still another tribulation; because the printed pages now dictated to the following manuscript, and said to all subsequent thoughts and inventions of Pierre--Thus and thus; so and so; else an ill match. Therefore, was his book already limited, bound over, and committed to imperfection, even before it had come to any confirmed form or conclusion at all. Oh, who shall reveal the horrors of poverty in authorship that is high?[72]
On July 3, 1851, Bentley wrote to Melville, offering him ₤150 and "half profits", which offer Melville accepted in a letter dated July 20, after which Bentley drew up a contract on August 13. The term half profits meant the author "was to receive half the profits that remained after deducting all the expenses of production and advertising".[73]Melville signed and returned the contract in early September, and then went to New York to hand the proof sheets, this set made from the finished plates, over to his brother Allan, who sent them to London on September 10.
Melville had had these proofs in his possession for over a month, and could devote all his time to carefully correct and revise them as extensively as he saw fit, because the book would have to be set anew anyway. At this time he had not yet settled with an American publisher, so "there was not the usual urgency about getting the sheets abroad so that English publication could precede American."[74]He had every reason to correct them carefully, if the following passage from Pierreis an accurate description of his correction of the summer in New York.

As every evening, after his day's writing was done, the proofs of the beginning of his work came home for correction. Isabel would read them to him. They were replete with errors; but preoccupied by the thronging, and undiluted, pure imaginings of things, he became impatient of such minute, gnat-like torments; he randomly corrected the worst, and let the rest go; jeering with himself at the rich harvest thus furnished to the entomological critics.[75]
The text of the already plated American edition would be expensive to change, so that the English reading would be the revised one in case of differences between the two editions. The English edition differs from the American in over 700 wordings, in addition to thousands of instances of punctuation and spelling. The most obvious revision is the addition in Chapter 87, "The Grand Armada", of a footnote on the word "gally", which is no part of the American edition.
Bentley received the proof sheets, with Melville's corrections and revisions marked on them, on September 24,[c]Bentley received the proof sheets with Melville's corrections and revisions marked on them, and published it less than four weeks later.
Last-minute change of title[edit]
After Melville had given the proof sheets for Bentley to his brother Allan, he continued to make alterations, even a very important one: he changed the title. Probably late in September, Allan sent Bentley two pages of proof accompanied by a letter of which only an undated draft survives:

Since sending proofs of my brothers new work by the Asia on the 10th he has determined upon a new title & dedication—Enclosed you have proof of both—It is thought here that the new title will be a better sellingtitle—It is to be hoped that this letter may reach New Burlington Street before it is too late to adopt these new pages.

Moby-Dick is a legitimate title for the book, being the name given to a particular whale who if I may so express myself is the hero of the volume.[76]
Changing the title was no problem for the American edition, since the running heads throughout the book only showed the titles of the chapters, and the title page itself could only be printed after a publisher was found, whose name would also appear on the title page. The October issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazineprinted chapter 54, "The Town-Ho's Story", with a footnote saying: "From The Whale.The title of a new work by Mr. Melville, in the press of Harper and Brothers, and now publishing in London by Mr. Bentley."[76]Evidently copy for the issue was still alterable on September 14, since the death of James Fenimore Cooperwas announced. The only one surviving leaf of proof, "a 'trial' page bearing the title 'The Whale' and the Harper imprint,"[77]and this shows that some point after the publishing agreement the original title still stood.
The English edition was in three volumes, each having a title page, and each having the title printed on the first page of the text as well. Changing the title pages was possible, but printing of the text may already have begun or even been finished when Allan's letter arrived. When it did arrive, no sooner than in early October, Bentley had already announced The Whalein both the Athenaemand the Spectatorof October 4 and 11.[78]Probably to accommodate Melville, Bentley inserted a half-title page in the first volume only, which reads "The Whale; or, Moby Dick."[77]
On October 18, the English edition, The Whale, was published; the London Morning Heraldfor October 20 printed the earliest known review. Only 500 copies were printed: the figure for both Mardiand White-Jackethad been 1,000 and that for Redburn750. Bentley's experience in the slow sales of Melville's previous books had convinced him that a smaller number was more realistic.[79]
On November 14, the American edition, Moby-Dick, was published, and the same day reviewed in both the Albany Argusand the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer. On November 19, Washington received the copy deposited for copyright purposes. The first printing of 2,915 copies was almost the same as the first of Mardi, but the first printing of Melville's other three Harper books had been a thousand copies more.[80]
American vs. English edition[edit]
At numerous points the editions differ from each other, the title being only the most obvious difference. The English multi-volume edition necessitated a change in the dedication to Hawthorne: "this book is" was adjusted to "these volumes are."[81]Excluding the preliminaries and extract, the three volumes of the English edition came to 927 pages[82]and the single American volume to 635 pages.[83]The table of contents in the English edition generally follows the actual chapter titles in the American edition, and therefore must have been drawn from the proof sheets, probably by a clerk of Bentley's. Nineteen titles in the American table of contents differ from the titles above the chapters themselves. This list was probably drawn up by Melville himself: the titles of chapters describing encounters of the Pequodwith other ships had—apparently to stress the parallelisms between these chapters—been standardized to "The Pequod meets the...", with the exception of the already published 'The Town-Ho's Story'.[84]For no apparent reason, the "Etymology" and "Extracts" had been moved to the back of the edition, probably reflecting Bentley's own judgment "that they were somehow inappropriate for the opening pages of a novel."[85]An epigraph from Paradise Lost, included in the second of the two quotations from that work in the American edition, appears on the title page of each of the three English volumes.[d]
The final difference concerning the material not already plated is the presence of the "Epilogue," which accounts Ishmael's miraculous survival, in the American edition, and its absence in the English. Obviously the epilogue was not an afterthought too late for inclusion in the English edition, for it is referred to in "The Castaway": "in the sequel of the narrative, it will then be seen what like abandonment befell myself."[86]Why the "Epilogue" is missing, is unknown. Expurgation seems an unlikely explanation, as there seems to be nothing objectionable in it. Most likely it was somehow lost while the preliminaries were moved to the back. In case it should have been misplaced in Bentley's office, it would not be so easy for anyone to recognize what book it was part of as it had no page number or running title, as the other pages did.[87]The only paragraph it consists of does not refer to whaling nor does it feature the name Ishmael, though Ahab's name is mentioned once.
British reviewers read a book with a first-person narrator who apparently did not survive to tell the tale.[88]The reviewer of the Spectatorobjected that "nothing should be introduced into a novel which it is physically impossible for the writer to have known: thus, he must not describe the conversation of miners in a pit if they allperish."[89]" Two papers, the Dublin University Magazineand the Literary Gazette,asked "how does it happen that the author is alive to tell the story?" respectively how the writer, "who appears to have been drowned with the rest, communicated his notes for publication to Mr. Bentley is not explained."[89]
Melville's corrections and revisions to the English edition[edit]
The largest of Melville's revisions is the addition to the English edition of a 139-word footnote on the word "gally." The edition also contains six short phrases and some sixty single words lacking in the American edition.[90]In addition to this, there are about thirty-five changes that produce genuine improvements, as opposed to mere corrections: "Melville may not have made every one of the changes in this category, but it seems certain that he was responsible for the great majority of them."[91]The most convincing example appears near the end of chapter 135, where Tashtego, in the mast of the sinking Pequodhis head already under water, hammers a bird to the mast and then freezes in his "death-grasp." The insertion of an "r", missing in the American edition, restores the opposition with the "ungraspable phantom of life" in the opening chapter, "Loomings."
Censorship of the English edition[edit]
Bentley placed the proof sheets in the hands of one or more revisers to purge the book of any material that might give offense. These expurgations fall into four categories, ranked according to the apparent priorities of the censor:
1.Sacrilegious passages, more than 1200 words. For example in chapter 28, "Ahab," Ahab stands with "a crucifixion" in his face" and this was revised to "an apparently eternal anguish."[92]
2.Sexual matters, including the sex life of whales and even Ishmael's worried anticipation of the nature of Queequeg's underwear.[93]
3.Remarks "belittling royalty or implying a criticism of the British." This meant the exclusion of the complete chapter 25, a "Postscript" on the use of sperm oil at coronations.[94]"Think of that, ye loyal Britons!" the chapter ends, "we whalemen supply your kings and queens with coronation stuff!"
4.Perceived grammatical or stylistic anomalies were treated with "a highly conservative interpretation of rules of 'correctness'."[95]A large number of the variants in wording here make so little difference that it is hard to see why they were made.
These expurgations also meant that any corrections or revisions Melville may have marked upon these passages are now lost.
Critical reception[edit]
Melville's expectations[edit]
In a letter to Nathaniel Hawthornewritten within days of Moby-Dick'sAmerican publication, Melville made a number of revealing comments:

... for not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them. Appreciation! Recognition! Is Joveappreciated? Why, ever since Adam, who has got to the meaning of his great allegory—the world? Then we pigmies must be content to have our paper allegories but ill comprehended. I say your appreciation is my glorious gratuity.[96]

A sense of unspeakable security is in me this moment, on account of your understanding the book. I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. Ineffable sociabilities are in me. I would sit down and dine with you and all the gods in old Rome's Pantheon. It is a strange feeling—no hopefulness is in it, no despair. Content—that is it; and irresponsibility; but without licentious inclination. I speak now of my profoundest sense of being, not of an incidental feeling.[97]

You did not care a penny for the book. But, now and then as you read, you understood the pervading thought that impelled the book—and that you praised. Was it not so? You were archangel enough to despise the imperfect body, and embrace the soul.[98]
Contemporary[edit]
Melville was regarded as a very successful author after the acclaim received by his popular earlier works Typee(1846) and Omoo(1847). He considered Moby-Dickto be his magnum opusbut was shocked and bewildered at the scathing reviews it received. Instead of bringing him the literary acclaim he sought, this masterwork started a slide toward literary obscurity in his lifetime. This was partially because the book was first published in England, and the American literary establishment took note of what the English critics said, especially when these critics were attached to the more prestigious journals. Many critics praised Moby-Dickfor its unique style, interesting characters, and poetic language,[99]but others agreed with a critic associated with the highly regarded London Athenaeum, who described it as:

[A]n ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed.[99]
One problem was that publisher Peter Bentley botched the English edition, most significantly in omitting the epilogue. For this reason, many of the critics faulted the book, what little they could grasp of it, on purely formal grounds, e.g., how the tale could have been told if no one survived to tell it. The generally bad reviews from across the ocean made American readers skittish about picking up the tome. Still, a handful of American critics saw much more in it than most of their U.S. and English colleagues. Hawthorne said of the book:

What a book Melville has written! It gives me an idea of much greater power than his preceding ones.[100]
Another problem was that by the time the book was published, whaling and maritime adventuring were no longer the main focus of the American public. The Gold Rushhad shifted their interest to the West, and the lengthy novel, with its long factual passages dealing with the brutal technology of the whaling industry, seemed far less relevant to the author's American audience.[citation needed]
Underground[edit]
Within a year after Melville's death, Moby-Dick, along with Typee, Omoo, and Mardi, was reprinted by Harper & Brothers, giving it a chance to be rediscovered. However, only New York's literary underground seemed to take much interest, just enough to keep Melville's name circulating for the next 25 years in the capital of American publishing. During this time, a few critics were willing to devote time, space, and a modicum of praise to Melville and his works, or at least those that could still be fairly easily obtained or remembered. Other works, especially the poetry, went largely forgotten.[101]
Then came World War Iand its consequences, particularly the shaking or destruction of faith in so many aspects of Western civilization, all of which caused people concerned with culture and its potential redemptive value to experiment with new aesthetic techniques. The stage was set for Melville's legacy to find its place.
The Melville Revival[edit]
With the burgeoning of Modernist aesthetics (see Modernismand American modernism) and the war that tore everything apart still so fresh in memory, Moby-Dickbegan to seem increasingly relevant. Many of Melville's techniques echo those of Modernism: kaleidoscopic, hybrid in genre and tone, monumentally ambitious in trying to unite so many disparate elements and loose ends.
In 1917, American author Carl Van Dorenbecame the first of this period to proselytize about Melville's value.[101]
In the 1920s, British literary critics began to take notice. In his idiosyncratic but landmark Studies in Classic American Literature, novelist, poet, and short story writer D. H. Lawrencedirected Americans' attention to the great originality and value of many American authors, among them Melville. Perhaps most surprising is that Lawrence saw Moby-Dickas a work of the first order despite his using the original English edition.[101]
In his 1921 study, The American Novel, Carl Van Dorenreturned to Melville with much more depth. He called Moby-Dicka pinnacle of American Romanticism.[101]
Post-revival[edit]
The next great wave of Moby-Dickappraisal came with the publication of F. O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman.[102]Published in 1941, the book proposed that Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville were the most prominent figures of a flowering of conflicted (and mostly pre-Civil War) literature important for its promulgation of democracy and the exploration of its possibilities, successes, and failures. Matthiessen's book came out shortly before the entry of the U.S. into World War II, critic Nick Selby argues that

... Moby-Dickwas now read as a text that reflected the power struggles of a world concerned to uphold democracy, and of a country seeking an identity for itself within that world.[103]
Adaptations[edit]
Main article: Adaptations of Moby-Dick
The novel has been adapted a number of times in various media including the stage, radio, TV, comics and graphic novels and movies. The most famous of these was the John Hustonfilmof 1956 produced from a screenplay by author Ray Bradbury. These plays have varied from a the stage version called Moby Dick! The Musicalto a 2010 film adaptationof the same name.
Editions[edit]
Melville, H. The Whale. London: Richard Bentley, 1851 3 vols. (viii, 312; iv, 303; iv, 328 pp.) Published October 18, 1851.
Melville, H., Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1851. xxiii, 635 pages. Published probably on November 14, 1851.
Melville, H. Moby-Dick, or The Whale.Northwestern-Newberry Edition of the Writings of Herman Melville 6. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern U. Press, 1988. A critical textwith appendices on the history and reception of the book. The text is in the public domain.
Moby-Dick (Norton Critical Editions), Edited by Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford. New York: W.W. Norton, 2nd ed. 2002. ISBN 978-0-393-97283-2.
Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition, Edited by John Bryant and Haskell Springer. New York: Longman, 2007 and 2009. ISBN 978-0-321-22800-0.
Notes[edit]
a.Jump up ^Unfolding in the essay "Hawthorne and his Mosses," see the quote from Bezanson below.
b.Jump up ^Melville already was indebted to them for almost $700, (Tanselle [1988], 660)
c.Jump up ^The next day he wrote about having received Melville's "packet yesterday from the Secretary of Legation." (Tanselle [1988], 680)
d.Jump up ^Melville's involvement with this arrangement is not clear: if it were a gesture of Bentley toward meeting Melville's wishes, as Tanselle (1988, 678) suggests, its selection put an emphasis on the quotation Melville may not have agreed with.
Footnotes[edit]

1.Jump up ^Lawrence (1923), 168
2.Jump up ^Borges cited in Lee (2001), 663
3.Jump up ^Melville, Herman. Moby-Dickp. 96
4.Jump up ^Pirner, Susanne (2005). Call Me Ishmael – A Critical Analysis of the Narrator in Moby Dick. GRIN Verlag. p. 5.
5.Jump up ^Melville p. 159
6.Jump up ^"Chapter 16. The Ship". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
7.Jump up ^Melville p. 620
8.Jump up ^"Chapter 135. The Chase.—Third Day". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
9.Jump up ^"Chapter 41. Moby Dick". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
10.^ Jump up to: ab"Chapter xix – THE PROPHET". Princeton.edu. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
11.Jump up ^Melville, Herman. (1851) Moby~Dick or, the Whale, 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Books, 2001), p. 198-9
12.Jump up ^Melville, Herman. (1851) Moby~Dick or, the Whale, 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Books, 2001), p. 493
13.Jump up ^Ellis, Richard. (2011). The Great Sperm Whale: A Natural History of the Oceans Most Magnificent and Mysterious Creature.USA: University Press of Kansas. p. 432.
14.Jump up ^Melville, Herman. (1851) Moby~Dick or, the Whale, 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Books, 2001), p. 176-7
15.Jump up ^Melville, Herman. (1851) Moby~Dick or, the Whale, 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Books, 2001), p. 199
16.Jump up ^Dagovitz, Alan. "Moby Dick's Hidden Philosopher: A Second Look at Stubb" in Philosophy and LiteratureOct 2008
17.^ Jump up to: abAll quotes are taken from Chapter 93, "The Castaway".
18.Jump up ^Nathalia Wright, Melville's Use of the Bible. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 1949, 71.
19.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 16
20.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 18
21.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 27
22.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 29
23.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 28
24.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 19
25.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 26
26.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 252 note 26
27.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 189
28.Jump up ^Heflin (2004), 41
29.Jump up ^Bryant and Springer (2007), ix-x
30.^ Jump up to: abBryant and Springer (2007), xvi
31.Jump up ^Bryant and Springer (2007), x
32.Jump up ^Bezanson (1986), 188
33.Jump up ^Bezanson (1986), 190
34.^ Jump up to: abBezanson (1986), 191
35.Jump up ^Bryant and Springer (2007), xiv
36.^ Jump up to: abcBryant and Springer (2007), xv
37.Jump up ^Bezanson (1986), 195
38.Jump up ^Bezanson (1986), 194
39.^ Jump up to: abBryant and Springer (2007), xxii
40.Jump up ^Delbanco (2005), 159
41.Jump up ^Delbanco (2005), 161
42.Jump up ^Bryant and Springer (2007), xvii
43.Jump up ^Faiella, Graham, Moby Dick and the whaling industry of the 19th century, New York : The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004. Cf. Chapter 3, "Moby Dick: The Inspiration".
44.^ Jump up to: abcReynolds, J.N., "Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal," The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine. 13.5, May 1839, pp. 377–392.
45.Jump up ^Whipple, Addison Beecher Colvin (1954). Yankee whalers in the South Seas. Doubleday. ISBN 0-8048-1057-5., 66–79
46.Jump up ^Report of the Commissioner By United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, p115
47.Jump up ^Melville's Reflections, a page from The Life and Works of Herman Melville
48.Jump up ^Leyda, Jay. The Melville Log: A Documentary Life of Herman Melville, 1819–1891. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951, 119.
49.Jump up ^Beaver, Harold. "On the Composition of Moby-Dick" (1972), 17, in Moby-Dickby Herman Melville, ed. Harold Beaver. New York: Penguin (1972; reprint 1986), 17. ISBN 0-14-043082-2.
50.Jump up ^Beaver, 17.
51.Jump up ^Mary K. Bercaw, "A Fine, Boisterous Something": Nantucket in Moby-Dick, Historic Nantucket, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Fall 1991); Philip Armstrong, What animals mean in the fiction of modernity, Routledge, 2008, p.132
52.Jump up ^Miller, 274.
53.Jump up ^Cheever, Susan (2006). American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work. Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. ISBN 0-7862-9521-X)p. 174.
54.Jump up ^Miller, 312.
55.^ Jump up to: abcdefghijWalter E. Bezanson, "Moby-Dick: Document, Drama, Dream", in John Bryant (ed.), A Companion to Melville Studies, Greenwoord Press, 1986, 176–180.
56.Jump up ^Bryant and Springer, 2007, viii.
57.Jump up ^Bryant and Springer, 2007, ix.
58.Jump up ^Melville (1993), 160
59.Jump up ^Melville (1993), 162
60.Jump up ^Melville (1993), 163
61.Jump up ^Melville (1993), 191
62.Jump up ^Melville (1993), 193
63.Jump up ^The development of the theory is described in Hayford (1988), 648–59
64.Jump up ^Cf. Bryant, Pp.65–90. Cf. especially the section on "Two Moby-Dicks: Legend and form". Quoting, pp.66–67, "Scholars have long speculated that Melville's friendship with Hawthorne, as well as his absorption of Shakespeare, triggered a significant reorientation of Moby-Dick. The view is that Melville began to write a narrative of whaling fact (like his naval documentary White-Jacket) to be completed by fall 1850. ... However, sometime after the August encounter with Hawthorne, Melville recast the book entirely to include the Shakespeareanized story of Ahab."
65.Jump up ^Melville (1993), 119
66.Jump up ^Melville (1993), 122
67.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 660
68.Jump up ^Cited by Tanselle (1988), 661
69.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 662
70.^ Jump up to: abcCited in Tanselle (1988), 663.
71.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 663
72.Jump up ^Cited in Tanselle (1988), 663–4
73.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 665.
74.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 667
75.Jump up ^Cited in Tanselle (1988), 664
76.^ Jump up to: abCited in Tanselle (1988), 671
77.^ Jump up to: abCited in Tanselle (1988), 672
78.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 673
79.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 683–4
80.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 686–7
81.Jump up ^Cited in Tanselle (1988), 673
82.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 685
83.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 687
84.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 675–676
85.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 678
86.Jump up ^Cited in Tanselle (1988), 679
87.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 678–9
88.Jump up ^Parker (1988), 702
89.^ Jump up to: abCited in Parker (1988), 708
90.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 772
91.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 789
92.Jump up ^Cited in Tanselle (1988), 681 (citation), 784.
93.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 682, 784–5.
94.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 682, 785.
95.Jump up ^Tanselle (1988), 682, 785–7.
96.Jump up ^Melville, Herman. Correspondence, ed. by Lynn Horth. Evanston, IL and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library (1993), 212. Paperback ISBN 0-8101-0995-6. Horth tentatively dates the letter November 17, 1851.
97.Jump up ^Correspondence, 212.
98.Jump up ^Correspondence, 212–213.
99.^ Jump up to: ab"A page from The Life and Works of Herman Melville"
100.Jump up ^Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem Is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 354. ISBN 0-87745-332-2.
101.^ Jump up to: abcd"Chapter 3. Romances of Adventure. Section 2. Herman Melville. Van Doren, Carl. 1921. The American Novel". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
102.Jump up ^Selby, Nick, author and editor. Herman Melville's, Moby-Dick(Columbia Critical Guides series). New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. pp. 51–52. ISBN 0-231-11538-5.
103.Jump up ^Selby, 53.
Sources[edit]
Bezanson, Walter E. (1986). "Moby-Dick: Document, Drama, Dream", in John Bryant (ed.), A Companion to Melville Studies, Greenwoord Press.
Bryant, John and Haskell Springer. (2007). "Introduction," "Explanatory Notes" and "The Making of Moby-Dick". In John Bryant and Haskell Springer (eds), Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. A Longman Critical Edition. New York, Boston, etc.: Pearson Education.
Hayford, Harrison. (1988). "Historical Note Section V," in Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Six. Edited by Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: The Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library, Evanston and Chicago.
Heflin, Wilson. (2004). Herman Melville's Whaling Years. Edited by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Thomas Farel Heffernan. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Lawrence, D.H. (1923). Studies in Classic American Literature. Reprinted London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140183771
Lee, A. Robert (ed.). (2001). Herman Melville: Critical Assessments. Volume IV. The Banks, East Sussex: Helm Information.
Matthiessen, F.O. (1941). American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Tenth Printing, 1966, New York, London and Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Melville, Herman. (1993). Correspondence. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Fourteen. Edited by Lynn Horth. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library.
Parker, Hershel. (1988). "Historical Note Section VII". In Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Six. Edited by Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library.
Parker, Hershel, and Harrison Hayford (eds). (2001). Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. A Norton Critical Edition. Second Edition, New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393972832
Tanselle, G. Thomas. (1988). "Historical Note Section VI" and "Note on the Text". In Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Six. Edited by Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library. ISBN 9780810102699
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moby Dick.
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Moby-Dick
 Wikisourcehas original text related to this article:
Moby-Dick

Moby-Dickat Project Gutenberg
The Big Read at http://www.mobydickbigread.com


[show]
v·
t·
e

Worksby Herman Melville





























































































[show]
v·
t·
e

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick(1851)



































































Categories: Moby-Dick
1851 novels
19th-century American novels
Allegory
American novels adapted into films
Books adapted into films
Fictional amputees
Fictional undersea characters
Fictional toothed whales
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nautical lore
Novels by Herman Melville
Novels set on Cape Cod and the Islands
Whaling in the United States
Sperm whales
Harper & Brothers books
Nautical fiction










Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk











Read

Edit

View history


















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
Aragonés
বাংলা
Беларуская
Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎
Български
Català
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
Basa Jawa
Latina
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
മലയാളം
მარგალური
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Norsk nynorsk
Occitan
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Shqip
සිංහල
Simple English
Slovenčina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Tagalog
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
Winaray
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 23 July 2014 at 11:19.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Useand Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick















Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (disambiguation).



[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve itor discuss these issues on the talk page.




##This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2010)


Text document with red question mark.svg

##This article uses citationsthat link to broken or outdated sources. (September 2013)


Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
20000 title 0a.jpg
Front page of Vingt mille lieues sous les mers

Author
Jules Verne
Original title
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers
Translator
Mercier Lewis
Illustrator
Alphonse de Neuville
and Édouard Riou[citation needed]
Country
France
Language
French
Series
The Extraordinary Voyages#6
Genre
Science fiction, adventure novel
Publisher
Pierre-Jules Hetzel

Publication date
 1870
Preceded by
In Search of the Castaways
Followed by
Around the Moon
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea(French: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction novelby French writer Jules Vernepublished in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemoand his submarineNautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax after he, his servant Conseil, and Canadian harpoonist Ned Land wash up on their ship. On the Nautilus, the three embark on a journey which has them going all around the world.
The original edition had no illustrations; the first illustrated edition was published by Hetzelwith illustrations by Alphonse de Neuvilleand Édouard Riou. The book was highly acclaimed when released and still is now; it is regarded as one of the premiere adventure novels and one of Verne's greatest works, along with Around the World in Eighty Daysand Journey to the Center of the Earth. The description of Nemo's ship, the Nautilus, was considered ahead of its time, as it accurately describes features on submarines, which at the time were very primitive vessels. Thus, the book has been able to age well because of its scientific theories, unlike some other of Verne's works, like Journey to the Center of the Earth, which are not scientifically accurate and serve more simply as adventure novels.


Contents [hide]
1Title
2Plot
3Themes and subtext
4Recurring themes in later books
5English translations
6Adaptations and variations
7Comic book and graphic adaptations
8References in popular culture
9See also
10References
11External links

Title[edit]
The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leaguesis over six times the diameter of Earth.[1]The greatest depth mentioned in the book is four leagues. (The book uses metric leagues, which are four kilometres each.[2]) A literal translation of the French title would end in the plural "seas", thus implying the "seven seas" through which the characters of the novel travel; however, the early English translations of the title used "sea", meaning the ocean in general.
Plot[edit]
In the year 1866, ships of several nations spot a mysterious sea monster, which some suggest to be a giant narwhal. The United States government assembles an expedition in New York Cityto find and destroy the monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologistand narrator of the story, who happens to be in New York at the time, receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition which he accepts. Canadianmaster harpoonistNed Land and Aronnax's faithful servant Conseil are also brought aboard.




Title page(1871)
The expedition departs Brooklyn aboard the United States Navyfrigate Abraham Lincolnand travels south around Cape Horninto the Pacific Ocean. The ship finds the monster after a long search and then attacks the beast, which damages the ship's rudder. The three protagonists are then hurled into the water and grasp hold of the "hide" of the creature, which they find, to their surprise, to be a submarine very far ahead of its era. They are quickly captured and brought inside the vessel, where they meet its enigmatic creator and commander, Captain Nemo.
The rest of the story follows the adventures of the protagonists aboard the creature—the submarine, the Nautilus—which was built in secrecy and now roams the seas free from any land-based government. Captain Nemo's motivation is implied to be both a scientific thirst for knowledge and a desire for revenge on (and self-imposed exile from) civilization. Nemo explains that his submarine is electrically poweredand can perform advanced marine biology research; he also tells his new passengers that although he appreciates conversing with such an expert as Aronnax, maintaining the secrecy of his existence requires never letting them leave. Aronnax is enthralled by the undersea vistas, but Land constantly plans to escape.
They visit many places in the world's oceans, some known to Jules Verne from real travelers' descriptions and speculation, while others are completely fictional. Thus, the travelers witness the real coralsof the Red Sea, the wrecks of the battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarcticice shelves, the Transatlantic telegraph cableand the fictional submerged land of Atlantis. The travelers also use diving suitsto hunt sharksand other marine life with air-guns and have an underwater funeral for a crew member who died when an accident occurred under mysterious—and unknown to the reader—conditions inside the Nautilus. When the Nautilusreturns to the Atlantic Ocean, a pack of "poulpes" (usually translated as a giant squid, although in French "poulpe" means "octopus") attacks the vessel and kills a crew member.
Throughout the story Captain Nemo is suggested to have exiled himself from the world after an encounter with the forces that occupied his country that had devastating effects on his family. Near the end of the book, the Nautilusis attacked by a warship of that nation. Nemo ignores Aronnax's pleas for mercy. Nemo—nicknamed angel of hatred by Aronnax—attacks the ship, ramming it just below the waterline, sending it to the bottom of the ocean, much to the horror of Aronnax who watches in awe from the saloon glass as the ship plunges to the depths . Nemo bows before the pictures of his wife and children and is plunged into deep depression after this encounter, and "voluntarily or involuntarily" allows the submarine to wander into an encounter with the Moskenstraumen, more commonly known as the "Maelstrom", a whirlpool off the coast of Norway. The three prisoners seize this opportunity to escape. They manage to escape the danger and find refuge on a nearby island off the coast of Norway, but the fate of Nautilusis unknown.
Themes and subtext[edit]




Nautilus's route through the Pacific



Nautilus's route through the Atlantic
Captain Nemo's name is a subtle allusion to Homer's Odyssey, a Greek epic poem. In The Odyssey, Odysseus meets the monstrous cyclopsPolyphemusduring the course of his wanderings. Polyphemus asks Odysseus his name, and Odysseus replies that his name is "Utis" (ουτις), which translates as "No-man" or "No-body". In the Latintranslation of the Odyssey, this pseudonymis rendered as "Nemo", which in Latin also translates as "No-man" or "No-body". Similarly to Nemo, Odysseus must wander the seas in exile (though only for 10 years) and is tormented by the deaths of his ship's crew.
Jules Verne several times mentions Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, "Captain Maury" in Verne's book, a real-life oceanographer who explored the winds, seas, currents, and collected samples of the bottom of the seas and charted all of these things. Verne would have known of Matthew Maury's international fame and perhaps Maury's French ancestry.
References are made to other such Frenchmen as Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, a famous explorer who was lost while circumnavigating the globe; Dumont D'Urville, the explorer who found the remains of Lapérouse's ship; and Ferdinand Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canaland the nephew of the sole survivor of Lapérouse's expedition. The Nautilusseems to follow the footsteps of these men: she visits the waters where Lapérouse was lost; she sails to Antarctic waters and becomes stranded there, just like D'Urville's ship, the Astrolabe; and she passes through an underwater tunnel from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean.
The most famous part of the novel, the battle against a school of giant cuttlefish, begins when a crewman opens the hatch of the boat and gets caught by one of the monsters. As the tentacle that has grabbed him pulls him away, he yells "Help!" in French. At the beginning of the next chapter, concerning the battle, Aronnax states, "To convey such sights, one would take the pen of our most famous poet, Victor Hugo, author of The Toilers of the Sea." The Toilers of the Seaalso contains an episode where a worker fights a giant octopus, wherein the octopus symbolizes the Industrial Revolution. It is probable that Verne borrowed the symbol, but used it to allude to the Revolutions of 1848as well, in that the first man to stand against the "monster" and the first to be defeated by it is a Frenchman.
In several parts of the book, Captain Nemo is depicted as a champion of the world's underdogs and downtrodden. In one passage, Captain Nemo is mentioned as providing some help to Greeks rebelling against Ottoman rule during the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869, proving to Arronax that he had not completely severed all relations with mankind outside the Nautilus after all. In another passage, Nemo takes pity on a poor Indian pearl diverwho must do his diving without the sophisticated diving suit available to the submarine's crew, and who is doomed to die young due to the cumulative effect of diving on his lungs. Nemo approaches him underwater and gives him a whole pouch full of pearls, more than he could have acquired in years of his dangerous work. Nemo remarks that the diver as an inhabitant British Colonial India, "is an inhabitant of an oppressed country".




Model of the 1863 French Navysubmarine Plongeurat the Musée de la Marine, Paris.



The Nautilusas imagined by Jules Verne.
Verne took the name "Nautilus" from one of the earliest successful submarines, built in 1800 by Robert Fulton, who later invented the first commercially successful steamboat. Fulton's submarine was named after the paper nautilusbecause it had a sail. Three years before writing his novel, Jules Verne also studied a model of the newly developed French Navysubmarine Plongeurat the 1867 Exposition Universelle, which inspired him for his definition of the Nautilus.[3]
The breathing apparatus used by Nautilusdivers is depicted as an untethered version of underwater breathing apparatus designed by Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze in 1865. They designed a diving set with a backpack spherical air tankthat supplied air through the first known demand regulator.[4][5]The diver still walked on the seabed and did not swim.[4]This set was called an aérophore(Greek for "air-carrier"). Air pressure tanks made with the technology of the time could only hold 30 atmospheres, and the diver had to be surface supplied; the tank was for bailout.[4]The durations of 6 to 8 hours on a tankful without external supply recorded for the Rouquayrol set in the book are greatly exaggerated.
No less significant, though more rarely commented on, is the very bold political vision (indeed, revolutionary for its time) represented by the character of Captain Nemo. As revealed in the later Verne book The Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo is a descendant of Tipu Sultan, a Muslim ruler of Mysorewho resisted the expansionism of the British East India Company. Nemo took to the underwater life after the suppression of the Indian Mutinyof 1857, in which his close family members were killed by the British. This change was made at the request of Verne's publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who is known to be responsible for many serious changes in Verne's books. In the original text the mysterious captain was a Polish nobleman, avenging his family who were killed by the Russians in retaliation for the captain's taking part in the Polish January Uprisingof 1863. As France was at the time allied with the Russian Empire, the target for Nemo's wrath was changed to France's old enemy, the British Empire, to avoid political trouble. It is no wonder that Professor Pierre Aronnax does not suspect Nemo's origins, as these were explained only later, in Verne's next book. What remained in the book from the initial concept is a portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish national hero, leader of the uprising against Russia in 1794, with an inscription in Latin: "Finis Poloniae!" ("The end of Poland!").
The national origin of Captain Nemo was changed again in most movie realizations; in nearly all picture-based works following the book Nemo was made into a European. However, he was represented as an Indian by Omar Sharifin the 1973 European miniseriesThe Mysterious Island. Nemo is also depicted as Indian in a silent film version of the story released in 1916 and later in both the graphic novel and the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1954), a live-action Technicolor film version of the novel, Captain Nemo is a European, bitter because his wife and son were tortured to death by those in power in the fictional prison camp of Rura Penthe, in an effort to get Nemo to reveal his scientific secrets. This is Nemo's motivation for sinking warships in the film. He is played in this version by the British actor James Mason, with an English accent. No mention is made of any Indians in the film.
Margaret Drabbleargues that Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seaanticipated the ecology movementand shaped the French avant-garde.[6]
Recurring themes in later books[edit]
Jules Verne wrote a sequel to this book: L'Île mystérieuse(The Mysterious Island, 1874), which concludes the stories begun by Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seaand In Search of the Castaways. While The Mysterious Islandseems to give more information about Nemo (or Prince Dakkar), it is muddied by the presence of several irreconcilable chronological contradictions between the two books and even within The Mysterious Island.
Verne returned to the theme of an outlaw submarine captain in his much later Facing the Flag. That book's main villain, Ker Karraje, is a completely unscrupulous pirate acting purely and simply for gain, completely devoid of all the saving graces which gave Nemo—for all that he, too, was capable of ruthless killings—some nobility of character.
Like Nemo, Ker Karraje plays "host" to unwilling French guests—but unlike Nemo, who manages to elude all pursuers, Karraje's career of outlawry is decisively ended by the combination of an international task force and the rebellion of his French captives. Though also widely published and translated, it never attained the lasting popularity of Twenty Thousand Leagues.
More similar to the original Nemo, though with a less finely worked-out character, is Robur in Robur the Conqueror—a dark and flamboyant outlaw rebel using an aircraft instead of a submarine—later used as a basis for the movie Master of the World.
English translations[edit]
The novel was first translated into English in 1873 by Reverend Lewis Page Mercier(aka "Mercier Lewis"). Mercier cut nearly a quarter of Verne's original text and made hundreds of translation errors, sometimes dramatically changing the meaning of Verne's original intent (including uniformly mistranslating French scaphandre(properly "diving apparatus") as "cork-jacket", following a long-obsolete meaning as "a type of lifejacket"). Some of these bowdlerizationsmay have been done for political reasons, such as Nemo's identity and the nationality of the two warships he sinks, or the portraits of freedom fighters on the wall of his cabin which originally included Daniel O'Connell.[7]Nonetheless, it became the standard English translation for more than a hundred years, while other translations continued to draw from it and its mistakes (especially the mistranslation of the title; the French title actually means Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas).
In the Argyle Press/Hurst and Company 1892 Arlington Edition, the translation and editing mistakes attributed to Mercier are missing. Scaphandre is correctly translated as "diving aparatus" and not as "cork jackets". Although the book cover gives the title as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the title page titles the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas; Or, The Marvelous and Exciting Adventures of Pierre Arronax, Conseil His Servant, and Ned Land a Canadian Harpooner.
A modern translation was produced in 1966 by Walter James Miller and published by Washington Square Press.[8]Many of Mercier's changes were addressed in the translator's preface, and most of Verne's text was restored.
In the 1960s, Anthony Bonner published a translation of the novel for Bantam Classics. A specially written introduction by Ray Bradbury, comparing Captain Nemo and Captain Ahab of Moby Dick, was also included.
Many of Mercier's errors were again corrected in a from-the-ground-up re-examination of the sources and an entirely new translation by Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter, published in 1993 by Naval Institute Pressin a "completely restored and annotated edition."[9]It was based on Walter's own 1991 public-domain translation, which is available from a number of sources, notably a recent edition with the title Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas(ISBN 978-1-904808-28-2). In 2010 Walter released a fully revised, newly researched translation with the title 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas—part of an omnibus of five of his Verne translations titled Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classicsand published by State University of New York Press.
In 1998 William Butcher issued a new, annotated translation from the French original, published by Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-953927-8, with the title Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas. He includes detailed notes, an extensive bibliography, appendices and a wide-ranging introduction studying the novel from a literary perspective. In particular, his original research on the two manuscripts studies the radical changes to the plot and to the character of Nemo forced on Verne by the first publisher, Jules Hetzel.
Adaptations and variations[edit]




The Nautilusas envisioned in the 1954 Walt Disneyfilm.##"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas"(1873) – book – Edition of James R. Osgood & Company, published by George M. Smith & Company, Boston Massachusetts, includes one hundred and ten illustrations.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1874) – musical – libretto Joseph Bradford – music G. Operti.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (20,000 lieues sous les mers)(1907) – The silentshort movie by French filmmaker Georges Méliès.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1916) – The first feature film (also silent) based on the novel. The actor/director Allan Holubarplayed Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1952) – A two-part adaptation for the science fiction television anthology Tales of Tomorrow. (Part One was subtitled The Chase, Part Two was subtitled The Escape.)
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1954) – Probably the most well-known film adaptation of the book, directed by Richard Fleischer, produced by Walt Disney, and starring Kirk Douglasas Ned Land and James Masonas Captain Nemo.
##Captain Nemo and the Underwater City(1969) – A British film based on characters from the novel, starring Robert Ryanas Captain Nemo.
##Captain Nemo(Капитан Немо) (1975) – A Sovietfilm adaptation.
##The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo(1975) – A futuristic version of Captain Nemoand the Nautilusappeared in this Canadian animated television series.
##The Return of Captain Nemo(1978), sometimes known as The Amazing Captain Nemo, starred Jose Ferrerin the title role.
##The Black Hole(1979) – A very loose science fictionvariation on the novel. Maximilian Schell's mad captain character is a more murderous, and considerably less sympathetic version of Captain Nemo. His hair, moustache and beard resemble those of James Masonfrom the 1954 film.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1985) – A made-for-televisionanimated film by Burbank Films Australiastarring Tom Burlinsonas Ned Land.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1997, Village Roadshow) – A made-for-televisionfilm starring Michael Caineas Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1997, Hallmark) – A made-for-televisionfilm starring Ben Crossas Captain Nemo.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea(1998) - an audiobookpublished by Blackstone Audiobooks, with the unabridged text read by Frederick Davidson.
##Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water(1990–1991) and Nadia: The Secret of Fuzzy(1992) – A Japanesescience fictionanimeTV series and film directed by Hideaki Anno, and inspired by the book and exploits of Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(2001) – A radio drama adaption of Jules Verne's novel aired in the United States.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(2002) – A DIC(now owned by Cookie Jar) children's animated television film loosely based on the novel. It premiered on television on Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toonsand was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment.
##A stage play adaptation by Walk the Plank(2003). In this version, the "Nautilese" private language used by the Nautilus's crew was kept, represented by a mixture of Polishand Persian.
##The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen(2003) – Although not a film version of the Verne novel (it is based on the comic book of the same nameby Alan Mooreand Kevin O'Neill), it does feature Captain Nemo (and his submarine the Nautilus) as a member of the 'League' of 19th century superheroes.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea(2006). A stage play adaptation by Ade Morris for the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, England. This version was for six actors and used physical theatre to help tell the story, which emphasised parallels in Verne's original with contemporary world events.
##30,000 Leagues Under the Sea(2007) – A modern update on the classic book starring Lorenzo Lamasas Lt. Aronnaux and Sean Lawloras the misanthropic Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(2009) – A hidden object gameon iPad, iPhoneand MAC published by Anuman Interactive.[10]
Comic book and graphic adaptations[edit]
20,000 Leagues Under The Seahas been adapted into comic book format numerous times.
##In 1948, Gilberton Publishingpublished a comic adaptation in issue #47 of their Classics Illustratedseries.[11]It was reprinted in 1955;[12]1968;[13]1978, this time by King Features Syndicateas issue #8 of their King Classicsseries; and again in 1997, this later time by Acclaim/Valiant. Art by was Henry C. Kiefer.
##In 1954, the newspaper strip Walt Disney's Treasury Of Classic Talespublished a comic based on the 1954 film, which ran from August 1-December 26, 1954. This was translated into many languages worldwide. Adaptation was by Frank Reilly, with art by Jesse Marsh.
##In 1955, Dell Comicspublished a comic based on the 1954 filmin issue #614 of their Four Coloranthology series called Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.[14]This was reprinted by Hjemmetin Norway in 1955 & 1976, by Gold Keyin 1963, and in 1977 was serialized in several issues of Western's The New Micky Mouse Club Funbook, beginning with issue #11190. Art was by Frank Thorne.
##In 1963, in conjunction with the first nationwide re-release of the film, Gold Keypublished a comic based on the 1954 filmcalled Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.[15]This reprinted the Frank Thorneversion.
##In 1973, Vince Fago's Pendulum Presspublished a hardcover illustrated book.[16]This collected a new version which had been previously serialized in Weekly Readermagazine. Adaptation was by Otto Binder, with art by Romy Gaboa & Ernie Patricio. This was reprinted in 1976 by Marvel Comicsin issue #4 of their Marvel Classics Comicsseries; in 1984 by Academic Industries, Inc.as issue #C12 of their Classics Illustratedpaperback book series; in 1990 again by Pendulum Press, with a new painted cover; and again, using the same cover, in 2010 by Saddleback Publishing, Inc., this time in color.
##In 1974, Power Recordspublished a comic and record set, PR-42.[17]Art was by Rich Buckler & Dick Giordano.
##In 1976, Marvel Comicspublished a comic book adaptation via issue #4 of their Marvel Classics Comicsline.[18]This was a reprint of the Pendulum Pressversion.
##In 1990, Pendulum Presspublished another comic based on the novel via issue #4 of their Illustrated Storiesline.[19]This was a reprint of the Pendulum Pressversion, with a new painted cover.
##In 1992, Dark Horse Comicspublished a one shot comic called Dark Horse Classics.[20]This was originally announced as part of the Berkeley/First ComicsClassics Illustratedseries, as a full-color "prestige format" book, but was delayed when the company went bankrupt. The Dark Horseversion was scaled back to a standard comic-book format with B&W interiors. It was reprinted in 2001 by Hieronymous Pressas a limited-edition of 50 copies available only from the artist's website, and more recently, in 2008 from Flesk Publicationsas an expensive full-color book, as originally intended. Adaptation & art by Gary Gianni.
##In 1997, Acclaim/Valiantpublished CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #8.[21]This was a reprint of the 1948 Gilbertonversion with a new cover.
##In 2001, Hieronymus Press published a reprint of the Dark Horse Comicsversion, with a new cover, as a limited-edition of 50 copies, available only from Gary Ginanni's website.
##In 2008, Sterling Graphics published a pop-up graphic book.[22]
##In 2009, Flesk Publications published a graphic novel called Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.[23]This was a reprint, in color for the first time, of the Gary Gianniversion.
##In 2010, Saddleback Publishing, Inc. published a new reprint of the Penculum Pressversion, this time in color, and reusing the 1990 cover painting.
##In 2010, Campfire Classics, a company in India, published a new version. Adaptation was by Dan Rafter, with art by Bhupendra Ahluwalia.
##In 2011, Campfire Classic published a trade paperback.[24]
References in popular culture[edit]


 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this articleby adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(January 2009)
##The novel The Neverending Storyby Michael Ende, and its film adaptations, uses Nemo's battle with the giant squid as an example of the unforgettable and immersive nature of great stories.
##An episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, entitled "20,000 Koopas Under the Sea", borrows many elements from the original story (including a submarine named the "Koopilus" and King Koopareferring to himself as "Koopa Nemo").
##In a 1989 episode "20,000 Leaks Under the City" of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesseriesis heavily based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, including a battle with a giant squid. This story takes place in New York Cityof the 1980s where a floodcaused by Krangusing a Super Pumphas occurred.[25]
##A SpongeBob SquarePantsepisode is called "20,000 Patties Under the Sea". It is a parody of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seaand of the traveling song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".
##In the 2006 "The Evil Beneath" segment of "The Evil Beneath/Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius" season 3 double episode from the Nicktoonschildren's CGanimated series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Geniusreferences are made to similar characters and environments: Dr. Sydney Orville Moist, a paranoid dance-crazy genius scientist (parodying Captain Nemo) who lives in a hidden underwater headquarters (stationary Nautilus) at the bottom of fictional Bahama Quadrangle, takes revenge against humanity by transforming unsuspecting tourists like Jimmy, Carl and Sheen into zombie-like algaemen (the Nautilus crew).[26]
##In the 1990 sci-fi comedy film, Back to the Future Part III, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) states that Jules Verne is his favourite author and adores Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. At the end of the film, Dr. Brown introduces his two sons, named Jules and Verne respectively.
##In a 1994 Saturday Night Livesketch (featuring Kelsey Grammeras Captain Nemo) pokes fun at the misconception of leaguesbeing a measure of depth instead of a measure of distance. Nemo tries repeatedly, though unsuccessfully, to convince his crew of this.
##One of the inaugural rides at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdomwas called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyageand was based on the Disney movie.
##In the novel and movie Sphere, Harry Adams (played by Samuel L. Jackson) reads (and is very interested in) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
##Captain Nemois one of the main characters in Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novelThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, as well as in the film.
##In the 2001 Clive Cusslernovel Valhalla Rising, reference to a submarine that "inspired" Verne's story is made as one of the central plot points; it differs in having been British, with Verne being accused of being anti-British.
##Nemo and the Nautilus, along with several other plot points, are major elements of Kevin J. Anderson's Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius.
##The early-2000s novel series called the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographicadepicts Captain Nemo in a "world within a world". In this version, Nemo is the captain of the sentient ship Yellow Dragon(stated to be the in-universe origin of the Nautilus) and therefore a prominent figure in the series. Jules Verne's character is said to be fiction based on him.
##Mentioned in Into the Wildas one of Chris McCandless' inspirations, before his trek into the Alaskan interior.
##The Nautilusis said to be based on a civil war era ship in the novel, Leviathanby David Lynn Golemon.
##An episode of the English dubbedTV series of Digimonis entitled "20,000 Digi-Leagues Under the Sea" (though the actual episode synopsis is completely unrelated).
##One of Mortadelo y Filemón's long stories is called "20,000 leguas de viaje sibilino" (20,000 leagues of sibylline travel), in which they have to go from Madrid to Lugo via Kenya, India, China and the United States without using public transport.
##On Xbox Kinect, there is a game called 20,000 Leaks where the player uses themselves to plug holes in a glass box under water.
##An achievement in World of Warcraft: Cataclysmis called "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and is awarded after completing a quests in the Vashj'ir zone which include travelling in a submarine, being attacked by a giant squid and ultimately trying to stop the Naga from overthrowing Neptulon. There is also a submarine built by the goblins that is remarkably similar to Disney's 1954 portrayal of the Nautilus, piloted by Captain "Jewels" Verne. The submarine has appropriately been dubbed "The Verne" (after Jules Verne).
##On February 8, 2011 the Googlehomepage featured an interactive logo adapted from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" honoring Jules Verne's 183rd birthday.[27]
##The novel, "I, Nemo" by J. Dharma & Deanna Windhamis a re-imagining of Captain Nemo's origins told from his point of view. This book ends where "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" begins and is the first in a three part series.
See also[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
##Leyden bullet (Leyden ball)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^[1]
2.Jump up ^Part 2, Chapter 7 "Accordingly, our speed was 25 miles (that is, twelve four–kilometer leagues) per hour. Needless to say, Ned Land had to give up his escape plans, much to his distress. Swept along would have been like jumping off a train racing at this speed, a rash move if there ever was one."
3.Jump up ^Notice at the Musée de la Marine, Rochefort
4.^ Jump up to: abcDavis, RH(1955). Deep Diving and Submarine Operations(6th ed.). Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey: Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd. p. 693.
5.Jump up ^Acott, C. (1999). "A brief history of diving and decompression illness.". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal29(2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
6.Jump up ^Margaret Drabble(8 May 2014). "Submarine dreams: Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas". New Statesman. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
7.Jump up ^"How Lewis Mercier and Eleanor King brought you Jules Verne". Ibiblio.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
8.Jump up ^Jules Verne (author), Walter James Miller (trans). Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Washington Square Press, 1966. Standard book number 671-46557-0; Library of CongressCatalog Card Number 65-25245.
9.Jump up ^Jules Verne (author), Walter James Miller (trans), Frederick Paul Walter (trans). Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: A Completely Restored and Annotated Edition, Naval Institute Press, 1993. ISBN 1-55750-877-1
10.Jump up ^http://mzonestudio.com/wp/gallery-item/20000-lieues-sous-les-mers/
11.Jump up ^"GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [O]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
12.Jump up ^"GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [HRN128]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
13.Jump up ^"GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [HRN166]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
14.Jump up ^http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/384/193573_20100305100800_large.jpg
15.Jump up ^"GCD :: Cover :: Walt Disney 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea [Movie Comics] #[nn]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
16.Jump up ^http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/184/92146_20070501085647_large.jpg
17.Jump up ^http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/444/221727_20110316150602_large.jpg
18.Jump up ^"GCD :: Cover :: Marvel Classics Comics #4". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
19.Jump up ^http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/260/128942_20080516121657_large.jpg
20.Jump up ^"GCD :: Cover :: Dark Horse Classics: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea #1". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
21.Jump up ^[2][dead link]
22.Jump up ^[3][dead link]
23.Jump up ^[4][dead link]
24.Jump up ^[5][dead link]
25.Jump up ^Ninjaturtles - 20,000 Leaks Under the City[dead link]
26.Jump up ^Nickelodeon. "Jimmy Neutron: "The Evil Beneath/Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius"". Nicktoons. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
27.Jump up ^"Jules Verne's 183rd Birthday". Google. Retrieved 2012-02-09.
External links[edit]
 Wikisourcehas original text related to this article:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

 French Wikisourcehas original text related to this article:
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers

 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
##20,000 Leagues under the Seaat Project Gutenberg, trans. by Lewis Mercier, 1872
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, p.d. trans. by F. P. Walter prepared in 1991.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, full text of the Oxford University Press edition and translation by Verne scholar, William Butcher (with an introduction, notes and appendices)
##(French)Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, audio versionSpeaker Icon.svg
##Map the trajectory of Nautilus
##Manuscripts of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seain gallica.bnf.fr. frederick es un duro


[hide]
v·
t·
e

Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


Films
Under the Seas(1907)·
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1916)·
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1954)·
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City(1969)·
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1985)·
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(Village Roadshow)(1997)·
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(Hallmark)(1997)·
Crayola Kids Adventures: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(1997)·
30,000 Leagues Under the Sea(2007)


Television
Tales of Adventure(1952)·
The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo(1975)·
The Return of Captain Nemo(1978)·
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water(1990)·
The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne(2000)


Other
Captain Nemo·
Nautilus·
The Mysterious Island·
Journey Through the Impossible(play)·
The Secret of the Nautilus(video game)·
Captain Nemo(manga)·
The Wreck of the Titan(audio)·
Legend of the Cybermen(audio)·
"Captain Nemo (song)"




[hide]
v·
t·
e

Worksby Jules Verne




[show]
Voyages Extraordinaires


















































































[show]
Other works










































































[show]
Characters and universe



























Bibliography·
Wikipedia bookBook:Jules Verne·
CategoryCategory:Jules Verne·
PortalPortal:Literature




[show]
v·
t·
e

Piracy















































































































































































































































































































































[show]
v·
t·
e

Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island



















































Categories: 1870 novels
Novels by Jules Verne
1870s fantasy novels
1870s science fiction novels
19th-century novels
19th-century French novels
French fantasy novels
Science fantasy novels
Submarines in fiction
Maritime books
Pirate books
Atlantis in fiction
Novels set in Norway
Novels set in New York City
Novels set in Greece
Novels set in Spain
Novels set in Japan
Novels set in India
1860s in fiction
French novels adapted into films
French science fiction novels

















Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk











Read

Edit

View history


















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Ænglisc
العربية
Azərbaycanca
Bân-lâm-gú
Български
Català
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Íslenska
Italiano
עברית
Magyar
Македонски
Монгол
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Simple English
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Tagalog
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 11 July 2014 at 17:14.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Useand Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea













Shark Tale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Page semi-protected

Shark Tale
Movie poster Shark Tale.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Vicky Jenson
Bibo Bergeron
Rob Letterman
Produced by
Bill Damaschke
 Janet Healy
Allison Lyon Segan
Written by
Michael J. Wilson
 Rob Letterman
Starring
Will Smith
Robert De Niro
Renée Zellweger
Angelina Jolie
Jack Black
Martin Scorsese
Music by
Hans Zimmer
Edited by
Peter Lonsdale
 John Venzon
Production
   company
DreamWorks Animation
Distributed by
DreamWorks Pictures
Release date(s)
October 1, 2004

Running time
91 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$75 million[1]
Box office
$367,275,019[1]
Shark Tale is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation. It tells the story of a young fish named Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) who falsely claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss to win favour with the mob boss' enemies and advance his own community standing. The film additionally features the voices of Jack Black as Lenny, Renée Zellweger as Angie, Angelina Jolie as Lola, Martin Scorsese as Sykes and Robert De Niro as Don Lino.
Despite the film's mixed reviews, Shark Tale proved to be a box office success, opening at #1 with $47.6 million, which was the second highest opening for a DreamWorks Animation film at the time, behind Shrek 2 ($108 million). It remained as the #1 film in the U.S. and Canada for its second and third weekends, and made $367 million worldwide against its $75 million budget. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release 4.1 Box office
4.2 Critical reception
4.3 Home media
5 Accolades
6 Soundtrack 6.1 Charts
7 Video game
8 Sequel
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

Plot
An underachieving bluestreak cleaner wrasse named Oscar (Will Smith) fantasizes about being rich and famous while making his way to work as a tongue scrubber at the local Whale Wash, a job in which he is following in his father's footsteps. Soon after arriving he is called to the office of his boss, a puffer fish named Sykes (Martin Scorsese), to discuss the fact that he owes "five thousand clams" and has to pay it back by the next day. After explaining this to his angelfish best friend Angie (Renée Zellweger), she offers him a chance to pay back the money by pawning a pink pearl that was a gift from her grandmother. Oscar brings the money to the race track to meet Sykes, but becomes distracted by his dreams of grandeur. Upon hearing that the race is rigged, places it all on a long-shot bet by the name of "Lucky Day". Such a million dollar bet is noticed nearby by a beautiful lionfish named Lola (Angelina Jolie), who flagrantly seduces an excited Oscar, but Oscar is disappointed when she leaves upon learning that he is a whale washer. Sykes is furious that Oscar bet the money but nonetheless agrees to see how the race turns out. Moments before their "horse" "Lucky Day" crosses the finish line, he trips and falls on line. The race is lost and Oscar is set to be punished in a secluded area for his impulsiveness.
Meanwhile on another side of the ocean in the wreck of the RMS Titanic, a family of criminally-inclined great white sharks has a problem with one of their sons, Lenny (Jack Black), who is a vegetarian. Lenny refuses to act the part of a killer and wishes to not have to live up to those expectations. His crime lord father Don Lino (Robert De Niro) orders Lenny's more savage big brother Frankie (Michael Imperioli) to tutor Lenny in the family business. After the two sharks depart their father, Frankie sees Oscar being electrocuted by Sykes' two jellyfish thugs Ernie and Bernie (Doug E. Doug and Ziggy Marley) and sends Lenny off to attack. The jellyfish spot Lenny and flee, leaving Oscar alone with him. Instead of attacking Oscar, Lenny frees him upsetting Frankie who becomes annoyed and charges at Oscar. Frankie is killed however when an anchor falls on him. Lenny flees, overcome with grief and guilt. As no other witnesses were present and Oscar was seen near the body, everyone comes to believe that he killed Frankie, an opportunity that Oscar decides to exploit for fame.
Oscar returns to the city with a new title of the Sharkslayer. Sykes becomes his manager, Lola becomes his girlfriend, and Oscar moves to the "top of the reef" to live in luxury. At the same time, Don Lino has everyone out looking for Lenny, and when several get close to Oscar's neighborhood, Oscar's neighbors expect him to drive them away. When Oscar runs into Lenny, Lenny (who does not wish to return home) forces Oscar to let him stay with him since he is aware of Oscar's lie. Soon, Angie finds out about the lie and threatens to tell everyone. Oscar and Lenny convince her to keep quiet, though she is heartbroken by Oscar's dishonesty. Oscar's situation is not helped by the shallow Lola, who indicates to him that her interest in him extends only as far as he remains famous. With Don Lino planning revenge, Oscar and Lenny stage an event in which Lenny pretends to terrorize the town and Oscar must defeat him throwing him into the depths of the ocean. Though this further cements Oscar as the Sharkslayer, it greatly angers Don Lino. Oscar leaves Lola for Angie after Angie reveals that she had feelings for Oscar even before he became famous, but this leaves the rebuffed Lola determined to get revenge.
Oscar buys some Valentine's Day gifts for Angie, but before he can present them to her, he finds that Don Lino has kidnapped Angie in order to force a sit-down. Lenny comes along now disguised as a dolphin named Sebastian. They arrive at the meeting to find Lola next to Don Lino, while Angie is tied up and presented to Don Lino on a plate who prepares to eat her if Oscar does not comply. Lenny grabs Angie into his mouth, but later regurgitates her, when Don Lino realizes that "Sebastian" is really Lenny, he chases Oscar through the reef. Oscar heads for the Whale Wash and ends up trapping both sharks. He is given an ovation by the other fish, but Oscar confesses that he is not a "Sharkslayer" and that it was a falling anchor that killed Frankie. He then tells Don Lino that everyone likes Lenny for who he is strongly urging him not to prejudge people before he knows them properly and to not make the mistake he made in prejudging his wealth. Realizing that Oscar is right, Don Lino apologizes to Lenny and reconciles with him while making peace with Oscar, stating that he and his gang bear him no ill will. Oscar forsakes all the wealth he has acquired, makes peace with the sharks, becomes manager of the Whale Wash (now frequented by sharks), and starts dating Angie and enjoys a happy, honest life.
During the credits, Lola comes to see Oscar in the top of the reef wanting to make amends with him for what she did, but all she finds is a hermit crab named Crazy Joe (David P. Smith), one of Oscar's friends, waiting for her.
Cast
Will Smith as Oscar, an underachieving worker in the Whale Wash of Reef City. He wants to be rich, but his schemes always fail and he owes 5,000 clams to Mr. Sykes.
Jack Black as Lenny, a great white shark who is a closeted vegetarian.
Robert De Niro as Don Lino, a great white shark who is Lenny and Frankie's father and the leader of a mob of criminally-inclined sharks. He wants Lenny and Frankie to take over the business and run it together, and is infuriated when Oscar gets in the way.
Renée Zellweger as Angie, an angelfish, Oscar's best friend, and co-worker. Angie harbors a secret unrequited love for Oscar.
Angelina Jolie as Lola, a seductive female gold-digger lionfish whom Oscar develops a romantic interest in.
Martin Scorsese as Sykes, the pufferfish owner of the Whale Wash and a loan shark whom Oscar owes five thousand clams to. He once worked for Don Lino, but was thrown out and called in his debts to pay off the gangster.
Ziggy Marley and Doug E. Doug as Ernie and Bernie, two Jamaican jellyfish and Mr. Sykes' henchmen. They enjoy jabbing Oscar with their vicious stingers when he is in trouble with Sykes.
Michael Imperioli as Frankie, a great white shark who is Lenny's brother and the more savage son of Lino. Like Lino, he is embarrassed by Lenny's vegetarian tendencies.
Vincent Pastore as Luca, Don Lino's "left-hand, right-hand man". Luca is an octopus with a tendency to state the obvious.
Peter Falk as Don Ira Feinberg, an elderly leopard shark and leader of another mob of criminally-inclined sharks who is a friend of Don Lino. He performs karaoke (badly) at the sharks' headquarters.
Katie Couric as Katie Current, the local reporter in the U.S. release. At the time, Katie Couric hosted Today in America. In the Australian release, then local Today co-host Tracy Grimshaw dubbed the lines. Fiona Phillips of the UK's GMTV performed the voice for the UK release of the film. Cristina Parodi of Italy's Verissimo provided the Italian version of the character.
David P. Smith as Crazy Joe, a deranged hermit crab who is Oscar's other friend. He normally lives in a dumpster near the Whale Wash.
Production
The film was originally developed under the title of Sharkslayer,[2] but a year before its release it was retitled Shark Tale to make it more family friendly.[3] Bill Damaschke, the producer of the film, explained the change of the title: "We set out to make a movie a little more noir, perhaps a little darker than where we've landed."[4]
The film was produced concurrently with Finding Nemo, another animated film set underwater, which was released a year and a half before Shark Tale. DreamWorks Animation's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, defended the film, saying that "any similarities are mere coincidence. We've been open with the Pixar people so we don't step on each other's toes."[5]
Release
Box office
Shark Tale opened at #1 with $47.6 million, which was, at the time, the second highest opening for a DreamWorks Animation film behind Shrek 2 ($108 million).[6] It remained as the #1 film in the U.S. and Canada for its second and third weekends.[7]
Overall, the movie grossed $160,861,908 in North America and $206,413,111 internationally, bringing its worldwide total to $367,275,019.[1]
Critical reception
Shark Tale received mixed to negative reviews, The film holds a 36% "Rotten" rating at the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus: "Derivative and full of pop culture in-jokes."[8] On another review aggregator, Metacritic, the film holds an 48 out of 100 rating or "mixed or average reviews."[9]
John Mancini, the founder of the Italic Institute of America, protested Shark Tale for perpetuating negative stereotypes of Italian-Americans.[10]
The American Family Association, a Christian conservative organization, raised concerns about Shark Tale, suggesting that it was designed to promote the acceptance of gay rights by children.[11]
Roger Ebert gave Shark Tale two out of four stars, observing, "Since the target audience for Shark Tale is presumably kids and younger teenagers, how many of them have seen the R-rated Godfather and will get all the inside jokes? Not a few, I suppose, and some of its characters and dialogue have passed into common knowledge. But it's strange that a kid-oriented film would be based on parody of a 1972 gangster movie for adults." He also opined that younger viewers would have trouble enjoying a film about adult characters with adult problems, such as an elaborate love triangle and a main character wanting to clear his debt with loan sharks, and compared it to more successful fish-focused animated features like Pixar's Finding Nemo, which Ebert felt featured a simpler plot that audiences could more easily identify with.[12]
However, Richard Roeper commented that although the film wasn't on the same level as Finding Nemo, it was definitely a film worth seeing.[13]
Home media
Shark Tale was released on DVD and VHS[14] on February 8, 2005, accompanied with a DVD exclusive animated short film Club Oscar. The three and a half minute short film continues where the main film ends, showing the characters of Shark Tale dancing at the whale wash to a spoof of Saturday Night Fever.[15] It was also released on Game Boy Advance Video in October 2005.[16]
Accolades

Awards

Award
Category
Name
Outcome
Academy Awards Academy Award for Best Animated Feature[17][18] Bill Damaschke Nominated
Annie Awards Annie Award for Best Animated Effects in an Animated Production Scott Cegielski Nominated
Annie Award for Best Character Animation in a Feature Production Ken Duncan Nominated
Annie Award for Best Character Design in an Animated Feature Production Carlos Grangel Nominated
Annie Award for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production Armand Baltazar Nominated
Samuel Michlap Nominated
Pierre-Olivier Vincent Nominated
Annie Award for Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production Michael J. Wilson
 Rob Letterman Nominated
BAFTA Children's Awards Best Feature Film  Nominated
BET Comedy Awards Best Performance in an Animated Theatrical Film Will Smith Nominated
Casting Society of America Best Animated Voice-Over Feature Casting Leslee Feldman Won
Golden Reel Awards Best Sound Editing in an Animated Feature Film Richard L. Anderson
 Thomas Jones
 Wade Wilson
 Mark Binder
 Mike Chock
 Ralph Osborn
 David Williams
Mark A. Mangini
 Slamm Andrews Nominated
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie Will Smith Won
Saturn Awards Saturn Award for Best Animated Film  Nominated
Teen Choice Awards Choice Movie: Animated/Computer Generated  Nominated
Visual Effects Society Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture Renée Zellweger
 Ken Duncan Nominated
Soundtrack

Shark Tale: Motion Picture Soundtrack

Soundtrack album by Various Artists

Released
September 21, 2004
Genre
R&B, pop
Length
50:33
Label
DreamWorks
Producer
Timbaland, Jam & Lewis, Ron Fair, Missy Elliott, The Underdogs, Dre & Vidal, The Trak Starz, Hans Zimmer
Shark Tale: Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on September 21, 2004. The soundtrack features newly recorded music by various artists, including Justin Timberlake with Timbaland, Christina Aguilera, JoJo, Ludacris, Mary J. Blige, and Will Smith, and also features the first song recorded by pop group The Pussycat Dolls as well as the film's closing theme composed by Hans Zimmer.
Janet Jackson and Beyoncé initially planned to record a duet for the film's soundtrack. Jackson's frequent collaborator Jimmy Jam, who had recently worked with Beyoncé for The Fighting Temptations soundtrack, commented "Obviously we'd love to have the involvement of Janet and Beyonce, who we just worked with on Fighting Temptations. They've already expressed interest", adding "There are a lot of opportunities with an animated piece to work with some different people."[19] Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks' Animations, had appointed Jackson's producers Jam & Lewis to be involved with the soundtrack, though the duo only ended up producing only one song for the film, with Jam saying "We worked for DreamWorks before on the Bryan Adams song for Spirit and the Boyz II Men tune for Prince of Egypt, and Katzenberg is a fan of what we do. He thought we would be perfect to do the music for Shark Tale."[19]

No.
Title
Writer(s)
Producer(s)
Length

1. "Three Little Birds" (Sean Paul featuring Ziggy Marley) Bob Marley Stephen Marley 3:37
2. "Car Wash (Shark Tale Mix)" (Christina Aguilera featuring Missy Elliott) Norman Whitfield (additional lyrics by Missy Elliott) Missy Elliott, Ron Fair 3:50
3. "Good Foot" (Justin Timberlake featuring Timbaland) Timberlake, Timothy Mosley Timbaland 3:57
4. "Secret Love" (JoJo) Samantha Jade, Jared Gosselin, Phillip White White, Jared 4:00
5. "Lies & Rumours" (D12) DeShaun Holton, J. Rotem, Denaun Porter, O. Moore, V. Carlisle, Rufus Johnson, M. Chavarria Denaun Porter 4:20
6. "Got to Be Real" (Mary J. Blige featuring Will Smith) David Foster, David Paich & Cheryl Lynn Andre Harris, Vidal Davis 3:33
7. "Can't Wait" (Avant) Damon E. Thomas, Antonio Dixon, Harvey W. Mason, Eric Dawkins, Steven Russell The Underdogs 3:44
8. "Gold Digger" (Ludacris featuring Bobby V & Lil' Fate) Alonzo Lee, Shamar Daugherty, Christopher Bridges, Bobby Wilson, Arbie Wilson The Trak Starz 3:47
9. "Get It Together" (India.Arie) Drew Ramsey, Shannon Sanders, India.Arie, Dana Johnson, Mel Johnson India.Arie, Sanders, Ramsey 4:54
10. "We Went as Far as We Felt Like Going" (The Pussycat Dolls) Bob Crewe, Kenny Nolan Ron Fair 3:51
11. "Digits" (fan 3) Allison Lurie, Paul Robb, David Clayton-Thomas, Fred Lipsius BitCrusher 3:41
12. "Sweet Kind of Life" (Cheryl Lynn) James Harris III, Terry Lewis, Cheryl Lynn, Bobby Ross Avila, Issiah J. Avila, Tony Tolbert, James Q. Wright Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis 3:59
13. "Some of My Best Friends Are Sharks" (Hans Zimmer) Hans Zimmer Hans Zimmer 3:25
Total length:
 50:33 
Charts

Chart (2004)
Peak
 position

U.S. Billboard 200 34
U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums 48

Video game
Main article: Shark Tale (video game)
A video game based on the film was released in 2004 on many platforms.
Sequel
In April 2011, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg commented that the studio did not have plans to produce future movie genre parodies like Shark Tale, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Megamind, saying that these films "all shared an approach and tone and idea of parody, and did not travel well internationally. We don't have anything like that coming on our schedule now."[20]
See also
List of animated feature films
List of computer-animated films
References
1.^ Jump up to: a b c "Shark Tale (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
2.Jump up ^ Ball, Ryan (November 3, 2003). "Kim Possible Wins WIN Awards". Animation. Retrieved June 1, 2013. "The first annual Kiera Chaplin Limelight award was presented to Vicky Jenson, co-director of DreamWorks’ animated blockbuster Shrek and the upcoming Shark Tale (formerly Sharkslayer)."
3.Jump up ^ "Will Smith's Shark Movie Renamed". Contactmusic.com. October 1, 2003. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ "Shark Tale Preview". Entertainment Weekly. August 10, 2004. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
5.Jump up ^ Wloszczyna, Susan (January 26, 2003). "DreamWorks hopes audiences hungry for 'Sharkslayer'". USA Today. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
6.Jump up ^ Gray, Brandon (October 4, 2004). "'Shark Tale' Slays Box Office Blahs". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
7.Jump up ^ "Shark Tale (2004) - Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
8.Jump up ^ "Shark Tale (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
9.Jump up ^ "Shark Tale Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
10.Jump up ^ "'Shark Tale' offensive to Italian Americans?". MSNBC. Associated Press. April 6, 2004. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
11.Jump up ^ Berkowitz, Bill. "Still Cranky After All These Years". Media Transparency. April 19, 2007, accessed May 7, 2011.
12.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (October 1, 2004). "Shark Tale". Chicago Sun-Times.
13.Jump up ^ Roeper, Richard (October 4, 2004). "Shark Tale - Critic Review - Ebert & Roeper". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
14.Jump up ^ "Shark Tale's video release moves past it's theatrical numbers". MovieWeb.com. February 15, 2005. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
15.Jump up ^ Simon, Ben (April 10, 2005). "Shark Tale". Animated Views. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
16.Jump up ^ Ball, Ryan (July 25, 2005). "Shrek, Shark Swim to GBA Video". Animation. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
17.Jump up ^ "'The Incredibles' Wins Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film". Toonzone. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
18.Jump up ^ "Shark Tale". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
19.^ Jump up to: a b "Beyonce, Janet, Will Music For 'Shark's Tale'". Netscape. 2003-12-31. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
20.Jump up ^ Lieberman, David (April 26, 2011). "DreamWorks Animation Pins Hopes On ‘Kung Fu Panda 2′ After 1Q Earnings Fall Short". Deadline New York.
External links
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shark Tale.
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Shark Tale
Official website archived from the original on October 1, 2004
Shark Tale at the Internet Movie Database
Shark Tale at the Big Cartoon DataBase
Shark Tale at AllMovie
Shark Tale at Rotten Tomatoes
Shark Tale at Metacritic
Shark Tale at Box Office Mojo


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
DreamWorks Animation











































































































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Rob Letterman









 


Categories: 2004 films
English-language films
2004 computer-animated films
American films
2000s comedy films
American animated films
American children's films
American comedy films
DreamWorks Animation animated films
Films using computer-generated imagery
Films set in the Pacific Ocean
Computer-animated films
DreamWorks films
Films about animals
Films about sharks
Films directed by Bibo Bergeron
Films featuring anthropomorphic characters
Mafia films
Films directed by Rob Letterman
Film scores by Hans Zimmer







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

View source

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
বাংলা
Български
Deutsch
Español
فارسی
Français
한국어
Hrvatski
Italiano
עברית
Magyar
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Русский
Suomi
Svenska
ไทย
Türkçe
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 11 July 2014 at 14:14.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Tale













Flipper (1996 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Flipper
Flipper Movie.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Alan Shapiro
Produced by
James McNamara
 Perry Katz
Written by
Ricou Browning
 Jack Cowden
Starring
Paul Hogan
Elijah Wood
Music by
Joel McNeely
Cinematography
Bill Butler
Edited by
Peck Prior
Production
   company
The Bubble Factory
Distributed by
Universal Pictures
Release date(s)
May 17, 1996

Running time
95 Minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$25 million[1]
Box office
$20,080,020
Flipper is a 1996 action-packed adventure film remake of the 1963 film of the same name, starring Paul Hogan and Elijah Wood. The movie is about a boy who has to spend the summer with his uncle, who lives in the Florida Keys. Although he expects to have another boring summer, he encounters an orphaned dolphin which he names Flipper and with whom he forms a friendship.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception 4.1 Box office
5 DVD release
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]


 This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (June 2014)
Sandy Ricks is sent off for the summer to stay with his uncle Porter in the seaside town of Coral Key. Initially, Sandy is unenthusiastic, and is upset that he's going to miss a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert which he already bought tickets for.
While out on Porter's fishing trawler, the two meet Porter's arch enemy, Dirk Moran. Nearby, a pod of dolphins is frolicking near Dirk's boat. As a big game fisherman, Dirk hates just about every other fish eating animal on earth. He shoots at the dolphins because they are eating the fish that he wanted his charter customers to catch. Many escape, but one dolphin is separated from the main pod. Sandy sees the dolphin and, sensing that his life might be in danger, lies to Dirk when Dirk asks him where the dolphin went. Later that day, Porter introduces Sandy to his friend Cathy and her shy yet inventive son Marvin. Porter explains to Cathy that they haven't had a decent catch since Spring. Cathy, a marine biologist, tells Porter that a sample of fish Porter brought in earlier had tested positive for dioxin, a toxic waste.
Later that evening, Sandy heads to the docks so that he can catch the ferry back to the mainland so he can see the concert. While there, he kicks a Pepsi can into the water. The stranded dolphin he met earlier tosses it back. Sandy repeats this trick several times and begins to feel a connection with the dolphin. Then his ferry arrives. Porter wakes up to find his nephew missing; a neighbor tells him where he is. Porter catches up with the ferry and brings Sandy back to Coral Key in the midst of a tropical storm. In the storm shed they argue; Sandy doesn't like the fact that he had to miss the concert, while Porter is angry that he had to go looking for Sandy instead of boarding up his windows and preparing for the storm. The next morning, they find the devastation left by the hurricane. Porter explains to Sandy that he needs to go to the mainland in order to have his boat repaired. He tells Sandy that if he cleans up the mess while he's away, he will pay for Sandy to see the next concert in Orlando. Sandy agrees, however, he is distracted from his work by the dolphin, who he names Flipper. Sandy then meets a girl named Kim, who tells Sandy that Flipper is lucky to have survived on his own this long, especially with a fearsome hammerhead shark named Scar in the area, who has been terrorizing Coral Key for a long time. While playing, Kim explains that he'll need fish. Sandy starts his own amusement park called The Flipper Show and charges one fish for admission.
Porter arrives home and is furious when he finds out that Sandy has been playing with the dolphin rather than doing what he was meant to, and decides to teach him a lesson by letting him smoke cigars until he throws up. However, Porter eventually sees just how much Sandy has bonded with Flipper. Sandy even introduces Flipper to Marvin, who helps break him out of his shell.
While having lunch at a restaurant, Sandy, Porter, Cathy, and Kim are harassed by Dirk Moran, who taunts Porter about having a "pet" dolphin. Shortly after this, Flipper is caught by Dirk Moran's men. Porter comes to the rescue, cutting the rope to release the net so that Flipper can escape. Dirk initially tells Porter that he will "teach him a lesson" but is silenced by Porter.
The next day, Porter and Sandy are paid a visit by the sheriff Buck, who explains that they can't keep the dolphin unless he is in captivity. Cathy argues that Flipper can't fend for himself anymore and is dependent on them, however, Buck explains that if that is the case then he must go to an aquarium. Reluctantly, Sandy agrees to let Flipper go, and Buck and his men take the dolphin out to sea.
That night, Sandy and Kim set out on a dinghy to look for Flipper. While unable to locate the dolphin, they do witness Dirk Moran and his men dumping barrels filled with toxic waste into the water.
The next morning, Kim arrives looking for Sandy when Pete, Porter's pet brown pelican, comes running up to her, almost as if asking her to follow him. Pete leads Kim to a dying Flipper. Kim yells for Sandy, who helps her move Flipper onto a tarpaulin tied to the dock so that he doesn't sink, he was punch Kim, and then runs to alert Cathy. Cathy mixes up a special medicine for Flipper and take a blood sample. Flipper recovers, but Cathy concludes that Flipper was poisoned by dioxin, the same toxic waste that turned up in the fish she tested for Porter earlier. Sandy tells Cathy about the night he witnessed Dirk Moran dumping the poison. Porter and Cathy have lunch with Buck and show him the test results. They tell him they have an idea as to whom the perpetrator may be, but the sheriff tells them that Flipper's test results alone are not enough evidence. He also explains his dismay at learning that Flipper is back, and informs them that they must release Flipper into the wild within 3 days or he'll be sent to Sea World. Porter and Cathy realize that they must solve this mystery themselves. They set out, along with Kim, Sandy and Marvin.
Cathy hopes to use Flipper's gift of echolocation and a special camera she attaches to his head to help them find the toxic waste. Their plan works, and are successfully able to locate the toxic waste. However, Flipper also manages to locate the rest of his pod, and drops the camera and reunites with them. Porter heads back to alert the sheriff. Sandy, however becomes concerned that something has happened to Flipper, and without telling anyone except for Marvin, sets off on the dinghy in order to find him. Sandy barely survives an encounter with Dirk's boat which dismantles the dinghy. He sees a dorsal fin and thinks it is Flipper. It is actually a hungry Scar! As Scar is about to eat Sandy, Flipper appears and starts nose butting Scar in the gills, but the shark is stronger than Flipper. Flipper's pod comes to his aid and the dolphins manage to drive Scar away from Sandy. Sandy makes it to Dirk's boat, where Dirk reveals that he knows that Sandy witnessed him dumping the toxic waste barrels into the sea. Dirk is just about to kill Sandy when Flipper jumps up and with his tail whacks Dirk right into the sea. Eventually Porter arrives and helps Sandy to safety, and shortly afterwards Buck arrives to arrest Dirk. The sheriff, upon seeing how useful Flipper was in helping them locate the toxic waste, tells them that Flipper can stay with them. Sandy, however, realizes that Flipper belongs with his pod, and, after bidding the dolphin an emotional farewell, Flipper swims away with his family.
The next day, Sandy's mom and sister arrive to pick Sandy up. Sandy says goodbye to Cathy, Marvin, and Kim, and asks Porter if he can come back next Summer, to which Porter eagerly agrees. Porter is last seen presenting Cathy a bouquet of flowers, implying the start of a relationship between the two. On the Ferry back home, an excited group of people gather on the deck. Sandy decides to check out the commotion. It is Flipper, who has come to see Sandy off.
Cast[edit]
Paul Hogan as Porter Ricks
Elijah Wood as Sandy Ricks
Jessica Wesson as Kim
Jonathan Banks as Dirk Moran
Bill Kelley as Tommy
Chelsea Field as Cathy
Isaac Hayes as Sheriff Buck Cowan
Jason Fuchs as Marvin
Robert Deacon as Bounty Fisherman #1
Ann Carey as Fisherman's Wife
Mark Casella as Bounty Fisherman #2
Luke Halpin as Bounty Fisherman #3
Production[edit]
The film was shot in the Bahamas.[2] Animatronic dolphins, designed by Walt Conti and his team, had to be used extensively, such as in scenes where Flipper is needed to interact with the human characters, or swimming along; Conti stated that using real dolphins does not work out so well as many might think.[3]
Reception[edit]
Joe Leydon of Variety criticized the plot but appreciated the performances of Hogan, Wood, Wesson, Hayes and Field, as well as the animatronic work on the film.[2] Dwayne E. Leslie of Boxoffice noted the scene where a hammerhead shark attacks a seabird, which brings to mind similar footage from National Geographic, may be shocking for very young children.[4]
The film's tagline, "This summer it's finally safe to go back in the water." references the tagline of the 1978 feature film Jaws 2, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..."
Box office[edit]
The film debuted at No. 2 with $4.5 million.[1] Flipper ultimately grossed $20 million domestically, on a $25 million budget.
DVD release[edit]
The film was released on DVD in 2003 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, available in both 16x9 anamorphic widescreen and 4x3 fullscreen editions. Flipper was later released on Blu-ray on February 8, 2011.

Portal icon 1990s portal
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Brennan, Judy (1996-05-20). "Twister Sustains Box Office Momentum in 2nd Week". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-02-04.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Leydon, Joe (1996-05-06). "Flipper Review". Variety. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
3.Jump up ^ Rickitt, Richard (2006). Designing Movie Creatures and Characters: Behind the Scenes With the Movie Masters. Focal Press. p. 167. ISBN 0-240-80846-0.
4.Jump up ^ Leslie, Dwayne E. (1 August 2008). "Movie Reviews: Flipper". Boxoffice. Retrieved 17 November 2009.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Flipper (1996 film)
Flipper at the Internet Movie Database
Flipper at Rotten Tomatoes


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
The Flipper franchise


Films
Flipper (1963) ·
 Flipper's New Adventure (1964 sequel) ·
 Flipper (1996 remake)
 

Television series
Flipper (1964) ·
 Flipper (1995 revival series) ·
 Flipper and Lopaka (1999 animated series)
 

 


Categories: 1996 films
English-language films
American adventure films
1990s adventure films
Films about dolphins
Films set in Florida
Film remakes
Universal Pictures films
Films shot in the Bahamas





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Español
Galego
हिन्दी
Italiano
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Português
తెలుగు
Edit links
This page was last modified on 13 June 2014 at 17:17.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipper_(1996_film)