Mysterious Island by Jules Verne was a dynamic story of survival on an island. There were no giant insects, giant mammals, etc. Well, they did have a pet orangutan named Jupiter (Jup), who helped with the housework. The animals were actually, quite normal. The mystery, was who kept helping them on a regular basis. Which turned out to be Captain Nemo.
The Verne book would make an excellent movie.
They did, in 1961 and again in 2012.
shareBut they still haven't gotten the book right.
shareWireless...not so. Those were movies that were entitled, "Mysterious Island," but both strayed far from the actual book, and more or less "cartoon-ized" the story. Giant birds, giant bees, humongous octopus that blocked all of the islanders from leaving the island - and both movies included women, which Verne's story didn't include. In the real story, the men on the island had struggles to survive, and met with a man who was "sentenced" to a nearby island for piracy (picked up by the new castaways), and they had a pet Orangutan named Jup, but that's it. No giant insects and birds to deal with. They did have Captain Nemo helping them on occasion (in secret), but when they finally escaped the island, it was on a ship called the Duncan that came back to retrieve Aryton. At the time of escape from the island, they were attempting to build a boat at rapid speed because an eruption of the volcano was coming.
As in many of Verne's novels, characters from previous novels were included. Such as, Captain Nemo, from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Aryton, from In Search of the Castaways.