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Journey to the Center of the Earth facts for kids

Journey to the Center of the Earth ( French : Voyage au centre de la Terre ), also translated with the variant titles A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and A Journey into the Interior of the Earth ), is a classic science fiction novel by Jules Verne . It was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. Professor Otto Lidenbrock is the tale's central figure, an eccentric German scientist who believes there are volcanic tubes that reach to the very center of the earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their Icelandic guide Hans rappel into Iceland's celebrated inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, then contend with many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. (The 1867 revised edition inserted additional prehistoric material in Chaps. 37–39.) Eventually the three explorers are spewed back to the surface by an active volcano, Stromboli , in southern Italy.

The category of subterranean fiction existed well before Verne. However his novel's distinction lay in its well-researched Victorian science and its inventive contribution to the science-fiction subgenre of time travel —Verne's innovation was the concept of a prehistoric realm still existing in the present-day world. Not surprisingly, Journey inspired many later authors, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his novel The Lost World and Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Pellucidar series.

Inspiration

Main characters, theme park (themed areas) and rides.

The story begins in May 1863, at the Lidenbrock house in Hamburg , Germany . Professor Otto Lidenbrock dashes home to peruse his latest antiquarian purchase, an original runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga written by Snorre Sturluson , " Heimskringla ", a chronicle of the Norwegian kings who ruled over Iceland. While leafing through the book, Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel find a coded note written in runic script along with the name of a 16th century Icelandic alchemist , Arne Saknussemm. (This novel was Verne's first to showcase his love of cryptography ; coded, cryptic, or incomplete messages would appear as plot devices in many of his works, and Verne would take pains to explain not only the code itself but also the mechanisms for retrieving the original text.) Lidenbrock and Axel transliterate the runic characters into Latin letters, revealing a message written in a seemingly bizarre code. Lidenbrock deduces that the message is a transposition cipher, but achieves results no more meaningful than the baffling original.

Professor Lidenbrock locks everyone in the house and forces himself, Axel, and Martha the maid to go without food until he cracks the code. Axel discovers the answer when fanning himself with the deciphered text: Lidenbrock's deciphering was correct but simply needed to be read backward in order to reveal a paragraph written in rough Latin. Axel tries to hide his discovery from Lidenbrock, afraid of the professor's maniacal reactions, but after two days without food, he knuckles under and reveals the secret to his uncle. Lidenbrock translates the paragraph, a 16th century note written by Saknussemm, who claims to have discovered a passage to the center of the earth via the crater of Snæfellsjökull in Iceland . The deciphered message reads:

In Sneffels Yokulis craterem kem delibat umbra Scartaris Julii intra calendas descende, audas viator, et terrestre centrum attinges. Kod feci. Arne Saknussemm.

which, when translated into English, reads:

Go down into the crater of Snaefells Jökull, which Scartaris's shadow caresses just before the calends of July, O daring traveler, and you'll make it to the center of the earth. I've done so. Arne Saknussemm

A man of astonishing impatience, Lidenbrock departs for Iceland immediately, taking the reluctant Axel with him. The latter repeatedly tries to reason with his uncle, describing the dangers of descending into a volcano that could very possibly reactivate, then putting forward several accepted scientific theories as to why the journey is flatly impossible. The professor ignores Axel's arguments, and after a swift trip via Kiel and Copenhagen , they arrive in Reykjavík . There they hire as their guide Icelander Hans Bjelke, a Danish-speaking eiderduck hunter, then travel overland to the base of Snæfellsjökull.

In late June they reach the volcano, which has three craters. According to Saknussemm's message, the route to the earth's center is via the crater that's touched by the noontime shadow of a nearby mountain peak, Scartaris, just before the end of June. But at that point the weather proves too cloudy for any shadows, and Axel hopes this will force his uncle to abandon the project and go home. Alas for Axel, the sun finally comes out, and Scartaris's shadow indicates the correct crater.

Reaching the bottom of the crater, the three travelers set off into the bowels of the earth, encountering many dangers and strange phenomena. After taking a wrong turn, they run short of water and Axel nearly perishes, but Hans saves them all by tapping into a subterranean river, which shoots out a stream of water that Lidenbrock and Axel name the "Hansbach" in the guide's honor. Later on Axel becomes separated from his companions and gets lost deep in the earth. Luckily an odd acoustic phenomenon allows him to communicate with the others from a distance, and they are soon reunited.

Following the course of the Hansbach, the explorers descend many miles and reach a cavern of colossal size. It's a genuine underground world that's lit by electrically charged gas near its ceiling, is filled by a deep subterranean ocean, and surrounded by a rocky coastline that's covered with petrified tree trunks, the fossils of prehistoric mammals, and gigantic living mushrooms . The travelers build a raft out of semipetrified wood and set sail. The professor names the ocean the "Lidenbrock Sea" and their takeoff point "Port Gräuben", after his goddaughter back home (whom Axel will marry at the novel's end). While at sea they encounter prehistoric fish from the Devonian Period and giant marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs, including an ichthyosaurus , which battles and defeats a plesiosaurus . After the conflict between these monsters, the party reaches an islet with a huge geyser , which Lidenbrock names "Axel Island".

A lightning storm threatens to destroy the raft and its passengers, but instead surprises them by apparently throwing them back onto the very coastline they'd previously left. But this section of coast, Axel discovers, is the site of an enormous fossil graveyard, including bones from the pterodactyl , megatherium , and mastodon , plus the preserved body of a man. Nephew and uncle then venture into a forest featuring primitive vegetation from the Tertiary Period ; in its depths they are stunned to find a prehistoric humanoid more than twelve feet in height and watching over a herd of mastodons . Axel isn't sure he has actually seen the creature or not, and he argues with Lidenbrock over whether it's a manlike ape or an apelike man. In any case, fearing it may be hostile, they quickly leave the forest.

Continuing to explore the coastline, the travelers find a passageway marked by Saknussemm as the way ahead, but unfortunately it has been blocked by a recent cave-in. The adventurers lay plans to blow the rock open with gun cotton , meanwhile paddling their raft out to sea to avoid the blast. On executing this scheme, however, they find a seemingly bottomless pit beyond the impeding rock and are swept into it as the sea rushes down the huge open gap. After spending hours descending at breakneck speed, their raft reverses direction and rises inside a volcanic chimney that ultimately spews them into the open air. When they regain consciousness, they learn that they've been ejected from Stromboli , a volcanic island located off Sicily .

The trio returns to Germany, where Axel and Lidenbrock deduce that the electric storm at sea had reversed the poles of their compass — in actuality they hadn't been driven backward but forward to a new shore notable for containing gigantic hominids. At home in Hamburg again, they enjoy great acclaim; Professor Lidenbrock is hailed as one of the great scientists of the day, Axel marries his sweetheart Gräuben, and Hans returns to his peaceful, eiderdown-hunting life in Iceland .

The novel's paleontology drew heavily on the descriptions of prehistory in Louis Figuier's 1863 popular-science work La Terre avant le déluge ("The Earth before the Flood"); Verne was personally acquainted with Figuier and a fellow member of Paris's Circle of the Scientific Press.

• Professor Otto Lidenbrock: a hot-tempered geologist with radical ideas.
• Axel: Lidenbrock's nephew, a young student whose ideas are more cautious and realistic.
• Hans Bjelke: Icelandic eiderduck hunter who hires on as their guide; resourceful and imperturbable.
• Gräuben: Lidenbrock's goddaughter, with whom Axel is in love; from Virland (today part of Estonia ).
• Martha: Lidenbrock's housekeeper and cook.

Adaptations

• 1959: Journey to the Center of the Earth , USA, directed by Henry Levin, starring James Mason and Pat Boone , distributed by 20th Century Fox . The film transfers Verne's beginning locale from Hamburg to Edinburgh , "Professor Otto Lidenbrock" becomes "Professor Oliver Lindenbrook", and Axel becomes earth-sciences student Alec McEwan. Special effects are sometimes perfunctory, modern lizards standing in for Verne's prehistoric monsters — iguanas, for instance, are decked out in paste-on dorsal fins and offered up as dimetrodons . The film also introduces a new subplot and two additional main characters: a female explorer ( Arlene Dahl ) and a villainous antagonist (Thayer David).
• 1978: Viaje al centro de la Tierra , Spain, directed by Juan Piquer Simón, starring Kenneth More and Pep Munné. It was distributed in both the U.S. in theaters as Where Time Began and the U.K. on TV as The Fabulous Journey to the Centre of the Earth .
• The surname of Kathy Ireland 's character in Alien from L.A. (1988), a film about a girl who falls through the Earth and discovers a repressive subterranean society, is Saknussemm.
• 1989: Journey to the Center of the Earth took only the title and general concept from the Verne novel, offering a new storyline aimed at a teen audience. It was written by Debra Ricci, Regina Davis , Kitty Chalmers, and Rusty Lemorande, and was directed by Lemorande and Albert Pyun. It stars Emo Philips, Paul Carafotes, Jaclyn Bernstein, Kathy Ireland , Janet Du Plessis, Nicola Cowper, Lochner De Kock, and Ilan Mitchell-Smith.
• 2008: Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 3-D film by Eric Brevig. Cast members include Brendan Fraser , Anita Briem and Josh Hutcherson . The film is a modern-day paraphrase of the 1860s original — it uses Verne's book as its inciting incident instead of Saknussemm's message, then follows the novel's overall structure with fidelity: a geology professor, his nephew, and an Icelandic guide (now a female named "Hannah") penetrate Snaefells, discover a seashore with giant mushrooms, sail across an underground ocean inhabited by pods of plesiosaurus , and reach the other side where they encounter a terrestrial monster from prehistory, in this case a tyrannosaurus rather than a mastodon . Ultimately the three explorers exit the underworld via an erupting volcano, find themselves in present-day Italy, and return to their starting point in academia.
• 2008: Journey to the Center of the Earth was a direct-to-DVD release by The Asylum. Released as Journey to Middle Earth in the United Kingdom, the production began life as a 2008 TV film from RHI Entertainment. Starring Rick Schroder, Peter Fonda , Victoria Pratt, Steven Grayhm, and Mike Dopud, it was shot in and around Vancouver during the summer of 2007. A loose, low-budget adaptation (Pratt and Fonda's characters were added to the original story), it apparently hoped to ride the coattails of the Eric Brevig film.
• An animated television series, Journey to the Center of the Earth , first broadcast in 1967 on ABC , starring the voices of Ted Knight , Pat Harrington, Jr. , and Jane Webb; loosely based on Verne's novel and closer to the 1959 film.
• The first part of the second series of Around the World with Willy Fog entitled Willy Fog 2 by Spanish studio BRB Internacional was titled "Journey to the Centre of the Earth".
• A limited animation television special in the Famous Classic Tales series was aired by CBS in 1977.
• In 1993, NBC aired a made-for-TV film version with a cast including John Neville, F. Murray Abraham and Kim Miyori. The film used the title and general premise of Verne's novel, but had its heroes carry out the journey in an earth-penetrating machine borrowed from Burroughs.
• The Wishbone 1996 episode "Hot Diggety Dawg" followed the novel and featured several major scenes identifying the central character as Professor Lidenbrock.
• The 37th episode of The Triplets , called Journey to the Center of the Earth , makes reference to this novel.
• The 1999 Hallmark Entertainment miniseries starred Treat Williams , Jeremy London , Bryan Brown , Tushka Bergen, and Hugh Keays-Byrne . This version deviates massively from Verne's original.
• Journey to the Center of the Earth was a 2008 American-Canadian TV film.
• The 2012 episode Journey to the Center of the Earth , from Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom , makes reference to the novel. In it, the naughty twins Daisy and Poppy magically send Mrs. Fotheringill to the center of the earth, and it's up to Grandpapa Thistle to guide Ben, Holly and their family there on a rescue mission.
• A seven-part radio serial was broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1962. It was produced by Claire Chovil, and starred Trevor Martin and Nigel Anthony.
• An eight-part radio serial was produced for BBC Radio 4 by Howard Jones in 1963. It starred Bernard Horsfall and Jeffrey Banks.
• A radio drama adaptation was broadcast by National Public Radio in 2000 for its series Radio Tales .
• A 90-minute radio adaptation by Stephen Walker directed by Owen O'Callan was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on December 28, 1995 and rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on November 20, 2011, on November 11 and 12, 2012, and on December 20 and 21, 2014. Nicholas Le Prevost stars as Professor Otto Lidenbrock, Nathaniel Parker as Axel, and Oliver Senton as Hans. Kristen Millwood plays Rosemary McNab, a new character intended to spice up the old storyline: she funds and accompanies the expedition, enjoying love affairs with both Hans and Lidenbrock en route.
• Much more respectful of Verne's original is the two-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Journey to the Centre of the Earth broadcast on March 19 and 26, 2017. Featuring Stephen Critchlow as Professor Lidenbrock, Joel MacCormack as Axel, and Gudmundur Ingi Thorvaldsson as Hans, it was directed and produced by Tracey Neale and adapted by Moya O'Shea.
• A thrill ride based on the book, Journey to the Center of the Earth, is open at The Mysterious Island section of Tokyo DisneySea 's theme park. It also includes a dark ride based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea .
• Le Visionarium (Timekeeper), featuring Jules Verne in a circle vision ride (1992–2005) and Space Mountain, de la Terre à la Lune, in its original version (1995–2005), based directly on From the Earth to the Moon in Discoveryland (the hub facing part of the Land features steampunk-related theming) at Euro Disneyland (now Disneyland Paris) between 1992 and 2005
• Video games called Journey to the Center of the Earth : in 1984 by Ozisoft for the Commodore 64; in 1989 by Topo Soft for the ZX Spectrum and in 2003 by Frogwares.
• A Journey to the Center of the Earth game for Sega Genesis was planned but never released.
• A board game adaptation of the book designed by Rüdiger Dorn was released by Kosmos in 2008.
• Caedmon Records released an abridged recording of Journey to the Center of the Earth read by James Mason , in the 1960s.
• Tom Baker was the reader for a recording released by Argo Records in 1977.
• Jon Pertwee was the reader for a recording released by Pinnacle Records Storyteller in 1975.
• In 2011, Audible released an unabridged "Signature Performance" reading of the book by Tim Curry .
• Wakeman released a second concept album called Return to the Centre of the Earth in 1999. It tells the story of a later set of travelers attempting to repeat the original journey.
• Alien Voices, an audio theater group led by Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie , released a dramatized version of Journey to the Center of the Earth through Simon and Schuster Audio in 1997.
• Christopher Lloyd 's character of Doctor Emmett Brown , one of the two main fictional characters of the Back to the Future film series, attributed the origins of his lifelong devotion to science to having read as a child the works of Jules Verne in general, and Journey to the Center of the Earth in particular. (This is evident when he reveals that he tried to dig to the center of the Earth at the age of twelve.) Back to the Future Part III , especially, pays homage to the book when Dr. Brown carves his initials in a mineshaft after storing the time machine, just like Arne Saknussemm did to help guide future explorers. At the end of the film, it is revealed that Dr. Brown's two sons are named Jules and Verne.
• The 1992 adventure/role-playing game Quest for Glory III by Sierra Entertainment used Arne Saknoosen the Aardvark as a bit character for exploration information, alluding to the explorer Arne Saknussemm.
• The DC Comics comic book series Warlord takes place in Skartaris, a land supposed to exist within a hollow earth . Its creator, Mike Grell, has confirmed that "the name comes from the mountain peak Scartaris that points the way to the passage to the Earth's core in Journey to the Center of the Earth ."
• Louis MacNeice's final play Persons from Porlock contains a reference to Journey to the Center of the Earth at the beginning. Because his mother used to read it aloud to him, Hank became fascinated with "caves and pot-holes and things". At the end of the play Herr Professor Lidebrock is one of the characters Hank meets down the pot hole. Hank says to him, "Oh, my dear Professor, I've always wanted to meet you, since my mother used to read me your adventures. How you went down the volcano and ran into all those mastodons. But, of course, in your case you got out again." The Professor replies, "That was because I am a character in fiction... Jules Verne invented me".
• Halldór Laxness , the only Icelandic author to be awarded the Nobel Prize , set his novel Under the Glacier in the area of Snæfellsjökull. The glacier has a mystic quality in the story and there are several references to A Journey to the Center of the Earth in connection with it.
• Norihiko Kurazono's Chitei Ryokou (地底旅行) is a manga adaptation of Journey to the Center of the Earth that was serialized in Comic Beam from 2015 to 2017.
• This page was last modified on 21 February 2024, at 15:05. Suggest an edit .

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Journey To The Center Of The Earth’, Where A Group Of Kids Follow Jules Verne’s Geological Path To Help Save Earth’s Magnetic Field

Where to stream:.

• Journey to the Center of the Earth
• Stream It Or Skip It

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ on Disney+, an Old-Fashioned Biopic of Endurance Swimmer Gertrude Ederle

Stream it or skip it: ‘ghostbusters: frozen empire’ on netflix, an exhumation of past franchise glories, stream it or skip it: ‘kite man: hell yeah’ on max, a goofy-bloody ‘harley quinn’ spinoff starring cut-rate dc villains, stream it or skip it: ‘betty la fea: the story continues’ on prime video, a sequel series to the colombian telenovela that inspired ‘ugly betty’.

In a new adaptation of Jules Verne’s Journey To The Center Of The Earth , a group of kids in a Mexican adventure camp take the journey that Verne did, with the goal of finding the group leader’s grandmother and trying to restore the Earth’s magnetic balance. Not a small feat, right?

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An older man in the past, supposedly Jules Verne (Gabriel Goity), writes about his adventures in parallel dimensions, and leaves instructions to his future generations about using the portal to those dimensions.

The Gist: Diego (Sebastián García) is an adventurous kid and an inventor just like his brother Martin (Yankel Stevan), his parents, and his grandmother Pola (Margarita Rosa de Francisco). In fact, the boys and their little sister Violeta (Camila Núñez) are being cared for by Pola as their parents are on a polar expedition.

Diego, along with his buddies Pedro (Manuel Márquez) and Ana (Paola Miguel), is going to an adventure camp for a month. Violeta is also going, as is Martin, who will be there as a counselor to fulfill his university community service requirement. The camp is owned by Pompilio Calderón (Óscar Jaenada), a famous and eccentric adventurer who walks around with a robot bird named Claudio (Santiago Alonso) on his shoulder.

Pola, who’s noticing that the microwave oven is going haywire and magnets are falling off the refrigerator door and crows are gathering outside, calls up her daughter and son-in-law to see what they’re seeing at their research station. She thinks she has to go into the dimensional portal to figure things out. She goes into a cave and opens the portal, and she’s followed there by Pompilio and Claudio; Pompilio has wanted to get into that portal for years. A dog runs out of the portal as it closes and takes the medallion Pola used to open it.

As camp opens, the group meets the shy but equally adventurous Laura (Valery Sais). Martin finds out that Andrea (Carla Adell), an old crush of his, is also a counselor. Pompiloo’s nephew Antonio (Luigi Cerrada) tries to bigfoot Diego and his group by bullying them and playing pranks.

The first night, though, Diego and his group find the dog, who Violeta names “Soup”. As they follow the dog through the woods, into an area Pompilio says is a “no go” for the campers, they find Pola’s medallion. When Pompilio finds them, he sees it as his chance to finally go through the portal. But he doesn’t realize that there are going to be people diving in behind him.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Journey To The Center Of The Earth , besides being an adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel that has been made into two feature films (not to mention a string of hokey straight-to-video imaginings) reminds us a bit of the modern-set adventure series Theodosia . Our Take: José Luis Gutiérrez Arias and Lavia Atencio adapted Verne’s 1864 novel, and they took it in an interesting direction, making the journey center around a group of 21st-century kids. These kids aren’t your typical Roblox or Minecraft obsessives; even the VR games Diego and his buddies play are based on Verne’s adventures. That’s obviously a good thing; instead of showing preteens staring at phones and/or doing the usual coming-of-age stuff, they’re exploring multiple dimensions.

The series has its fantastical, Verne-like elements, even in the present-day setting. It’s most evident in the person of Pompilio and his steampunk bird companion Claudio. He wants to find a rock named Tungsten, and we’re not sure if he’s pure evil or just a sneaky guy. He’s certainly quirky, mixing French in with his Spanish, and Jaenada plays him well, making him just over-the-top enough to not make adults roll their eyes when watching him.

But there’s also the usual “kids at camp” story, with the kid who’s the leader of his/her group, the adventurous girl or girls, the bully who is eventually going to get his or her comeuppance, and likely lots of competitions to get everyone’s juices flowing. That aspect of the story will likely be the weakest, but for the most part, it serves as a way to ground the fantasy aspects of the series.

What Age Group Is This For?: Kids of all ages who like adventure should like Journey To The Center Of The Earth .

Parting Shot: After Pompilio dives into the portal, Soup the dog goes in, too. Violeta has no problem jumping in as the portal starts to close. Will the rest of the group go after her?

Sleeper Star: How could we not cite Santiago Alonso as the wise acre Claudio? The robot bird might be our favorite character in the whole show.

Most Pilot-y Line: We had an issue with how the show transitioned from Episode 1 to Episode 2, but we’ll leave those questions to the viewer as they see each episode. There’s an assumption that’s made at that point, but it’s a big one, and one we hope is addressed properly at some point.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Journey To The Center Of The Earth is a little goofy, but it looks great and the performances of the kids and adults make the show worth watching.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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Journey to the Center of the Earth | 2008 | PG | - 2.4.1

SEX/NUDITY 2 - A woman kisses a man on the lips, and a man kisses a woman on the lips. ►  A woman and a man fall out of a car, she lands on top of him chest to chest and they lay there for a minute to catch their breath. ►  A woman wears low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in a couple of scenes. ►  A teenage boy calls "dibs" on an attractive older woman and another woman says, "No one gets dibs."

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - A man finds a dead body and buries it under rocks (we see the rock mound). A rope cuts a woman's hands and we see blood. ►  Large scary fish jump out of the water, attempting to eat people who use sticks to strike the fish (one fish tries to bite a woman's buttocks). A dinosaur chases and tries to eat people, and man-eating plants attack two people (one person is seen being choked by the plants). ►  A woman almost drowns but is rescued. A boy is carried away by the wind. ►  A cave opening collapses after an explosion, trapping people inside (no one is hurt). There are several lightning strikes close to humans and lightning strikes a mechanical object causing an explosion (no one is hurt). ►  A man falls down the side of a cliff (he is unhurt), a man almost walks off a cliff, a teenager is frightened about rappelling off a high cliff, and a teenager walks across a very high, unstable bridge. ►  People ride mine carts through tunnels, crashing and jumping tracks, and are frightened; a man and a woman fall out of a cart and he is slightly hurt and groans. ►  There are two explosions and no one is hurt, but people are lifted into the air with one explosion and are scared as they fall. People fall down a volcano tube (they fall very far, screaming, and end up in water). ►  A man is struck on the head with a ball. A man knocks over a trophy. ►  People talk about a mine disaster in which 81 people died.

LANGUAGE 1 - Mild name-calling.

SUBSTANCE USE - None.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Parental death, romance, scientific exploration, family, believing in oneself, skeptics.

MESSAGE - Sticking together and having faith in oneself will help a family overcome any obstacle.

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated , Special , Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.

REVIEWS See ratings & reviews at Critics.com

WEB LINKS Official Site    IMDb

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THE ASSIGNED NUMBERS Unlike the MPAA we do not assign one inscrutable rating based on age but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY , VIOLENCE/GORE & LANGUAGE on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest depending on quantity & context | more |

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Journey to the Center of the Earth

When I was a kid, the 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth , with James Mason, Pat Boone, and a lot of slithery cool dinosaurs, was one of my favorite movies to catch on Saturday-afternoon TV. It had a certain odd gravitas, with its crew of explorers getting increasingly desperate in their attempt to survive. (The sight of an actor as refined as Mason running around in rags was a shock.) The new Journey to the Center of the Earth , whether or not you see it in 3-D, has about as much gravitas as a helium balloon. Brendan Fraser , as a floppy-haired academic looking for holes in the planet, takes his 13-year-old nephew and a pretty Scandinavian guide along with him, and the three never stop moving — rocketing around on diamond-mine carts; plunging through a muscovite floor and falling down, down, down; scurrying away from a T. rex (him again!) and other familiar terrors. Last year’s Beowulf employed 3-D with a certain fairy-tale savvy, but Journey is just the new version of a 1950s comin’-at-ya roller coaster, with a tape measure, trilobite antennae, and giant snapping piranha thrust at the audience. Yet wandering around the earth’s stalactite-dripped core exerts a primal appeal even in a dumb kiddie joyride like this one. In the best scene, Fraser’s nephew clings to floating magnetic rocks above the deepest abyss you’ve ever seen, a situation that could give even jaded videogame kids vertigo. B-

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• Cast & Crew

Journey to the Center of the Earth

• 57   Metascore
• 1 hr 33 mins
• Fantasy, Family, Comedy, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction

Brendan Fraser stars as a geologist who ventures deep below the Earth's crust to find his missing brother in this fast-paced, kid-friendly adventure loosely based on the oft-filmed Jules Verne classic. His 13-year-old nephew (Josh Hutcherson) and a pretty Icelandic mountaineer (Anita Briem) round out the search party. Seth Meyers, Jean Michel Pare, Jane Wheeler.

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1:15 Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D: It's Thicker Than I Thought

Cast & Crew See All

Brendan Fraser

Trevor anderson.

Josh Hutcherson

Sean anderson.

Anita Briem

Hannah ásgeirsson, latest news see all, trailers & videos see all.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D: It's Thicker Than I Thought

Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D: The Track Ahead Looks Good

Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D: Magnetic Rocks

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Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D: I Got Dibs On The Mountain Guide

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Journey to the center of the earth, common sense media reviewers.

Tame sci-fi action adventurer OK for families.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Positive messages around doing the right thing, st

Main characters are good role models- they are goo

The series is produced in Mexico and features Span

Lots of action throughout, including scenes where

Some teenage flirting not central to the plot.

Some insults and put downs like "stupid," "loser,"

Parents need to know that Journey to the Center of the Earth is a sci-fi TV series loosely based on Jules Verne's 1865 sci-fi novel (and not at all related to the 2008 movie of the same name). Produced in Mexico under the title Viaje al centro de la Tierra , the dialogue is originally in Spanish but…

Positive Messages

Positive messages around doing the right thing, standing up to bullies and villains, and being courageous even when you're afraid.

Positive Role Models

Main characters are good role models- they are good friends, help other people, stand up to bullies, and are very brave. There is a bully named Antonio, but his actions are presented as clearly wrong and other kids stand up to him. Older brother Martín has some negative teenager attitude but he eventually does the right thing.

Diverse Representations

The series is produced in Mexico and features Spanish-speaking actors with a variety of skin tones from a variety of countries (like Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Columbia). There is diversity in body types and ages of main characters. One character has neurodiverse characteristics (though her identity is not specified) and is invited to be friends by neurotypical kids. Boys and girls have some counterstereoypical characteristics, like emotionally vulnerable boys and brave, take-charge girls.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Lots of action throughout, including scenes where kids are in danger (though they never seem like they're in immediate peril). Some scenes are suspenseful with music, ominous scenery, and creatures like monsters and dinosaurs. Children are adventuring alone without adults at times, and there are some adult characters that are trying to thwart the kids. There is occasional verbal hostility including mild insults and threats, as well as occasional pushing and shoving and some bully-type behavior.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Some insults and put downs like "stupid," "loser," "idiot," "jerk," and "coward." Some characters (the main adult villain, a kid bully) make verbal threats towards others.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Journey to the Center of the Earth is a sci-fi TV series loosely based on Jules Verne's 1865 sci-fi novel (and not at all related to the 2008 movie of the same name ). Produced in Mexico under the title Viaje al centro de la Tierra , the dialogue is originally in Spanish but dubbed with English voiceovers. There's lots of action and adventure, including scenes where kids are in danger (though they never seem like they're in immediate peril). There is occasional verbal hostility including mild insults and threats, as well as occasional pushing and shoving and some bully-type behaviors. Language-wise, there's no actual cursing but there are some insults and put downs like "stupid," "loser," "idiot," "jerk," and "coward." The main adult villain and a kid bully make verbal threats towards others. Overall, Journey is a pretty tame family-friendly adventure series.

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What's the Story?

In the opening scene of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, Jules Verne writes instructions to his descendants. Verne tells his future family how to access portals to secret dimensions, but tells them they must not enter the portals unless there's an Earthly imbalance. Fast forward to modern life, and adventurer grandmother Pola has detected that Earth's magnetic field is fluctuating rapidly. Pola decides it's time to enter a portal, but drops her grandchildren off at summer camp first. Her grandchildren and their friends are very excited to attend "Pompilio Camp," a camp led by famous adventurer Pompilio Calderón. The kids quickly realize that Grandma Pola has disappeared into a portal near camp, and they decide to rescue her. Once they enter this new dimension, the kids learn that they have to protect their family's secret from their villainous camp director, his robot henchman bird Claudio, and their ulterior motives.

Is It Any Good?

This adventure series has a fun premise and charming kid characters. Kid viewers will like watching regular kids step up and bravely go on an adventure. They'll also like the imaginative worlds inside the center of the earth (including fantastical creatures including dinosaurs). The story is fairly predictable and the special effects are a bit lackluster, so adults may be less charmed by the series. For kids who like sci-fi and a dose of relatively tame adventure, Journey is a fun watch.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the courage that the kids have in Journey of the Center of the Earth . How do you think they find bravery even when what they're doing is scary or something they've never done before. Do you think you'd be able to do the same things?

Families can talk about the Calderón family in the Journey to the Center of the Earth . Why do you think they are up to no good? How do they trick people to get what they want?

• Premiere date : March 29, 2023
• Cast : Óscar Jaenada , Margarita Rosa de Francisco , Yankel Stevan
• Network : Disney+
• Genre : Action
• Topics : Dinosaurs , Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Brothers and Sisters
• Character Strengths : Courage
• TV rating : TV-PG
• Last updated : April 14, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Journey To The Center Of The Earth

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Journey to the Center of the Earth

• TV Mini Series

Remake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife of another man, who had previously gone on a similar expedition and disa... Read all Remake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife of another man, who had previously gone on a similar expedition and disappeared. Remake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife of another man, who had previously gone on a similar expedition and disappeared.

• Treat Williams
• Jeremy London
• Tushka Bergen
• 34 User reviews
• 11 Critic reviews
• 3 nominations

• Theodore Lytton

• Jonas Lytton

• Alice Hastings

• Casper Hastings

• Reverend Polson
• Society Member
• Johnny Alcott
• Head Maori Warrior
• Tribal Shaman
• The Missing Link
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia While on the "beach", they see and then chased by flying creatures that Theodore says are Pterodactyls and Archaeopteryx, that he says are the link between reptiles and birds. They're not. Actually, they're another form of pterosaurs, too big for Pterodactyls, are reptiles and completely different from Archaeopteryx which are winged dinosaurs who really are related to Modern Birds. And they wouldn't be flying together.

Helen : He's going to the center of the Earth. You get dizzy on the botton rung of a ladder.

Jonas Lytton : Not the *bottom* rung.

• Connections Features 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997)

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 34 minutes

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