Around the world twice in one night

The old theatre in Palo Alto that David Packard paid to restore was showing the 50's version of Around The World In 80 Days so we went and saw that Friday evening followed by the current Disney Jackie Chan version.  Interesting to see two versions of the story.

 

Having read the book before, seeing how they turn a Chinese man into Frenchman Passepartout was sure to be interesting.   When the credits in the recent version say "Based On the book by Jules Verne," it should really say "Loosely Based."   The names are the same.   It was basically throwing Jackie Chan into an existing story.  While the 50's movie steered away from the original story in some parts, it was clearly much closer to the original story.   Don't remember reading a lot of Kung Fu fighting in a village in China.   :->   The cameos and small supporting roles still make it a fun movie.  

 

Perhaps this was Disney's way of saying since Hollywood hired a Caucasian woman named Shirly McClaine to play an Indian woman in the other movie version, they would now hire an Asian man to play a French character.   ;-)