The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Adventure · Fantasy · Family · 1959
An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.
Movie details
Journey to the Center of the Earth
“A fabulous world below the world”
1959 Adventure · Fantasy · Family 2h 12m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.9 / 10
Community rating
An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Journey to the Center of the Earth?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Return to Oz
Adventure · 1985
Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, finds herself back in the land of her dreams, and makes delightful new friends, and dangerous new enemies.
The Island at the Top of the World
Adventure · 1974
A Victorian gentleman hopes to find his long-lost son, who vanished while searching for a mysterious Viking community in a volcanic valley somewhere in uncharted Arctic regions. The gentleman puts together an expedition team to go on the search, but when they reach their destination they must escape from some Viking descendants who will kill to keep their existence a secret.
The Water Horse
Family · 2007
A lonely boy discovers a mysterious egg that hatches a sea creature of Scottish legend.
The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave
Animation · 2016
On a day known to the dinosaurs as "Treasure Day", Bron becomes stuck in the Mysterious Beyond. This event urges the young Longneck Littlefoot to take his friends on a quest to the Fire Mountain to save his father. Along the way, they befriend a Flyer.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Animation · 2001
A young linguist named Milo Thatch joins an intrepid group of explorers to find the mysterious lost continent of Atlantis.
The Magic Faraway Tree
Adventure · 2026
A modern family relocates to the countryside where the children discover a magical tree with eccentric residents. They're transported to fantastical lands, rekindling their family bond through adventures.
Dolittle
Family · 2020
After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, hermits himself away behind the high walls of Dolittle Manor with only his menagerie of exotic animals for company. But when the young queen falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure, regaining his wit and courage as he crosses old adversaries and discovers wondrous creatures.
Inkheart
Adventure · 2008
The adventures of a father and his young daughter, in their search for a long lost book that will help reunite a missing, close relative.
Extinct
Animation · 2021
Op and Ed, two adorable donut-shaped animals - flummels - accidentally time-travel from 1835 to modern-day Shanghai. There they discover traffic, trans fats, and worst of all, that flummels are now extinct. It's up to this bumbling pair to save themselves and their species...and, just maybe, change the course of history.
The Good Dinosaur
Adventure · 2015
An epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Henry Levin
Written by
Walter Reisch · Charles Brackett
James Mason
Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook
Arlene Dahl
Carla Göteborg
Pat Boone
Alexander 'Alec' McKuen
Peter Ronson
Hans Belker
Thayer David
Count Saknussem
Diane Baker
Jenny Lindenbrook
Alan Napier
Dean
Court is in session
Put Journey to the Center of the Earth on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.