Journey to the Center of the Earth

A volcanologist named Trevor Anderson has long been dismissed by his peers for his belief that a passage to the center of the Earth exists. When his missing brother's notebook points him toward Iceland, he sets out with his nephew Sean and a local mountain guide, Hannah Ásgeirsson. A storm drives the three into a cave, and a sudden fall carries them far below the surface into a vast underground world cut off from the one they know. The landscape is filled with strange terrain and creatures from a distant age, and the way back is not what they came through. They must rely on one another to reach the surface. The film draws on Jules Verne's nineteenth-century novel as a guiding thread.

Eric Brevig directed the film, his first feature, followed by Yogi Bear two years later. Michael D. Weiss, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin wrote the screenplay, and Beau Flynn and Charlotte Huggins produced. Brendan Fraser plays Trevor, with Josh Hutcherson as Sean, Anita Briem as Hannah, Seth Meyers as Professor Alan Kitzens, Jean Michel Paré as Max Anderson and Jane Wheeler as Elizabeth Anderson.

Made for about 45 million dollars, the film returned roughly 102 million worldwide, a solid result for a family adventure. On IMDb it holds 5.8 from around 140,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 from about 5,300 votes, suggesting audiences view it as mild entertainment. A critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from 158 reviews places it close to those audience scores.