YMMV / The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

• Older Than They Think: A Superman theatrical cartoon released in 1942, "The Arctic Giant", has many similarities. A gigantic, carnivorous dinosaur frozen in the Arctic ice for millions of years awakens when it thaws out, rampages through the city, and snatches a person into its jaws (though non-fatally in the cartoon). The film seems close enough to have been an unacknowledged adaptation from the cartoon, along with the acknowledged Ray Bradbury short story.
• Retroactive Recognition: The sharpshooter was played by Lee Van Cleef.
• Special Effect Failure: While the Stop Motion effects are still very well-done to this day, the way they're inserted into the live-action can be rather off, with the live elements often having a very blurry outline in order to match up with the animation.
• Tear Jerker:
  • One can't help but feel bad for Captain George Lemay, who like Professor Nesbitt was laughed at when he told people he'd seen the dinosaur. Hopefully he returned to his hometown after getting wind of the monsters' attack on New York. Thus, vindicating his claims to the rest of his community.
  • What makes all the laughing and ridicule worse is the fact that Lemay was the lone survivor of an attack that killed the rest of his crew. So basically all those people were being cruel to a man who'd just suffered a terrible tragedy, and was probably now suffering from some form of PTSD.
  • While minor in the grand scheme, watching the poor helpless blind man as he's stampeded by terrified New Yorkers can be hard to watch.
  • Professor Elson's death.
  • Surprisingly, one can't help but feel a little sorry for the Rhedosaurus. It wasn't evil, just lost and in some way terrified by the strange world of man it’s been thrust into. Despite all the havoc the beast causes, it's hard not to cry when the poor creature meets its untimely end.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Provided by a gentleman named Ray Harryhausen.

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