Alec (played by Pat Boone) was simply the movie version of Axel Lidenbrock (Prof. Lidenbrock's exuberant, naive nephew). So there was no significant change to the character. (Though I don't recall any singing in the novel.)
Regards,
Pat Boone as Axel Lidenbrock....
True. I didn’t mean they wrote him in.
A shame how most Jules Verne English translations were bad ones for a long time. Gave him the reputation here of juvenile fiction author. Outside the US he was admired greatly. He tried to work with the latest facts and speculations of his time. Also didn’t push socialism like his rival H.G. Wells.
I no longer have anything to do with science fiction after being a book review columnist and nonfiction book author about the subject.
Are you a SF film or literature fan?