Wanderers

5 February 2015. This is an amazing cinematic short film that depicts a brilliant vision of space travel into the outer reaches of our solar system. Using an unauthorized use of Carl Sagan, this brief three minute fifty second film using indescribable realistic animation and perhaps live shots, using a majestic, inspiring soundtrack, takes the viewer on a short trip to stranger worlds and beautiful landscapes that defy the imagination.

Some have compared this images to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In some ways it is an even more immersive, personal experience because of its lack of a storyline as opposed to a travel narrative which beckons the visitor on their own voyage of discovery.

I travel a lot as part of my work – usually nowhere particular far or exciting, but every now and again I find myself walking through a big city like Shanghai, New York, Melbourne or somewhere quite exotic, and I catch myself with the sense of wonder that a person from a very small town in Northern Ireland would be in such a place so far and so different from my own life. I know these cities are home to millions and visited by millions more, but it is a feeling I get occasionally which strikes me with wonder of our ability to travel generally, and also gratitude that at the minute it applies to me specifically.

I mention this because that sense of gratitude, of wonder at what is possible, is a feeling that I got from this short film – albeit based on a much bigger picture than a 16 hour flight. The film is presented without any actual story but it is just images of our solar system showing man's branching out into it. In terms of the images the film is beautifully done; I recommend going to the Wernquist's website to see the images and sources he drew on to make this short. Whether it is based on real shots taken by NASA, or imagined landscapes drawn from literature or theory of what it might be like to be out there, the short film is technically very impressive in how it creates these images and puts man within them.

Of course to just deliver a bunch of smooth computer generated images is not really enough – even though it is a mistake so many short films make. However this is not the case here because although we have no story or characters, the film successfully conveys the sense of wonder to the viewer. It does this via the convincing visuals but also the use of music throughout. The final shot is wisely a simple one – a person, most of whose face we cannot see, but we recognize the effects of a smile on her face, and the sense of wonder and gratitude in her eyes; it is not something that the film needs to really spell out since for most viewers it will be a feeling that the previous minutes had already captured.

Wanderers doesn't have a story, or characters but it is a great piece of sci-fi animation because it not only reaches out into the stars but it successfully makes the viewer do so too; very much worth seeing.

At the beginning of the short film, it states that all locations shown are recreations of actual places in our solar system. These locations are beautifully visualized and reimagined as if humans were present there.

Ten years is a lifetime in the evolution of visual effects tools, and Wanderers is already more than a decade old at the time I'm reviewing it. Yet, the visuals have held up surprisingly well, which is impressive considering that this short is primarily a visual journey without a specific storyline.

The film is narrated by the famous astronomer who passed away in the 1990s, so it's obviously a recording, with the matching visuals added later.

As a lover of space, and particularly our own solar system, the whole premise of this resonates with me big time. Never has someone captured the dream of space travel and exploration in a such a romantic and captivating way.

Carl Sagan's accurate and philosophic lines gave me goose bumps! Man, I could watch and listen to this endlessly. Wonderful graphics and perfect music.