Anima Mundi

Anima Mundi doesn't quite do for the animal world what Koyaanisqatsi did for the human world, but that's okay. I still thought it was a good watch, and maybe an even better listen, thanks to Philip Glass doing the score, just as he did for Godfrey Reggio's Qatsi movies.

It feels like Anima Mundi is giving animals a chance to judge humans, and what they're doing to their environment, maybe? That's something I get from all the close-ups. I felt a bit judged, as a viewer. But it's also just interesting that you get almost no close-ups when humans are Reggio's subjects, but then you get them for what feels like half the film here.

There's some slow-motion, of course, but I don't think any time-lapse photography. Still, there are a handful of striking images, and it's all put together interestingly. Sounds great, looks good, but maybe it falls a little short of being entirely great. I could've happily watched this for longer, so maybe it's just this being under 30 minutes that holds it back from feeling a little grander, more sweeping, and ultimately moving.

Don't give up! This DVD is now available through various new/used dealers. The disc is quite extraordinary and disappointing at the same time. Here's why...

Like Godfrey Reggio's previous films, the concept behind Anima Mundi is spectacular and its content is extraordinarily beautiful. However, in the DVD version I have, the video quality is poor, sometimes even painfully so, considering our age of crisp, radiant, digital video.

One more comment: I scored this film low based on its video quality. At this writing, an $8 DVD and an $18 DVD are available. Perhaps it has been re-released with improved quality? I hope so; I think it's worth seeing.

It is a wonderful immersion in a very lively nature. The music and the images are complementary to each other. The quality of the images is impressive. You will see animals and environments from any corner of the world and will be impressed by the diversity of them.

If anyone is curious, a remastered version of Anima Mundi is included in the new blu-ray collection of Godfrey Reggio's Qatsi Trilogy from Criterion Collection. Anima Mundi is an extra on the disc for Powaqqatsi.

There is a wonderful moment at the beginning of this film where the screen is filled with the image of a large cat's eyes staring directly at us (the one from the front of the video box), accompanied by dark, moody chords played by the brass section. It looks away for a second, and then the music swells ominously as it looks at us again. Although I am not particularly "into" the music of Phillip Glass, I must say that Reggio and Glass have produced a really beautiful little film here. My particular favorite is the eerie, other-worldly underwater sequence, featuring black stingrays floating far above us, sea lions swimming as we would imagine mermaids would, inky-black jellyfish, and a swim through a forest of enormous seaweed dancing and undulating gracefully. Glass's music for this sequence is particularly haunting and beautiful -- and if you've ever seen the film "The Truman Show," you've heard this music before. It accompanies a scene where Truman is talking to his best friend, trying to make sense of his life, and the music nicely underscores his sense of unease, sadness and doubt (I believe it was written for "Anima Mundi" first).

Despite a comment here about "Anima Mundi" being out of print, I did just manage to buy the DVD at a local store here in Chicago, and that edition, at least, seems to be available on-line at Amazon and elsewhere. It lasts just 30 minutes, but it's 30 really outstanding minutes, well worth seeing. The DVD gives a noticeable improvement in clarity and color stability (particularly bright reds) over the now out-of-print laserdisc edition. Get it while you can.