CyberWorld

"CyberWorld" is one of the most impressive 3D movies I've seen because the special effects are outstanding. The animation was incredible to see because it is new and fresh. I didn't know what to expect from a movie that was playing at an IMAX theater; however, upon leaving the movie I was smiling because it was an out of this world experience that I will treasure for many years to come.

Watching "CyberWorld" was like taking a trip down memory lane because I remember watching each of the movies and television shows. I can only say you do not know what you are missing from a true movie experience if you don't try the IMAX experience. The IMAX experience is among the best I've ever seen and nothing has or will come close to the experience I had. To the credit of the animators and director, they made me feel like I was inside the film as part of the cast.

I always look for a plot in every movie I see because I feel that is the crux of everything. While "CyberWorld" lacked story, it made up for it with the effects and the host voiced by Jenna Elfman. I urge everyone to see "CyberWorld" because it appeals to all ages and contains incredible special effects.

I remember watching the psychedelic computer graphics in "Tron" (okay, so I'm dating myself) and thinking, "Wow, this is pretty cool". These days you get better graphics on a Gameboy at 1/100000th the cost. Many years later I was stunned by the cutting edge morphing technology in "Terminator 2". Now you can do the same thing to your travel video on your PC. Last night I saw the new wave of computer graphics - 3D animation. In 1998, IMAX producers Steve Hoban and Hugh Murray put out a call to computer animators around the world for submissions that would be adapted to the IMAX 3D format. They narrowed the 250 + submissions down to eight selections based on several criteria: how they looked, whether they could be readily adapted for the 3D process and suitability for the intended audience (several vivid lead-in video game segments were excluded because of their extremely violent material). The finalists range from the familiar - the 3D sequence from "The Simpsons" - to the obscure - "Monkey Brain Sushi".

In order to give the film continuity, and tie the different elements together they created Phig (voiced by Jenna Elfman) the sassy, irreverent animated host of Cyberworld. She takes the viewers on a tour of the facility and provides some comic relief. There is also a subplot involving some buggy software in the program - caused by a trio of troublesome code munching Cyber Critters - and Phig's efforts to stop them before they crash the system, but more on that later.

The animation would be amazing in its own right, but when transformed into 3D it is spectacular. While all the segments are exceptional, I did have several favorites: "The Krakken" plunges the viewer into a stunningly detailed and rendered aquatic environment, that reminded me of my trip to the Barrier reef (minus the monsters with the big, sharp, pointy teeth.). The Pet Shop Boys' "Liberation" meanwhile, could not be more different - a surreal piece, it is a cross between a Dada exhibit, an escher diagram, and one of those strange dreams you have after guzzling a twelve pack of "Jolt" and studying for 36 hours straight. Being a Simpsons fanatic I also enjoyed the "Homer3" sequence, which takes on a new dimension (no pun intended) on the big screen. The movie is also beautifully scored, taking full advantage of the IMAX 3D surround sound system. Now that I've told you a little about "the what" I will now try to explain a bit of "the how".

After reading through the fifty pages of production notes for the fourth time, I realized that any in-depth discussion of the technology would put anyone but computer science grads to sleep (and even they'd need a cup of coffee). The basic animation sequences are standard computer graphics that have been translated for stereoscopic viewing - two images projected simultaneously to mimic human vision. The Cyber Critters, however were created with SANDDE, a revolutionary new technology (created by Intel and IMAX), whereby animators don 3D goggles and draw the characters by free hand. They can immediate view the results in real time virtual space. The end-result is characters that resemble traditional cell-style animation, except they also happen to be three-dimensional.

I especially appreciated the fact that although the film is fast paced, I did not get the same queasy feeling I did at "Alien Adventure" and "Encounters in the Third Dimension", two other 3D IMAX films.

I'm not generally given to hyperbole, but Cyberworld 3D's immersive experience is hands down the best 3D movie I have ever seen (until next year of course.). Even better, it is suitable for everyone.

March 2004: I'm in Melbourne by myself, having seen the Grand Prix the day before, exploring this new museum complex in the city that had an IMAX theatre. An IMAX movie was definitely on my itinerary as I loved the IMAX films I saw back in America a decade ago on a family holiday. Thought I couldn't go wrong with whatever I chose to see, the poster for Cyberworld 3D had Antz and Simpsons characters on it, a winner no doubt I thought.

I came back an hour later when the session started, collected the well-used 3D LCD-flicker goggles and took my seat. The sequences tying the assorted 3D clips together were OK, and the clips of Antz and the bit from the Simpsons where Homer discovers the 3rd dimension behind the bookcase were great. The rest was boring, somewhat depressing filler, I thought Cyberworld 3D must have been made in the mid 90s as the rest of the clips had pretty basic and unevolved computer animation. The clip with Pet Shop Boys music was the sort of thing I would expect from a computer animation demonstration circa 1990 ("why am I seeing this up on an IMAX screen?" I was thinking to myself at this point).

Overall Cyberworld 3D is a pretty lazy effort using yesteryear's computer graphics, sucking in customers through prominently displaying Simpsons and Antz characters on their posters (when together they only make up about 10 minutes of the total runtime). Only recommended for kids age 10 and down who have never seen a 3D film before.

Cyberworld is an average movie. Its essentially a series of 3d computer animated sequences (many of them just surreal without any underlying narrative), linked by some corny backstory of the animation "gallery" - in which the sequences are being displayed - being invaded by computer bugs.Forget about the whole gallery idea. Its slow, dull and afetr a while quite irritating. Its the short films that make cyberworld something just about worth seeing. The only problem is that the best sequences are taken from Antz and an old simpsons halloween special, so there's not much new to look forward to. Furthermore there's absolutley no flow or common theme linking the films. Yes they are all computer animated, but so what. There's a little bit of the Simpsons, then there's something about a flying ballet dancer, the pet shop boys flying through a pyramid snow world etc. Overall this serves to break up the film and make it seem much longer than it really is.Don't get me wrong some of these pieces are beautiful to look at, but when your watching a movie (rather than an art installation) you need some sort of story structure to keep you intersted in the images - however cool eye-catching they are. To be honest, all this would be forgivable if the whole IMAX/ 3d effect had real impact (lets be honest, when you see an imax movie you should never expect Shindler's List), but it doesn't. These short animations were not originally designed for a 3d or imax experince. Yes, they do look cool in big and in 3d, but none of the pieces (excpet for the opening credits) utilise 3d imax to its full slam-bang-in-your-face effect. Essentially then Cyberworld is pretty, its slightly 'cool' to watch, but there's no flow, and as an imax experience it just doesn't pack a punch. If you can, you should try and catch Encounters in 3D (also imax - see my review) which ultimatley proves to be a much more satisfying experince.

"CyberWorld" is one of the most impressive 3D movies I've seen because the special effects are outstanding. The animation was incredible to see because it is new and fresh. I didn't know what to expect from a movie that was playing at an IMAX theater; however, upon leaving the movie I was smiling because it was an out of this world experience that I will treasure for many years to come.

Watching "CyberWorld" was like taking a trip down memory lane because I remember watching each of the movies and television shows. I can only say you do not know what you are missing from a true movie experience if you don't try the IMAX experience.

The IMAX experience is among the best I've ever seen and nothing has or will come close to the experience I had. To the credit of the animators and director, they made me feel like I was inside the film as part of the cast.

I always look for a plot in every movie I see because I feel that is the crux of everything. While "CyberWorld" lacked story, it made up for it with the effects and the host voiced by Jenna Elfman. I urge everyone to see "CyberWorld" because it appeals to all ages and contains incredible special effects.