IMAX: UNDER THE SEA

It feels like you are dipping your head into a giant fish tank (or sea) and get to have an intimate look at fantastic, alien-like sea life that would be otherwise completely unknown to the average viewer.

When Under the Sea was shown in theaters, it was presented in IMAX and in 3D... and it must have been truly fantastic. I'm sure it used all of the tricks of the trades to have eye-popping 3D effects, and your home theater is, I'm sure, no match for such an experience. That said, the photography is still amazing--it feels like you are dipping your head into a giant fish tank (or sea) and get to have an intimate look at fantastic, alien-like sea life that would be otherwise completely unknown to the average viewer.

What is fun about Under the Sea, is that it introduces us to sea characters that are, for the most part, totally unfamiliar. Sure there is the great white shark (yikes!) and the Australian sea lions (awwww!), but more often than not, you'll find yourself saying, "Well, now, what the eff is that?" And, of all people, Jim Carrey (who narrates) is the gentle voice that tells you exactly what the eff that strange creature is.

Among the sea beasties that I found most interesting were the sea eels that plant themselves tail-first on the ocean floor, so that they wave in the current like a field of grass... that is, if the grass reaches up to six feet in length (shudder). Or the weird-looking and very patient squidy-looking cuttlefish, which looks very curious when mating, but is super-scary with the way it hunts. It meanders along, then strikes out with a tentacle that snaps lightning-fast, similar to a frog's tongue. Except, holy crap, that cuttlefish just snatched a crab that is almost its equal in size! I also enjoyed the underwater peek at the critters in a mangrove forest in Southeast Asia, an area that I recently visited (where I got to see one of those now-rare forests).

Like most family-friendly IMAX films, Under the Sea is short, at only 41 minutes. It is completely appropriate for all ages, and lacks some of the horrifying sea-carnage that is featured in, say, films by the BBC. This "friendliness" also makes it a tad less gripping than other nature docs I've seen, and will probably keep tots more rapt that older folks. But it is always great to look at.

The few extras on the Blu-Ray disc actually make up for the edge that the film lacks. Featured are weblogs of behind-the-scenes expedition footage as the film crew, led by director Howard Hall and his wife, producer Michele Hall, go on location to the seas of Papua New Guinea, the Great Barrier Reef, South Australia, and Indonesia. The trials, tribulations, and patience involved in capturing the footage is fascinating, and this footage and the interviews actually make the film itself more rich.