Flatland the Film
by Ladd P. Ehlinger Jr, Ladd Ehlinger Jr
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DVD details
Actor: Ashley Blackwell, Chris Carter, Greg Trent, Linda Meigs, Mark SlaterDirector: Ladd Ehlinger Jr, Ladd P. Ehlinger Jr
Producer: Karen Guelfo
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: DVD-ROM, Full length, Limited Edition, NTSC, Widescreen
Running Time: 98 minutes
Product features:
- NTSC, DVD-R Format
- Collector's Edition
- Widescreen
DVD Reviews of Flatland the Film
DVD Review: As disappointing as the Movie
Summary: 2 Stars
Like Flatland the Movie, the Film is also disappointing. It is not as slick as the Movie; it is more experimental and less conservative. But it's far too long and it is often tedious. And as far as content goes, it is as unoriginal as the Movie. DVD Review: Oh my - don't waste your money
Summary: 1 Stars
OK, I liked the book and I enjoyed the other version of (Flatland:the movie) - but this one (the film) was just too strange.
The story was fractured, the graphics were amateurish, and the animation was full of pauses that left you wondering if they just couldn't render the frames fast enough.
Oh my what a waste - don't bother buying this one - you can have mine...
DVD Review: Flatland the Film
Summary: 5 Stars
Flatland the Film Excellent Film! Way better than the higher priced Flatland: The Movie which is way shorter in length, with a more crude story line.DVD Review: Solid
Summary: 3 Stars
This version of the tale tries the most to update the film to a modern audience, and that is its chief failing. The original tale was called a Romance, and this updating removes that very concept from the story. While it follows much of the novella's narrative- in describing the way Flatland works (although the original's King is replaced by a President- who oddly still wears a crown), it departs severely from the original at its most crucial moment, once A Square is visited by A Sphere from Spaceland. In this version, instead of a mystical guide, along the line of the Three Ghosts Of Christmas from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, A Sphere is CEO of Messiah, Inc. Ok....if the mere mention of that plot point has you rolling your eyes, you are not alone. And the attempts at satire only go downhill from there.
Instead of Sphere's lifting up of Square into Spaceland being a religious experience, in this film it merely serves as a `wow' moment used to lead into some cheap gags, jokes, and a display of Ehlinger's animative chops. The story dissolves. Then there is some cheap and rather predictable satire of consumerism and the current Iraq War, which will severely date the film in coming years, as well as a not so funny portrayal of a Spaceland Senator Cube who sounds very much like Ted Kennedy. In the novella, the satire, while based in Victoriana, dealt more specifically with human foibles grafted onto the polygons of Flatland. Here, the polygons of Flatland and the solids of Spaceland are almost total caricatures- such as the gay sounding Flatland Senator who leads the dissenting Chromatist movement, and is assassinated by President Circle's henchmen.
The film is best when sticking to the book's original points.... The DVD comes with an autographed thank you from Ehlinger, but the disk itself has only the film and a brief trailer. Even though the film is low budget, couldn't Ehlinger have included a commentary by himself and others? It would have at least made the DVD, if not the film, worth a bit more, on a level of interest. In this day and age, not doing so is a bit of a ripoff- small budget or not. On a real world note, the slim case DVD package the DVD comes in also has a bad holder for the disk. The disk is far too small and the disk cannot stay in its holder. While a worthwhile effort, Flatland: The Film takes on too much, misses where the book succeeds, and its ending is just bad. But, Ehlinger does show a flair and unique style. If he continues in animation, here's hoping his next film is about the same quantum leap up from this one that Spaceland is from Flatland. If it is, then we'll have a film truly worth all the praise this one has gotten.
DVD Review: Excellent homage to Edwin Abbott Abott's classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is an excellent homage to Edwin Abbott Abbott's classic masterpiece "Flatland."
When the mathematician Abbott wrote his book Flatland on the eve of the 20th century, he used the mathematical notion of two dimensionality to decry all forms of two dimensional thinking. In that sense, movies or other works building off of Flatland can pursue both these themes or merely one of them at the expense of the other.
While this movie does basic justice to Abbott's underlying mathematics I think it's probably most fair to say that its greater emphasis is on its attack against two dimensional thinking itself.
Please make no mistake: I am a huge fan of Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatlands and all the books and treatments that have been offered in its tradition. Therefore, I've given positive reviews to Ian Stewart's Flatterland, Dewdney's Plainiverse, Sphereland and even the original book on the Fourth Dimension by Charles Hinton even though some or all of these works have been criticized by other reviewers. Therefore, while I personally have great reason to believe that as both a mathematical concept and metaphor warnings against two dimensional thinking are important others may disagree.
But if they wish to do so I guess they can write a review just like I did.
Description of Flatland the Film
Ladd Ehlinger Jr.s feature length animated adaptation of Edwin Abbott's 1884 "Flatland." Screenwriter: Tom Whalen. Composer: Mark Slater. DVD-R Format. With penetrating satire, Flatland the Film takes us on a mind-expanding dimensional journey through an animated adaptation of Abbots 19th century novel. A Square, Attorney-at-Law, inhabits a world that is flat and two-dimensional. Together with his wife Frau A Square, he tries to raise his children -5 pentagons and A Hexagon- as best he can in a rigid society governed by tyrannical triangles and pompous priest circles. It is three days until the much anticipated year 3000 in the Southern Republic of Flatland and A Square has a job to do. He must meet with his latest client, A Line, the first female Flatlander to be arrested for the taboo practice of Chromatism - the act of coloring ones sides in order to resemble a higher class of geometrical figure. During this meeting an entire rebellion of Chromatists is launched, and A Square must shield his family from the horrors of urban Flatlander war. Within this turmoil, a mysterious visitor from the third dimension arrives: A Sphere, CEO of Messiah, Inc. Flatlanders, according to A Sphere, must learn that there is another dimension called height. A Square must spread the word as his Apostle of the Three Dimensions. But having been flat his entire life, A Square is unable to comprehend these three dimensions. Out of desperation, A Sphere pulls A Square out of Flatland altogether to show him the true nature of Spaceland, and the universe. And in so doing, he risks the very fabric of space-time itself, potentially destroying all of creation. Will A Square make it home to Flatland? Will he be able to understand the Third Dimension? Will he be able to spread the gospel of the Third Dimension to his fellow Flatlanders - or will he be executed for blasphemy? The answers to these questions and more are to be found in Flatland the Film!Genres DVDs
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