Product Details

• Actors: Morgan Freeman
• Directors: Bayley Silleck
• Writers: Bayley Silleck, Michael Miner
• Producers: Bayley Silleck, Gwendolyn K. Crider, Jeffrey Marvin
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Imax
• VHS Release Date: April 30, 2002
• Run Time: 36 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000060MZE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,908 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short but sweet introduction to the scale of the universe, June 23, 2003

By 

Brian Tung (Marina del Rey, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmic Voyage (IMAX) (DVD)

What does the universe look like at the scale of atoms, or that of galaxy superclusters? What did the early universe look like, and how did it evolve into the cosmos we know today? What other life may have evolved and be wondering about our universe as we do?

These are deep questions, and no short film can possibly do them all complete justice. Instead, in its 35 minutes, Cosmic Voyage flies through a summary of what we know--just enough to whet your appetite for more.

Starting in Galileo's Venice, with familiar everyday scales of time and space, the IMAX film employs a common technique: expanding our perspective by successive factors of 10, until the screen encompasses the largest structures scientists know of today, and our own Earth is utterly lost in the deep expanse. A similar voyage takes us from the waterways of the Netherlands down into the nucleus of the atom, where (somewhat paradoxically) our knowledge comes from some of the largest experiments in the world.

The simulation of the early universe and the numerous galactic collisions is especially awe-inspiring. Usually, documentaries of this sort employ artists to bring the words of astrophysics journals to life; Cosmic Voyage was the first movie to make use of scientific computing and cosmic simulations on such a large scale. The sequence was computed under the direction of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which also had an early hand in popularizing the World Wide Web. The result is an accurate and breathtaking depiction of how the oldest and largest parts of cosmic architecture took shape.

The temptation with any such documentary is to compare it to Cosmos, the PBS documentary hosted by Carl Sagan that ran in 1980. But the comparison is unfair. Sagan had 13 hour-long episodes, with a sweep at once broader and deeper than anything since. With only 5 percent of the length, Cosmis Voyage can't expect to duplicate that sweep, and to its credit, it doesn't try. It just stuns you with its imagery and inspires you to find out more, and it does so without straying from scientific accuracy. Provided you keep in mind the length and scope of the film, you won't be disappointed.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great DVD!, August 18, 2004

By 

Middle School Science Teacher (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmic Voyage (IMAX) (DVD)

I have used this DVD for the past several years in my science classes. After introducing my students to the metric system, and doing labs to reinforce this new concept, I show COSMIC VOYAGE as a culmination to the metric system, and as an introduction to the Astronomy Unit. The metric system is based on Powers of Ten. The scene that starts in Venice and expands outward into space by powers of ten is effective for my students. Conversely, to watch a water droplet and decrease by powers of ten is also important for students to see. After watching this, my students are jazzed and can't wait to learn about the universe. At the end of the school year, many cite COSMIC VOYAGE as one of their favorite DVD's and the Astronomy Unit as one of their favorite units.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cosmic Voyage an Educational Breakthrough, May 10, 2001

By 

James Thurber (Los Altos, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmic Voyage [Theatrical Release] (Theatrical Release)

In this incredible journey the viewer travels from the outer reaches of space down into the nucleus of a carbon atom. Cosmic Voyage is able to explain, in layman's terms, the theory of how the universe began - the "Big Bang" and how the entire mass of the universe could have been compressed into a space the size of a tennis ball. Parallel worlds? Life on other planets? Cosmic Voyage answers all these questions. Teachers will rate this film five stars and a must have for the classroom.