Customer Reviews

Planetary Traveler [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Music and sound work well together. Surround sound effects of Dolby Digital very effective. Menu lets you play tour from start to end, plus jump to individual worlds to explore. Not a lot of events; more moody and makes you realize -- there are no people on these worlds. Interesting comments about production by those involved. Kids may find it boring - mine did. I enjoy sitting back and relaxing to watch. Nice change from linear story driven movies. Need more experiments like this on DVD.

Planetary Traveler takes the viewer on a wild journey through an imaginatery solar system. Animation that is truly cutting edge and music by Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream) makes this show stupendous to watch and amazing to listen to. I also hear that the Director, Jan Nickman, has a new feature animation program hitting the market soon. Called Infinity's Child, it's the follow up to this one.

Just saw it. Back in 1997, with the available techonology, this was great. Compared to today's technology, it would only be rated OK. Much of the landscape did not appear realistic. But still, it was enjoyable and worth watching. There is a noteworthy spiritual and cosmic message, that infers that we are not alone, and moreove, neither is our Earth alone. The landscapes are imaginative and the whole episode well planned out. I would like to see a re-do of this film, using todays technology. Creates provocative thinking and a familiar "I know these worlds exist". Maybe even a "This looks familiar. I've been there" type of deja vu.

In any case, dim the lights, turn off all noise, set back on your easy chair, clear your mind completely, put yourself in an open frame of mind, then relax your entire being...Watch!

For a film that has been rendered entirely on desktop computers (the first of its kind), the result is remarkable; but you will recognize the flaws (e. g., in the moves of the spaceship's probes). The music, although appropriate, could also be better.

At least the story's framework has been well chosen: a journey through a remote solar system with eight planets, one of which has very special properties - and many may find the spiritual touch of a "meeting place of possibilities" interesting.

What a bore. If you like watching an hours worth of unrealistic looking mountain flyby's then this one's for you. Otherwise stick to the awesome Oddessey Productions like the Mind's Eye series.

This DVD is a jouney through computer graphics. I expected to see alien realms, instead I got to see different planets all remarkably similar to our own.

The graphics are well done. but I would never have bought this DVD if I had known it was simply different permutations of our own planet.

The graphics are excellent. The music was pitiful. Save yourself some money, give this one a miss.

Sure, there are other 'eye candy' movies out there, and visually you can find things just as good. However, this movie's premise, as relayed in the beginning and ending voice-overs, combined with Paul Haslinger's excellent space music (which really shines in Dolby Digital 5.1), the pace and mood are combined for maximum effect to transport you to "Oh Wow!" land. It's just the ticket for arm-chair space cadets.

I was somewhat disappointed when I watched this DVD. Apparently, it was created with a very early version of Bryce around 1997. It shows very little advancement over a similar work called "Cyberflights," done with VistaPro on the Amiga about five years earlier. While it may have been cutting edge for desktop computers in the very early 1990s, it is quite out of date today. In fact, for a look at what was being done on the Amiga with New Tek's Lightwave in the early 1990s, check out Todd Rundgren's DVD, "The Desktop Video Collection."

There really is no story line, and very little is shown of the alien "mothership," which is the high point of the 3D artwork and a very interesting object. I would rather have seen much more of it. I also found the music, while well done, not to my taste and not very fitting for the animations. The different worlds seemed very much alike to me, with lots of orange seas and skies and similar terrain.

While I don't like to pan anyone's work, particularly when I know how difficult such a piece is to create, I would not recommend this DVD except as a historical piece to demonstrate where desktop computer animation was in the 90s compared to today. If you expect any kind of story line or lots of detailed looks at well rendered spaceships, you will be disappointed. If I had seen this before I bought it, I would not have gotten it.

I have not looked at the DVD-rom (computer only) parts yet, they may be better.

Basically, this topagraphical tour of several artistically concieved and contstructed worlds reveals stunning images and soothing sounds. The the vivid dynamic images and enveloping sound are excellent both in quality and content. I enjoyed it fully. It really demostrates well the DVD audio and video capability.

Paul Haslinger, for a few years member of Tangerine Dream, has made a very good musical soundtrack which really kicks off in 5.1. If you dislike synthetic music, don't bother with this; if you do you will undoubtedly find that Haslinger has great musical talent, something which is hard to prove in this genre. So turn off your tv set and just listen.