Product Details

• Actors: Morgan Freeman
• Directors: Bayley Silleck
• Writers: Bayley Silleck, Michael Miner
• Producers: Bayley Silleck, Gwendolyn K. Crider, Jeffrey Marvin
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Imax
• DVD Release Date: April 30, 2002
• Run Time: 36 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000060MWT
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,002 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #21 in	Movies & TV > Documentary > Space Exploration
  #33 in	Movies & TV > Documentary > IMAX

• For more information about "Cosmic Voyage (IMAX)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

As a primer on up-to-date scientific theory about the nature of the universe and our place in it, Cosmic Voyage is visually sumptuous and just plain fun. Shot in the mind-blowing IMAX process, this combined live-action and computer-generated production has (even in video format) an immensity of scope befitting its grand subject. Beginning, lyrically if unexpectedly, in Italy's magnificent Venice, Cosmic Voyage draws inspiration from airborne perspectives on the city's famed network of canals and streets, leading to further appreciations of dense systems in nature. From the subnuclear to the physical limits of the known universe, Cosmic Voyage explores a resonance between all things while making sense of such inscrutable phenomena as the birth of stars and planets, black holes, supernovas, etc. The marvels of cosmology are rarely so accessible as this. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Cosmic Voyage mixes ground-breaking computer animation with cutting edge science to give us a sweeping view of the universe. A "cosmic zoom" extends from the surface of the Earth to the largest observable structures of the universe, and then back down to the sub-nuclear realm - a guided tour across some 42 orders of magnitude. Cosmic Voyage explores some of the greatest scientific theories, many of which have never before been visualized on film.

DVD Features:
Documentary
Theatrical Trailer

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 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

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.

18 of 18 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.

17 of 17 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

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.