So here’s the deal with Flatland. It’s a computer animated film based on the novel Flatland which is about a square living in a two-dimensional world that gets introduced to a line world, a three-dimensional world, and possibly the fourth dimension. Such a book is difficult to translate, but Flatland at least tries valiantly.
This film is not without controversy, controversy I just stumbled upon trying to find a link to the official site. Flatland, A Feature Film is the film I watched. However there is also Flatland: The Official Movie Version that clocks in at a whopping 30 minutes but features voices by stars such as Kristen Bell (yeah I mentioned her so I can put up a picture of her) and Martin Sheen. Considering the voices are an annoying aspect to the film I watched, I would be interested in now seeing the shorter “official” version.
Beyond that, I think it’s nice to give recognition to filmmakers that are at least attempting something different or innovative regardless of the quality of the outcome. Well maybe we should at least respect the attempt. Flatland has the feel of a cheap VHS tape you got in the mail advertising the video game design school you could go to that had innovative computer animation classes. It comes across as a little bit lame, but with respect to the film it’s a lameness that is built into the story itself. How in the world do you represent two-dimensional space? I’m okay with the graphics until we enter the third dimension and are face with A Sphere, who looks like Pac-Man. How horrible it was to realize that at that moment I was cmpletly ignoring the voices and just thinking about ghosts. Why not make the sphere at least a different color?
At the heart of this tale is the reality of seeing our world for what it is rather than believing more is out there. This seeing is not just limited to dimensions, but rather open to seeing social class as well. The worlds in Flatland are all corrupt to some extent because of their limited ability to see and/or accept what they are seeing. The message is not lost in the film, which is really the important part rather than the animation.
Flatland will not be for everyone, but is a great attempt at taking the written word of Flatland and trying to create a visual representation of that world. It has to be difficult to figure out how a two-dimensional square would see a line world, or for that matter how a line would be seen on screen and still have personality. What’s you look past glitches in the animating and the overly done computer graphics, Flatland is wonderful because it tries. So visit the site and find a copy of the film, it’s worth it just to see what’s possible when you take a chance and persevere. And now Kristen Bell for no reason except I mention her in the post.
