Flatland the Film
by Ladd P. Ehlinger Jr, Ladd Ehlinger Jr
(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
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
Movie Reviews of Flatland the Film
Movie Review: A Great Experience
Summary: 5 Stars
The first surprise from this movie was receiving it in the mail less than three days after I ordered it. The packaging was quite familiar, because it looked very much like what I had done when I sold software I created on CDs. Unless you (the guy selling the CDs/DVDs) do a run of several thousand disks and cases, you'll never get the look of a shrinkwrapped DVD like you buy at WalMart. But, if you pay close attention to all the pieces and assembling them just right, and as Ladd Ehlinger Jr, sign the disk and include a nice signed note, you can make it into something of a keepsake. The Miami Vice DVD will get handed off to the first person who asks for it and quickly forgotten. Flatland the Film isn't walking out of my house without help from a 4D sphere.
The next surprise... I've only watched it once, and expect to watch it many times and catch more of the nuances and details... At the start it seems to flip between animation and full screen text almost epileptically (for lack of a better word), like an old style silent film, except without the silence. If you go in expecting a faithful film portrayal of Abbott's book, the printed narrative looks like it might be the device to provide that, until it hilariously breaks into modern colloquialisms. Those sucked me into this film.
My Dad gave me Abbott's book to read when I was in 4th or 5th grade. I remember reading it with a very literal mathematical focus, which was probably to have lost everything intended by the book! It's kind of like how in high school, I "read" To Kill a Mockingbird (actually the first and last 3 pages), then BS'd my way to an A on a "book report". 15 years later, a friend from the UK sent me a copy of the book for my birthday, which I actually read, absorbed, and loved. Walking in others' shoes (to use the Mockingbird parlance) is the common thread. I reconnected with Flatland one afternoon when I was in grad school, and appreciated that there was so much more to the book than I'd seen as a 10 or 11 year old.
I can sort of see the same dynamic working with this film and kids. If you turn the sound down, there are lots of interesting things to watch, like the way the Flatlanders face each other to talk, their innards, how death works. I could see a bunch of 6 year olds cutting out little shapes and playing Flatland on a kitchen table, mimicking things they see in this movie. Maybe even picking up A Square and letting him look down on Flatland, with the Flatlanders oblivious to his presence. And yet, the movie is chock full of little nuggets for more sophisticated viewers to discover. I will probably have to watch it 10 times to catch all the funny signs in Spaceland. Some of the quips are very quick, like the explanation that "circles" in Flatland are not true circles, but polygons with so many sides they approximate them. Basically, King Circle and his ilk were posers.
Most definitely an enjoyable film, a fun experience, something I will share with friends and family in the future.
Summary 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 Abbot's 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 one's 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!"Similar DVD Movies
Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Talesby Theoni Pappas
Wide World Publishing, Tetra; Published: 1993-02-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.20
Price in other shops:
Flatland: The Movie Editionby Edwin A. Abbott, Thomas Banchoff, Seth Caplan, Jeffrey Travis, Dano Johnson
Princeton University Press; Published: 2008-01-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensionsby Ian Stewart
Basic Books; Published: 2008-07-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.65
Price in other shops:
Independent Lens: Between the FoldsPBS; Release date: 2010-01-05; DVD
Best price: $13.04
Price in other shops:
NOVA: Fractals - Hunting the Hidden DimensionWgbh Wholesale; Release date: 2009-03-10; DVD
Best price: $10.48
Price in other shops:
The Story of MathAcorn; Release date: 2010-03-30; DVD
Best price: $35.94
Price in other shops:
The Story of 1PBS; Release date: 2006-05-21; DVD
Best price: $15.48
Price in other shops:
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Dover Thrift Editions)by Edwin A. Abbott
Dover Publications; Published: 1992-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Donald in Mathmagic LandBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2009-08-18; DVD
Best price: $5.71
Price in other shops:
Flatland: The MovieFlatland: The Movie (Home Edition); Published: 2008; Windows XP; DVD
Best price: $24.95
Price in other shops: