It may seem a bit counterintuitive to be watching an IMAX film in the comforts of your own home, considering that these films are meant to be seen in the grand majesty of IMAX theaters with their gigantic screens and multitude of speakers; not even the best home-theater systems could do it justice, right? Well, sort of. Warner Bros.’ IMAX Under the Sea on Blu-ray disc, while surely not as impressive as the 3D version was in theaters, still translates rather nicely to the small screen.
Noted nature documentarian Howard Hall (Into the Deep, Deep Sea) takes viewers on an underwater expedition to several locales in the South Pacific – Papua, New Guinea, South Australia, and the Great Barrier Reef among them – in order to give us glimpses of some strange and beautiful creatures in their natural habitat. These include some (extreme) up close looks at great white sharks, the mating habits of cuttlefish, the hunting rituals of frogfish, and even some fine examples of symbiosis, like when a crab wears a jellyfish as a hat for protection.
Hall and his team pack plenty of shots and information into the brief 41-minute running time, so much so that one can’t help but come away impressed with what they’ve just witnessed while at the same time wanting more. Jim Carrey (Yes Man, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) provides the narration in a surprisingly subdued delivery, inserting some subtle humor at opportune moments that works very well. Good on you, Jim.
Nature docs are no-brainers in high-definition; the crispness of the picture and the clarity of sound combine to make Under the Sea the closest encounter you can have with sea life without actually getting wet. The Blu-ray comes in a “Combo Pack”, featuring the Blu-ray disc plus a standard disc that includes the film on DVD as well as a digital copy for portable media. The special features include:
Five “webisodes”, one for each expedition as outlined at the top of this review. Though each is roughly only two minutes in length, there’s no shortage of information in these featurettes, as we learn the difficulties of filming with an IMAX camera and the patience involved in waiting for the perfect shot. These also feature some excellent footage of the sea creatures interacting with the crew and their equipment.
Also included is Filming IMAX Under the Sea, a seven-minute making-of that includes much of the same information as the featurettes above with a couple of new items included. Clearly meant as a marketing tool, a kind of extended trailer for the film itself, it still is interesting enough to warrant spending seven minutes watching it.
With the technology available to Hall and his crew it goes without saying that these are the most beautiful and majestic scenes of underwater life ever put to celluloid. If you’re able to still catch Under the Sea in 3D at an IMAX theater, get thee to one ASAP. Otherwise, you could do a lot worse than to spend three quarters of an hour watching (and learning) at home.
