The short film unfortunately is a little on the annoying side to watch. Although it follows the book fairly closely in dialog and style, it's the voice of the Square that really got on my nerves. For some reason, Square has a very silly, squeaky sounding... and even somewhat effeminate male voice. It's a bit shocking when you first hear it, and then you soon realize that you'll be hearing it for the next eleven minutes.
The story is good enough, but it only deals with the 2D and 3D universes. Lineland and Pointland are completely omitted. That said, the presentation of Flatland and Spaceland are delivered in a reasonable manner.
The art and animation are well done for the time. The different shapes sort of bounce and vibrate when they talk. This was not really something from the book, but the animators did it to make them seem more like living people, and I appreciate that. The encounter with the 3D Sphere was extremely well done in such a way that it would make sense. I thought it was cool that you see the Sphere coming before anyone has seen him yet because he had not yet crossed into the plane of Flatland. Very cool.
Even with the omissions and the annoying voice, I still recommend this short film. It does well enough to show the basic concepts of the book without getting into the more complicated stuff. I still, however, would have enjoyed seeing the other dimensions.
This blog was written on February 1, 2023.
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Books assume readers are smart. Movies assume the audience is stupid. It seems lineland and pointland were omitted because it was assumed they would be too confusing for the simpletons watching.
ReplyDeleteThat's possible. I figure it was either that or a time constraint since it was a short film.
DeleteSad that they omitted the line and pointland. Cool that they did take on the task of making an animation from the book though. Too bad they couldn't get Gilbert Gottfried for the voice haha.
ReplyDeleteI would have actually liked that.
DeleteThat was have been nuts.
DeleteHaving the shapes bounce and vibrate when they talk is a good way to indicate who is speaking. Something similar tends to be done when the character is wearing a helmet that covers their entire face. They usually nod a lot to let you know they are talking.
ReplyDeleteThey did what they could with what they had, but it could have been better.
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