Cheap Flatland the Film (DVD) (Ladd P. Ehlinger Jr, Ladd Ehlinger Jr) Price

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Customer Reviews of Flatland the Film

An amusing update to Abbott's classic
Just about all of the math nerds out there, not just the card-carrying mathematicians, have happy childhood memories of Edwin A. Abbott's "Flatland." As a result, this movie had an audience waiting for it the day it came out - and I'm in that audience. <
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>The mathematical content of this movie is interesting and easily accessible to most viewers; Even young kids will get at least parts of it. It presents the idea of a two-dimensional world, whose citizens resemble paper cutouts living their lives on a table-top universe. It's truly 2D - you can't even lay one of the pancake people on top of another, they can only slide by each other in the plane. Although an interesting speculation in itself (any end-to-end digestive tract would split the creature in two - so how could it function biologically?), the two dimensions are just part of an analogy. By showing how two dimensions relate to our third, Abbott invites the reader to imagine how our three would relate to a fourth spatial dimension. <
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>The imagery is entertaining - it has the feel of an amateur work, or maybe that of a pro making computer animations as a weekend hobby. The fact that half the credits share one surname makes it look like a family effort. Still, it's easy to get hold of enough computer power to do decent rendering these days, and the Ehrliners demonstrate the democratization of movie-making. Unfortunately, to make this moive popular and meaningful to a wide, modern audience, much of Abbott's original work suffered. Not just a math-themed story, it was also a critique of Victorian class-consciousness and gender politics. All that has been lost in making this kid-friendly version. The good news is that the pedantic and archaic tones were lost too, making this a bit easier to warm up to. <
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>It's fun any way. And, as I said, it's kid-friendly. There's some war-like activity, but the characters are too geometrically abstract for their demise to feel like real violence. Go ahead. It's cute, harmless fun - and it might just stretch a small mind in new directions. <
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>-- wiredweird

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Anthony Guynes
As many other reviewers, I don't normally write reviews but felt compelled to write one for Flatland. I read the book 15 years ago in a college math class and enjoyed it a lot. When I heard about the film I ordered it (along with a Flatland T-shirt) immediately. I was impressed with the personalized autograph on the DVD and could barely wait to watch it with a group of friends. Having watched it last night, we were all impressed. It was an amazingly well-done film, especially considering it as an independent project. It led to an hour long discussion, one interesting point being that Abbot viewing this film would be almost analogous to A-square being taken to spaceland. I would love to see Abbot's reaction. This was an excellent post-modern interpretation of a modern classic. Don't miss it.

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Superb Movie - Sparks your brain to new levels of thinking..
I just watched this movie and felt compelled to write a review. I really enjoyed it. It seems to help almost anyone step outside their current state of thinking. I normally do not like Animated films nor seek them out to watch but this one was different. It is especially successful in its depiction of a 2D world, making the appearance of the 3D world almost magical. The character voices were very well done, and there was a lot of action for a well thought out "brainy" movie. While you might see a little of the "what the heck is this" response at first from friends and older teens that will faded to some very intent staring at the screen and thought provoking discussion afterwards. I highly recommend sharing this movie with friends and older children (my daughter, 17 enjoyed it). <
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>In a world where everything seems so cookie cutter it was great to step out of that box and into this world for a bit. I whole heartedly thank the filmaker and his family and friends that did this entirely on their own for the incredible amount of time they gave to this project to spur my imagination, and which led to a discussion about 2d and 3d worlds with my daughter! I look forward to future projects.