BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

"Take a once in a lifetime journey across the South Pacific for a spectacular IMAX adventure. Joy; ecstasy; a spiritual high: these words describe the exhilaration of diving a pristine coral reef, and ocean explorers Howard and Michele Hall bring their love of the ocean into action. With Jean-Michael Cousteau, deep reef scientist Richard Pyle and Fijian diver Rusi Vulakoro, they explore and capture on film the dazzling underwater world of coral reefs, magical places here on Earth. This tropical excursion through the South Pacific will surprise and delight you as you fall in love with the reefs, and your heart will ache at the tragic, irretrievable loss of these fragile worlds. Disc 2 includes the complete feature in Microsoft Windows Media Video High Definition, playable on your PC."

From an online reviewer:

Disc 1 contains both Widescreen (16x9) and Full Frame (4x3). It walks you through the selection for full-frame or widescreen, then the selection for DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1. It was very simple, no looking around for the audio and video selection, like some DVD's. In DTS, the sound is incredible. In Dolby Digital 5.1, the sound is only slightly less so.

The film is fabulous overall. "Coral Reef Adventure" won the Giant Screen Theatre Association's Best Film of 2003. I can see why. It was filmed on location in Australia, Fiji, Rangiroa, Tahiti, and the United States. The music is by Crosby, Stills, Nash. The movie opens with "Teach Your Children Well". I loved it. There is also some music that sounds like native singing, acoustic instruments, and percussion. The video is spectacular. The colors are crisp and clear. Without a doubt, this movie has some of the best audio and video that I have heard and seen on a nature film. The display on a 65 inch rear projection TV is spellbinding. There is one short scene of hang-gliding in the mountains that is breath-taking.

Disc 2 is for the computer only. (The minimum requirements for the computer are Windows XP; Windows Media Player 9 Series (included on the disc) or Windows XP Media Center Edition; 2.4 GHz processor; 384 MB of RAM; 64 MB video card, DVD-rom drive; 1024x768 screen resolution; 16 bit sound card; and speakers.) When I inserted the DVD into the computer, it smoothly installed the required Windows Media Series 9 (and did not require a reboot!) It played the high definition picture beautifully. The movie is widescreen and plays in Dolby Digital 5.1 mode. The computer has only two very cheap-looking speakers, and the sound was surprisingly good.

The underwater scenes of the coral reefs and marine life are beautiful, the sound is awesome, the "Making of" Feature is one that I enjoy on all the Imax movies. There are some sad moments as the movie discusses the destruction of
the coral reefs.

Another online reviewer:

For anyone who may have seen this movie in an IMAX theatre, you will appreciate the work that went into this film. Coral Reefs are in danger of disappearing and this film does a great job in both showing the reefs the average public are familiar with and showing what the average person is helping contribute to. That is the slow destruction of an invaluable ecosystem. The videography is excellent and the story telling is nicely done. This is a dvd to share with the family to learn about a part of the planet that we need to protect.

From the

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS