New IMAX Film Brings Deep Sea to Life (livescience.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Tariq Malik
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 03 March 2006
07:45 am ET

***
The undersea documentary (40 minutes, Not Rated) opens in IMAX theaters nationwide today. It gives even the most landlocked viewer an up-close look—enhanced by three-dimensional glasses—at diverse ocean wildlife with the added benefit of staying dry.
***
Actors Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet narrate this all too brief—40 minutes—glimpse of the living creatures beneath the sea and the destructive effects of humanity on their environment. Unlike James Cameron's "Aliens of the Deep," also an IMAX 3D film, "Deep Sea 3D" focuses on the interactions of its sea creatures and not merely their strangeness.

Despite its brevity, the movie displays a wide assortment of aquatic fauna. Giant manta rays glide in serene circles searching for food, while a plucky shrimp fends off an impending attack from an antagonistic octopus. A Humboldt squid offer an undersea light show with their color-changing skin. Green sea turtles take advantage of algae-eating fish to scrub their shells clean at the ocean floor.
***
Danny Elfman's orchestral score lends energy to the film as it guides the production across its many locales. Hall and his filmmaking team skirted three hurricanes as they moved from the Sea of Cortez (Hurricane Javier) to the Gulf of Mexico (Hurricane Katrina) to record the images for the IMAX documentary. Three minutes of footage could take two hours or more, the filmmakers said.
***
more at: http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060303_deepsea_3D.html
including links to some scenes from the film