Family audiences won't be disappointed by this feature-like Imax production based on the true story of Ruth Harkness, who in 1938 introduced the world to panda bears.
Destined to tumble around large-format venues for many moons, "China: The Panda Adventure" is nonetheless no great artistic leap forward and gives only glimpses of the potential for dynamic storytelling many have longed for in an Imax film.
Beginning with her arrival in China to collect the remains of her deceased husband, the story of Harkness (Maria Bello) is shortchanged for maximum exploitation of the locales. Playing a remarkably innocent and seemingly always smiling heroine who strives to prove her husband's claims that pandas are peaceful and friendly, Maria Bello ("Coyote Ugly") is far too contemporary in her approach and ultimately far from believable.
Even less convincing are Xia Yu as her husband's endlessly resourceful Chinese friend who helps Harkness travel to the Min Valley and Xander Berkeley as a heartless white hunter also in search of the giant panda. By river and on foot, with the help of women handlers at a crucial moment, Harkness undergoes a few unpleasant scares but mostly smiles her way into the stunningly beautiful mountain realm of the pandas.
Munching bamboo and otherwise proving hospitable, the pandas, including a mother and two cubs, are deservedly the stars of the production.
Unfortunately, the plot calls for Berkeley's de facto villain to race Harkness to the lair of the legendarily ferocious creatures. He shoots first, of course, but the film's poignant moments will upset only the most empathetic young viewers.
With a simplistic script and Randy Edelman's overblown orchestral score, "China" predictably satisfies only in terms of transporting one to the Min Valley. Like many an Imax travelogue in the past, it's essentially an unchallenging, thinly realized cinematic experience. The situation of the endangered pandas is the subject of an educational voice-over wrap-up during the end credits.
CHINA: THE PANDA ADVENTURE
Imax Corp.
Director: Robert M. Young
Screenwriter: Jeanne Rosenberg
Producers: Antoine Compin, Charis Horton
Executive producer: Andrew Gellis, John Wilcox
Director of photography: Reed Smoot
Editor: Jonathan Shaw
Music: Randy Edelman
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ruth Harkness: Maria Bello
Dakar: Xander Berkeley
Quentin Young: Xia Yu
Running time -- 48 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Destined to tumble around large-format venues for many moons, "China: The Panda Adventure" is nonetheless no great artistic leap forward and gives only glimpses of the potential for dynamic storytelling many have longed for in an Imax film.
Beginning with her arrival in China to collect the remains of her deceased husband, the story of Harkness (Maria Bello) is shortchanged for maximum exploitation of the locales. Playing a remarkably innocent and seemingly always smiling heroine who strives to prove her husband's claims that pandas are peaceful and friendly, Maria Bello ("Coyote Ugly") is far too contemporary in her approach and ultimately far from believable.
Even less convincing are Xia Yu as her husband's endlessly resourceful Chinese friend who helps Harkness travel to the Min Valley and Xander Berkeley as a heartless white hunter also in search of the giant panda. By river and on foot, with the help of women handlers at a crucial moment, Harkness undergoes a few unpleasant scares but mostly smiles her way into the stunningly beautiful mountain realm of the pandas.
Munching bamboo and otherwise proving hospitable, the pandas, including a mother and two cubs, are deservedly the stars of the production.
Unfortunately, the plot calls for Berkeley's de facto villain to race Harkness to the lair of the legendarily ferocious creatures. He shoots first, of course, but the film's poignant moments will upset only the most empathetic young viewers.
With a simplistic script and Randy Edelman's overblown orchestral score, "China" predictably satisfies only in terms of transporting one to the Min Valley. Like many an Imax travelogue in the past, it's essentially an unchallenging, thinly realized cinematic experience. The situation of the endangered pandas is the subject of an educational voice-over wrap-up during the end credits.
CHINA: THE PANDA ADVENTURE
Imax Corp.
Director: Robert M. Young
Screenwriter: Jeanne Rosenberg
Producers: Antoine Compin, Charis Horton
Executive producer: Andrew Gellis, John Wilcox
Director of photography: Reed Smoot
Editor: Jonathan Shaw
Music: Randy Edelman
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ruth Harkness: Maria Bello
Dakar: Xander Berkeley
Quentin Young: Xia Yu
Running time -- 48 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Family audiences won't be disappointed by this feature-like Imax production based on the true story of Ruth Harkness, who in 1938 introduced the world to panda bears.
Destined to tumble around large-format venues for many moons, "China: The Panda Adventure" is nonetheless no great artistic leap forward and gives only glimpses of the potential for dynamic storytelling many have longed for in an Imax film.
Beginning with her arrival in China to collect the remains of her deceased husband, the story of Harkness (Maria Bello) is shortchanged for maximum exploitation of the locales. Playing a remarkably innocent and seemingly always smiling heroine who strives to prove her husband's claims that pandas are peaceful and friendly, Maria Bello ("Coyote Ugly") is far too contemporary in her approach and ultimately far from believable.
Even less convincing are Xia Yu as her husband's endlessly resourceful Chinese friend who helps Harkness travel to the Min Valley and Xander Berkeley as a heartless white hunter also in search of the giant panda. By river and on foot, with the help of women handlers at a crucial moment, Harkness undergoes a few unpleasant scares but mostly smiles her way into the stunningly beautiful mountain realm of the pandas.
Munching bamboo and otherwise proving hospitable, the pandas, including a mother and two cubs, are deservedly the stars of the production.
Unfortunately, the plot calls for Berkeley's de facto villain to race Harkness to the lair of the legendarily ferocious creatures. He shoots first, of course, but the film's poignant moments will upset only the most empathetic young viewers.
With a simplistic script and Randy Edelman's overblown orchestral score, "China" predictably satisfies only in terms of transporting one to the Min Valley. Like many an Imax travelogue in the past, it's essentially an unchallenging, thinly realized cinematic experience. The situation of the endangered pandas is the subject of an educational voice-over wrap-up during the end credits.
CHINA: THE PANDA ADVENTURE
Imax Corp.
Director: Robert M. Young
Screenwriter: Jeanne Rosenberg
Producers: Antoine Compin, Charis Horton
Executive producer: Andrew Gellis, John Wilcox
Director of photography: Reed Smoot
Editor: Jonathan Shaw
Music: Randy Edelman
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ruth Harkness: Maria Bello
Dakar: Xander Berkeley
Quentin Young: Xia Yu
Running time -- 48 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Destined to tumble around large-format venues for many moons, "China: The Panda Adventure" is nonetheless no great artistic leap forward and gives only glimpses of the potential for dynamic storytelling many have longed for in an Imax film.
Beginning with her arrival in China to collect the remains of her deceased husband, the story of Harkness (Maria Bello) is shortchanged for maximum exploitation of the locales. Playing a remarkably innocent and seemingly always smiling heroine who strives to prove her husband's claims that pandas are peaceful and friendly, Maria Bello ("Coyote Ugly") is far too contemporary in her approach and ultimately far from believable.
Even less convincing are Xia Yu as her husband's endlessly resourceful Chinese friend who helps Harkness travel to the Min Valley and Xander Berkeley as a heartless white hunter also in search of the giant panda. By river and on foot, with the help of women handlers at a crucial moment, Harkness undergoes a few unpleasant scares but mostly smiles her way into the stunningly beautiful mountain realm of the pandas.
Munching bamboo and otherwise proving hospitable, the pandas, including a mother and two cubs, are deservedly the stars of the production.
Unfortunately, the plot calls for Berkeley's de facto villain to race Harkness to the lair of the legendarily ferocious creatures. He shoots first, of course, but the film's poignant moments will upset only the most empathetic young viewers.
With a simplistic script and Randy Edelman's overblown orchestral score, "China" predictably satisfies only in terms of transporting one to the Min Valley. Like many an Imax travelogue in the past, it's essentially an unchallenging, thinly realized cinematic experience. The situation of the endangered pandas is the subject of an educational voice-over wrap-up during the end credits.
CHINA: THE PANDA ADVENTURE
Imax Corp.
Director: Robert M. Young
Screenwriter: Jeanne Rosenberg
Producers: Antoine Compin, Charis Horton
Executive producer: Andrew Gellis, John Wilcox
Director of photography: Reed Smoot
Editor: Jonathan Shaw
Music: Randy Edelman
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ruth Harkness: Maria Bello
Dakar: Xander Berkeley
Quentin Young: Xia Yu
Running time -- 48 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/20/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The makers of this new 3-D Imax release obviously determined that a coherent script was less important to their project than state-of-the-art dinosaur special effects, with the result that "T- Rex: Back to the Cretaceous" is a surprisingly dull and jumbled effort that will bore all but the most indiscriminant moppets.
No matter: With the timeless craze for all things dinosaur, the title alone guarantees that the film will clean up at Imax theaters around the country. It opened Friday in Southern California and New York.
Directed by Brett Leonard ("Virtuosity", "Lawnmower Man"), the slow-paced film doesn't come to life until the final minutes, when the photo-realistic dinos finally make their appearance. Before that, we must endure a sudsy melodrama about teenager Ally's (Liz Stauber) conflicts with her paleontologist father, Dr. Donald Hayden (Peter Horton), who refuses to let her accompany him on his far-flung digs. Hurting her feelings even further is Dad's close relationship with his young, clinging assistant (Kari Coleman).
When Hayden brings what may be a dinosaur egg back to the museum that serves as his laboratory, Ally accidentally knocks it over when left alone with it. A strange gas is released that propels her back into the Cretaceous Era, natch, where she has a series of close scrapes with various dinosaurs, including a strangely cuddly T-Rex trying to protect her eggs. Meanwhile, Ally's concerned dad wanders the museum, vainly calling her name.
Imax films are never known for their depth or subtlety, but "T-Rex" is even dopier than it needs to be, and the few minutes of excitement that occur toward the end don't fully compensate for the tedium that precedes it.
Still, the film has a splendid visual sheen and the excitement that only Imax 3-D can provide, and the splendidly rendered computer-animated dinosaurs are quite impressive. Another plus is the beautifully photographed outdoor locations at Dinosaur National Park in Alberta, Canada.
T-REX: BACK TO THE CRETACEOUS
Imax Film Distribution
Director: Brett Leonard
Screenplay: Andrew Gellis, Jeanne Rosenberg
Story: Andrew Gellis, David Young
Producers: Antoine Compin, Charis Horton
Co-producer: Michael Lewis
Director of photography: Andrew Kitzanuk
Editor: Jonathan Shaw
Music: William Ross
Color/stereo
Cast:
Dr. Donald Hayden: Peter Horton
Ally Hayden: Liz Stauber
Elizabeth Sample: Kari Coleman
Barnum Brown: Laurie Murdoch
Charles Knight: Tuck Milligan
Running time -- 45 minutes
No MPAA rating...
No matter: With the timeless craze for all things dinosaur, the title alone guarantees that the film will clean up at Imax theaters around the country. It opened Friday in Southern California and New York.
Directed by Brett Leonard ("Virtuosity", "Lawnmower Man"), the slow-paced film doesn't come to life until the final minutes, when the photo-realistic dinos finally make their appearance. Before that, we must endure a sudsy melodrama about teenager Ally's (Liz Stauber) conflicts with her paleontologist father, Dr. Donald Hayden (Peter Horton), who refuses to let her accompany him on his far-flung digs. Hurting her feelings even further is Dad's close relationship with his young, clinging assistant (Kari Coleman).
When Hayden brings what may be a dinosaur egg back to the museum that serves as his laboratory, Ally accidentally knocks it over when left alone with it. A strange gas is released that propels her back into the Cretaceous Era, natch, where she has a series of close scrapes with various dinosaurs, including a strangely cuddly T-Rex trying to protect her eggs. Meanwhile, Ally's concerned dad wanders the museum, vainly calling her name.
Imax films are never known for their depth or subtlety, but "T-Rex" is even dopier than it needs to be, and the few minutes of excitement that occur toward the end don't fully compensate for the tedium that precedes it.
Still, the film has a splendid visual sheen and the excitement that only Imax 3-D can provide, and the splendidly rendered computer-animated dinosaurs are quite impressive. Another plus is the beautifully photographed outdoor locations at Dinosaur National Park in Alberta, Canada.
T-REX: BACK TO THE CRETACEOUS
Imax Film Distribution
Director: Brett Leonard
Screenplay: Andrew Gellis, Jeanne Rosenberg
Story: Andrew Gellis, David Young
Producers: Antoine Compin, Charis Horton
Co-producer: Michael Lewis
Director of photography: Andrew Kitzanuk
Editor: Jonathan Shaw
Music: William Ross
Color/stereo
Cast:
Dr. Donald Hayden: Peter Horton
Ally Hayden: Liz Stauber
Elizabeth Sample: Kari Coleman
Barnum Brown: Laurie Murdoch
Charles Knight: Tuck Milligan
Running time -- 45 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/26/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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