Kaena: The Prophecy

Initially released in 3-D, the CGI animated feature film Kaena: The Prophecy still looks dandy in flat dimensions on a television screen. A French-American co-production, Kaena stars Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man 2) as the voice of the rambunctious adolescent title character, a member of a post-apocalyptic race--one of many--who inhabit an enormous tree called the Axis, which has grown to 100 miles above Earth's surface. Despite the teachings of spiritual leader Opaz (the late Richard Harris), who claims Kaena's tribe exists solely to collect sap from Axis and give praise to benevolent gods, Kaena is more interested in exploration, particularly when she discovers evidence that the Axis might be dying. Anjelica Huston provides the insidious voice for the wicked queen of the Selenites, who enslave other races in order to pump more sap from the failing tree. Although the storyline plays out along fairly generic fantasy lines, the film itself is graphically fantastic, with the creatures conceived as an organic extension of the Axis' bio-system being particularly inventive. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD extras include a 14-minute subtitled making-of featurette, a three-minute subtitled virtual interview with computer animated star “Kaena,” and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a flawed but nicely animated film.] (T. Keogh)