Beyond The Mind's Eye; True North

The two latest releases from Miramar offer an edge-of-your-seat visual cornucopia of the latest in dazzling computer animation (Beyond the Mind's Eye), and a rather perfunctory nature music video shot in the Tongass National Forest and Alaska's Prince William Sound (True North). First the goodie: a sequel to last year's The Mind's Eye (reviewed in the May 1991 issue), Beyond the Mind's Eye is roughly twice as good as its predecessor--and that one was excellent. With a dynamite soundtrack composed, produced, and performed by veteran musician Jan Hammer (whose work on Miami Vice earned him two Grammy awards), the video was assembled from hundreds of computer-animated clips drawn from a wide variety of arenas. The vibrant colors and precise detail of many of these pieces are simply amazing (it's incredible how far the field has come in such a short time). Impressively animated robots, lifelike hummingbirds, 3D books, and magical landscapes are just some of the visual treats offered in the program, as well as all the computer-animated sequences from the otherwise undistinguished feature film The Lawnmower Man. A mesmerizing video. True North, on the other hand, while beautiful to look at, doesn't hold up when compared to previous Miramar offerings like Natural States and Canyon Dreams, either visually or musically. Nifty camera tricks and editing effects that made the former so exciting are not present (with the exception of the now ubiquitous time-lapse photography). The nine music videos offer pretty views of icefields, birds in flight, clouds, whales, and mountains, but with the exception of a piece featuring the northern lights, there's nothing we haven't seen before. Too, the music by Paul Speer, James Reynolds, John Serrie and Tangerine Dream is--with the exception of perhaps three cuts--lackluster. Like the video imagery, the music often seems to be in a perpetual holding pattern. Beyond the Mind's Eye is highly recommended and an Editor's Choice. True North is an optional purchase. (Available from most distributors.)