Imaginaria

In one of the many incredible sequences in Imaginaria, Miramar's first computer animated video for children, a snow-covered mountain bearing a scaling climber rises up from the pages of an open book. It's a wonderfully visual model of how a good book spurs the imagination, and the imagination is what Imaginaria is all about. After dark, salt and pepper shakers dance together on a diner countertop; a pair of big blue birds wing their way through a computer-ant- mated canyon at warp speed; and a comically cute alien nearly gets his butt sucked into a department store vacuum cleaner. Built around some of the best existing computer animation (including Lucasfilms' classic "Andre & Wally B" and the superb "Locomotion"), the 13 pieces on Imaginaria range from the upbeat paean to creativity "Anything is Possible" to the outstanding computer-animated orchestra sequence "Bells & Whistles." Backed by a winning original soundtrack from Gary Powell (who composed the scores for Disney's storybook/tape sets for Aladdin and The Little Mermaid), the tunes are both catchy and nicely matched to the imagery. While this is not the "first computer animation odyssey produced entirely for children" as the box proclaims-M3D's Animated Musical Songs & Stories 4 Kids in 3 Dimensions and Classic Nursery Rhymes (covered in our January-February 1994 issue) both precede it, Imaginaria is the most advanced program of its kind. We're still a ways off from feature-length computer-animated stories, but in the meantime, videos like this one offer a fascinating glimpse into the future. Highly recommended for kids small and big, Imaginaria is an Editor's Choice. (R. Pitman)