Flatland: The Movie is a short animated film which was released to video in 2007. The cast includes the voices of actors Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell and Tony Hale. The story is based on the 1884 science fiction novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions written by Edwin A. Abbott.
Video Flatland: The Movie
Plot
The 2-dimensional Arthur Square awakens from a dream of strange, glowing symbols. He lives with his wife, Arlene Square, and his curious granddaughter Hex, a hexagon. Hex and Arthur discuss the laws of inheritance: how each new generation of Flatlanders, beginning with triangles, gains a new side until the shapes become indistinguishable from circles. They also discuss how a citizen's shape affects their job, with triangles performing menial labor and circles ruling Flatland in the priest class. They witness a cruel incident where a Circle Priest arrests a slightly irregular octagon child, prompting Hex to yet again wonder what happened to her pentagonal parents. Arthur tells her that he will tell her someday.
The head circle ruler of Flatland, Pantocyclus, issues a new edict that bans discussion of heretical topics such as a third dimension or the ruins at Area 33H. Arthur recognizes an image of the ruins from his dream.
Arthur gives Hex a geometry lesson, showing how powers in arithmetic can be translated to geometrical dimensions. When Hex speculates on a third dimension, Arthur becomes infuriated and sends her to her room. To calm Hex, Arlene gives her her mother's box containing books and a model of the symbols at Area 33H.
That night, Arthur Square is taken to a strange landscape. He encounters the insane King of Pointland, a being of zero dimensions. Then he encounters Lineland, a universe of one dimension that is populated by an arrogant line segment King who cannot imagine a new dimension that he cannot see. Finally, Arthur is whisked back to his living room. He hears a voice booming out and sees a point grow to a circle and then back to a point. The being identifies himself as Spherius, a three-dimensional solid from Spaceland. After Spherius fails to explain the third dimension, Arthur is popped into Spaceland. They stop at Area 33H and Arthur realizes that the symbols show a progression from point to line to square to cube, and that the constantly changing shape in the center is actually a cube, halfway through the plane of Flatland and spinning along all three axes. Arthur asks Spherius to show him the fourth dimension and the fifth dimension Spherius says there couldn't possibly be a higher dimension. He tells Arthur to spread the word of the third dimension and drops Arthur back into bed. Meanwhile, at the Ministry, Pantocyclus is ordering the triangle guards and circles, including Miss Helios (Arthur's boss), to beware any employees who mention the third dimension and to guard Area 33H.
Hex leaves to explore Area 33H, but a triangle guard spots her. At the Ministry, Arthur is talking to his brother, when an alarm goes off. Over the intercom, Miss Helios orders all guards to catch an intruder at Area 33H. Arthur realizes it might be Hex and persuades Abbott (his brother) to help him steal a Ministry car.
Abbott and Arthur arrive at the ruins moments before the triangle guards. With Abbott distracting the guards, Arthur goes to the symbols and finds Hex terrified. Arthur admits to her that her parents were arrested and killed for their theories about the third dimension. With the guards closing in, Arthur pushes Hex into the cube symbol, which pops her up into the third dimension. Arthur is arrested by Miss Helios.
Arthur is hastily brought into a courtroom with Pantocyclus proceeding over his trial for heresy. Arlene arrives and asks where Hex is. In his cell, Arthur assures her that Hex escaped 'upward' into the third dimension and is safe. A nearby pentagon begins broadcasting the trial. Pantocyclus challenges Arthur to show everyone the third dimensionArthur admits that he can't but pleads to his fellow Flatlanders that reason dictates a third dimension. He challenges them to aspire to be greater than their shapes, angering the Circles immensely. In a fit of rage, Pantocyclus sentences Arthur to death, but Spherius suddenly pops Arthur out of Flatland.
Arthur thanks Spherius but feels he has failed to persuade people of the third dimension. Spherius tells Arther that he intended Hex, not Arthur, to be the prophet of the Third Dimension. Hex embraces Arthur and they fly back down to the courtroom, surprising everyone as they materialize out of nowhere. The Circles are speechless and lose control of the courtroom, evading the reporter's questions about the third dimension. Arthur, Arlene, Hex, and Abbott are reunited. The reporter asks Hex if she has also visited the fourth dimension. Spherius angrily comes down to Flatland to scoff at the idea and flies off.
The symbols at Area 33H are glowing and as the camera dips below Flatland we see that the spinning cube is actually part of a larger installation: eight cubes spinning and orbiting a 4D cube - a tesseract - which, in turn, is rotating around its fourth axis.
Maps Flatland: The Movie
Cast
- Kristen Bell ... Hex
- Lee Eddy ... Helios
- Joe Estevez ... Abbott Square
- Tony Hale ... King of Pointland
- Curtis Luciani ... King of Lineland
- Shannon McCormick ... Triangle Guard
- T. Lynn Mikeska ... Heptagon Mother
- Robert Murphy ... Pentagon Reporter
- Garry Peters ... Pantocyclus
- Martin Sheen ... Arthur Square
- Danu Uribe ... Arlene Square
- Michael York ... Spherius
Business
Producer Seth Caplan revealed that Flatland was more profitable than other projects he'd worked on, despite the fact that it was self-distributed online through digital sales and DVD.
Sequel
In 2012 a sequel, Flatland 2: Sphereland, was released. It was based on the 1965 novel Sphereland by Dionys Burger, written as a sequel to Flatland. Kristen Bell, Michael York, and Tony Hale return, along with Danny Pudi, Danica McKellar, and Kate Mulgrew.
Awards
- Winner of Best Animated Film, EcoVision Film Festival, Italy 2009
- Winner of Berlin Special Jury Award, MathFilm Festival 2008
- Runner Up for Best Independent Short Ages 5-12, Kids First! Film Festival 2008
See also
- Flatland, another film based on the book, released in the same year by Ladd Ehlinger Jr.
References
External links
- Official website
- Flatland: The Movie on IMDb
- Review of Flatland: The Movie by The American Mathematical Society
- Flatland: The Movie on MSNBC's Cosmic Log
- Flatland: The Movie review at Skeptical Inquiry Online
- Flatland: The Movie review at Homeschool Math Blog
- Flatland: The Movie review at Plus Magazine
- Flatland: The Movie review at Scientific American
- Flatland: The Movie in New Scientist
- "A Tale of Two Flatland Movies", a review of both Flatland: The Movie and Flatland the Film by Ryan Somma
- "Two reviews in one", a careful, balanced review of both Flatland: The Movie and Flatland the Film by "Bob Stout" at Amazon.com: filed under Johnson's & Davis's The Movie, and also under Ehlinger's The Film
- GeekDad.com Review of Flatland: The Movie and Flatland 2: Sphereland
- Science & Entertainment Exchange reviews Flatland: The Movie and Flatland 2: Sphereland
- Science News reviews Flatland: The Movie and Flatland 2: Sphereland
- ZTF News reviews Flatland: The Movie
- Wild About Math podcast interview with Flatland: The Movie creators
- Acme Science podcast interview with Flatland: The Movie creators
- CTK Insights review of Flatland: The Movie and Flatland 2: Sphereland
- Unemployed Philosopher's Guild interview with Flatland: The Movie director Dano Johnson
Source of article : Wikipedia
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