Flatland the Film | 
| Directors: Ladd P. Ehlinger Jr, Ladd Ehlinger Jr
Actors: Greg Trent, Chris Carter, Linda Meigs, Ashley Blackwell, Mark Slater
Buy New: $21.95
as of 11/21/2009 12:10 CST details
New (2) Used (1) from $19.99
Seller: flatland_productions
Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 34421
Format: NTSC, Widescreen, DVD-ROM, Limited Edition, Full length
Language: English (Original Language)
Region: 0
Running Time: 98 Minutes
ASIN: B000NJ60FM
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | NTSC, DVD-R Format | | • | Collector's Edition | | • | Widescreen |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Ladd Ehlinger Jr.s feature length animated adaptation of Edwin Abbott's 1884 "Flatland." Screenwriter: Tom Whalen. Composer: Mark Slater. DVD-R Format.
With penetrating satire, Flatland the Film takes us on a mind-expanding dimensional journey through an animated adaptation of Abbots 19th century novel.
A Square, Attorney-at-Law, inhabits a world that is flat and two-dimensional. Together with his wife Frau A Square, he tries to raise his children -5 pentagons and A Hexagon- as best he can in a rigid society governed by tyrannical triangles and pompous priest circles.
It is three days until the much anticipated year 3000 in the Southern Republic of Flatland and A Square has a job to do. He must meet with his latest client, A Line, the first female Flatlander to be arrested for the taboo practice of Chromatism - the act of coloring ones sides in order to resemble a higher class of geometrical figure.
During this meeting an entire rebellion of Chromatists is launched, and A Square must shield his family from the horrors of urban Flatlander war.
Within this turmoil, a mysterious visitor from the third dimension arrives: A Sphere, CEO of Messiah, Inc. Flatlanders, according to A Sphere, must learn that there is another dimension called height. A Square must spread the word as his Apostle of the Three Dimensions.
But having been flat his entire life, A Square is unable to comprehend these three dimensions. Out of desperation, A Sphere pulls A Square out of Flatland altogether to show him the true nature of Spaceland, and the universe.
And in so doing, he risks the very fabric of space-time itself, potentially destroying all of creation.
Will A Square make it home to Flatland? Will he be able to understand the Third Dimension? Will he be able to spread the gospel of the Third Dimension to his fellow Flatlanders - or will he be executed for blasphemy?
The answers to these questions and more are to be found in Flatland the Film!
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 44
 Go with the book September 4, 2009
D. L. Core (Northern Virginia, USA)
I remember reading Flatland as a kid and I thought it was cool to think about all the different dimensions. I was excited to see that someone undertook to film it. Granted Mr. Ehlinger did this as a one-man show and I give him a lot of credit. I liked the imagery and the colorful world he created and he captured the story well. I wish the women's "peace cries" weren't as annoying as the book portrayed them and there weren't as much bloodshed and the story stalled at times, but if he had a larger budget he'd have accomplished much more. So "A" for effort, "C" for delivery.
 As disappointing as the Movie March 13, 2009
Grant Cairns (Melbourne, Australia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Like Flatland the Movie, the Film is also disappointing. It is not as slick as the Movie; it is more experimental and less conservative. But it's far too long and it is often tedious. And as far as content goes, it is as unoriginal as the Movie.
 Oh my - don't waste your money January 18, 2009
TWP (Canada)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
OK, I liked the book and I enjoyed the other version of (Flatland:the movie) - but this one (the film) was just too strange.
The story was fractured, the graphics were amateurish, and the animation was full of pauses that left you wondering if they just couldn't render the frames fast enough.
Oh my what a waste - don't bother buying this one - you can have mine...
 Flatland the Film October 9, 2008
Blaine L. Bosserman (York, Pa USA)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Flatland the Film Excellent Film! Way better than the higher priced Flatland: The Movie which is way shorter in length, with a more crude story line.
Solid September 11, 2008
Cosmoetica (New York, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This version of the tale tries the most to update the film to a modern audience, and that is its chief failing. The original tale was called a Romance, and this updating removes that very concept from the story. While it follows much of the novella's narrative- in describing the way Flatland works (although the original's King is replaced by a President- who oddly still wears a crown), it departs severely from the original at its most crucial moment, once A Square is visited by A Sphere from Spaceland. In this version, instead of a mystical guide, along the line of the Three Ghosts Of Christmas from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, A Sphere is CEO of Messiah, Inc. Ok....if the mere mention of that plot point has you rolling your eyes, you are not alone. And the attempts at satire only go downhill from there.
Instead of Sphere's lifting up of Square into Spaceland being a religious experience, in this film it merely serves as a `wow' moment used to lead into some cheap gags, jokes, and a display of Ehlinger's animative chops. The story dissolves. Then there is some cheap and rather predictable satire of consumerism and the current Iraq War, which will severely date the film in coming years, as well as a not so funny portrayal of a Spaceland Senator Cube who sounds very much like Ted Kennedy. In the novella, the satire, while based in Victoriana, dealt more specifically with human foibles grafted onto the polygons of Flatland. Here, the polygons of Flatland and the solids of Spaceland are almost total caricatures- such as the gay sounding Flatland Senator who leads the dissenting Chromatist movement, and is assassinated by President Circle's henchmen.
The film is best when sticking to the book's original points.... The DVD comes with an autographed thank you from Ehlinger, but the disk itself has only the film and a brief trailer. Even though the film is low budget, couldn't Ehlinger have included a commentary by himself and others? It would have at least made the DVD, if not the film, worth a bit more, on a level of interest. In this day and age, not doing so is a bit of a ripoff- small budget or not. On a real world note, the slim case DVD package the DVD comes in also has a bad holder for the disk. The disk is far too small and the disk cannot stay in its holder. While a worthwhile effort, Flatland: The Film takes on too much, misses where the book succeeds, and its ending is just bad. But, Ehlinger does show a flair and unique style. If he continues in animation, here's hoping his next film is about the same quantum leap up from this one that Spaceland is from Flatland. If it is, then we'll have a film truly worth all the praise this one has gotten.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 44
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