Search - Ancient Alien on DVD

Very trippy!

11/30/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A fascinating computer animated journey of mythic realms, the video has several segments, exploring gravity-defying beings, molten chrome oceans, volcanic islands, and other intriguing places. The visuals are combined seamlessly with very cool "exotica electronica" music. I enjoyed it a lot!"

Well Short of Previous Standard from "The Mind's Eye"

John Cserep | USA | 04/23/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I've bought at least 8 other videos like this, most from the same makers at The Mind's Eye. All the others were great, but this one is terrible. I actually found myself hitting Fast Forward on my remote--a terrible comment on this tape. Most of the video is abstract art, unlike previous works from TME. While a few of these abstract sequences are really great, most drag on, get tiresome, and are repetitious. I felt I got about $2 worth of good video for my $14-plus. I thought the sound track was pretty good--not the best from TME, but good. This isn't nearly enough to save this video, however. I noticed that, unlike previous TME videos, the artists are all from a place in Britain that sounds like a government computer-animation school. That would explain a lot. I know some top animators in this country, and they've always said the best animators aren't products of animation classes. If you're creative, you don't need schooling in animation; if you're not creative, no amount of schooling will help. Next time, the folks at The Mind's Eye should go back to the individual free-lancers."

Dated, depressing, pixelated, ugly, short

Random Reviewer | Los Angeles, CA USA | 10/09/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is nothing like the other Mind's Eyes, which I still enjoying viewing today. This one looks more like the first DVD of X-Mix: a lot of "flat" looking ancient 3-d graphics that crossfade back-and-forth, and end up being repetitive. Hardly anything in the other Mind's Eyes ever repeats. Actually I think some of the scenes in this (like the white rocks flying to and from the distance) were IN the first DVD of X-Mix from 1994, so I'm not sure why they were reused in 1998 (when this was released). And the first DVD of X-mix is almost 3 hours long, while this is only 43 minutes.This also has that weird Playstation non-interlace problem (unlike other Mind's Eyes) where only every-other horizontal line on the screen is generated...and thus twice as easy for computers to generate, but which looks cheap. So the horizontal lines are jagged, most things are excessively pixelated, and there is no detail. This would probably look better on VHS actually, because the distortion would make the non-interlaced problem smoother. If there were at least more bright colors (like the first X-Mix), that would be SOMETHING, but so much of this is in BROWN and GREY that it looks depressing and ugly like a rainy day.Most of the movement is the slowest I've seen so far, so this might be good wallpaper for DJs who play slower R&B. But if you play fast music like I do, then the other Mind's Eyes (and even the first X-Mix) are much better wallpaper."

Ancient Alien is a SOLID PURCHASE!

dj monarch | Dallas, TX | 12/31/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Mind's Eye series from Odyssey is the best series out there and Ancient Alien is one the best from that series. Lots of color, pretty detailed, good movement (ie flying around), variety between the different scenes, good length, and most importantly....good music! I don't know what the heck the other guy that wrote a review is thinking when he says the music wasn't that good. I don't think he even knows who the artists are...but I do...and let me tell you that whoever did the score on this DVD, they knew a lot about ambient music. IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE TRANCE!!!!! Anyway, this DVD is at the top of my collection. I have, and I will continue to, recommend it, watch it, and play it for others. Peace :)"