Flatland: The Movie
| Flatland: The Movie | |
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| Directed by | Dano Johnson Jeffrey Travis |
| Produced by |
Seth Caplan Will Wallace |
| Screenplay by | Seth Caplan Dano Johnson Jeffrey Travis |
| Based on |
Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
| Starring |
Kristen Bell Tony Hale Martin Sheen Michael York |
| Music by | Kaz Boyle |
| Distributed by | Flat World Productions |
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Release date
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Running time
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34 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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.
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. He rushes Hex to school and along the way they 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 about what happened to her pentagonal parents. Arthur tells her that he will tell her someday, and rushes her off to school.
Arthur arrives at his Ministry of Regularity job only to be harassed by his circular superior, Miss Helios. He is about to confide his dream of the symbols to his brother Abbott Square when the employees are called to a meeting. The head circle ruler of Flatland, Pantocyclus, ushers a new edict that bans discussion of heretical topics such as a third dimension or the ruins at Area 33H. When Arthur sees an image of the ruins, he recognizes them from his dream.
At dinner, Hex asks Arthur about the Circles' proclamation and to define 'dimension.' Arthur gives her 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. She is only calmed when Arlene talks to her and gives her a gift of some of her mother's belongings – a box containing books and a model of the symbols at Area 33H.
That night, Arthur Square is plucked from his bedroom and taken to a strange, alien landscape. He encounters the insane, babbling 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. Suddenly 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 failed attempts to explain the third dimension, Arthur is popped into Spaceland and taken on a journey by Spherius. 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 though the plane of Flatland and spinning along all three axes. Hex was right! Arthur excitedly asks Spherius to show him the fourth dimension and the fifth dimension. Spherius laughs, saying 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, to beware any employees who mention the third dimension and to guard Area 33H.
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