The Gate to the Mind's Eye (1994 Video) User Reviews

Early CGI, But Still Very Good

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 6 June 2006]

In the early '90s computer animation was beginning to take hold and one-hour films like this would feature this new technology. There is supposed to be a story here, but good luck finding it. The fun is in the visuals which range from good to outstanding. My favorite segment is the music one with the jazz players and Washington-Lincoln.

Speaking of music, not all of it is the standard instrumentals. There are a couple of vocals. There also is some short narration. The whole thing is about 45 minutes with 10 minutes of ending credits tacked on.

This may be over a decade old in a technology that has grown leaps and bounds, but it's still good stuff and worth checking out.

Turn on the stereo, put this in the vcr!

[chilidog22 · 8/10 · 1 December 2002]

It rocks man! Perfect stuff to put on the tv screen with the sound off and play comething on the stereo! The images seem to go with any music! The city scapes look like Blade Runner. It's better than that stuff in Lawnmower Man! Lots of emryo-like images...

Awesome movie, but no-one knows about it.

[CrystalBlueSilver · 10/10 · 11 October 2004]

When I looked and saw that this movie had only been rated by 49 people, I was surprised. I mean, the music is genius, the animation was way ahead of its time, and only 49 people in the universe care enough about it to review?

Man, are the people of the world missing out. Thomas Dolby is a musical genius, and the people who did the animation spent loads of hours on their pieces. I think this movie deserves more than what it is getting.

I first remember seeing it when I was in third grade. My mother was the head librarian at that public library, and I was nuts about the 1st mind's eye. She finally just bought that one and this one for me so I'd quit checking them out... o_Ox This is definitely worth your time.

Brilliant for its time. Still is.

[markk · 9/10 · 28 October 2001]

For those that remember Thomas Dolby only for "She Blinded Me with Science", you have a real suprise and treat in store. Dolby has moved on and shown how good he really is, doing the score for this movie. Part of the reason I go on about this is I discovered the soundtrack before purchasing the video (and later DVD).

The computer animation for 1994 is very well done. It could probably be done in real time today, but it's certainly very impressive even today at the detail that was done. The journey starts with the end of the world, moving along though the birth of a new world, following evolution and history, with Dolby's brilliant music helping set the tone and the pace.

The blend of music and art makes it a must buy. No extra features, it's not even 5.1, probably one of the first DVDs made. But it's still worth it.

Potentially Life Saving Material

[barney_holmes · 9/10 · 24 September 2007]

I saw this on a Channel 4 special in, I think it was the mid 1990's. It was shown with a few documentaries with early technology/internet enthusiasts, and Arthur C Clarke doing an investigation of Fractals. In the post Cold War chaos and building Millennial angst it was a God send. The animations brilliantly hinted at the things to come. With our current rapidly developing plans for a return to the Moon, I wonder if anyone can remember the dark days (for me anyway) of the 1990's ? We go from pure adrenalin rushes of video game inspired story telling. A robot escaping from the system to find the extraordinary Universe outside ? What does that sound like ? We go from that to deeper pieces about human creativity, and the creativity of life itself, to stunning pieces of illusionary animation, using techniques I've never seen before or since.

Highly unusual, in my opinion, almost spooky in it's affirmation of the pure force of life itself, ironically, expressed through the cold machine. Touching, positive and upbeat.

DJ Barney

A must have for any true CGI lover

[hristo-3 · 10/10 · 27 February 2008]

I remember short scenes from this movie being aired on TV1000 (or was it CANAL+?) when I was younger. I had just bought a book on ray-tracing and was wondering how did they do that outstanding animation when it took an hour of my puny PC to render just a simple scene. I never knew the name of the movie - they just aired uncredited parts of it on the TV to fill the gaps in the schedule. Some days ago I found it by chance and I'm very happy - it brought me back to my happier childhood :)

Overall - great music and great animation. Very advanced CGI scenes for the time of its making. And the music blends flawlessly with the video. It's definitely not some random 3DS Max video & electronic sound compilation like the ones creeping around nowadays.

Thomas Dolby (The Former Mad Scientist Of New Wave)

[fatbelly · 10/10 · 2 August 2005]

I like this film a lot, only discovered it this year, I've Alysa's had the taste of electronic music and the weird visuals which I love, but not supposed to say because you'll have to Watch it yourself. Thomas Dolby is a musical genius as everybody else may have said, the former mad scientist who composed Hyperactive! and that video was funny, strange, but good and May The Cube Be With You which is also great, I like his music, but haven't the other film he composed which was Gothic, got the album, but never played it. This film was forgotten because most people like proper movies rather than musicals, but I liked it.