But the film’s greatest achievement isn’t its story line or the acting–it’s the animations of the solar system that will captivate audiences both young and old. The film will have a major release in IMAX theaters in February 2010, where it will be shown in 3D (the admittedly unfinished draft we saw was only in 2D). Quantum Quest will probably appear mostly in science museums, and it represents a leap forward in movies of this kind. The imagery of the inner planets, the rings of Saturn, and the Kuiper belt near the edge of the solar system are stunning, and extremely accurate. Based on information from a variety of NASA missions, the film actually identifies on screen which mission provided information about which solar system body. Where was this movie when I was 12? I can easily see this production giving a big boost to kids’ curiosities about space.

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