Ultimate G's: Zac's Flying Dream 3D (IMAX)

Ultimate G's: Zac's Flying Dream 3D is the IMAX 3-D production and story of eleven-year-old Zac (Cera), a boy who is constantly inventing flying machines with the help of his friend Laura. As the two grow up they separate, but both become pilots. Sixteen years later, while visiting Laura at her aerial mechanics shop in Arizona, Zac is challenged to an aerobatic duel by a rival. The result is a thrilling flying sequence over the Grand Canyon in the front seat of an Extra 300 aerobatic monoplane. Pilots from the Air Combat Canada airshow team and the world aerobatic champions engage in solo flight, dog fights, formation, and aerobatic flying. (Gary Reber)

Special features include trailers and BD-Live functionality.

The film was shot using the Iwerks dual-strip 3-D system and produced for exhibition in 70 mm IMAX 3D. The 1.78:1 1080p MVC 3-D picture is not among the best of the offerings from Image Entertainment. As with other Image Entertainment 3-D releases, the company worked with Big Picture to optimize the 3-D image for home viewing. Still, the 3-D imagery displays numerous instances of apparent double image ghosting artifacts, which once detected, always distracts from the viewing experience. As well, occasionally, characters appear to be vertically stretched. Otherwise, the imagery yields a natural sense of depth, with characters and monoplanes nicely offset from the earthy backgrounds and spaced between each other and the ground, to create wonderment while engaged in aerobatic flying. The sense of space and perspective between the monoplanes is impressive, especially when you are put into the point-of-view position from the cockpit of the aircraft. The color palette is nicely saturated with rich and warm hues and accurate fleshtones. Blacks are deep and solid and shadow delineation is revealing. Overall, while not a reference-quality 3-D experience, aviation fans will surely enjoy the breathtaking flying scenes. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is effectively holosonic® sounding, with an aggressive sense of surround envelopment, with directionalized sound effects. This enhances the thrilling 3-D visual effects, with all sorts of pans and localized atmospheric sound effects. The low-level atmospherics are nicely produced, which adds realism to the on-ground story segments with the young people aspiring to become pilots. There is a lot of movement within the defined soundscape depiction, such as monoplanes whizzing by in various directions, which is wonderful. The orchestral and choral music score is nicely recorded with a sweeping soundfield presence that energizes every loudspeaker channel. Bass extension is deep and solid, with plenty of energy focused in the .1 LFE channel to give weight to various sound effects. Dialogue is intelligible, though, ADR is limited in terms of spatial integration. Still, the overall excellent quality of the other sound elements merit praise. This is an impressive immersive soundtrack that perfectly complements the 3D. (Gary Reber)