Joe Sterne's Blog

Yesterday Jules and I were invited to a private, after hours tweetup at the National Aquarium in Baltimore to see a 4D preview of Happy Feet.

Happy Feet, for those of you unable to use Google/IMDB, is an animated film about a bunch of dancing penguins who tap dance to communicate with scientists to help stop overfishing in the arctic… at least that’s what I think the movie is about.  I was way too distracted by the fake snow blowing everywhere (one attendee remarked that it was more snow than Baltimore got all year) to pay attention to the movie.

Being my second preview of a 4D movie, I kinda knew what to expect. The seat poking you (in my tender kidney) is always the thing that makes me jump the most and pay attention. I’m honestly surprised more theaters/studios haven’t thought of including rumble seats or fans in the theaters as that alone makes for a much more immersive experience .

I don’t want to spoil the experience for you though! The 4D theater is a blast (especially when cell phones are allowed) and I recommend the experience highly, even more so if you have small kids. The team at the National Aquarium that put this on was stellar as always and Jules and I had a great time seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones!

As an aside, the killer whales in this movie were MEAN. I didn’t know Free Willy was so vengeful/pissed off at the penguins. They must have mocked him in the tank as a child…