Review by Carlos Teran

Beyond the Mind's Eye 1992

There's certain degree of nostalgia when popping in this DVD into my player, upscaled to 1080p in 4:3 aspect ratio. Back in 1992, I got hold of this VHS tape named Beyond The Mind's Eye, at a Musicland (for those of you who might remember them when there was one in every mall) for $29.99. It's a 45 minutes showcase of the CGI state of the art from 1987-91, including graphics from leading CG artists, VFX houses and some universities, with background music from Jan Hammer (of Miami Vice fame). Totally amazing back then, even when the narrative is so disjointed and the overall quality of the CGI varies from segment to segment, it tries to keep coherence and provide a story hold together by the music. It works, because I used to keep it playing hours at a time while I was busy, as a background video. In 1998 I was able to replace my VHS tape with a brand new BTME DVD (Musicland rocks) for $39.99, now including Jan Hammer's CD soundtrack for the same price. The other entries in the Mind's Eye series are not as polished or successful as this one, and were a disappointment when compared to this beauty, where the quality of the clips and music make them work as a whole. Miramar (the company that released this series) went bankrupt, the material out of print and today used BTME tapes and discs (LD and DVD) command prices between $49.99 and $60.00, so I didn't lose a dime. It's a shame that the source material for this disc is 480p 4:3, because it would benefit from a re-release.

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