Odyssey into the Mind's Eye

While I’m generally a fan of both Kerry (and anything out of the Kansas camp) and all four of the Mind’s Eye series of video albums, this one’s not my favorite of the four soundtracks. As part of the movie, it works great. But unlike the previous three by James Reynolds, Jan Hammer and Thomas Dolby, this doesn’t work quite as well as an album on its own, and the way it was re-sequenced for the album release didn’t help matters. There’s too much disparity in style from one track to the next so listening to it feels choppy, with no real flow. The full songs added here especially feel out of place. While Beyond and The Gate Into the Mind’s Eye both have some vocals, they’re not full songs; the vocal parts are just there for effect, and the songs feel more instrumental. Here, one moment you’re listening to an interesting tune with a mix of hard rock and new age-y synths similar to the Arena/Aura period of Asia, the next you have this very typical AOR song with a Steve Walsh-like soaring vocal that seems too “radio” to fit. And some songs seem like Kerry was uncertain if he wanted to go the New Age/electronic route of the other films or just rock out, creating an abrasive conflict of mood. As mentioned, if you re-arrange the tracks to play in the same order as the film, and eliminate the extra re-mixes Kerry added to the album, it flows better, but still works better as a soundtrack rather than a stand-alone work. Not that this is a altogether bad album: “Credence Lent” is an amazing track showing Kerry very skillfully playing jazz piano, and the twin atmospheric pieces, “Liquidity” and “Intelligent Life” are positively beautiful, to mention a few. There’s still enough good here to please anyone who loves Kerry’s music. It just feels like more attention could have been given to pulling everything together into a more consistent, unified whole similar to the record’s predecessors.

I have been interested in Kerry Livgren, and interested in his voyage. To deepen into his work, I purchase the Odyssey into the Minds Eye, for which he wrote the music. The animation, though twenty plus years old today, holds very well..it is the trippiest thing I have seen. It can measure up to The Wall, with all due respect, with an section actually inferring homage to it, and with the exception that it has less lyrics, which not really a problem for me. However, the films graphics and content are expressive enough, perhaps progressing and expanding the story depicted in The Wall. The progressive part also extends to the music. Having as this piece's origin, in Kansas, to which Kerry Livgren contributed immesely, this work has the characteristic signature, with new sources of inspiration, KL's religious faith.

I had the laser disk of this and absolutely LOVED it....okay, a few years ago...okay...a LOT of years ago. HOWEVER, this brought back a lot of great memories and enjoyment until my mother-in-law came in and said, "What kind of drugs was this guy flipping out on?" The graphics are great and the music is very...80's. I had to 'xplain to her this was the start of a new era in digital graphics, you know, LIKE YOUR SON IN LAW does at work?!? I appreciated the shipping, I couldn't tell what I had received (buy a lot from Amazon), until I removed all the bubble wrap (unlike my upcoming review on the VHS tape I bought at the same time from a different vendor). This seller, was outstanding. Got it is a couple of days, played it until my mother-in-law started twitching, one eye bigger than the other, but her working foot was bouncing to the beat. MWAhahahaa. Great concept copy of the original laser disk. Not a cheap disk copy, but a bona fide manufactured version. You'll enjoy it.

I bought the VHS version a while ago, and with the purchase of a DVD player this one was a definate must! (especially when VCR is only mono on a Prologic capable receiver ;) My only disapointment in the DVD ver is that there were no on screen menus, and no 'index sheet' included that tells you where the indexes are (but I got a snappy so I can capture the images and make my own index sheet)I also noticed a couple minor details that change from dvd and vhs versions. Like the female voice on one of them isn't as loud on dvd as it was on vhs, and 'SMV' logo differs, and there are no "previews" for other movies that are out (one difference I have noticed and liked on all DVD's so far :), like I said nothing major.BTW, I actually rode on the 'lava car' IWerks turboride when on spring break in smokey mountains, was really cool. you actually saw two movies for the 1 price, this was the 2nd one and people were coming out saying they liked this one over the first one (indy race car one) Can't wait till next one comes out.

Graphics were great!! There were (I believe) 11 tracks, and each track was different in theme, which added spice to the DVD. The entire musical theme was done in a rock musical format, with several tracks (2 or 3) actually had singing in it by Kerry Livgren (who was a member of the group: Kansas). I felt that the music went extremely well with the graphics!! It was very upbeat, not radical or harsh in any way, and there was very little singing in it - just music that helps sweep you away with the beautiful graphics. If you dont like Rock, you may not like this DVD, but I still recomend giving it a try. Some tracks featured spacey worlds, one had dinosaurs, spaceships, underwater scene with a dolphin being chased by a sea monster, tropical islands, robots, and just far out computer animation! Highly recomended - I'd say that this is the best Computer Graphics DVD I've purchased (out of 6 so far).

I had this on VHS (several copies) I love watching it as long as I have had it every time I see a little something that I did not notice. It is very relaxing. My son's with autism love it too. So thrilled it is now on dvd. UPDATE: I did not realized it was "Odyssey in the Mind's Eye" this is not the original "Minds Eye" . Still it is relaxing to watch.