By Kelsie Rose
The holiday season will begin this Friday in the IMAX Theater at the Clark Planetarium with the film, 'The Santa vs. The Snowman in 3-D.'
From the Academy Award nominated team that brought 'Jimmy Neutron' comes a story of a lonely Snowman who is swept away by the magical wonders of Santa''s Village. An epic-scale polar war develops against Santa because the Snowman is jealous of all the attention Santa gets during Christmas time. According to the Web site, the hilarious battle features such holiday defense mechanisms as hot chocolate squirt guns, giant Igloo Robot Walkers and even a 50-foot tall toy soldier manned by Santa himself.
'It''s great because not only was it filmed and done as an animated short for kids, but it also has a lot of adult humor in it so adults will enjoy it as well as the kids,' said Jayceen Craven Walker, public relations specialist. 'The fact that it is in 3-D, you''ve got snowballs coming at you; it''s just a great overall movie.'
The IMAX Theater is Utah''s only true 3-D theater. The theater also features a 12,000 watt surround sound system.
'You can feel it as well as hear it,' Walker said.
Also showing at the IMAX Theater are, 'Forces of Nature' and 'Space Station 3-D.'
'Forces of Nature,' a National Geographic production, narrated by Kevin Bacon, includes mountains exploding, the ground shaking, tornadoes and earthquakes. It takes audiences behind the disasters with scientists willing to risk their own lives to understand these forces and increase our odds of surviving these events.
'It''s very interesting, the science that actually goes into how these scientists are learning to forecast these events,' Walker said.
'Space Station 3-D', narrated by Tom Cruise, tells a story hundreds of miles away from earth about 25 astronauts and 16 nations coming together to construct the international space station.
'You get the feeling of actually being in outer space and what it takes for the astronaut to work in zero gravity,' Walker said.
Justin Davis, Salt Lake City resident, who has been to the IMAX Theater, enjoyed Space Station in 3-D.
'It was a fun experience and they should put more IMAX''s throughout the city,' said Davis, 15. 'I was captured in the presentation.'
Tickets cost $8 for adults and $5 for children under 12. A combination ticket is also available at $12 for adults and $8 for children.
The Clark Planetarium offers free interactive exhibits and telescopes available for nighttime viewing outside the Planetarium. The Planetarium also has the Star Theater that offers light shows called 'Entranced,' 'Pink Floyd''s ''Dark Side of the Moon,''' Rock Hall of Fame and the new music holiday light show called 'Cosmic Holidays' starting Nov. 19.
'The Star Theater is a pitless planetarium,' Walker said. 'We have video projectors that go 360 degrees around your head; you have HDTV basically for all the astronomy and the light shows. We can actually go into the constellations in the nighttime sky or morning sky and look at Venus, Jupiter and Mars and the phases they are in. We have the capability of doing totally astronomical and mind blowing things.'
Tickets cost $8 for adults and $5 for children under 12. A combination ticket of two shows is also available at $12 for adults and $8 for children.
The Clark Planetarium is located in downtown Salt Lake City at 110 S. 400 West.
More information can be found at www.hansenplanetarium.com