Cyberworld

The first IMAX 3-D animated feature is actually an anthology of experimental computer animation (the kind of thing you see on the monitors in Virgin Megastores) strung together by a half-hearted story about computer “bugs” (in conventional ink-and-paint animation) devouring the code of a digital entertainment gallery. The film is at its cleverest in the two least-original sequences, recreating the disco scene from 1998’s Antz and a Twilight Zone parody from The Simpsons. Otherwise, despite some impressive, even stunning 3-D effects, it’s a rather cold and uninvolving glimpse into the imaginations of software engineers with great technical resources but little story sense. The relentless deluge of pictorial ingenuity without emotional structure eventually becomes enervating.