‘SEA DREAM’ FILM OPENS AT KNOTT’S

In “Sea Dream,” Knott’s Berry Farm’s new 3-D underwater adventure film that opens to the public today, a blue shark swims straight into the camera lens, appearing to hover directly over the audience.

In another segment, a fluidly graceful octopus slowly descends on its favorite meal, a spidery blue crab that attempts unsuccessfully to escape the tentacles of death. Later, a moray eel coils to strike, then lashes out with its razor-sharp teeth flashing, apparently only inches away from viewers.

To Knott’s patrons, it’s a chance to witness in realistic 3-D one of nature’s oldest contests: predator versus prey. To Orange County theme park officials, however, the battle shapes up more like Captain Nemo versus Captain EO.

At least that’s the way it appears as Knott’s unveils “Sea Dream” only six months after rival Disneyland launched “Captain EO,” a multimillion-dollar 3-D musical space extravaganza pooling the talents of singer Michael Jackson and film makers George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.

Knott’s officials downplay any comparisons between the two films but admit that they will be inevitable.

“I guess it is (a response to “Captain EO”),” said Joe Meck, Knott’s vice president of entertainment. “But we’ve known the importance of film and what it is to the entertainment market. We’ve been interested for years in incorporating film into the park and this was made to order for our concept of education and entertainment.”

The 23-minute quasi-documentary film, previewed for park employees Thursday and Friday, features a number of spectacular into-the-lens 3-D shots, both above and below sea level. Opening with a beach scene and a pair of youths tossing a Frisbee at the camera, the “Sea Dream” cameras move under the waves for a close-up look at sea creatures and then back into the open air for shots of boating, hang gliding and amusement park roller coasters.

“We have our roller coasters and dolphin shows, so this was perfect for us,” Meck said.

Unlike “Captain EO,” which was created specifically for Disneyland and Walt Disney World and required the construction of special 3-D theaters, “Sea Dream” was produced in 1978 for Marineland in Florida and is merely receiving its West Coast premiere at Knott’s, where it will screen several times daily in the Cloud 9 Ballroom.

“One of the major selling points of “Sea Dream” was that we can still use the room for other things like dancing,” Knott’s public relations director, Stuart Zanville, said.

Shot nearly a decade earlier and without the astronomical budget afforded the Jackson-Lucas-Coppola collaboration, “Sea Dream” is a substantially lower-tech and less ambitious film, another reason Knott’s officials avoid comparisons to “Captain EO.”

“Sea Dream” was written, filmed, produced and directed by Murray Lerner, who won an Academy Award for his 1980 classical music documentary, “From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern in China.” Ironically, Lerner also directed Disneyland’s previous 3-D film, “Magic Journeys,” which was replaced by “Captain EO.”

Lerner, who is now working on a 3-D television project, said the attention focused on the 3-D process from “Captain EO” has helped overcome the image that the technology is a novelty reserved for spicing up teen exploitation films like “Friday the 13th, Part 3-D.”

“The term 3-D has become better known because of that (Captain EO),” Lerner said in an interview at Knott’s Thursday, where he was observing the initial screenings.