The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk has added a second film to its 4D Theater. Monster Mayhem 4D began showing on October 1, and it plays through the day alongside Shark: A 4D Experience, so a visitor picks one or sits through both.
The story follows Creature, who joins Stitch Head and the monsters of Castle Grotteskew. Everything is under control until the townspeople, frightened of what is in the castle, storm it. The monsters have to turn the misunderstanding into friendship before it goes wrong. It is a comedy, and the aquarium is selling it as proof that things are not always as scary as they seem, which is a serviceable thing to tell a child in October.
What the fourth dimension actually is
A 4D theater is a 3D film with the room joining in. At Norwalk that means wind, bubbles, mist and scents, timed to what is happening on screen. The effects are the reason the format survives in aquariums and science centers: a seven-year-old who would sit still for none of this will sit still for all of it when the seat is part of the show.
The other film is the aquarium’s day job
Shark: A 4D Experience runs twelve minutes and covers the range of species in the group and the part they play in keeping a marine ecosystem healthy. That is the aquarium’s actual subject, and pairing it with a monster comedy is a sensible piece of programming: the family comes for one and gets the other on the way past.
What does it cost?
Tickets are $7.95 per person and $6.95 for members, on top of admission. Showtimes are listed on the aquarium’s 4D Theater page, which is worth checking before you go, because the two films alternate.
It has been a busy stretch for the Norwalk aquarium. It took the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ top advocacy honor at the end of September for the campaign behind New York’s horseshoe crab protection law, and earlier in the year it opened a puffin habitat. A monster film is a lighter item than either, and a family deciding how to spend a Saturday is not weighing them against each other.
Quick answers
- What is Monster Mayhem 4D?
A comedy film showing in The Maritime Aquarium's 4D Theater from October 1, in which Creature joins Stitch Head and the monsters of Castle Grotteskew and the monsters have to turn the townspeople's fear into friendship.
- What makes it 4D?
The theater adds wind, bubbles, mist and scents, timed to what is happening on screen.
- What does it cost?
$7.95 per person and $6.95 for members, on top of aquarium admission.
- What else is playing?
Shark: A 4D Experience, a twelve-minute film about shark diversity and the part sharks play in keeping marine ecosystems healthy. The two films alternate through the day.
