AutoMatters & More: “Sea Otters” & “Blue Angels” in IMAX at the Fleet Science Center

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For a totally immersive movie experience, you just cannot beat experiencing a movie in IMAX inside the Eugene Heikoff and Marilyn Jacobs Heikoff Giant Dome Theater of the Fleet Science Center, in San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park. The giant, 76-foot domed screen surrounds you with a highly detailed, large format and increased vertical IMAX image with laser technology, as the theater is filled with the audio of a powerful and clear, precise sound system. Your enveloping movie experience will be the next best thing to being there.

“Sea Otters: A Wild Family Adventure”

Premiering at the Fleet Science Center, “Sea Otters: A Wild Family Adventure” follows the lives of a mother sea otter and Finn, her pup, as they experience life through four distinctly different seasons, each with their own set of unique challenges. Her role is to provide food for her young pup as she teaches him the skills that he will need to survive and thrive on his own, and the role they help play in keeping their natural ecosystem, including vast kelp forests, healthy. Their very survival depends upon how well they do. The location is the rugged, remote coast of British Columbia, Canada’s Vancouver Island.

I was especially looking forward to seeing “Sea Otters: A Wild Family Adventure” because long ago, as a boy growing up in Western Canada, I spent many summer vacations on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island salmon fishing with my dad. This film captures the awesome natural beauty of the rugged and remote British Columbia coastline, and conveys impressions of the vast numbers of birds and other wildlife in a way that I did not even sense it in person. In each of the four seasons, it is a truly spectacular place, filled with opportunities — and danger. Sharing the dramatic life experiences of a sea otter family was truly special.

To watch an extended trailer on YouTube for “Sea Otters: A Wild Family Adventure,”  go to: https://youtu.be/lPfAi9oLzCU?si=wCfEVutrU7fjTGv6.

“The Blue Angels”

Produced by J.J. Abrams and featuring never-before-seen video footage, “The Blue Angels” chronicles the 2022 season with the Navy’s elite Flight Demonstration Squadron — from the intense selection process that includes 7Gs in a human centrifuge as they fight to maintain consciousness; the extremely challenging, difficult and rigorous flight training, the never-ending demands of a long show season — showcasing the extraordinary teamwork, passion, and pride that fuels America’s best, the Blue Angels; and more. We are given rare, behind-the-scenes access to meetings, learn about team members’ backgrounds, hear what they hear and say in the cockpits, and gain insight into the sacrifices that they and their families make to be a part of this elite team.

I have been covering the Blue Angels for many years in “AutoMatters & More,” and before that I attended the Miramar Air show and other air shows as a member of the public, but I never had an opportunity to come close to experiencing The Blue Angels from within their cockpits, in tight formation. The skill of these pilots to consistently maintain mere inches of separation from each other as they conduct their incredibly difficult maneuvers with necessary precision is almost impossible to believe.

Failure to do so, for whatever the reason, can be and has been fatal, and yet these pilots do so, for performance after performance, in different locations throughout the air show season. To see this in the domed theater puts you in the middle of the action for a truly breathtaking experience. I urge you, in the strongest way, to see this. The next time you see the Blue Angels in person, you absolutely will have a whole new appreciation and respect for what they do.

To watch an extended trailer on YouTube for “The Blue Angels,” go to: https://youtu.be/B5dSYSDOk_U?si=9lllGNxAP6ZattvL.

For showtimes and more information, visit: https://www.fleetscience.org. All documentary films at the Fleet Science Center are available for viewing on a first-come, first-served basis. No reservations are required. To see a second film while visiting the Fleet Science Center, you may purchase entrance to additional documentaries at the ticket counter for $9.95 each.

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