Roving Mars moves from the IMAX to the small screen.

Roving Mars played in IMAX theaters in 2006 and now it makes the transition to DVD and Blu-Ray. In the past, watching movies that were originally intended for a 70-foot screen seemed pointless on a tiny TV in your living room, but these days, with many people owning TVs that consume most of one wall of their home, IMAX movies can provide a nice visual showcase for your new multi-thousand dollar purchase. On top of that, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have made a new level of visual clarity possible, even when projecting the image on much larger surfaces.

Roving Mars, which is now available in Blu-Ray format as well as DVD, provides a pretty breathtaking visual showcase.

The story tracks NASA's ground-breaking mission to send two rovers to the red planet in order to determine whether life was ever possible on Mars. They build two rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, which will essentially serve as robot geologists. From the get-go, things are stacked against them. Two thirds of all missions to Mars fail, the planet serving as a "spacecraft graveyard" to less-than-successful attempts. Once the rovers are launched, NASA's engineers must wait patiently by, holding with crossed fingers and baited breath to see whether their years of work will come to an abrupt end amongst Mar's average temperature of 60 degrees below zero. An amusing comparison is made that "It's like shooting a basketball from Los Angeles to New York and having it go through the hoop without touching the net." Even MJ would be at a loss given that impossible task.

Ultimately, the rovers do make it to the red planet. Opportunity lands in the best spot, immediately gathering a wealth of useful date and confirming that, indeed, life was possible on Mars several billion years ago. Spirit has less luck, landing at the bottom of a steep mountain. The "blue collar worker" of the two rovers, Spirit climbs her was out and is ultimately able to contribute to the exceptional success of this mission.

So is Roving Mars worth the watch? Well, for the visuals, yes it is pretty cool. As far as a learning tool, there are some interesting facts for a layman of the red planet such as myself, but I would imagine most of these factoids would be pretty mundane stuff for space officianados. Even on a large screen TV, a lot of the experience is admittedly lost on the transition from the monolithic IMAX screens.

Roving Mars works primarily as a nice visual showcase on par with the imagery on Discovery HD. The attempt to "spruce up" that history lesson type of experience with music by Phillip Glass, etc. is a mixed bag. Watching the rovers rocket through space and land is thrilling, but interviews in-between can be less-than-riveting. The end result is an somewhat empty experience. The mission of Spirit and Opportunity is  fascinating, but the amount you learn about the specifics of that mission within the 40-minute running time is relatively limited.

What's On the Disc:

The true gem of the bonus features section of Roving Mars is a 1957 Disney movie entitled Mars and Beyond. Fans of Disney's golden age of animation will probably find a lot to like here. Yes, it's cheesy and dated, but that's the fun of an item like this. The doc doesn't take itself terribly seriously, offering some cute animation and poking fun at man's evolution as it journies into the great beyond. It's highly entertaining if you go in with the right attitude.

The other bonus feature is "Mars: Past, Present and Future," which offers personal reflections from the filmmakers, Rover Team members and students from the "Imagine Mars" program.

Rovings Mars is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc from Walt Disney Home Entertainment.