The Last Mimzy Profile
The Last Mimzy
US Promotional poster for The Last Mimzy
Directed by Bob Shaye
Produced by Michael Phillips
Written by Short Story: Henry Kuttner C.L. Moore Screenplay: Bruce Joel Rubin Toby Emmerich James V. Hart Carol Skilken
Starring Rhiannon Leigh Wryn Chris O'Neil Rainn Wilson Joely Richardson Timothy Hutton Michael Clarke Duncan Megan McKinnon Marc Musso Kathryn Hahn
Music by Howard Shore Roger Waters
Cinematography J. Michael Muro
Editing by Alan Heim
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date(s) March 23, 2007 March 23, 2007 March 30, 2007 August 9, 2007 2nd week May 2007 May 31, 2007 April 25, 2007
Running time 90 min.
Country United States
Language English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
The Last Mimzy is a 2007 science fiction family film directed by Bob Shaye and loosely adapted from the acclaimed 1943 science fiction short story "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" authored by Lewis Padgett (the pseudonym of husband and wife team Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore). The Last Mimzy centers on two children, Noah (Chris O'Neil) and Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) Wilder, who develop preternatural powers when they encounter a mysterious box containing strange devices, presumed to be toys.
Contents
1 Plot 2 Main cast 3 Development and production 4 Response 5 Toys from the future 6 Soundtrack
6.1 Track listing
7 References 8 External links
Plot Presented as a flashback, The Last Mimzy is the story of a distant future's attempt to find a solution, through time travel, to a catastrophic ecological disaster that has destroyed their world. High tech devices, masquerading as toys, are sent back in time into the hands of Noah and Emma. The children and their parents, Jo (Joely Richardson) and David (Timothy Hutton), live in early 21st century Seattle. The "toys" are mostly incomprehensible to Emma and Noah, except for what appears to be a stuffed rabbit named Mimzy. Sensing the strangeness of the devices, the children initially keep their discovery a secret from their parents. Interaction with the devices causes the children to develop increased intelligence and psychic capabilities, including teleportation of objects, the ability to control bugs, telepathy, telekinesis, and levitation. Emma becomes emotionally attached to Mimzy, from whom she learns how to further operate the devices. The children's unusual abilities and Emma's obsessive attachment to Mimzy soon alert their parents and schoolteachers to the devices. Later, a power black-out of the entire Pacific northwest caused by the toys alerts the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to their activities as well. The family is held for questioning, and it is revealed that Mimzy is actually an advanced form of artificial life utilizing nanotechnology. Mimzy has brought a message from humanity's future, where Emma explains that pollution has corrupted humanity's DNA. Many rabbits like Mimzy were sent to the past, but none had successfully returned; Mimzy is the last one remaining. Mimzy explains to the children that they must use the toys as a time machine to return her to the future with uncorrupted 21st century DNA, which the people of the future can use to correct the damage to their DNA caused by the ecological problems. Despite attempts by an unbelieving FBI to hinder them, Noah and Emma use their psychic powers to escape with Mimzy and are able to initiate the time transport so Mimzy can return to the future. Fortunately, Mimzy carries with it a tear from Emma, thus providing the pure DNA required to prevent the disaster. In the new future, Emma is revered as the "mother" of all the present generations, and the children exhibit the same psychic gifts that Emma had developed. The world has become a more beautiful place, where it is presumed that humanity has integrated better into the natural ecosystems.
Main cast The Last Mimzy features an ensemble cast that includes Timothy Hutton, Joely Richardson, Rainn Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Patrick Gilmore, and newcomers Rhiannon Leigh Wryn and Chris O’Neil as the children, Emma and Noah. World-renowned string theorist, Brian Greene has a cameo appearance as the Intel scientist in the movie. Combined, the cast and production team feature six Academy Award winners.
Chris O'Neil as Noah Wilder, one of the children who discovers the "toys" Rhiannon Leigh Wryn as Emma Wilder, Noah's younger sister and the other toy finder Timothy Hutton as David Wilder, father of Noah and Emma Joely Richardson as Jo Wilder, David's wife and mother of the children Rainn Wilson as Larry White, Noah's science teacher Kathryn Hahn as Naomi Schwartz, Larry's fiancee Michael Clarke Duncan as FBI Special Agent Nathaniel Broadman Kirsten Williamson as Sheila Broadman Marc Musso as Harry Jones Megan McKinnon as Wendy Irene Snow as Teacher in the meadow (future)
Development and production The Last Mimzy is based on the classic science fiction short story "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett, the pen name of collaborators Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore; the story appeared in John Campbell's magazine Astounding in 1943. One result of the adaptation process is that — relative to the short story — the movie is aimed at a younger audience and is more about emotions; the short story is more about ideas. Rick Norwood (The SF Site) writes, "The Last Mimzy has carefully expunged all of the ideas from the story, and replaced them with the New Age nonsense that passes for ideas these days. They have also taken a very personal story about one family and a box of toys from the future and turned it into an epic story in which childlike innocence saves the human race."
Response Critical response to The Last Mimzy ranged from saying it holds appeal for family audiences — especially children — to describing the storyline as cluttered and distracting. Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called it, "Wholesome, eager entertainment that doesn't talk down", agreeing with Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide who said it was "a thoughtful and sincere interpretation that might actually get kids and their guardians thinking and talking."
Toys from the future
Container Box: A dark-colored, cube-shaped primary structure designed to hold a spherical object with a triangle shape on its surface. The box can be opened by arranging its alignment in a specific way, and has three compartments for storage.
Mimzy: Mimzy is a stuffed toy rabbit, pale brown in color, with white-lined ears and black eyes. It is filled with nano scale processor chips, each described by the movie as etched with the Intel logo on its molecules. Mimzy, whose voice only Emma can hear, plays the role of mentor and familiar to Emma, teaching her the use of her psi talents. Emma has complete faith in Mimzy's goodness, as well as a great affection for her. Mimzy was created by future humans to take their message to the past on the premise that humans themselves cannot survive time travel.
The Spinners: Initially, one of the toys resembles a black, crystal-like meteorite. When Emma accidentally drops it, it breaks apart into smaller rocks. She learns from Mimzy that she can levitate them by spinning them. When all of them are spinning near each other they create an "atomizing field", through which Emma may look to see the future. If a physical object, such as Emma's hand or Mimzy, is placed in this field, the nature of its atoms is revealed.
The Conch Shell: An ordinary-looking shell, which enables Noah to hear the normally inaudible sounds produced by natural event. Noah uses that which he learns from it to control the actions of arthropods (resulting in a unique science project), and later confuse a security camera in the research facility where the family is held by the FBI.
The Green Crystal: A flat, rectangular crystal containing animated geometric shapes that reveal the equivalents of ley lines, which connect all matter. Through his interaction with the crystal, Noah learns to see the world differently and gains the ability to teleport objects using the lines it reveals.
The Gelatinous Mass: A dark blue, soft, organic-looking object that resembles a rubbery, tentacled sac full of liquid. Its purpose is unclear until it is combined with the Green Crystal to form the Generator.
The Generator: The power source for the time travel system, created by combining the Green Crystal with the Gelatinous Mass. It resembles a blue glass sculpture of a coral polyp having rotational symmetry. Noah uses it in combination with the atomizing field produced by the Spinners to return Mimzy to the future.
Soundtrack The soundtrack for the film was composed by Howard Shore, the award winning composer behind the scores of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters also collaborated on a song called "Hello (I Love You)". "I think together we've come up with a song that captures the themes of the movie - the clash between humanity's best and worst instincts, and how a child's innocence can win the day," Roger Waters commented.
Track listing
"The Mandala" – 1:37 "Whidbey Island" – 3:21 "Under The Bed" – 2:46 "Cuddle" – 1:28 "Beach" – 1:59 "Scribbles" – 2:39 "Blackout" – 3:17 "Palm Readings" – 4:12 "I Love The World" – 0:52 "Help!" – 1:20 "I Have To Look" – 4:20 "Can I Talk?" – 5:26 "Eyes" – 2:15 "The Tear" – 4:07 "Through The Looking Glass" – 5:03 "Hello (I Love You)" (with Roger Waters) – 6:16
References
^ a b Norwood, Rick (2007). Review: The Last Mimzy. SF Site. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Last Mimzy
The Last Mimzy Official Movie Site The Last Mimzy at the Internet Movie Database The Last Mimzy at Rotten Tomatoes
Top 5 Search Results
New Line Cinema : Last Mimzy, The Buy The Last Mimzy DVD at NewLineShop.com! ...
The Last Mimzy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Last Mimzy is a 2007 science fiction family film directed by Bob Shaye and ... The Last Mimzy centers on two children, Noah (Chris O'Neil) and Emma (Rhiannon ...
The Last Mimzy After Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) and Noah (Chris O'Neil) discover a mysterious box of toys that's been sent from the future,the siblings start to develop some
The Last Mimzy (2007) Cast/character credits, trailer, user reviews, and production details about the 2007 movie The Last Mimzy. Directed by Robert Shaye.
The Last Mimzy - Rotten Tomatoes Offers a collection of critics' reviews for the 2007 movie The Last Mimzy that have been compiled to formulate a "fresh" or "rotten" rating.
