What Dreams May Come

Chris Nielsen, played by Robin Williams (of Mork and Mindy fame) is not a lucky man. His dog dies.

Then his kids.

His Artist wife (Annabella Sciorra) spirals into depression and is booked into a Sanitarium. Through a process of love and time she comes back into Chris’ life and all is well. At least for a time.

Due to a philanthropic action on Chris' part, he then also dies. Violently.

Although this would seem to be a logical place to end the story, this is where it begins. Chris awakes in heaven. The audience, of course, don't immediately know that it is heaven.

We are treated to a view of the afterlife different from that in any other film. Heaven, it appears, is a subjective place and Chris chooses to view eternity as reflections of his wife's paintings.

The skies roil quietly in a mix of paint strokes, sunbeams pierce the clouds in impossibly beautiful landscapes; in short a 'painted world'. Interestingly, all reviews that this writer has read give the visual treatment a thumbs-up regardless of problems with the story or acting.

Mass Illusion were responsible for the Painted World sequence. Joel Hynek and Nick Brooks shared Visual Effects Supervisor responsibilities.

The 'painterly' particle effects were created by the Technical Supervisor and Effects Developer, Pierre Jasmin and Senior Software Developer, Pete Litwinowicz with the help of scores of artists, including Art Director Joshua Rosen and Visual Effects Producer Donna Langston. Karen Ansel of Mobility Inc. aided the project mathematically and creatively.

Amanda Morrison worked as a Compositor with Kodak's Cineon system through a year of the film's production.

Several MPEG movies of the film are available for your edification. They are Katie the Dog, a Psychedelic run throught the flowers, a rare before and after of Robin Williams running down into CG paint and finally a shot cut from the final ending (of which there were several) of Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra dancing on water.