• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, January 4, 2010

IMAX movies give viewers distinct sensations, like a nature-sanctioned LSD trip. Sometimes, it's as if they are floating through water or skiing black diamond slopes.  

It was only a matter of time before a new way to immerse audiences in a movie was produced. Here's the latest: Bring your umbrellas to the Vancouver Aquarium's take on 3D movies if you are anti-mist. Then, like Joe Lieberman on health care, you can squash the whole enterprise.

For the intrepid, I haven't seen audience immersion like this since I sat in the 10^th row of Cirque Du Soleil's "O." Guess who got misted?  

TAXI Vancouver created a print, TV and outdoor campaign called "Films You Can Feel," targeting residents of Lower Mainland BC. Since the short films, running from 15 to 20 minutes, include gusts of wind, mist, scents, bubbles and dramatic lighting, creative does the same.

A cinema ad, shown here, features a manta ray swimming off screen and into an audience of moviegoers. Imagine the ray as Cheney and the audience as Obama and you'll appreciate the menace.

Print ads, seen here, here and here, show an usher covered in seaweed, a projectionist working underwater and bear tracks left in snow. If I came face to face with bear tracks, it would give new meaning to exit stage left.

"The unique challenge posed to TAXI was to convey the immersive nature of the 4D Experience," says Sarah Kirby Yung, vice president, marketing and communications at the Vancouver Aquarium. "We needed to convey a multidimensional experience in traditional advertising media that would let visitors know this was something new and compelling that they couldn't experience anywhere else."

The first 4D film was created from the Planet Earth series Shallow Seas, which explores coral reefs and shallow coastal waters.

Filmgoers are misted with salt water, among other surprises, in the 15-minute film. I'm not going unless I get misted by freshwater pearls.

The Polar Express was given 4-D treatment this holiday season in a 20-minute film that wafted the air with the smell of hot chocolate. This is one you can try at home.