Bugs! Crawls into Discovery Place’s Discovery 3D Theatre

Film magnifies insects up to 250,000 times their normal size

June 01, 2011

CHARLOTTE, N.C. –Get a bug’s-eye view of a microscopic world hidden from the human eye in the newest short-form film at Discovery Place’s Discovery 3D Theatre. Highlighting the extraordinary world of insects, Bugs! explores the life cycles of a praying mantis and a butterfly from birth to the inevitable meeting of predator meets prey in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia.

The stars of the show, Papilio the butterfly and Hierodula the praying mantis, take the audience on a journey from a bug’s perspective as they weave their way through blades of grass, flit across the rainforest canopy and cavort on the sand at the ocean’s edge. In addition, scorpions, tarantulas, frogs, lizards and other creatures skitter across the screen, some magnified 250,000 times their normal size. Bringing the audience face-to-face with some of the world’s tiniest inhabitants, this live-action nature film offers a captivating peek at nature’s intriguing phenomena, including butterfly metamorphosis and praying mantes’ shedding of skin to make way for adult wings.

Narrated by Dame Judi Dench and filmed on location in the jungles of Borneo and purposed-built studio in Oxford, England, Bugs! depicts the survival of the fittest on a parasitic scale.

About Discovery 3D Theatre
Featuring film shorts of 15 - 20 minutes in length, Discovery Place’s state-of-the-art Discovery 3D Theatre offers an eye-popping way to explore topics in science and nature. Admission to Discovery 3D Theatre is free with Museum admission. Discovery 3D Theatre is presented by The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation.

About Discovery Place
One of the top hands-on science museums in the nation, Discovery Place provides ever-changing, entertaining facilities that engage the public in the active exploration of science and nature. More than a half-million people from all over the United States visit Discovery Place, its IMAX® Dome Theatre and Charlotte Nature Museum each year. In June 2010, Discovery Place finished an 18-month, $31.6 million renovation, resulting in a completely transformed and re-imagined Museum with all-new interactive exhibits.

Discovery Place is located in uptown Charlotte at 301 N. Tryon Street. Convenient parking is available in the Museum’s parking deck – the Carol Grotnes Belk Complex – at the corner of Sixth and Church Streets. For more information about Discovery Place, call 704.372.6261 or visit discoveryplace.org. Discovery Place is supported, in part, with a Basic Operating Grant from the Arts & Science Council.

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