Directed by Jean-Jacques Mantello. Rated general.

This unusual IMAX effort sticks to one tone and one topography--the patterns of life around the world's shrinking coral reefs--only revealing its agenda in an abrupt plea at the end. The 44-minute flick's relative ease of pacing and lack of conflict makes it even more accessible to very young viewers than are most big-screen nature flicks.

The elegantly shot film focuses on one middle-aged turtle as he traverses the globe underwater, making dry (in a sense) comments on the critters and conditions he finds in places like Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the shipwreck-laden Bahamas, where the hulls of old vessels come to resemble natural outcroppings.

The quick visits with various groupers, eagle rays, and sharks (about as gracious as hungry snackers during happy hour) are enjoyable, especially with the bottlenose dolphins popping out at you in 3-D from time to time. But the IMAX colours are not quite as rich as usual, probably because French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Mantello used high-definition video instead of film. The upside is that the format allows smaller, lighter cameras to run for longer, less expensive segments. This, too, has its minuses.

The English-language version of the Euro-made film (with help from the World Wildlife Federation and the United Nations) features a strong reading from stage veteran Geoffrey Bateman as the voice of the turtle. The sudden shift at the close, asking audiences to do something, anything, to protect our oceans in the face of worldwide depredations, feels a bit forced. This Wonderland is probably best enjoyed as a visceral, thought-free journey, underscored by Christophe Jacquelin's rich and ethnically varied orchestrations. By the way, not one human is glimpsed during the whole journey. Who needs such a troublesome species, anyway?