From the very first moment a spark was ignited, man was fascinated with fire. And why not? It's one of the most mysterious elements of nature that looks so beautiful yet can cause so much destruction and turn anything it engulfs back into the dust of the earth from where it came.

Humans have made good use of fire though; a means to cook a meal, a way to keep warm with, an excuse to sit around and chat while eating some "delicious hot shmoes" - Buzz Lightyear, a source of light and many more. The most popular way to harness this energy is by bubilding a fireplace. Country folk have been doing it for years whilst city folk use a small pilot light in their ducted heating systems. But that feeling of sitting in front of a raw fire burning brightly with that crackling sound as the wood splits and the coals glow a bright red can't be beat.

Some people even have the power to hold this fire in their hands with a device called a cigarette that detains a small sample of that flame for a duration of about 5 - 10 minutes. These people are even able to inhale the smoke that this fire produces, hold it in their lungs for a short period of time and exhale to show those others that they are not afraid of this element. They should be on Ripleys Believe It or Not.

For those of you that don't have the ability or funds to build a fireplace in your own home, nor feel like attempting such a feat and filling their home with thick smoke rather than a warm fire, this is the DVD for you. Simply put it in your DVD player, select a fire place, select either sound or music and press play.

Just add marshmallows

With a selection of 3 different styles of fire, Roaring Log Fire, Ambient Embers or Widescreen Fire(pictured), you can let this DVD play for as long as you like as it will loop around automatically. The 3 fires run for around 20 minutes each and look beautiful on screen with some nice rich reds, oranges and yellows to fill the screen. The rest of the image, obviously, is just the black background of the fireplace thus the rendered black levels are great with some nice shadow detail.

Coupled with the video is a very nice soundtrack of a crackling fire that is separated across the front stereo soundstage. There is nothing really outstanding about the soundtrack, no bass response, no directionality and the like, just a perfect representation of a fireplace, on your TV screen. Alternatively you can select to hear some soothing piano melodies for each fireplace. The natural sound of the fire is the preference here.

The initial release of DVD Aquarium didn't feature any extras at all yet with this release we are first greeted with a pack of marshmallows, some skewers and directions on what to do in the press pack that was sent out. On the disc itself is an Interview with the Director who is asked simply, "WHY?". From here it's a cack fest at just how ludicrous the idea of a DVD fireplace would sound to some and just how serious the interview is made out to be. (HINT: It's not meant to be a serious interview). Denning goes on about how he first fell in love with the flame and how one day he was hoping to film the 'perfect flame', and if you look closely in this DVD, you can see it for a split second. Also included is a preview for DVD Aquarium, a scrapbook gallery of the filming of the DVD and the original 8mm footage of the flame Mark Denning accidently filmed that led to this life obsession.

I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but I can recommend this DVD to those of you looking for an alternative to the hands on fireplace.

By the way, the marshmallows were delicious.

Read an interview with the director.