2001: A Space Odyssey (film) and the 1964 New York World's Fair movie "To the Moon and Beyond", were very influential. According to biographer Vincent Lobrutto, "Universe" was a visual inspiration to Kubrick. The 29-minute film, which had also proved popular at NASA for its realistic portrayal of outer space, achieved "the standard of dynamic visionary realism that he was looking for." Wally Gentleman, one of the special effects artists on "Universe", worked briefly on "2001". Kubrick also asked "Universe" co-director Colin Low about animation camerawork, with Low recommending British mathematician Brian Salt, with whom Low and Roman Kroitor had previously worked on the 1957
Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey "The cyclical evolution from ape to man to spaceman to angel-starchild-superman is complete". The monolith appears four times in "2001: A Space Odyssey": on the African savanna, on the moon, in space orbiting Jupiter, and near Bowman's bed before his transformation. After the first encounter with the monolith, we see the leader of the apes have a quick flashback to the monolith after which he picks up a bone and uses it to smash other bones. Its usage as a weapon enables his tribe to defeat the other tribe of apes occupying the water hole who have not learned how