That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw it. I know I have seen it in swf/gif form in the past. While I don't dispute HTML5's canvas(+js) is very cool I was hoping for something straining the limits or doing something new.

I was going to say something along the lines of "...rather than seeing an old idea/concept rehashed in canvas+js" but then I realized that could include people doing things like getting old games (Quake/Doom) running in the browser with canvas+js. The counterpoint would be that this idea could be implemented in gif form (While it would lose the ability to toggle your direction/speed) whereas I don't think anyone would enjoy gifQuake/gifDoom :).

TL;DR - It would appear I'm jaded when it comes to things like this. And that's probably not a good thing.

Unless I'm mistaken, the original was a scene from an Amiga demo some time in the late nineties.

And (at least for me) used less CPU?