Fly Me to the Moon boasts that it's the first 3D animated film specifically written to be in stereovision in the first place. Download the 2D trailer to get an idea of what they might mean by that.
Of course, I'm such a 3D fan I'll go see this no matter how dreadful it looks. Nor how depressing the punny title is.
The last 20 minutes 'or so' of the next Harry Potter are to be presented in 3D when you watch the film in IMAX cinemas.
This is a terrible idea. It reduces any sense of immersion the audience might be experiencing to suddenly derail the flow and turn the climax of the film into a rollercoaster ride. "Hang on, it's just getting going, racing towards the big finish... and it's time to put your glasses on!"
Warners did a similar thing with Superman Returns and that was equally silly of them. Don't they want use to lose ourselves in the film? No - they just want to lure us in to the premium priced screenings, barking at us like half-baked Barnums.
What's more, as the Potter film wasn't shot in 3D but is being converted the effect will be even less welcome. Live action conversion from 2D to 3D means that the effect will be rather limited in most shots, with the characters, sets, scenery and so on looking less like rounded, solid objects in space than a series of flat planes, not entirely dissimilar to a cardboard cut-out puppet theatre.
The whole film should have been shot in 3D to begin with. So should most films be, frankly. And one day soon, they will be.
Apparently, even hand-held consoles are getting in on the 3D revolution. According to Computer and Videogames, the Nintendo DS shoot-'em-up Glory Days 2 is to use specs to create a 3D effect. The idea is, the top-down shooter will show objects nearer to the player (the tops of tall buildings, planes, copters) as though hovering above the screen. The old red and blue anaglyphic glasses won't be used, but neither will a polarised lens system like Real D. The sytem this time is based upon the Pufrich effect and uses one lens tinted slightly darker than another.
All good in theory, but the Pufrich effect is notoriously unreliable.
So, while 3D is becoming the future of cinema in a very real way, other entertainments are far, far behind.
Logan sent me the attached Avatar teaser poster. It's a fake. For sure. How do I know? Click on it to make it bigger. Look down in the bottom right hand corner. See the 3D logo? Those are anaglyph glasses. The blue and red kind.
That's Flintstones technology in comparison to the process Cameron is employing. This poster was not only faked, it was faked by somebody who hasn't realised yet that Real-D has taken the old anaglyphic version of stereo cinema and poked both of it's eyes out.
Forget the red-blue specs. Forever. They're dead - and I say good riddance.
Joe Dante's Small Soldiers is a bit wonky but I do love it dearly. Indeed, once the awkward exposition is dealt with, and we're stripped down to the set-pieces and satire, everything does kick up a gear or two and really gets moving. So very underappreciated - just like most other Joe Dante movies.
Now, it looks like a sequel is on the cards. Sadly, like the potential third Gremlins film, Dante hasn't been signed up, and it seems unlikely that he will be. The core concept is the selling point of what will likely go straight to DVD.
The new Small Soldiers script is being written by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons. They're also developing Master Mind, the first film Ben Stiller is producing at Dreamworks Animation. That one is a kind of post-Incredibles superhero gimmick film in which the supervillain Master Mind kills his goodly nemesis Uberman in the first set-piece and then suffers from depression and a crippling lack of direction.
It could work. It will need a clever script that sidesteps cliche. This revisionist superhero stuff is getting to be a rather crowded subgenre.
Master Mind's directors are to be Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson, animators climbing up the Dreamworks ranks. It will, like all other Dreamworks animations from 2009 onwards, be released in 3D.
Disney are working on 3D rereleases of some of their classics - and some of their 'lost classics' too.
Treasure Planet is first up. A very undervalued film, and if you've seen it, you'll know that in 3D, it will look amazing. The 'crescent moon' shot is going to knock people's teeth out, and some of the solar-surfer business already has me shuddering in anticipation.
Then, when we've recovered from that, Beauty and the Beast will follow, and then, the ordering gets fuzzy. Films on the slate do include Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Black Cauldron, Basil the Great Mouse Detective, The Rescuers Down Under and, probably last of this lot, The Jungle Book.
Why no Snow White? Why no Pinocchio? Why no Fox and the Hound?
Details are pretty thin on the ground right now, but I have to say, this strikes me as something of a dream come true. Too good to believe, even.
Treasure Planet , already knee-deep in 3D-ification, is expected to hit cinemas on, funnily enough, this very day next year.
Michael Campbell, the CEO of Regal cinemas in the US, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dreamworks' head conveyor belt oiler, yesterday spoke to analysts at a Bank of America convention. The basic thrust of their argument was that punters are really going for 3D, so let's do more of it - and then charge them a premium.
That argument is ridiculous. We're already paying too much - the extra dimension just made the ticket prices seem more reasonable. Push the toll up and we're back to square one, and before we know it, cinemas will be getting smashed down and Blu Ray will rule the world 'forever'.
Katzenberg commented that a lot of cinema chains had proven 'slow' in adopting the digital technology requisite to screening 3D films, but suggested the slate of upcoming titles would hurry things along. Without naming any, he revealed that these upcoming films were to come from directors James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson.
Which is to say, I believe, Indiana Jones and the Something Probably a Bit Like a City of Gods and The Lovely Bones are to be shot and presented in 3D.
Is this right? Announcements can't be far off now.
HMV are about to roll out a campaign of cut-price Disney DVDs. They will also be giving away Meet the Robinsons Preview DVDs to anybody to buy a campaign title but I've managed to blag a copy of the disc already.
It contains two trailers and the full 'Science Fair' scene from the film, as well as the aftermath on the rooftops - over 9 and a half minutes. Looking at at it again in 2D, it was still fun but it cried out for the extra dimension, particularly the shot of an evil Bowler Hat flying through the rafters, or the flying shot pulling away from the city near the end. The sense of depth in some of these shots was absolutely immersive in the 3D movie proper.
I captured the above image from the disc to show a sweet little injoke you can look out for when you see the film on the big screen. One of the kids' projects features a little 3D movie reference.
Londoners take note: you can see Meet the Robinsons 3D now, where the rest of the world have to wait until Friday March 30th.
As a couple of you pointed out, I neglected to mention something rather important in my Meet the Robinsons 3D piece: there's a short before the feature.
Working for Peanuts was made in 1953 and originally screened using the anaglyph process - that's the one with the red/blue glasses. it's now been tidied up and reformatted into Real D, and very gorgeous it is too.
The cartoon stars Chip, Dale, Donald Duck and a Horton look alike. Obviously, the 3D process is somewhat more limited than in Robinsons as we're dealing with cel animation - multiplaned cel animation of course, but it still gives a less fully-3D effect than seen in most shots in the feature.
Hopefully Disney will keep the Real D releases coming, and maybe we'll get to see their first stereoscopic cartoon, Melody, with one of them.
Last night, Rachael and I saw Meet the Robinsons 3D at the Vue West End in London. There must have been all of twenty people in the audience. Why so few? The answer was all too obvious on leaving.
Walking back to the coach to Oxford, we must have passed a dozen bus-stop ads for the film but every last one of them listed the film's opening date as March 30th, not even hinting at the week long of exclusive engagements for the film's 3D version across London. Even within thirty metres of the cinema, the ads gave no indication that the film was already open to the public. A most unexpected soft launch, I have to say.
Next week, when the public are aware that the film is out, I'm sure that business will be far better.
I hope a lot of people make the effort to see the film in 3D. Regular readers will know, I'm very excited by the Real D process and have thoroughly enjoyed the extra-dimensional versions of Chicken Little and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Robinsons, however, is quite easily the most wonderful showcase of Real D so far.
The very first shot was simply breathtaking - a street lit by sodium lamps in the heavy rain. The shot would have been striking in 2D but with the added depth, the cascading fields of rain, it was - and I'm being utterly sincere - one of the most incredible things I have ever experienced in the cinema. The sound design helped too, of course, but this was one of the most tactile moments I've ever enjoyed on the silver screen.
There were plenty of other gasp-inducing moments later in the film: a chase through an industrial dystopia features a plunging rush into a tight corrdior that trumps any Death Star assault or dog fight from Star Wars; a Gernsback-flavoured city might evoke The Jetsons and Blue Sky's Robots but is rendered with smile-inducing sense of scale beyond either; even the contemporay sequences, far from such fantastical vistas, are designed to make the most of the extra dimension without either inducing 3D fatigue or wasting the opportunity of stereoscopic rendering.
If you can, make the effort to see Meet the Robinsons in it's 3D incarnation. Thankfully, finding a Real D equipped cinema is easier than ever: indeed, you can't even see the film in 2D in New York city. But even in 2D the film would have been a lot of fun, despite the occaisonal tangle in the script and a handful of semi-redundant longeurs. The colour design is smart, there's plenty of great animation, some good gags (two of the best of which are about Tom Selleck, one easier to miss than the other) and plenty of decent voice acting - particularly the opening ramble by Matthew Josten as Goob which just cannot have been scripted. I do wish there was more organic 'imperfection' like this in the film, and in animation generally.
Stephen J. Anderson is yet another director to come out of Disney to show real promise. I hope he's nurtured and given the chance to grow, because like the rest of them, he's only a few more minor missteps from a genuine masterpiece. Already he's made one of the most enjoyable films of 2007 so far... with a little help from Real D and their magic.
Man, I just can't wait for Beowulf.
This comes from Business Week:
Cameron is in the midst of his latest film project, Avatar, which is his most technologically innovative film to date. The futuristic movie about an ex-Marine will be released in 2009 simultaneously with a massive, multiplayer, video game based on the film.
The revealed more of the plan in a previous article.
The Real D process works, and works well.
In just a couple of weeks, Meet the Robinsons will bow in both flat ol' 2D and, at upwards of 600 locations, gorgeous new 3D; Beowulf is to come in both 2 and 3 dimensions this Autumn; next year, Brendan Fraser will go on Journey 3D; James Cameron's Avatar is to be released only in 3D, using the Real D process for every screening outside of Imax; Dreamworks animation have now announced that they will be entirely Real D compliant from 2009 onwards.
The first Dreamworks film to launch exclusively in this format will be Monsters vs Aliens - pre-production art from which you can see up top. The Dreamworks trumping geniuses at Pixar are bound to begin releasing in Real D sooner rather than later, I feel - though they've expressed some doubt about how suitable the format is for the films they already have in development.
If you ask me, it's looking pretty rosy for Real D - which makes Dolby's new system announcement seem perhaps too much like too little, too late.
Dolby 3D Digital Cinema has one asset over Real D, which is that it should be a touch cheaper to install. For the Dolby process a simple white screen will suffice, whereas Real D requires a very shiny, silvered surface. Of course, without looking at the new system in action, I won't know myself for sure, but this does also indicate a likelihood of lower picture quality for the Dolby set-up.
If it comes to a fight, I'm pretty sure Real D will come out on top. They have a very long lead, and commitments stretching some years into the future.
In a new You Tube clip, Lenny Lipton shows the interested (So, that's me for one) just how the Real D process works.
I love the Real D process. Very much. Indeed, the 3D version of Meet the Robinsons is one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of the year.
Next year, Eric Brevig's Journey 3D is to become the first live action film to be released in the format. Sign me up. One day, when my kids find 2D films antiquated and unappealing, and I myself consider at least new 2D films to be conceited in their disregard for my second eye/the third dimension, I'll enjoy remembering the beginnings of Real D.
In the new film, Brendan Fraser is to star as a geologist who with his teenage son and teenage son's teenage friends (it's a family film, then) follows the path Jules Verne took on his journey to the centre of the world. It's another one of those metatextual ploys, such as in Brothers Grimm, in which famous fictions are treated as or blended with history - something I have a weakness for, I must admit (and indeed, I have my own killer take on this subgenre safe and snug up my sleeve).
We also know, thanks to Variety, that Eric Brevig is directing and the script is by D. V. DeVincentis, one of the many Grosse Point Blank scribes, so nothing really off-putting has been announced about this project so far. Good.
We're still waiting for the official announcement that Brendan Fraser will not be returning for the third Mummy, but Journey 3D seems to be shaping as an easily superior replacement.
Seeview Promotions think that adding a primitive bit of viewmaster functionality to a DVD box is going to usher in a new generation of special edition packaging, adding "memorable sequences for... customers to laugh, cheer, and collect for a lifetime… all without batteries or electricity".
The image above is of something that will be incorporated, somehow, in the box. Glued ont he bottom, possibly.
They're pitching the device as "finally, a way to stand out on a crowded shelf and let customers preview your DVD before they buy it" - if, of course, your DVD contains a handful of still stereovision images.
According to the MouseGuest Disney podcast, They Might Be Giants have recorded a cover of Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow for Meet the Robinsons. Sounds great to me.
The trailer for Meet the Robinsons is playing in Real-D 3D before the current Nightmare Before Christmas 3D rerelease (if you haven't seen it yet, hurry) - and, frankly, looks like it has the most convincing stereo vision effects I have ever seen in a film, animated or otherwise.
Roll on March... and march on the progress of 3D cinema.
Hollywood Reporter are, er, Hollywood reporting that 200 more Real D equipped screens will be in place across the US by March, in time for Meet The Robinsons. Real D is an extremely impressive 3D system, employed in the last twelve months to bring both Chicken Little and Nightmare Before Christmas to extra-dimensional life. Disney have been solidly behind Real D, even calling it Disney 3D for the releases of their films - but the qurstion remains, when will Pixar movies start hitting the big screen with their third dimension intact?
Not as soon as I hoped, apparently. Ratatouille is set only for a 2D release, as is the 2008 Pixar film, W.A.L.L - E, Andrew Stanton's sci-fi follow up to Finding Nemo. Apparently, the first film that might be given a 3D theatrical run is the 2009 movie, which I hear is to be directed by Monsters Inc.'s Pete Docter and is, so far, being kept very secret indeed. And even that one might remain 2D if Lasseter and Docter aren't impressed by the 3D tests that they haven't even started yet.
So, to cut a long answer short: not yet. And not for some time.
[EDIT: And now I'm being told (by those anonymous guttersnipes that tell me things) that Toy Story 3 is a serious candidate for the Real D process. Toy Story 3D, anyone? No matter how many dimensions, they also suggest that there will be two Pixar films in 2009 - Pete Doctor's one, mentioned above, and John Lasseter's Toy Story 3, with the sequel first out of the gate, and making it Pixar's tenth feature length release. We'll see]
