Three Dee Tub Thumping

When the media harps on it over and over, you pick up a trend:

“I think ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ heralded the official arrival of the notion ... that you could have long-term success with 3-D animation,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “Katzenberg was waiting for that movie to open, to determine ... whether or not it was a viable and profitable genre, versus something that might just be considered a fad.”

Disney/Pixar’s summer blockbuster “Up,” with its $291 million tally (the highest-grossing 3-D film of in the U.S.) reinforced the belief that 3-D is here to stay.

Here to stay? You think?

Sure, as long as the box office holds up, it's going to be dimensional 'toons as far as the polarized glasses can see. And it's holding up.

The four highest grossing 3-D animated pictures of all time at the domestic box office are all animated and have been released in the past year, signaling 3-D animation may be ready to overtake superhero movies as Hollywood’s newest home-run hitter.

At some point, the fad might fade out, but it won't be anytime soon. (God knows if live-action 3-D catches on in a major way.)

For me, the best part of the Three Dee revolution is that the frenetic cutting and hyperactive camera work of recent action blockbusters will be history. Otherwise, air sickness bags will be required at every AMC.