James Sims of the Great White Way has an issue with rejiggering Beauty and the Beast in 3-D.
... [W]hy would the [Disney] studio now decide to re-release Beauty and the Beast in 3D? Sure, Disney's theatrical history is built on the concept of re-releasing an animated classic into the movie houses every few years. However, 3D is already overused, and has some analysts speculating that the visual technology is losing steam, fast. ...
Perhaps Pixar is to blame ...
Uh, no, Mr. Sims. I wouldn't point an accusatory finger at Pixar. I would blame good old American lust for the buck.
Sure, 3-D is a gimmick, in the same way that CGI or over-saturated color or (God help us) black-and-white motion pictures are a gimmick. I mean, nobody views daily reality in three-strip Technicolor or grays, white and blacks or through View-Master lenses. But through ninety-plus years of film-making, Hollywood has found that using all these different technologies have put people in theater seats with their tubs of over-priced popcorn.
It's all about the smooth buck, first, last and always. Three Dee works well sometimes and not so well others. I'm not particularly crazy about it, but I concede its commercial power. (By the by, I've seen twenty minutes of the 3-D Beast, and it works just fine. Almost as if it were made that way.)
One last thing, Mr. Sims. Your assertion that "Walt was working towards perfection, not adopting the latest trend ..."? It might be pretty to think that, but sadly it's not actually true. You see, Uncle Walt retrofitted sound to the silent shorts Plane Crazy and Gallopin' Gaucho, made prior to the sound cartoon Steamboat Willie.
If that isn't chasing a trend, I don't know what is.
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When is the 3D-retooled version of B & B going to be released ? It had originally been announced for early 2010 release , but it appears to have been pushed back indefinitely. ("sometime in 2011" is the most I can find on the internet.) Why did they announce a release for 2010 and then shelve it ?
"Perhaps Pixar is too blame ..."
it's "to" not "too"
I can't wait to hear Howard Ashman's lyrics in 3-D!
"I mean, nobody views daily reality in three-strip Technicolor or grays, white and blacks or through View-Master lenses."
No, but I do view reality in color and 3D. Incidentally, the 3D of everything around me works really well and doesn't give me headaches or eye-strain.
Perhaps Pixar is too blame ...
No, it's Disney.
Specifically, it's the '01 Disney who thought It Worked For IMAX--And now, when exploring any new screen technology, has the immediate knee-jerk reflex of re-releasing B&B in the new format as the first flagship.
(Which, if I could physically stand to watch B&B, I could probably see their point with the audience, but...)
May we assume that Reflex #2, Lion King, is also in production?
need we remind this person that while 3-D is available, it is never the exclusive way to see something? Every screen with Toy Story 3 in 3D has Toy Story 3 in traditional mode on the screen right next door. Same with just about every other Disney and Dreamworks film out there.
the only exception i'd seen is for that special release of Nightmare Before Christmas a while back, and that's a film that I think really did benefit from the 3D overlay.
Joe Shelby wrote "the only exception i'd seen is for that special release of Nightmare Before Christmas a while back, and that's a film that I think really did benefit from the 3D overlay."
I enjoyed the 3d version of Nightmare, but it gave my wife such a terrible headache that it completely turned her off of watching anything in 3D. I guess to some people even that film didn't benefit from 3D, even though it seemed like a natural choice as a test bed. It's such a textural stop-mo experience already.
I think the difference between the recent jump to 3D vs. the jump to color film with which it is often compared lies in the fact that that the 3d is an illusion and a trick to your brain's perception. Color is not. When a film is in color, you're not seeing an illusion of color. It's the real deal, whereas to see films in 3D you're fooling your brain and it can be uncomfortable. This is why people won't latch onto 3D as the next inevitable and natural step in the evolution of film. It's a gimmicky illusion, and not natural in any sense of the word.
They are doing it because they can afford to make jobs to do it. Then it gives the consumer, and the company, another choice on what to see and how to see it. Everything in cutting-edge.
I think thats why it doesnt matter how average that 2D features on their initial release do for the Mouse. They know in the long run, a new addition to the cannon will help assist churn out money. Its guaranteed, perhaps by the namesake. I mean, even Black Cauldron is making money on a new release....
Its nice to hear you refer to the marraige of sound to film cartoons. There hasnt been a groundbreaking advance in film as huge as that factor.
OK, someone kill me. At least try......
Perhaps Pixar is too blame...
Um, didn't Pixar resist doing anything with 3D? Even their 3D movies now feel like 3D was just an afterthought. You can watch any of their movies in 2D and not miss a thing.
If anything, "blame" Cameron and Katzenberg for doing a good job with it and making money... Or blame WB or Disney for exploiting 3D on non-3D movies like Clash of the Titans or Alice in Wonderland...
"Perhaps Pixar is too blame ..."
it's "to" not "too"
That's actually my fault. I copied in haste. An unsightly typo is the result.
Now corrected.
I'll be glad when we get over this whole "color" fad.
I'm sure any minute it will start to fade.
I can't wait till we go back to the glorious days of beautiful black & white imagery!
**You see, Uncle Walt retrofitted sound to the silent shorts Plane Crazy and Gallopin' Gaucho, made prior to the sound cartoon Steamboat Willie.**
Yeah, but it was a trend he created. Steamboat Willie, first sound cartoon, remember?
**You see, Uncle Walt retrofitted sound to the silent shorts Plane Crazy and Gallopin' Gaucho, made prior to the sound cartoon Steamboat Willie.**
Yeah, but it was a trend he created. Steamboat Willie, first sound cartoon, remember?
Sorry, sound films came in prior to sound cartoons (at which, admittedly, Disney was Numero Uno.)
He WAS the first with any kind of full-color movie. The first live-action, full-color film was "Flowers and Trees." "Becky Sharp" has the honors of being the first live-action full color feature.
Walter Lantz produced the first two color animation.
Fleischer synched sound with film in 1924.
Windsor McKay put color on his film before the nineteen teens.
Fred Flinstone was in color, and film with sound during the Jurassic Period. I know. I saw the films.
"He WAS the first with any kind of full-color movie. The first live-action, full-color film was "Flowers and Trees."
Well, "Flowers and Trees" was a cartoon--not live action. And it was released in 1932.
MANY 2 strip color films (Technicolor and other processes) were made prior to that. Animated and Live.
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor1.htm
Beauty and the Beast in 3D? I thought Disney was THROUGH with "Princess" movies.
C'mon gang - if you're going to use animation history to make your point, you should know your animation history. Go beyond the marketing sound bites and learn a bit about who did what, and when.
Well, there is always the "sound experiments" in one theater or another back in 1923, 1903, or whenever.
And there were hand-tinted color films way back. And Technicolor was experimenting with different color systems in the 'teens. (Two-color Technicolor got rolling in the mid-twenties, with the "Black Pirate" the first "big" Technicolor film, although there were several color features before it.)
But most histories cite certain benchmarks because they signaled commercial tipping points: they were widely watched and caused the marketplace to change.
Correct. Which makes 1927 the mark when sound and picture were brought together onto one piece of film. And today, in our lifetime, there are still actors alive who were in the silent pictures before they went to sound. Last year, Alice Davis passed away, who was in the Alice Comedies. There just hasn't been a development as huge as when sound was put on film. A very important mark that may never be outdone.
Perhaps pure digital movies may do it. I dont know. If so, then the last living celluloid film actor will be the news upon death.
Well, the next technological step in movies will be holographic technology. I can foresee movie theaters with movable seating, so that the audience can be arranged so as to best experience the 3D adventure unfolding all around them, as opposed to merely watching it on a still-flat screen. Imagine a 3D T-Rex running right by you instead of merely at you; that is pretty heady stuff.
Ok, so I'll ask again :
Why was the previously announced 2010 release of the 3D B & B delayed and when will it be released ?
There was a lot of noise last year about it being released in 2010, but then nothing.
Does this have anything to do with the company getting cold feet in regards to animated "princess" films ? Will we see it retitled "Kill the Beast" or just "Beast" ? ("in eye-popping 3D") .
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