on 3D Movies - Beauty and the Beast 3D Review

Meh.

I mean... well... Meh.

I went to go see Beauty and the Beast 3D on Friday with my mother and it's the first movie I've seen in 3D. So as a very graphics oriented person, I thought I'd share my opinion on this nowhere-near-new trend.

Ever since Avatar, (or even before?) almost all movies produced have been in 3D, or otherwise with the option of 3D. So why did I wait until now to see a 3D movie? Well... I thought the trend was over-hyped and I don't really do well with 3D things on big screens - I felt like throwing up when playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on his home's basement wall-sized projector home studio. BUT there were a few reasons why I chose to see Beauty and the Beast 3D.

1. Having seen the original Beauty and the Beast before, I thought I would be able to focus less on the story (since I would know what was going on anyway) and really scrutinize the 3D effects and other graphics.
2. There really weren't any other movies that caught my eye that I want to see in theaters at this time
3. Tangled: Ever After short. Need I say more? Yes, I paid to see a full-length film mostly on account of wanting to watch this adorable, hilarious, epic little epilogue to one of my favorite movies of all time.

So, lets work backwards on this list.

The Tangled: Ever After short. Sooooo super cute - granted, despite being over the legal drinking age in the USA, I have the mind of a 5 year old. (Well, not exactly, otherwise I would've been scared by the Beast, as Mom told me I was the first time I saw Beauty and the Beast in theaters as a child.) As a huge fan of Pascal and Maximus, this little short's focus on their try-hard attempts to not make the royal wedding a complete disaster had me at the edge of my seat like, "NOOOOOOoooo! YAAAAAAAAAAY! C'MON PASCAL YOU CAN DO IT!" The 3D effects were nice, but not particularly eye-popping, nor immersing. As far as seeing my favorite little dudes be epically hilarious? I got what I wanted.

I was actually quite happy to see Beauty and the Beast 3D, even though I probably wouldn't have without the preface of the Tangled short (even though my mom asked: "Why did they show that? Did they put in the wrong movie?") I forgot how touching the story is and how much I really liked Beauty and the Beast. The story, basic animation, and songs are all the same as the original. But the picture quality was superb, the colors were clear, and the animation was smooth - kind of. I'll get to that in a sec, though.

So the 3D effects were pretty cool, and interesting. Because it looks the same (otherwise) as the original, cell-shaded animation as before, you get the effect of layers of 2D paper cutouts that have depth relative to each other, and not so much depth/shape as a whole. There are some times when they try to break out of this, I noticed, such as when Belle is standing behind a table, but with her hand on the edge closest to the viewer. They certainly didn't do a BAD job with it, but I noticed the effect there and it didn't seem quite right - I felt like her arm was particularly longer than it should've looked. Also, sometimes it felt like things that were spinning/dancing became blurred because of the 3D effect, but maybe it was just because I wasn't paying enough attention. One of the things that did make me feel immersed was the weather effects - the rain and snow that they made 3D was actually quite impressive. Also, the 3D parts that were particularly effective was when you would be looking into a window or mirror, and can still see the frame.
When the camera would zoom out, however, I felt like the 3D effects could be quite jarring, because all of a sudden, "OMG, TREE BRANCH!" Overall though, I was quite pleased with what they did, despite the limitation of looking like a set of cutouts.

The best 3D parts were: the castle scenery, Be Our Guest scene, and the dance scene (in which "OMG, TREE BRANCH" was replaced with "ZOMG, CHANDELIER").
But even still, I say "meh" to the idea of 3D movies as a whole, because it doesn't really add anything to the experience. In fact, I felt myself pushing those 3D glasses up to my face so often, it was felt less immersed because of this constant reminder I was in a theater. If, someday, they can do 3D movies without the glasses (like the 3DS - another thing I need to examine) then I might remove the "meh" opinion from it. But otherwise, I just feel like I'd rather watch a movie normally.

Overall, however, I had a good time, mostly a nostalgic experience with a quality movie. :D