I went to see Bolt, the new Walt Disney film, this weekend (along with my target audience). I watched it in 3D with the help of a pair of Elvis Costello-like spectacles given out at the door.
Bolt is one of the new wave of 3D films now pouring out of Hollywood in an effort to give the technology another chance. The 3D films of the 1950s initially caused great enthusiasm and talk of a revolution but the excitement faded.
I should think the technology has a better chance this time. Instead of those funny red and green cardboard specs that used to give people headaches, the new digital 3D technology is subtler.
The glasses are Polaroid-like filters that look like light sunglasses (although when you hold them up to the light in reverse, both lenses turn green). Although the film itself looks blurred without glasses on, it is less so than before.
The big question is whether 3D adds much. As ever, it is initially a thrill to see objects in perspective and various things poking out of the screen towards one. But that thrill may wear off as 3D becomes routine for children’s films.
Although the Bolt 3D was fun, I was more intrigued by its use in two trailers – one for the film of the spooky children’s book Coraline and another for the forthcoming Pixar film, Up.
Coraline is very stylised, which allows the 3D effects to be used in inventive and playful ways, while the scenes in Up looking down from a house held aloft in the sky by thousands of balloons were admirably vertiginous.
Clearly, if it does work, 3D could provide Hollywood with protection against its audience staying at home to watch high-definition Blu-Ray discs on large flat-screen televisions (which are getting cheap).
My two-member jury was favourably impressed and is looking forward to Coraline, but we shall see.
