Disney dominated the 3D movies nominated for Oscars today, with five of the six nominated 3D movies.
“Toy Story 3” picked up one of the 10 noms in the top category of Best Motion Picture as well as Best Animated Feature among its five total noms.
“Alice in Wonderland” had three Academy Award nominations, including best visual effects, while “Tron: Legacy” is up for sound editing, Pixar’s “Day & Night” for animated short film (Warner’s 3D Road Runner short “Fur of Flying” should also have been nominated), and “Tangled” for original song.
The only other 3D movie with a nomination is Paramount’s “How to Train Your Dragon” from DreamWorks Animation in the animated feature category.

Scott Hettrick

But for all the hoopla surrounding 3D this year, and all the high-profile movies released in the format, only one was nominated in the bloated primary category and the nominations for two of the other six had nothing to do with the 3D (“Tron” for sound editing and “Tangled” for song). Likewise, two of the three for “Alice” are for non-3D elements of art direction and costume, and the third of visual effects may not be meant for the 3D effects. Similarly, three of the five noms for “Toy Story 3″ are for sound, song and screenplay, and one of the two noms for “Dragon” was for score.

As a matter of fact, one suspects the 3D didn’t play much of a role in the two best picture noms for “Toy Story 3,” especially since the 3D in the movie was nearly undetectable.
It’s possible that 3D only played a role in the nomination of one movie, “How to Train Your Dragon,” which came across as if it were designed specifically for 3D.
But two animated movies in 3D that should have been nominated in the animated feature category are Universal’s “Despicable Me” and Disney’s “Tangled,” both of which were comparable to “Toy Story 3″ and superior to “How to Train Your Dragon” in their cleverness and artistic elements and featured 3D that was far superior to “TS3.”

Except for one screenplay nom for “TS3,” there was no recognition for any 3D movie in the prominent above-the-line categories of directing, writing, or acting. And I think IMAX’s “Hubble 3D” was overlooked in the documentary category.

Perhaps that is an indication that 3D is still perceived as a gimmick technology at the moment. Or perhaps it means that 3D movies are being produced more for the gimmickry than for the substance of the material to which 3D is brought in as just another filmmaking tool to tell the story.

If the quality of the 3D were factored  in,

– By Scott Hettrick

I have seen the first Blu-ray 3D movie that could do what consumer electronics companies have been hoping would happen – drive me to buy a 3D TV and Blu-ray 3D player just to get and watch that movie, which is “Avatar.”

Scott Hettrick

This is the OMG! disc the industry needs so badly.
Clearly Panasonic knew what it had in this disc that the company’s Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory also authored with lots of input and oversight by director James Cameron.
And clearly Cameron wasn’t joking when he told an audience a couple weeks ago that it looks as good on a 3DTV as it looked in theaters.
I would actually argue that it looks better, way better!

Since Nov. 1 the “Avatar” Blu-ray 3D disc has only been available in Europe only with the purchase of a Panasonic Blu-ray 3D player or 3DTV. I’ve been reporting for months that it will be available the same way here in the U.S. beginning Dec. 1, and only available that way for about a year. Panasonic and Fox have yet to confirm the Dec. 1 date for the U.S.
But I just discovered a new posting by Panasonic about special “Avatar” viewing settings for the Panasonic plasma 3D TV as recommended by Cameron to optimize the experience.

Many people have seen footage from “Avatar” on a demo disc at conferences and other industry and media events for months, which is impressive but nowhere near as dynamic and compelling as the actual movie disc that I had a chance to watch this week on a 60-inch 3D plasma display.
I saw 20-minutes of “Avatar” at Comic-Con in 2009; I saw the movie at the Hollywood premiere at the Chinese Theater last year; I saw it again at a giant-screen IMAX theater at Universal Citywalk, where the 3D was far more impacting than on a traditional screen. And I saw both 2D Blu-ray versions, which I feel have images that are even more vivid than the theatrical 3D versions, probably because the TV screen is inherently brighter than watching on a theater screen through dark glasses.

But none of those experiences was anything like the Blu-ray 3D version I saw this week, which instantly immersed me in the world of Pandora beginning with the stunning main menu page. Finally, the 3D made me feel like I was in experiencing this world rather than observing. And everything had far more depth and clarity than any other version. When the two main characters run across the log in the forest, this was the first time I really felt the danger of the plunging depth below them, which also drew my eyes to a waterfall down below to the left that I had never seen before. The bright and colorful wood sprites felt as if they were flittering much more closely to me. I wanted to remain in this world and instantly watch all my favorite movies in this way.
This is much closer to the 3D experience I have always sought and have thus far only found in documentary films at IMAX giant-screen theaters. I was hoping Hollywood would be able to deliver that same sensation with its more personal, fictional stories, but so far that has not been the case, not even the theatrical release of “Avatar.” Next week’s “Tangled” comes about the closest I have seen so far.
Having just watched about a dozen of the most recent Blu-ray 3D titles released this week (Zemeckis’ Christmas Carol, Polar Express; IMAX documentaries from Image/Warner; Warner’s Clash of Titans, Cats & Dogs w/ Road Runner; Sony’s FIFA 2010 World Cup, Open Season, Monster House), with varying quality but none better than slightly above average, I did not think Blu-ray 3D would be the medium that would wind up coming closest to meeting my expectations.
That was until I saw the Blu-ray 3D of “Avatar,” which was followed shortly thereafter by a call to Best Buy to see if that current price of $1,799 for a Panasonic 3D package including a 50-inch 3D TV, Blu-ray 3D player, two pairs of 3D glasses, and two Blu-ray 3D movies will still be good after Dec. 1.

– By Scott Hettrick

I have to admit, ever since 1982 I’ve wanted to ride one of those cool light cycles on the game grid in the “Tron” movie and the coin-op arcade game.
Using a similar technology demonstrated in the Dec. 17 “Tron Legacy” for Jeff Bridges that has been adapted to instant-gratification computer software, Disney made that happen for me — virtually — in just seconds while at a media junket for the movie that you can see at this Facebook page, or just click on the video below — that’s me, the first face you see:

By Scott Hettrick

There was a time when I thought it would be a sign of success when reviewers no longer bothered to mention the 3D in a movie — that it would mean 3D had become so ubiquitous and accepted as a part of the process that it would cease to be mentioned in the same way that HiDef is not mentioned much in reviews of TV shows anymore.

Scott Hettrick

Well, 3D is hardly being mentioned anymore but I fear it’s because it is barely worth mentioning. In fact, that’s exactly what one of the few reviewers said who even noted 3D at all in his analysis of “Megamind,” that the 3D was so minimal that it wasn’t notable.

While some filmmakers may take that as a compliment, thinking that it means the audience (and reviewers) may be enjoying the experience but no longer perceiving it as distinctive, I think it’s a very concerning trend. Particularly in light of the fact that my local AMC theater just raised the 3D ticket price premium to $4 for RealD 3D presentations; the IMAX premium is $6. (Two-thirds of “Megamind’s” $46 mil. opening weekend was from 3D showings, including more than 6% of the overall from IMAX 3D screens.)

A couple months ago when the 3D premium was only $3, a friend of mine went to see “Toy Story 3″ in 3D. It was his first 3D movie experience, and last. He said he spent the whole time taking his glasses on and off trying to distinguish the difference. He seldom noticed a difference. The only distinction he noticed was that the picture was much brighter without the glasses, which he prefered. So, he asked, why should he pay $3 more for a darker image that offered such minimal 3D depth?

Why indeed. Even moreso now that the difference in ticket price is $4 or $6.

The 3D in “Megamind” is better than some but not even as noticeable as DreamWorks recent “How to Train Your Dragon.” And that wasn’t particularly impactful either. “Megamind” is an amusing enough film but nothing especially noteworthy. The trailers for upcoming 3D films like “Yogi Bear” looked even less compelling, not only to me but to others in the theater who were literally yawning.
Reviewers generally dismissed the 3D in recent films like “Jackass 3D” and “Saw 3D,” not to mention “Pirahna 3D.”

Not long ago 3D alone was reason enough to go to a movie you might otherwise not be inclined to see. I’m afraid the conservative approach to pushing 3D off the screen into the audience is now creating a stigma about 3D that could soon cause audiences to specifically stay away from the 3D version of a movie in order to save $4 to $6 per ticket and enjoy a superior picture quality.

– By Scott Hettrick

Another week and another 3D movie tops the weekend boxoffice charts. This time it was Lionsgate’s “Saw 3D,” the seventh and supposedly final episode in the series, with an estimated $24.2 million. That’s $10 million more than “Saw VI” and represents nearly the entire run of “Saw VI,” despite some pretty justifiably poor reviews of the newest installment in terms of content and 3D effects.

Scott Hettrick

Meanwhile, another 3D movie, “Jackass 3D,” picked up another $8.4 million on a slow weekend to top the $100 million mark.
Both movies enjoyed a staggering 90-plus percentage of their grosses from 3D showings, with “Saw 3D” at a whopping 92% due to 2,100 of its 2,808 overall locations being 3D venues, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
That’s two of the last three weekends with a 3D movie atop the rankings, and the next two weeks are likely to bring two more with DreamWorks Animation’s “Megamind” opening this Friday, Nov. 5, followed by Disney’s “Tangled” Nov. 12.

Critics complained about the poor quality story in this one but I have never been the target audience for this long-running and succcessful franchise so I won’t comment on that.
But I will comment on yet another disappointing 3D experience, which was highlighted by the 3D Lionsgate logo at the beginning and went quickly downhill from there. This may be the first, or at least worst example of blurriness I’ve seen yet, right from the start when the camera was panning or moving in any direction.
It was extra disappointing because the trailers have made it appear as if it would be well-done 3D, not unlike the most “Final Destination” last year. But even the gratuitous and obvious gore and splatter shots were unimpressive.

– by Scott Hettrick

Remember when the first HiDef TVs came out in the 1990s and one of the most instantly eye-pleasing elements was the much wider screen that allowed us to see so much more of whatever was being shown — more of the NFL football field in those first CBS HiDef broadcasts, more of Jay Leno’s set and audience on “The Tonight Show,” one of the earliest network programs in HiDef.

Scott Hettrick

Nearly all of that additional visual real estate, and perhaps even more, appears to have been slowly and subliminally hijacked by network marketing and promotional people. It seems like the area of the screen featuring the program itself is often smaller than the image that filled my old analog set.

It’s getting harder and harder to enjoy a primetime TV series without being visually assaulted with an array of increasingly larger and more prominent pop-up promotions for upcoming shows. (Another advantage of watching TV series and movies on Blu-ray Disc, which have no pop-ups and no forced commercials that are nearly impossible to avoid online.)

I feel like I’m trying to monitor all the lights and digital readouts in an airline cockpit when I watch any sporting event these days, from football to NASCAR, with all manner of data and colorful updates flickering and scrolling horizontally across the top and bottom of the screen and even vertically on the sides.

President Obama somewhere amidst the on-screen graphical clutter during a CNBC Town Hall program

But the worst are the news channels, especially CNBC during stock trading. The tickers, alerts, program promos, network branding, HD logos, and headlines are flying in all directions all over the screen to the point that only about 60% of the actual program is visible vertically and less than 75% horizontally.

Even President Obama didn’t compel CNBC to push any of the clutter off the screen during his recent Town Hall presentation. Flanked by a double-line of fast-moving stock tickers on the bottom of the screen, market sector updates on the right side, revolving market index prices across the top, a much bigger visual presentation in the middle of the screen duplicating the same second-by-second market index movements flashing on the top of the screen, and two giant graphics of Presidential seals bookending a caption of “A CNBC Town Hall Event with President Obama” that was topped with the title “Investing in America” that crept most of the way up the tie of the President (and also duplicated from an even bolder version of that same title a few inches to the right), there was precious little room for Obama himself.

No matter, there was still room to squeeze in another little graphic near his face noting the event was “Live,” in addition to cramming in a promo for the show to follow the President’s Town Hall, and two more graphics letting you know, in case you couldn’t see his face, that the program you were trying to watch featured “President Obama.”

– By Scott Hettrick

HBO is planning to launch a 3D on-demand channel early next year.

The channel would feature 3D movies such as three that Warner Home Video recently announced for 3D Blu-ray, “Clash of the Titans,” “The Polar Express,” and “Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” for a per-play fee.

Scott Hettrick

There has been no official announcement and no launch date has been set but an HBO spokesperson confirmed the plans when I explained that a source had provided me the information.

A source also told me that HBO was going to present the world premiere of a 3D version of “Inception” from sister studio Warner Bros., or possibly the home debut of the 3D movie after a limited 3D theatrical re-release.
A second source told me he had also heard that “Inception” was being considered for a 3D conversion but although the strategy would provide a huge launch marketing coup for the new HBO 3D channel, I have not been able to substantiate this plan with anyone connected with filmmaker Christopher Nolan or the studio directly.

Both the HBO spokesperson and a spokesperson for Warner Bros. Pictures say there are no such 3D plans for “Inception” at this time.

Although Nolan is a big fan of his movies being presented in IMAX, it was reported that he resisted efforts by Warner earlier this year to convert “Inception” to 3D in time for its initial theatrical release in theaters.
That was shortly after Warner’s “Clash of the Titans” was being bashed by critics and filmmakers for a poor quality after-the-fact conversion that was rushed at the last minute.

Even without 3D, “Inception” is the fifth biggest movie of the year with nearly $300 million in domestic grosses alone, and is one of only three of the top eight movies this year that was not released in 3D. “Clash of the Titans” is tenth with $163 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

Personal and artistic preferences aside, most filmmakers say that properly converting a movie to 3D requires nearly as much time by the filmmaker to consider every shot as shooting the movie in the first place.
Even if he was interested in a conversion, Nolan has a lot on his plate at the moment. He is co-writing the story for a new Superman movie and is writing and directing the third Batman movie, both of which are in pre-production and scheduled for release in 2012.

Prevailing opinions at Warner are that Nolan will not enjoy the luxury of taking a pass on 3D for the new Batman movie, which will surely be set up for 3D from the beginning.

– By Scott Hettrick

Disney is quietly converting “The Lion King” to 3D and readying a double-barrel blitz of the 3D version of “Beauty and the Beast” in theaters and on Blu-ray next year, according to a knowledgeable source.

Scott Hettrick

Meanwhile, the first Blu-ray edition of “Beauty and the Beast” was announced for Oct. 5, but no 3D version there either. (The studio has been a little unpredictable with its 3D Blu-ray strategy — announcing a 3D Blu-ray version of “A Christmas Carol” for Nov. 16 but no 3D version of “Toy Story 3″ with the Nov. 2 Blu-ray of that title and no 3D versions of any of Disney’s other 3D titles from “Chicken Little” and “Nightmare Before Christmas” to “Bolt” or “Up.”)

The unofficial word from the studio about the theatrical delay was that Disney wanted to rerelease it during the movie’s 20th anniversary year in 2011. Insiders say that worked out conveniently to give the non-3D Blu-ray release this fall enough of a sales window before the movie came out in theaters next year, which will then set up a holiday 2011 release of the 3D Blu-ray version of the movie. It’s not unlike Fox’s even tighter windowing of “Avatar,” first on Blu-ray April 22 and then a theatrical rerelease in late August to be followed by an as yet unannounced “Avatar” special edition Blu-ray in November (and a quiet 3D Blu-ray release on Dec. 1 exclusively with purchase of Panasonic equipment) and an eventual retail release of the “Avatar” 3D Blu-ray in 2011.

Meanwhile, it’s encouraging to hear that Disney still feels strongly enough about 3D and converting its library titles that it has set to work on the studio’s modern-day masterpiece, “The Lion King.”

– By Scott Hettrick