Gonna make up a blog post about Cor-a-liiiiiiiiiine

Finally got out to see Coraline with Daughter Number 1. It was fantastic. Perhaps a bit dark for younger kids, even DN1 at 9 thought it was pretty scary in places, but overall a great story of "be careful what you wish for you just might get it."

And here I speak less about the movie and more about 3D. Of course we went and saw the 3D version of the film and I think it's the best 3D movie I've seen yet. Animation, particularly this kind of stop-motion animation, seems to really shine in 3D. Rather than looking two-dimensional, 3D gives animation beyond the depth we read into regular film. When shooting real actors, it seems that we read faces and things with depth and curves but animation can really look flat. Good 3D gives us those curves and depth.

Now, I am not a 3D apologist. I am one of those people who used to get sick at 3D movies. Not long ago, we took the kids to see Spy Kids 3D and we all got horrible headaches during the film. I think J-Mom and Daughter Number 2 had to leave the theater because even the 3D artifacting made them sick. Well long gone are those days. The new digital 3D pioneered by Disney and Dolby is fantastic. The glasses don't give you headaches and don't alter the color of the movie. Also, the quality of 3D is much better than those in years past.

The first movie that sold the new 3D format to me was Disney's Bolt. While that movie showed how good 3D could be and how well integrated it is with animation, Coraline goes a step further and shows just how spectacular the format can be.

I still cannot think of how 3D can be applied to live-action film without seeming gimmicky. My wife and kids went and saw the Hannah Montana 3D concert movie and said the only real 3D moments they noticed were a guitar pick being thrown or a drummer pointing his drum stick out to the audience. I know it's coming, but I'm not sure it's going to be good. In the meantime, I'm on the lookout for the opening of Monsters vs. Aliens which looks like it's going to be another amazing 3D animation flick.