Maybe you saw the stories last month. About how George Lucas — while standing in front of a room full of exhibitors at this year’s ShoWest convention — announced that he plans to re-release the original “Star Wars” (I.E. “Episode IV: A New Hope”) in 2007.
Only this time around — in order to make the film’s 30th anniversary a truly special occasion — George would have the movie reformatted so that it could then be shown in 3D.
No, this wasn’t just another ploy by Uncle George to try and get us all to once again buy tickets to a movie that we’ve already seen dozens of times before. Lucas is the latest filmmaker to climb on the 3D bandwagon.
For more than a year now, top Hollywood helmers like Robert Zemekis, James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez have been talking this new film format up. How it delivers a one-of-a-kind movie-going experience. More importantly, how films produced in this format are virtually impossible to pirate.
Getting back to Mr. Lucas … Just to prove that he was serious about what he’d said, George then showed the folks at ShoWest the first reel of “A New Hope.” Which had already been “dimensionalized” by In-Three, an Agoura, CA.-based company that specializes in turning conventional 2D (flat) film into fully realistic 3D.
Lucas then followed up his “Episode IV” preview by showing a selection of scenes from top grossing films that had originally been shot in 2D. But — thanks to In-Three technology — had now been successfully transformed into 3D. These clips included:
- The speeder chase from “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones”
- A scene from Tony Scott’s “Top Gun”
- And — most interesting for Disney fans — a sequence from “Lilo & Stitch”
“Now what was that footage from ‘Lilo’ doing in this demo reel?,” you ask. Well, it may actually be offering us all a peek at Disney’s future. A not-so-far-off time when animated classics, movies that (Thanks to the predominance of DVD & VHS. More importantly, what these home entertainment formats have done to Disney’s ability to theatrically re-release back titles from its film library) we never thought we’d see on the big screen again … COULD be coming back to the big screen.
The REALLY big screen. IMAX. IMAX 3D, to be exact.
Okay. I know. The Walt Disney Company has already tried releasing its animated films in the IMAX format. Only to get somewhat disappointing results. After, “Fantasia 2000” earned only $52 million during its large format run. Which was followed by the IMAX re-release of “Beauty & the Beast” (which only earned $25 million) & then “The Lion King” (which only earned $15 million). And let’s not even talk about how the much-maligned-but-still-rather-entertaining “Treasure Planet” pulled in during its run in IMAX theaters.
Given that this was clearly a case of diminishing returns (More importantly, given that the Mouse was spending far more on the reformatting & marketing of these large format films than the studio was actually earning off of their exhibition), Disney abruptly scrubbed its plans to re-release “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Tarzan” in the IMAX format. Opting instead to just offer these titles as “Special Collectors Edition” DVDs in Buena Vista Home Entertainment’s “Platinum Edition” product line.
And — given that the Walt Disney Company had already learned the hard way (Through the disappointing box office returns that “Pinocchio” received during its June 1992 re-release and the slow ticket sales that “The Little Mermaid” was met with during its November 1997 re-release) that it just wasn’t cost effective anymore to theatrically re-release films that had already been sold to the public via VHS & DVD … Well, this is why you see the Mouse putting so much effort & energy into all those direct-to-video sequels (I.E. “Tarzan II,” “Mulan II” & “The Lion King 1 1/2“).
This is also why you see the Walt Disney Company being so quick to embrace new home entertainment technologies. Like last December’s announcement that the Mouse would be supporting Sony’s efforts to launch its Blu-Ray high definition DVD format. Which would (in theory) eventually enable Disney to sell us all high definition versions of the movies that we already own on DVD and VHS.
But now here comes In-Three’s conversion process that can — for a relatively modest fee of $8 – $10 million — turn an old 2D film into a new 3D release. And the folks in the Team Disney Burbank building are virtually slavering over the idea that they’ll now be able to theatrically re-release titles that they had once thought were totally played out. Pictures like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Mary Poppins” and “Peter Pan.” All because of this new film conversion process.
The question now becomes: Which traditionally animated feature should Disney use for its field test of this new 2D-into-3D changeover process? Given that — at least for the forseeable future — these 3D films are mostly going to be shown in large format venues … Well, that means the Mouse has to pick an IMAX-friendly title as its test subject.
And — even though a clip from “Lilo & Stitch” was used for last month’s ShoWest demonstration — I’ve been told that this Chris Sanders & Dean DeBois film isn’t actually on the list to receive the conversion treatment. At least not anytime soon.
No, Disney execs are reportedly looking much further back in the studio’s film library for a suitable animated feature to use as their test subject. Given that IMAX theater owners like to be able to cram in as many screenings as possible each day, the movie that the Mouse choses for this field study will have to be short. Just over an hour, ideally. And — to really take advantage of the IMAX 3D process — it has to have sequences that feature lots of movement & color.
Well, as it turns out, there is one traditionally animated Disney feature that’s just 64 minutes long. Which features lots of color (“Pink Elephants on Parade”) and plenty of movement (I.E. A baby elephant who flaps his ears and takes flight).
That’s right. “Dumbo.”The scuttlebutt around the studio right now is that Disney executives are currently giving some semi-serious thought to taking this 1941 release and putting it through the 2D-into-3D conversion process. They’d then let the picture be shown in IMAX theaters in a few test markets. Just to see if there actually is an audience out there for a traditionally animated Disney film that had been repurposed in this matter.
Now what’s rather ironic about this whole situation is “Dumbo” is somewhat famous for being the least expensive animated feature that Walt Disney Productions ever produced. With its total production costs coming in at somewhere between $500,000 – $750,000. And yet now — some 63 years after the fact — here’s the Mouse reportedly getting ready to spend over 10 times that amount in order to turn this traditionally animated charmer into a brand new 3D release.
Oh, I know. There are sure to be purists out there. People who will compare what may soon be done here to colorization. They’ll say that taking traditionally animated 2D Disney films and turning them into 3D releases “… isn’t what Walt would have wanted.”
Well, I can’t pretend to know what the Old Mousetro would have thought about all this. But I will say this much: Taking an old 2D film like “Dumbo” and turning it into a new 3D release is certainly better than what Michael Eisner has supposedly been talking about. Which is actually totally remaking traditionally animated Disney classics like “Peter Pan” as CG features.
Speaking of the members of the Walt Disney Company’s upper managment … It should be noted here that there are a number of people inside the Team Disney Burbank building who are allegedly advising caution on this matter. They admit that — sure — a number of Hollywood’s heavy hitters are getting very excited about 3D. And that the Mouse certainly doesn’t want to miss out on what appears to be an emerging trend.
But — that said — what if all this industry talk winds up being just another rerun from the 1950s? As in: People were really excited about 3D films back then for about 18 months. But then the fad suddenly passed. And then the studios were stuck with all of these 3D movies that no one wanted to see in 3D anymore.
So now comes the big question: Should Disney be following George Lucas’ lead? Should Mickey really be looking through his film library for titles to use this 2D-into-3D conversion process on? Or should the Mouse just wait & see if all this industry talk about 3D is actually an emerging trend … or a passing fad?
Your thoughts?