How Disney’s two-dimensional “Beast” became a 3D “Beauty”

Jim Hill

13 years ago

New and a bit alarming
Who 'd have ever thought that this could be?

Well, "Beauty and the Beast" co-director Kirk Wise doesn't
seem all that surprised that this Academy Award-winning film (which was the
first animated feature to ever be nominated for Best Picture) got selected for
the Disney Digital 3D treatment.

"I can remember when we were previewing this picture and the
camera would then begin its big sweeping move through the ballroom while Angela
was singing 'Beauty and the Beast' and the Beast & Belle were dancing. And
there'd be this audible gasp from the audience because they'd never ever seen a
camera move like that before in an animated feature. One that gave you a real
sense of the dimensionality of the area that this scene was taking place
in," Wise explained. "And given that this sort of dimensional innovation is
part of 'Beauty and the Beast' 's heritage … Well, it seemed almost inevitable
that this movie would eventually receive the 3D treatment."

Inevitable? Perhaps. Which isn't to say that Walt Disney
Animation Studios didn't put an awful lot of thought & care into "Beast" 's
3D translation. To preserve what made this
1991 Walt Disney Pictures release great, WDAS management asked Kirk to personally
ride herd on this project.

"This is actually the third time that I've worked on 'Beauty'
," Wise recalled in a July 2009 interview with JHM. "The first time was,
obviously, this film's original theatrical release. Then there was the IMAX
version of 'Beast' that Disney did in the early 2000s. And now the Disney
Digital 3D version. So here's hoping that the third time's the charm."

And charm – to be specific, preserving the charm of this
hand-drawn animation feature – became one of the real goals of the "Beauty and
the Beast" 3D conversion project. Which officially got underway in November of
2008.

Kirk Wise talks up the Disney Digital 3D version of "Beauty and the
Beast" at the 2009 Comic-Con International.
Photo by Nancy Stadler

"We didn't want to load this film up with 3D sequence just for thrills sake. We made
an effort to carefully select the right moments. Pick those parts of 'Beauty and the Beast' where
adding dimensionality would really enhance our story, heighten the
emotion of what was going on up there on the big screen,"s Kirk continued.

Which isn't to say that there aren't moments in this motion picture
where things will come popping off the screen at you.

"Wait 'til you see what we did with the 'Be Our Guest'
number in this movie. When the camera moves in all of those spoons as they then
go diving off the edge of that tureen and into the soup … When you watch this
movie in Disney Digital 3D, it really does look as though they're diving
through the air right in front of you," Wise said.

"But how can Disney take a two-dimensional hand-drawn
animated feature and then turn that into a 3D movie?," you ask. Well, it took
more than just that nifty proprietary technology which WDAS' R & D
department invented a few years back which then allowed the Studio to add a
sense of volume & space to its 2D films. What really helped here was that "Beauty
and the Beast" was Walt Disney Animation Studios' second film produced using
CAPS. Which was the Computer Animation Production System that Pixar developed
for Disney in the late 1980s.

"You have to understand that all of the animation, all of
the backgrounds that were used to produce the original version of "Beauty and
the Beast" still exist in the digital realm. So we were able to access those
files and then – by going through this film scene by scene – reposition these
elements within the computer. Creating a real sense of volume and space between
the characters, the props and the settings," Kirk stated. "And then, by creating a left eye and a right
view of each of these scenes, we were then able to turn 'Beast' into a real 3D
movie."

And the finished product is now being showcased at the El
Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. The Disney Digital 3D version of "Beauty and the
Beast" is playing at this famed movie palace now through September 15^th.
Where it will then be followed by the Disney Digital 3D version of "The Lion
King." Which will be holding court at the El Cap from September 16^th
through October 6^th.

What's that you say? You won't be able to make it out to LA
in time to catch either of these hand-drawn hits up there on the big screen? Not to
worry. Walt Disney Studios Home
Entertainment will be releasing the Disney Digital 3D versions of "Beauty and the Beast" & "The Lion King" on October 4^th. Which means that –
provided that you have the necessary equipment at home, of course – that you'll
soon be able to see a three-dimensional "Beast" and "Lion King" in your very own
living room.

Getting back to JHM's interview with Kirk Wise now … Given
what Wise learned while working on this particular project, would he then be
willing to tackle the 3D conversion of any of the other films that he
co-directed for Walt Disney Animation Studios?

"Well, if they ever asked me, I'd love to try and do this
same thing with 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame.' That's a movie where – given its
setting and all of the climbing & swinging that Quasi does around the
Cathedral — I think it would really benefit from a 3D conversion," Kirk
claimed.

But beyond that … Given that this is the third time that he's
worked on "Beast" in the past 20 years, Wise isn't entirely convinced that he's
now finally done with this animated feature.

"Who knows. Maybe in 10 years, Disney will come up with a
way to do the hologram version of 'Beauty and the Beast' or figure out how to
project this movie on the surface of the moon – so that everyone on the planet will then have to pay in order to see this motion picture," Kirk laughed. "Either way, I'd be
happy to keep coming back and watch the Beast spin Belle around that ballroom.
It's been an honor to be part of this project. And I'm just so happy with the
way that the 3D version of this movie came out."

Your thoughts?