Coraline is a great movie but 3D needs work
11 02 2009Being a fan of all things 3D, I was pretty excited about the release of Coraline 3D (the Feeling Software team can vouch for my enthusiasm, as I probably mentioned the movie a half dozen times last week). Last night I finally made it to the theater, paid my $2 premium for the 3D, got my RealD glasses, and made my way to my seat, waiting eagerly to be impressed.
And I was impressed. Just not in the way that I was hoping to be. Let’s begin with the good. The animation, the artistic style, and the story were all wildly creative and will take your imagination for a crazy loop inside this fantasy world. If I had a mind as creative as the folks who worked on this film, I would certainly be a more interesting person than I am today. If you are a fan of art and animation, you should go see this movie.
Yet, what I was hoping to be impressed by was a quality 3D viewing experience, and I sadly admit that this was not the case. Maybe it was because I was tired after a day at the office in front of a computer monitor, but as soon as the film started I felt my eyes straining, and after 60 minutes I had enough of the 3D. For comparison’s sake, I didn’t have the same feeling when I saw Bolt in 3D. A few memorably disorienting scenes include the “infinite-depth” portal to the other world, and the dragonflies in the bedroom, which I saw in double vision. There’s no faster way than double vision to snap you out of a fantasy story.
While the 3D needs work in general, one scene used a 3D effect that made me turn to the person sitting next to me to exclaim “Wow! That’s amazing!” In the scene I am describing, you see Coraline talking as a reflection in her father’s computer monitor. The depth effect gives the impression that she is behind the screen, as you would expect from a reflection. If you are planning on seeing Coraline, keep an eye out for this effect in the first third of the movie; I thought it was a creative use of the new 3D toolset.
Overall Assessment - Coraline: A ; Coraline3D: C+
I totally agree with this assessment. I’m not sure what to blame though for the bad 3D. Do you think it’s a problem with the RealD system? The ghosting was indeed disturbing. I wasn’t sure if it was because of where I was sitting or their Z screen being misaligned. Or bad glasses. Or bad screen. If there is a sweet spot in the theatre it means a large number of people will have a bad experience. Not a good sign for this technology. Given the fact that it’s the most pervasive technology out there for mainstream theatre viewing, I would hope that the problem in not inherent to the tech. The person I went with just closed their eyes because they couldn’t deal with the ghosting.
I saw clips of this movie at the Stereo Displays and Applications conference in San Jose and there was no ghosting (2 projector system). It was very good.
Did you see Bolt with RealD?
Yeah, I saw Bolt with RealD, and it was better than this. It is difficult to isolate the exact cause of the bad 3D effects: it could be the projector, it could be the film editing, it could be where you were sitting in the theater. I’d say it’s unlikely that it was either the screen or the glasses.
Having only seen 2 of the RealD movies, where one I found well done and the other I found disorienting, I’m willing to hold off my judgement on the technology in general until I have a larger sample size to judge from. Still, I’m a patient guy when it comes to 3D technology, and I know plenty of people who don’t have my patience here.
I went to watch Coraline 3D here in Manhattan and also felt pretty soon
that something was not working, ghosting was crazy and
i couldn’t really focus well ang get that immersive 3d effect.
After playing a little with the glasses i was going crazy
so i decided to go for broke and i flipped them!!
Yes i put them upside down so that on my hears the glasses holders would look up instead of down and so the support for the nose.Result, everything fell in place the 3D feeling was suddenly immersive and sharp, i looked at my wife and told her to do the same since she was having the same problems and she also immediately felt that it was right.
I almost felt like telling everybody but didn’t know what others were experiencing and didn’t wanna interrupt or bother but hey,
it worked for us and if you’re reading this maybe may work for you too next time you get a couple of defective/inverted glasses..
Pretty supid of them though not to check on basic things like this
OK, that’s too bad for you guys; here in Toronto it was shown in 3D and it was amazing! No eye strain, no ghosting, an amazing 3D experience.
I love the new circular polarization system. Works the best of any system ever; colours are great individuation of images is great- and you can move/tilt your head with no degradation of that image isolation.
I’m sorry I missed BOLT in 3D, it’s a very fun movie.
I saw Coraline 3D in the UK yesterday and was massively impressed by the 3D - I haven’t seen any RealD before to compare against but I wasn’t aware of any ghosting or double vision; perhaps they’ve fixed those issues. Like you I found the 3D effect in the computer screen reflection most impressive; also the shot through the rain-covered kitchen window
Ive only had one opportunity to watch a ‘3D movie’ and that was - My Bloody Valentine 3D, which I watched at home on my HDTV. The experience of 3D movies is good, but not amazing. I really do want to checkout some more 3D movies though as im sure they vary in quality of the 3D effects. Im going to checkout this movie next, cheers.
i got it on dvd. the 3d was horrible. i swear there is something worng with the dvd. ( maybe the other mother is trying to lure you into her world. by makeing a bad movie she is hopeing that somehow you find the door open it and she’ll put buttons into your eyes
Hi!
I, too, have been disappointed by the DVD and the 3D. Not only did the glasses scratch the dvd..but the other side (2D) just stopped playing today..so..back to the store it goes tomorrow. I contacted universal when i first noticed the scratches..and they said it had been fixed in future editions.
Maybe I need to just get a refund and wait on those future editions?
I love the movie, though.
3d Movies are nice. But this Movie is not for Kids.
I loved this movie, but the 3D was lame. I rented it on DVD and tried it on 3 televisions. It just gave me a headache and I ended up pausing it, flipping the dvd, and then watching the normal version.
Oh well.