Beauty & the Beast in 3D

Beauty & the Beast 3D

Everyone knows that Disney’s Beauty & the Beast is a classic.  It’s one of the last great films animated the old fashioned way, and even in 3D the amazing artwork shines through.  In fact, I’ve got to say the beginning sequence is absolutely breathtaking on the giant digital screen, with almost an Avatar-like immersion experience.  Goodness knows the 7 year-old princess parked next to me in the theater was completely drawn in from that first musical note, and the intermittent screams of fear and delight coming from her pint-sized peers in the room certainly indicates she was not alone in that experience.

The only negative I saw was a bit of jitter when the main characters were moving quickly, likely due to the automated layering methods failing to fully separate those characters from the background.  These moments were few and far between, but if you’re the queasy type, I recommend you hit the john during Gaston’s big self-titled musical number.  Otherwise, the translation to modern tech for this old classic was smooth and worth a matinee ticket.  It should be even more fun when Finding Nemo hits the third dimension later this year.

One other downside is worth noting: not 30 seconds after Cinemark kindly and quite loudly reminded audience members that texting during the movie is an eviction-worthy offense , the bonehead in front of me whipped out her Droid and proceeded to answer every little beep it uttered.  That is, until I tapped her on the shoulder and politely reminded her it cost me twenty bucks to sit there and read her bright pink, black and white conversations.  Now if I can just figure out how to effectively deal with the wiggleworms who invariably kick the back of my seat during the best part of the film.