The other day my friend Terri took us to see the 3-D re-release of Tim Burton's NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS as a present for my son's 10th birthday. I went along for the ride but I had never seen 3-D. Not for lack of trying, you understand. I had been taken to some 3-D fairy tale movie when I was six and a half-dozen other films after that including the ubiquitous HOUSE OF WAX reissue. I couldn't see it. I became convinced that it was like the story of the Emperor's new clothes--no one could really see anything but no one wanted to admit that so everyone pretended that 3-D existed. This weekend...I saw 3-D!! It's real!! I swear it!! Not the movie, mind you but the brief introduction! I put on the glasses during the specially filmed intro and suddenly things started floating in the theater around me, not just on the screen! By the time that jack o'lantern in the box jumped out of the screen, I actually jumped back! The movie itself, though, not having originally been made in 3-D, had none of these amazing effects that I could see. It really, really made me want to see something truly made for 3-D. Something like maybe ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN! Saw it once on a non-3-D cable edit and didn't really care for it but now...! Who knows? 3-D RULES!!!
Oh the joy of Warhol's Frankenstein! Around 1990 they screened a 3D print of it at a rep cinema here in Toronto and the scene of the guts hanging through the sewer grate and then the body coming out of the water tank on the crane platform with the legs swinging out! Yikes! I was lucky enough to see HOUSE OF WAX in 3D at the same cinema and at one point, because of the angle that I was sitting at, when a character rushed from the lower right corner of the screen, for a second I thought they were running up the aisle. And I don't think I was drunk!
ReplyDeleteThis past June we recently lost 4 rep cinemas in one month here in Toronto. One of them, the Royal, would do a regular 3D retro with cool films. I helped organize screengings of 2 3D kung fu films - REVENGE OF THE SHOGUN WOMEN and DYNASTY. The Royal would usually pull out FRIDAY THE 13TH in 3D on Halloween. This year our only option for spooky cinema in this city is SAW 3 (blah) or ROCKY HORROR (snooze......).
BTW - loving your blog
I saw it in the theater - in 1978, if I remember correctly. The 3-D effext was very convincing. The most memorable 3-D movie I watched was "Magic Journeys" in Walt Disney World/Epcot Center. The theme song is very beautiful
ReplyDeleteCorrection: "effect". That was just a typo.
ReplyDeleteAs for you not being able to see 3-D in previous movies, in the mid-80's I went to see a 3-D movie in a theater, but they must have done something wrong in the projection room. No one could see 3-D. The audience stormed out of the theater and demanded their tickets back - and got them.