Disney Reveals Blu-ray 3D Releases For 2011

Have you dreamed of one day watching Belle and the Beast waltz beneath a massive chandelier or a herd of wildebeests nearly stomp young Simba to death in glorious 3D on the big screen? Well, that fantasy will come half true – both Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King will be released in Blu-ray 3D in 2011.

Walt Disney Pictures announced their slate of Blu-ray 3D releases for this year, which includes those two 2D-animated hits, alongside more recent, digitally-created features like Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons.

Last summer Disney released the teaser trailer for its planned theatrical re-release of Beauty and the Beast in 3D and announced their intention to do the same with The Lion King. Word got out a while ago that the studio had scrapped said plans after the early results of the post-conversion process on the hand-drawn films proved to be less than satisfactory. Apparently, the Mouse House’s stereoscopic technicians have been much more successful in converting the movies to the third dimension for Blu-ray.

No less than fifteen titles under the Disney banner will be, to paraphrase the studio, “meticulously dimensionalized” for Blu-ray 3D this year, including last year’s Tangled and TRON: Legacy, and previous 3D titles like Bolt and G-Force.

'TRON: Legacy' will (naturally) be released in Blu-ray 3D.

Computer-animated fare can be readily converted into the 3D format as it requires a relatively simpler rendering of each individual film frame – compared to the process for converting live-action footage that was not shot using 3D camera rigs. 2D or traditional animation is a trickier proposition when it comes to being converted into 3D, as the visuals are less suited for the format and tend to turn out more blurred and disproportionate as a result.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is also arriving on Blu-ray 3D this year and the cult stop-motion picture had a successful run in theaters as a 3D feature that was re-released every October for a couple years in a row. Nightmare benefits from the immersive atmosphere of 3D as it was shot in such a fashion that the camera often seems to be exploring the Tim Burton-designed worlds of Halloween Town and the Christmas land.

Both Beauty and the Beast and Lion King have their share of moments that could look all the more impressive when fully realized in three dimensions – specifically, the previously referenced “Beauty and the Beast” musical sequence and the wildebeest stampede scene. We’ll have to wait and see whether the films as a whole benefit from being viewed in 3D on home television screens.

Depending on the success of these classic animated features on Blu-ray 3D, Disney may well go ahead and release many more entries from its beloved cartoon vault. It’s entirely possible that flicks like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid or even much older titles like Snow White and Fantasia could be made available for viewing in the format as well.

But is that something you’re really interested in seeing? Sound off in the comments section below.

Source: Disney

View the original article here

Disney Developing Movie for Scrapped Park Attraction ‘Museum of the Weird’

Those that’ve been neurotically wringing their hands, waiting for news about Disney’s next theme park ride-turned movie project – rejoice! The company has another one in the production pipeline, but it’s not based on Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, or one the company’s better-known rides, but an attraction known as The Museum of the Weird.

Chances are that attraction name doesn’t ring a bell and with good reason – The Museum of the Weird failed to make it past the conception stage, despite winning the approval of Walt Disney himself.

Disney “imagineers” Claude Coats and Rolly Crump were involved in the development and design of numerous famous Disney park attractions, including The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. The two fashioned plans for an attraction to compliment their Haunted Mansion – one titled The Museum of the Weird. It would be populated by oddball objects like talking chairs, enchanted carts, and organ-playing specters. While the museum never came to fruition, certain components were incorporated into the mansion itself.

24 Frames is reporting that Disney has been talking to screenwriter Ahmet Zappa about developing a script based off the abandoned Museum of the Weird. Zappa has already been brought onboard by the company to pen Tiki, a project that is reportedly not based on the Enchanted Tiki Room (though we suggest you take that claim with a grain of salt).

Museum of the Weird would be the latest addition to the upcoming slate of Disney rides-turned cinematic adventures, whose ranks include next year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; Guillermo del Toro’s Haunted Mansion reboot; Jon Favreau’s Magic Kingdom; and technically even the book-turned-movie-turned-ride-turned-David Fincher project, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

This whole place is literally coming soon to a theater near you.

Disney has hired on quite the motley crew of talented filmmakers to realize its famed theme park rides on the big screen. The idea of del Toro crafting a haunted house movie or Fincher tackling Jules Verne’s dark tale of sea serpents and maniacal submarine captains would be quite appealing on its own, while Favreau’s enthusiam for the Magic Kingdom project is admittedly kind of infectious.

All of these films are cash cows in the making for the company – as they could make for popular fare at the box office and come with already built in marketing ties. The first Pirates of the Caribbean turned out to be a rollicking fun bit of blockbuster adventure – could any of these new theme park attraction-based projects be the same?

We’ll keep you posted on the development of The Museum of the Weird as more news comes our way.

Source: LA Times

“Museum of the Weird” conceptual art by Rolly Crump

View the original article here