I had the pleasure to go to a screening of Chicken Little in 3D Dolby Digital D-Cinema. The technology was quite good, but the movie wasn’t that great. I didn’t see any evidence of pixelation during the viewing, and the picture was super crisp. The 3D experience was good, but could have been better. I attribute this to the content creators, rather than the technology. We really will need to see 3D content techniques come to full maturity until we get a truly great 3D experience. The glasses were also a little clunky for people who already wear eyeglasses. I kept fidgeting with the green glasses, modeled after Chicken Little’s glasses in the movie.
Various 3D shows have come and gone before, usually as gimmicks or one time affairs at theme parks. Consumers have not really had access to 3D entertainment on a regular basis. But this could change soon. The 3D experience definitely added value in Chicken Little. Since the movie is born out of 3D digital models, I would imagine it was quite easy to create a 3D version of the movie (just plop in two cameras an eye distance away in the scene, and write both of them out to two separate video tracks). A notable scene in the movie involved to teams playing dodgeball. It was fun to see all the balls bounce off the screen, some coming quite “close” to the viewer. The 3D element has definitely been integrated with the movie better than previous attempts.
In any case, Disney and Dolby can pat itself on the back for a successful deployment of D-Cinema and 3D. I just can’t wait until Pixar gets involved with it.