Disney Digital 3-D is a
brand name
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
used by
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
to describe
3D film
3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in American cinema and later experienced a worldwide r ...
s made and released by
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is an American film distributor within the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. It handles theatrical and occasional digital distribution, marketing, and promotion for films produced and ...
mostly under the
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film Film production company, production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios (division), the Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The st ...
label and shown exclusively using
digital projection.
Disney Digital 3-D in itself is not a presentation or a production format or technology, but rather purely a marketing concept. Films advertised as Disney Digital 3-D come from a number of sources, film, digital camera as well as animation software, and can be presented using any digital 3D technology, including
RealD 3D
RealD 3D is a digital stereoscopic projection technology made and sold by RealD. It is currently the most widely used technology for watching 3D films in theaters. Worldwide, RealD 3D is installed in more than 26,500 auditoriums by approximatel ...
,
Dolby 3D,
XpanD 3D and
MasterImage 3D. There is no specific handling involved.
History
Pre-2005 Disney 3-D films
Disney had previously released two 3D animated shorts in 1953, ''
Adventures in Music: Melody'', the first American 3D animated short, and ''
Working for Peanuts'', starring
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...
and
Chip 'n' Dale.
Disney also produced 3D films for its theme parks, including
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...
's ''3D Jamboree'' (1956), featuring the ''
Mickey Mouse Club'' Mouseketeers and including ''Melody'' and ''Working for Peanuts''; ''
Magic Journeys'' (1982), ''
Captain EO'' (1986), ''
Muppet*Vision 3D'' (1991), ''
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience
''Honey, I Shrunk the Audience'' (known as ''MicroAdventure!'' in Tokyo Disneyland) was a 4D film spin-off of the ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' film series that was shown at several Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney theme parks. The audience wore ...
'' (1994), ''
It's Tough to Be a Bug!
''It's Tough to Be a Bug!'' was a 3D film based on Pixar's 1998 film ''A Bug's Life''. The attraction first opened with Disney's Animal Kingdom on April 22, 1998, seven months before ''A Bug's Life'' debuted in theaters, and was housed within t ...
'' (1998), the film portion of
Tokyo DisneySea
is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just next to Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park, and licenses intellectual prope ...
's Magic Lamp Theater, and ''
Mickey's PhilharMagic'' (2003).
Between 2003 and 2005, Dimension Films (then-owned by
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
) had made a couple of 3D films. Two of them were ''
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over'' and ''
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D''.
Post-2005 Disney 3-D films
The first Disney Digital 3-D film was ''
Chicken Little'', which was released in late 2005. For the release, Disney collaborated with RealD to install RealD's 3D digital projection system featuring Christie CP2000 2K
DLP projectors along with silver screens for 84 screens in U.S. theaters.
The animated film ''Chicken Little'' was followed by a re-release of ''
The Nightmare Before Christmas
''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (formerly known as ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'') is a 1993 American stop motion Animation, animated Gothic film, gothic musical film, musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick in his f ...
'' on October 20, 2006, a 1993
stop-motion
Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...
film distributed by
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures was an American film distribution label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featured ...
, was originally shot in 2D on 35mm-film to digitally remastered with the 3D version generated by
Industrial Light and Magic from this source using computer technology.
In 2007, Disney re-released the film ''
Working for Peanuts'' with the theatrical release of the 3D version of ''
Meet the Robinsons
''Meet the Robinsons'' is a 2007 American animated science-fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the 1990 children's book ''A Day with Wilbur Robinson'' by William Jo ...
''.
The first live-action Disney Digital 3-D release was ''
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert'', which followed in 2008. In 2009, ''
G-Force
The g-force or gravitational force equivalent is a Specific force, mass-specific force (force per unit mass), expressed in Unit of measurement, units of standard gravity (symbol ''g'' or ''g''0, not to be confused with "g", the symbol for ...
'' became the first film in Disney Digital 3-D from producer
Jerry Bruckheimer. The 2011 film ''
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'', also produced by Bruckheimer as well as directed by
Rob Marshall
Robert Doyle Marshall Jr.http://www.alumni.cmu.edu/s/1410/images/editor_documents/alumnirelations/getinvolved/alumniawards/all_honorees_2018june1.pdf (born October 17, 1960) is an American film and theater director, producer, and choreographer. ...
, was one of the first big adventure films to shoot in 3D on location in jungles, beaches, and the streets of 18th-century London rather than against green screen or entirely on soundstages.
On May 29, 2009, Disney released
Pixar
Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...
's ''
Up'', the first Pixar film to be presented in 3D. This film was then followed by a 3D
double feature
The double feature is a Film, motion picture industry phenomenon in which theaters would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which the presentation of one feature film would be followed by various short subjec ...
re-release of ''
Toy Story
''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and the Firsts in animation, firs ...
'' and ''
Toy Story 2
''Toy Story 2'' is a 1999 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and the first sequel to Toy Story. It is the second installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and was directed by J ...
'' on October 2, 2009, although neither of these films' animations was altered. Subsequent Pixar films, such as ''
Toy Story 3
''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The third installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' series, it was directed by Lee Unkrich, the editor ...
'' and ''
Cars 2
''Cars 2'' is a 2011 American animated spy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to '' Cars'' (2006), the second film in the ''Cars'' franchise, and the 12th animated film from the studio ...
'', were also released in Disney Digital 3-D.
Two of Disney's traditionally animated films were reissued with 3D conversions in 2011; ''
The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. Produced by Walt Disney ...
'' – released on August 26 internationally and on September 16 in North America, and ''
Beauty and the Beast
"Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales'').
Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...
'' – limited to 13-day run in September at the
El Capitan Theatre
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple (now known as the El Capitan Entert ...
in Los Angeles for North America, as well as short runs in New Zealand, Japan, Australia, India and Spain in 2010. These re-releases were being supervised by
Don Hahn
Donald Paul Hahn (born November 26, 1955) is an American film producer. He served as a producer for the Disney films '' Beauty and the Beast'' (1991, the first out of three animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture) ...
, who produced both films. ''Beauty and the Beast'' in 3D received a wider release on January 13, 2012. Two more films were reissued in 3D in 2012; ''
Finding Nemo
''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Lee Unkrich, and produced by Graham Walters, from ...
'' on September 14 and ''
Monsters, Inc.'' on December 19. ''
The Little Mermaid'' was going to be re-released in 3D on September 13, 2013, but was cancelled due to the underperformance of the other Disney 3D re-releases. The 3D version of ''The Little Mermaid'' did, however, play for a limited engagement at the El Capitan Theatre from September to October 2013.
List of Disney Digital 3-D films
Feature films
Original releases
Reissues
Short films
Original releases
See also
*
Lists of 3D films
*
3D film
3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in American cinema and later experienced a worldwide r ...
*
Digital cinema
Digital cinema is the digital technology used within the film industry to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film, such as 35 mm film. Whereas film reels have to be shipped to mo ...
*
Digital 3D
*
RealD 3D
RealD 3D is a digital stereoscopic projection technology made and sold by RealD. It is currently the most widely used technology for watching 3D films in theaters. Worldwide, RealD 3D is installed in more than 26,500 auditoriums by approximatel ...
,
Dolby 3D,
Panavision 3D and
XpanD 3D (presentation technologies)
References
External links
Disney's Digital Cinema Portal
Pixar Projection 3D D-Cinema"Disney Hatches Chicken Little in Digital 3D"(''AWN'', October 31, 2005)
{{Disney
Disney technology
3D imaging
3D cinema
Audiovisual introductions in 2005