Nightmare in Three-D

I just saw the new Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D.

And lemmee tellya, this ain’t your mamma’s 3D. 3D movies have come a LONG way in the past few years, as you’ll know if you saw Monster House in it’s 3D version, or if you’ve seen the latest 3D attractions at Disneyland or Universal or other theme parks.

Now, i’m already a huge fan of this movie. So they only have to not fuck it up to be ok with me. Just a chance to see it on the big screen was cool, i listened to the people who didn’t like it when it came out and didn’t go see it in a theater. Luckily I later discovered they were wrong.

Well, they didn’t fuck it up; they made it even cooler. The 3D is a perfect compliment to the very physical stop-motion animation, adding even more depth and life to a visually rich and complex movie. They also totally re-mastered the sound, which is awesome. I saw, and heard, things I’d never noticed before.

You know 3D has made it when you stop noticing a film is in 3D. And like in Monster house, which i saw at Mann’s Chinese in los angeles a couple months ago, halfway through I stopped being aware of the glasses and the effect, and just watched the movie, marveling at how cool it looked but not thinking about it. That is when 3D is working, and in this film, it utterly does work.

Originally I’d heard this was going to be in very limited release, only playing in L.A., SF, and a couple other cities. But it looks like it’s gone into national release, so go see it while it’s still in the theaters. I bet it doesn’t play for long, and if you’re a fan, this is so completely a must-see.

Oh, and cute goth/emo girls love this movie, so there’s another sort of eye-candy involved. I wound up deep in conversation with a girl next to me about Lemony Snicket and Daniel Handler‘s adult novels (which feature murder, absinth, incest, golems, and more clever literary references than you can shake a stick at.) So that’s the kinda quality people this attracts, if, you know, you like that sort of thing.