As we reported
on Monday, '
Monsters vs. Aliens' will be released on Blu-ray on September 29. However, the edition won't include the movie in 3-D, despite its great success with theatrical 3-D showings. The reason given is that the 3-D technology developed for movie screens couldn't be replicated in the home — at least, not yet.
According to DreamWorks Animation chief Ann Daly, the movie “was developed with the notion of doing the RealD-Dolby experience in theaters, and those specs are not ideal for the anaglyph presentation” for home viewing. Anaglyph uses glasses with colored lenses, whereas RealD Cinema uses polarized lenses. “It's a completely different process, and when we started to look at how it would look in the home, we were not satisfied,” Daly added. In Daly's opinion, doing a home 3-D version now “would feel gimmicky rather than good.”
The inadequacy of the current technology for 3-D viewing at home hasn't deterred other studios from including 3-D versions of their movies using the anaglyph presentation, like Disney did with '
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert' and '
The Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience', Lionsgate with '
My Bloody Valentine', or New Line with '
Journey to the Center of the Earth'. Other upcoming 3-D titles are National Geographic's '
Sea Monsters' and Universal's '
Coraline'.
Dreamworks Animation has said it may consider an eventual 3-D release in the future, if and when specifications for 3-D on BD are finalized and compatible hardware is available so that a home video release can replicate “more faithfully” the theatrical 3-D experience.
As we reported
in May, the Blu-ray Disc Association has created a task force to ease the integration of 3-D technology into the Blu-ray Disc Format.
However, buyers will get a taste of 3-D with 'B.O.B.'s Big Break', a new companion short included with 'Monsters vs. Aliens'. This short was specifically designed to be viewed with anaglyph glasses, four pairs of which are included in the BD edition. A paddle ball game on the Blu-ray Disc of 'Monsters vs. Aliens' also will be in 3-D.