Meet the Robinsons

Amybear and I went with a friend of ours to see the new Disney feature yesterday. We went to one of the 3-D showings so now we both have a set of the nifty polarized Drew Carey glasses they give you. Unfortunately 3D costs extra, but unlike most 3D films it might actually be worth it.

The movie itself is good and I liked it. The plot involves time travel and has some decent curves to it. It was actually a lot more intricate that you would expect in a "kids" movie. I don't want to give it all away, but the overarching themes are the meaning of family, the consequences of ones actions, and the need to live in the present not the past. Good themes for a time travel movie actually.

I thought the 3D effects were very well done. In a lot of live-action films, the 3D effect becomes very layered. The people look flat and the individual pictures seem like flat graphics layered one at different levels with respect to each other. Imagine a theater where a play was performed on a three dimensional stage but the actors and set pieces are all just moving cardboard cutouts. 3D movies tend to be like that, it has depth but it is still a flat depth. I think it has to do with how the movies are shot and processed.

With Meet the Robinsons, you don't really get that flat look. There are a lot of very nice perspective shots and other subtle uses of 3D that bring you into the picture. I think this is because Meet the Robinsons is CGI. They actually have the 3D location data for every pixel on the big screen. Instead of putting discrete visual elements at specific depths, they can construct the effect so that each pixel is at its proper depth for a more realistic experience of depth and perspective. I hope that made sense.