Channel Frederator Blog

So I just came back from a select footage screening of “Monsters Vs. Aliens” hosted by the big man himself, Jeffrey Katzenberg.

There is something for everyone in this movie, no matter what age you are. Like any other good Dreamworks movie, there are pop references and lovable characters.

Technical speaking, the animation is really tight, the voice casting of the characters in relation to the character acting is spot on. The film has also really made good use of the ” REAL-D” 3D theater experience.  The sense of scale with the Monsters and the Aliens lends itself a perfect fit to the application of the technology. The entire movie is in 3D and I can already tell there will be no scenes in the movie where you’re thinking to yourself, ” oh that shot was put in because we need a crazy theater 3D audience reaction” .

Katzenberg made it clear that the film was 4 years in the making, way before the notion of 3D theater going audiences. Just by the amount of footage I saw I can already predict that Katzenberg is putting his money on a trilogy.

Jeffrey Katzenberg might be disliked by some, but he is one smart cookie. He compared the switch from 2D projection to 3D projection in the animation industry to the switch from black and white films to color films.

“We see in color, so we switched to color films, we also see in 3D, so we knew eventually someone had figure out a way to bring that to the movie viewing experience.”

I really feel like Dreamworks is on the edge of something big here, but I’m not quite sure that audiences are willing to pay the extra 5 dollars on top of the already high price of admission. Nothing against you Mr. Katzenberg, but I only saw one 3D animated movie in the the theater in 2008 and it was not in “Real D” nor was it from Dreamworks.

Regardless this movie is set to be a pleaser when it comes out March 27, 2009.

-Lee Rubenstein