Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3-D

Disney re-released these two awesome movies in digital 3-D, probably to build up excitement for Toy Story 3 which is coming out next Summer. I didn’t care about the studio’s motivations, I was itching to see these flicks again in a theater because we can’t seem to find our special DVD edition whenever I want to have a Pixar festival every Spring. When the Alamo Drafthouse at the Village said they’d be participating in the two-week only engagement, I couldn’t resist. Somara and I invited our friends the Gordons to join us since we wanted to do something social with the four of them, besides, it was one of the rare times Alamo allows their son Corrin in outside of Baby Day. He and his big sister Ryanne were very well behaved too which is amazing for children at their respective ages of three and five, a double feature is hard for little kids to sit through.

As for the 3-D elements…it worked for me. I didn’t get a headache from wearing the glasses over my regular ones and I “saw” the depth of Andy’s room. The effect was more realistic when there were outdoor scenes involving rain and snow. The trailer plugging yet another version of A Christmas Carol demonstrated it via an unnecessary comedic element requiring Jim Carrey’s slapstick antics. I thought I was suffering from just vampire and zombie fatigue until Disney plans to flog Dickens’ corpse one more time. Anyway, Story 1 & 2 never were made as 3-D features in the beginning so adding this enhancement didn’t feel like a gimmick, it was more like ice cream with an awesome piece of pie. Then there was the technical aspects to watch, namely seeing how far Pixar has come with human articulation. In the first movie, “real” people and animals are stiff, robotic and unimpressive. The computer animation only functions well with the toys because their anatomies are more flexible to the processes. Their was definite improvement four years later through the second dog and the villain Al played by Wayne Knight. By Monsters, Inc. it was much closer and I feel Pixar nailed it by The Incredibles.

I wholeheartedly recommend revisiting these well loved movies while you can. If you live in the Austin area, treat yourself to the Alamo experience. Before the movie starts, they show the Pixar collection of shorts you can buy on DVD separately from the features.

On a side note, another reason why I love Alamo and Austin was the opportunity to help a complete stranger find her sunglasses. While Somara held the seats, I waited in the lobby to give the Gordons their tickets. A lady and her two small children were asking the manager if they could search the recycle bin for all the used 3-D glasses. He said sure so away they went on a rather difficult task because her prescription pair resembled the free, dark frames so it was going to be a needle-in-a-haystack proposition. I asked if I could help and she gladly accepted. Back in the Midwest, most people would decline on the assumption I was mentally ill or a pervert. I think she was happy to have an adult set of eyes and hands to assist; the little boy would just put the glasses on the table and get more without inspecting. He was under five, I didn’t expect him to understand his mother’s dilemma. Thankfully, she found them in a few minutes when the DKNY was spotted on the side of a particular pair! Being a good samaritan definitely got my morning off to a great start.