It was a dismal weekend for nation-wide releases this week in the US. Walt Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer ended up winning the weekend with their talking-guinea pig action film G-Force, which I sadly took time out of my weekend to see.

The future of 3D for blockbuster entertainment hangs in the balance, with theater owners being pressured into Digital 3D theater conversion in these economically trying times. Right now, Real D and the Regal Cinemas chain have the biggest commitment to furthering 3D projection with Regal pledging an additional 1,500 screens in May bringing the total Real D screens to 3,500 by the beginning of the fall.

Monsters and Aliens this year was the first film to add a 3D surcharge across the board, something that has acted as the carrot to Avatar’s ever-present whip. James Cameron and Robert Zemeckis have been the two filmmakers leading the charge on the 3D motion capture front, both pushing harder for 3D ready screens as their fourth-quarter blockbuster releases A Christmas Carol and Avatar loom on the horizon. If Avatar ends up being the must-see film of December, theaters don’t want to be left out in the cold when they could use that movie to recoup the costs of digital 3D theater conversion.

As for A Christmas Carol, it’s 3D family fare, and G-Force took this weekend to prove that if you have enough kid-friendly jokes and lots of stuff popping out of the screen at kids, the film can make money.

While watching G-Force and actually finding myself bored by the movie mid-way through, I started having very vivid Bolt flashbacks. Bolt, also released by Disney in Digital 3D, starred John Travolta and Miley Cyrus in a film about a television-star dog who was unaware he didn’t posses the super powers his on-screen character did. The movie was cute, I guess, but I can’t imagine I would have seen it if it hadn’t been one of the few 3D releases at the tail end of last year. 3D as a gimmick for kiddie films seems to get my butt in the seats despite negative buzz and an uninteresting plot.

As G-Force became less about action sequences and more about being “special” and part of a family, I started to turn my attention to the use of 3D in this particular film, since I could see little other reason why it was made. What I noticed was a 3D convention that I hadn’t seen before and I think it made me mad.

When the theater I was in started it’s pre-recorded “put on your glasses now for the amazing 3D experience” announcement, the screen widened to something damn close to a 4:3 aspect ratio. I thought I was just going to see a Disney movie that was all-ready to get pan-and-scanned for home video release, but when the film started, it was presented in a more-cinematic 16:9 aspect ratio. But here’s the tricky thing: The black letterbox bars that altered the aspect ratio were part of the film’s print. When something was supposed to be a especially spectacular 3D effect, the object would bleed over into the letterboxing bars as well as go more 3D for the glasses-wearing audience.

As soon as I noticed that the black bars actually had the slightest degree of negative depth (making the entire 16:9 part of the film look slightly more dimensional), I couldn’t stop noticing that a cog, spark or atmospheric effect would bleed over into the letterbox (I’ve attempted to demonstrate using the banner image on this post).

It was really annoying, but a convention I hadn’t seen in the 3D films of the past few years. I’m not even sure what to call it, as it was meant to simulate the characters and elements actually entering the audience.

One of my gripes with trailers for 3D movies is that shot where they show a CGI’d character from the film (or flames, or an axe) actually flying over the heads of an audience. I know it’s supposed to FEEL like things are actually flying out over the first few rows, but showing us this effect as if holograms were going to spring up in the crappy seats is a little disingenuous. However, when the 3D effects look to bleed off the screen into the actual theater, as is the desired effect with black, recessed letterbox cropping on the actual print, the illusion is maintained until you notice what’s going on.

And once I focused on that, G-Force’s plot was even more obviously bland to me.

But the surprising lasting-power shown by Ice Age 3D ($673.5 million worldwide after 26 days) and the surprise drop in Harry Potter numbers letting G-Force take the #1 spot for the weekend (with $32,185,000 in 3 days) goes to show that opening family-friendly 3D fare in the middle of an adult-male oriented summer release schedule is a winning strategy.

So, no matter how mediocre G-Force was (and I was forgetting it as the credits rolled), we’re going to see more of its gimmicky 3D ilk.

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As it’s Sunday and there’s not a whole lot going on I’d thought I’d post this extended clip of Bolt that came online recently. The clip is from the opening scene and shows Bolt and a girl voiced by Miley Cyrus being chased by bad guys.

In the movie, Bolt is a dog who is the star of an action television series which is part Lassie, part Mission: Impossible. But Bolt doesn’t know he’s a television star, and instead thinks he is a dog infused with super abilities. To get a real performance out of the dog, they stage the stunts and sequences with hidden cameras so that Bolt believes they’re real.

Bolt will be released on November 21st in the US and February 13th in the UK.

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Cinematical got their hands on a final poster for Disney’s Bolt, which stars John Travolta and that Miley Cyrus person.

Bolt tells the story a dog who plays a heroic dog in a hit TV show and has some trouble recognizing that he doesn’t even have superpowers. This becomes something of a hindrance when he is accidentally shipped from Hollywood to New York City. From there he has to make his way home with the help of a manky old cat and an overweight hamster in a plastic ball.

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Yesterday Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince was moved by Warner Bros from November 21st back to July 2009 for various reasons, and this has caused quite a shake-up regarding the other November releases dates. First Disney’s Bolt moved into Potters old date and now Twilight has moved from December 12th to November 21st.

From THR:

“When Warner Bros. decided to move ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ to the summer of 2009, we saw a unique opportunity to slot in our film which has been gaining tremendous awareness and momentum over the past several months,” Summit’s Rob Friedman said.

Striking a respectful tone, Friedman added, “We by no means are trying to fill the shoes of the incredible Potter franchise for 2008, rather we are just looking to bring the fans of Stephenie Meyer’s incredible book series the film as soon possible from a programming perspective.”

Twilight fans will be please with the shift as they get to see the movie 21 days earlier!

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Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince has been moved by Warner Bros from November 21st 2008, back to July 17th 2009. The reasons given are that they feel the movie will reach a wider audience with a Summer release date, and that the writers strike left a big gap in the Summer calendar that they need to fill. However, the move does mean Potter faces more competition from movies such as Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, 2012, and Land of the Lost. Although I get the feeling they should be more worried than Potter.

As a result of the move by Warner Bros, Disney have decided to move Bolt up a week into the November 21st date that was left empty by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

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A new image from Disney’s Bolt has worked its way online.

A preview of Bolt was shown at Comic Con last weekend, and here is a mini review of what was seen.

Needless to say, this 10 minute or so action sequence had the audience’s attention. It was surprisingly funny, action packed, and utterly enthralling. As fun as it was, I started wondering how any of the rest of the film with Bolt in the real world could possibly be interesting. Boy, was I wrong.

After these scenes, the crowd roared with applause and was more than primed for the November release of Bolt.

You can watch the trailer for Bolt by clicking here!

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A trailer for Disney’s Bolt has appeared online and can be seen below.

At the beginning when I saw all of the ‘I’ve altered him, he can protect you know’ and then the huge superbark I got rather excited, however it then cut to a normal movie about a dog who finds some friends and goes on a journey. Don’t get me wrong it looks good, and will look even cooler in 3D, however I’d prefer superdogs and evil villains rather than a deluded canine voiced by John Travolta who is trying to find a girl who has the same voice as Miley Cyrus.

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A new poster for the upcoming Bolt film has appeared online. I guess this is the epitome of a teaser poster, because it doesn’t tell you anything about the movie. Only that John Travolta and Miley Cyrus are in the film… which, I guess would be enough for most teenage girls!

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Recently scandalous teen star Miley Cyrus is lending her voice to the 3-D family Disney flick Bolt, set for release this Thanksgiving.  Also voicing a role is John Travolta.

According to Kelly Preston, John’s wife, the duo may be joining their voices outside of the movie – for a DUET!  No real details were given, but Kelly seemed to confirm that the two would be paring up sometime in the future for some magical music making.  John hasn’t done much singing lately, though his vocals are most known from his Grease days (I’m not including Hairspray in this, because he was singing in that weird falsetto).

If they really are partnering up, we’ll all try not to laugh too hard before actually hearing it and giving the song a chance.  See, we’re equal opportunity haters here.

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