Disney Digital 3-D

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Disney Digital 3-D
Disney Digital 3D logo.svg
Product typeMotion picture exhibition
Owner The Walt Disney Company
IntroducedJune 23, 2005;19 years ago (2005-06-23)

Disney Digital 3-D is a brand name used by The Walt Disney Company to describe three-dimensional films made and released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures mostly under the Walt Disney Pictures label and shown exclusively using digital projection.

Contents

Disney Digital 3-D in itself is not a presentation or a production format or technology, but rather purely a marketing concept. Films advertised as Disney Digital 3-D come from a number of sources, film, digital camera as well as animation software, and can be presented using any digital 3D technology, including RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D and MasterImage 3D. There is no specific handling involved.

History

Pre-2005 Disney 3-D films

Disney had previously released two 3D animated shorts in 1953, Adventures in Music: Melody , the first American 3D animated short, [1] and Working for Peanuts , starring Donald Duck and Chip 'n' Dale.

Disney also produced 3D films for its theme parks, including Disneyland's 3D Jamboree (1956), featuring the Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers and including Melody and Working for Peanuts; Magic Journeys (1982), Captain EO (1986), Muppet*Vision 3D (1991), Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (1994), It's Tough to Be a Bug! (1998), the film portion of Tokyo DisneySea's Magic Lamp Theater, and Mickey's PhilharMagic (2003). [2]

Between 2003 and 2005, Dimension Films (then-owned by The Walt Disney Company) had made a couple of 3D films. Two of them were Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D .

Post-2005 Disney 3-D films

The first Disney Digital 3-D film was Chicken Little , which was released in late 2005. [3] For the release, Disney collaborated with RealD to install RealD's 3D digital projection system featuring Christie CP2000 2K DLP projectors along with silver screens for 84 screens in U.S. theaters. [4]

The animated film Chicken Little was followed by a re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas on October 20, 2006, a 1993 stop-motion film distributed by Touchstone Pictures, was originally shot in 2D on 35mm-film to digitally remastered with the 3D version generated by Industrial Light and Magic from this source using computer technology.

In 2007, Disney re-released the film Working for Peanuts with the theatrical release of the 3D version of Meet the Robinsons .

The first live-action Disney Digital 3-D release was Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert , which followed in 2008. In 2009, G-Force became the first film in Disney Digital 3-D from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides , also produced by Bruckheimer as well as directed by Rob Marshall, was one of the first big adventure films to shoot in 3D on location in jungles, beaches, and the streets of 18th-century London rather than against green screen or entirely on soundstages. [5]

On May 29, 2009, Disney released Pixar's Up , the first Pixar film to be presented in 3-D. This film was then followed by a 3-D double feature re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 on October 2, 2009, although neither of these films' animations was altered. Subsequent Pixar films, such as Toy Story 3 and Cars 2 , were also released in Disney Digital 3-D.

Two of Disney's traditionally animated films were reissued with 3D conversions in 2011; The Lion King – released on August 26 internationally and on September 16 in North America, [6] and Beauty and the Beast – limited to 13-day run in September at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles for North America, as well as short runs in New Zealand, Japan, Australia, India and Spain in 2010. [7] [8] These re-releases were being supervised by Don Hahn, who produced both films. Beauty and the Beast in 3D received a wider release on January 13, 2012. Two more films were reissued in 3D in 2012; Finding Nemo on September 14 and Monsters, Inc. on December 19. The Little Mermaid was going to be re-released in 3D on September 13, 2013, but was cancelled due to the underperformances of the other Disney 3D re-releases until further notice. The 3D version of The Little Mermaid did, however, play for a limited engagement at the El Capitan Theatre from September to October 2013. [9]

List of Disney Digital 3-D films

Feature films

Original releases

TitleRelease date
Chicken Little November 4, 2005
Meet the Robinsons March 30, 2007
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert February 1, 2008
Bolt November 21, 2008
Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience February 27, 2009
Up May 29, 2009
G-Force July 24, 2009
A Christmas Carol November 6, 2009
Alice in Wonderland March 5, 2010
Toy Story 3 June 18, 2010
Tangled November 24, 2010
Tron: Legacy December 17, 2010
Mars Needs Moms March 11, 2011
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides May 20, 2011
Cars 2 June 24, 2011
John Carter March 9, 2012
Brave June 22, 2012
Frankenweenie October 5, 2012
Secret of the Wings October 23, 2012 (Blu-ray)
Wreck-It Ralph November 2, 2012
Oz the Great and Powerful March 8, 2013
Monsters University June 21, 2013
Planes August 9, 2013
Frozen November 27, 2013
The Pirate Fairy February 13, 2014 (international) [10]
April 1, 2014 (Vudu)
Maleficent May 30, 2014
Planes: Fire & Rescue July 18, 2014
Big Hero 6 November 7, 2014
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast March 3, 2015 (Vudu)
Inside Out June 19, 2015
The Good Dinosaur November 25, 2015
The Finest Hours January 29, 2016
Zootopia March 4, 2016
The Jungle Book April 15, 2016
Alice Through the Looking Glass May 27, 2016
Finding Dory June 17, 2016
The BFG July 1, 2016
Pete's Dragon August 12, 2016
Moana November 23, 2016
Beauty and the Beast March 17, 2017
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales May 26, 2017
Cars 3 June 16, 2017
Coco November 22, 2017
A Wrinkle in Time March 9, 2018
Incredibles 2 June 15, 2018
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms November 2, 2018
Ralph Breaks the Internet November 21, 2018
Dumbo March 29, 2019
Aladdin May 24, 2019
Toy Story 4 June 21, 2019
The Lion King July 19, 2019
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil October 18, 2019
Frozen II November 22, 2019
Onward March 6, 2020
Mulan September 4, 2020
Soul December 25, 2020 (countries without Disney+)
Raya and the Last Dragon March 5, 2021
Luca June 18, 2021 (countries without Disney+)
Jungle Cruise July 30, 2021
Encanto November 24, 2021
Turning Red March 11, 2022 (countries without Disney+)
Lightyear June 17, 2022
Wish November 22, 2023
Inside Out 2 June 14, 2024

Reissues

TitleRelease date
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)October 20, 2006
Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999) (respectively)October 2, 2009
The Lion King (1994)September 16, 2011
Beauty and the Beast (1991)October 4, 2011 (Blu-ray); January 13, 2012
Finding Nemo (2003)September 14, 2012
Monsters, Inc. (2001)December 19, 2012
The Little Mermaid (1989)October 1, 2013 (Blu-ray)
Cars (2006)October 29, 2013 (Blu-ray)
Ratatouille (2007)July 16, 2014 (Blu-ray; Region B only)

Short films

Original releases

TitleRelease dateReleased with
Knick Knack October 20, 2006 The Nightmare Before Christmas
Working for Peanuts March 30, 2007 Meet the Robinsons
Tokyo Mater (Pixar Animation Studios)December 12, 2008 Bolt (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
Partly Cloudy May 29, 2009 Up
Day & Night June 18, 2010 Toy Story 3
Hawaiian Vacation June 24, 2011 Cars 2
Air MaterNovember 1, 2011Cars 2 Blu-Ray
Tangled Ever After January 13, 2012 Beauty and the Beast
La Luna June 22, 2012 Brave
Small Fry July 26, 2012 Vudu release [11]
Partysaurus Rex September 14, 2012 Finding Nemo
Paperman November 2, 2012 Wreck-It Ralph
For the Birds December 19, 2012 Monsters, Inc.
The Blue Umbrella June 21, 2013 Monsters University
Get a Horse! November 27, 2013 Frozen
Feast November 7, 2014 Big Hero 6
Lava June 19, 2015 Inside Out
Sanjay's Super Team November 25, 2015 The Good Dinosaur
Piper June 17, 2016 Finding Dory
Inner Workings November 23, 2016 Moana
Lou June 16, 2017 Cars 3
Olaf's Frozen Adventure (Walt Disney Animation Studios)November 22, 2017 Coco (Pixar)
Bao June 15, 2018 Incredibles 2
Maggie Simpson in Playdate with Destiny (20th Century Animation)March 6, 2020 Onward (Pixar)
Burrow December 25, 2020 (countries without Disney+) Soul
Us Again March 5, 2021 Raya and the Last Dragon
Far from the Tree November 24, 2021 Encanto
Carl's Date June 16, 2023 Elemental

See also

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