Burton's Vincent in 3-D
animated short joins Nightmare Before Christmas re-release
Tim Burton's 1982 short Vincent will precede his Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D, which returns to theatres this October.
(Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com)
Apparently The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D was such a smash last year that Disney's returning it to 3-D theatres this October. And Vincent is coming along for the ride.
"When you have an evergreen title like Nightmare, it is very important to give the fan a chance to sample something new," said Chuck Viane, president of Disney's Buena Vista Pictures Domestic Distribution. "Each year on bring-backs, we are going to try to add some value."
Vincent was one of Tim Burton's first animated shorts, made with Rick Heinrichs back in 1982. It follows a young boy named Vincent Malloy, who tries to imitate his idol, horror maven Vincent Price (The Pit and the Pendulum). His obsession with Edgar Allen Poe leads to Vincent's delusion that he is a tortured artist, deprived of the woman he loves, much like the narrator in Poe's poem The Raven. Vincent Price, who was also Tim Burton's idol, narrated the film.
When Burton first made Vincent, Disney (still shackled to its squeaky-clean image) had no idea what to do with the short. The studio entered Vincent at the 1984 Ottawa Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. Afterwards, it languished in Disney's vaults (much like Burton's Mouse House career) until it appeared on the 1994 LaserDisc edition of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Now it's been transferred to 3-D stock and will accompany Nightmare in 3-D back to theatres this October.
3-D has been very good to Disney this year. Its latest animated film, Meet the Robinsons, made $7.1 million in 581 3-D theatres, the largest opening to date. That represented 28% of the film's overall three-day gross of $25.1 million on 13% of the screens. Translation: Meet the Robinsons made 2.6 times more in 3-D theatres than it did in traditional 2-D houses.
"(3-D) is being sought out by the public; they are making a conscious decision to go to the 3-D screen first," Viane said. "It's always about the movie and story and creativity first; as an enhancement, the 3-D give the public another reason to choose that movie."
By the time Nightmare Before Christmas returns to 3-D theatres in October, there could be 1,000 cinemas waiting for the flick. That number could reach 1,200 when Robert Zemeckis and Neil Gaiman's motion-capture adaptation of Beowulf goes 3-D in November.
Last February, Zemeckis signed a deal to produce mocap 3-D flicks for the Mouse House. Viane is being coy about what will happen with that partnership.
"We will be making an announcement detailing titles that will be coming out in the future," he said. "We are very involved in it, and we have a very long-term commitment to 3-D."
Fun Fact: Vincent Price was incredibly thrilled to be involved with Vincent. As he said later, it was "the most gratifying thing that ever happened. It was immortality - better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard."
