First and most obviously, the film is simply gorgeous to look at. I saw a review that said that the movie was perhaps *too* well animated, in that Laika's stop-motion animation has gotten so good that it's easily mistaken by others as CGI. I'd say that even if you could not tell the difference and took the incredible technique for granted, the design and look of the film would be a triumph in CGI as well. The fact that they built everything you see just pushes it to jaw dropping.

As for the story, I found it both touching and exciting. At heart, it is a hero's quest with an interesting mythology exploring themes of loss and remembrance. There were actually more adults than children in the theater when I saw it, and it's not surprising... It's pretty intense in places and I could see younger kids being easily lost by certain events.

Really, the whole production reminded me of a well done graphic novel brought to life in great animation.

I saw it in 3-D which looked nice, but I'm not sure how much it really added (I remember being quite impressed with "Coraline's 3-D). On a tangent, there was a trailer for an animated film called "The Wild Life", which seemed to be Robinson Crusoe told from the point of view of wacky island animals. on the whole it looked like a dime-a-dozen other silly animated animal movies, but I'll be damned if the 3-D in the trailer wasn't among the most impressive 3-D I've ever seen in a theater. Even without huge depth of field (say, in an enclosed space) everything looked insanely 3-D. I don't know what they did differently, but this almost obnoxious amount of effect was memorable.

I glad to hear the story and animation made the film worth seeing. I haven't seen a trailer yet but it's done well on rotten tomatoes.

...I've seen a couple films in 3D but it didn't really add anything to the experience. I remember 3D being a gimmick for Jaws 3, because someone thought it would be cool to see the shark jump out of the screen. I was completely baffled when producers and theaters started adding 3D as a regular option in recent years to every film. I'm not really a fan of 3D...I'm waiting for my holodeck.

There's a thread near the bottom of the first page here on the Parodyverse where I shared a trailer after first seeing it myself. Here's the music video for their version of "While My Guitar Gentle Weeps" which shows off the beauty of the film:


While My Guitar Gently Weeps Official Video





It seems like for most in the movie and theater business, it really was just a gimmick to jack up the price of a ticket. Most films are just run through a program an post-converted to look 3-D after the fact. Every now and then a filmmaker actually cares about 3-D and carefully shoots the film to make use of it and it can still impress me from time to time when they do.