Special-effects films were a staple for me as I grew up just two blocks from the Lewis & Clark Theatre on Pacific Highway just outside of Seattle.  I remember “event” movies featuring everything from “Sensurround”—featured in Earthquake and Midway, among others—to “Smell-O-Vision”… and, of course, 3-D.  Oddly enough, I have no memory whatsoever of an effective 3-D experience as a child, though I’m sure I probably sat through at least half a dozen of them.

My first memorable 3-D experience came at Disney’s Epcot Center in Florida with Michael Jackson’s Captain EO, mostly because it was, well, you know: Michael Jackson.  But Disney didn’t really perfect the immersive 3-D experience until they launched Honey, I Shrunk the Audience—which incorporated practical effects, a trend they continued with Muppet Vision 3D and It’s Tough To Be A Bug.  The latter’s interactive experiences include getting poked rather sharply in the back, which gave me muscle spasms that almost ruined the rest of my vacation.  Disney, it seems, learned that 3-D just isn’t effective enough to stand on its own as an audience attraction.

Every decade or so, though, it seems that some outfit comes along touting new 3-D technology that will finally fulfill the promise of the format.  This year, though, we’ve had multiple new processes making that claim.  Just a few months ago, 3ality Digital was used to present the IMAX U2 concert film (which, for my money, was the first truly effective 3-D experience I’ve ever had), and now Journey to the Center of the Earth brings us the brand new, updated Real D format first used with Chicken Little.

Director Eric Brevig spoke recently in roundtable interviews about just how new the technology used in Journey really is:

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