Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
The Awesome: Crazy inventor Flint Lockwood creates a weather machine that drops spaghetti and burgers from the sky in this zippy animated comedy, that also has the honour of being the world’s first 3D Blu-ray. The problem for Flint is the town of Swallow Falls just want to munch way too much...
Stand-Out Scene: A giant 3D pancake crushes a school, and it looks flipping delicious.
Key Extras: A large helping a technical featurettes, and the prospect of an interactive food fight in 3D!
Monsters vs Aliens
The Awesome: A ginormous, brightly coloured freak of a film, this was one of the first movies to get an extra dimension on Blu-ray. Susan, the 50ft woman, stumbles on cars, buildings, people and, luckily, an alien plot to take over earth.
Stand-Out Scene: Susan’s monster squad put the smack down on the aliens in San Francisco.
Key Extras: More animated movies starring B.O.B (Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate), 3D games and trivia.
Toy Story 3
The Awesome: Buzz and Woody bust out of the box for the final time, bringing the curtain down on the groundbreaking trilogy that brought a devastating new power to the pixel.
Stand-Out Scene: The terrifying spectacle of playtime at Sunnyside. Marvel at monster toddlers as they tear through Andy’s old toys with abandon.
Key Extras: The ‘Groovin’ With Ken!’ puff piece and ‘Ken’s Dating Tips’ prove Pixar has still got the funny, while the behind-the-scenes of The Great Escape will flex the 3D tech.
Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs
The Awesome: Heaps better than the first two, and a lot of that’s thanks to a liberal sprinkling of stunning 3D visuals, as Manny the Mammoth attempts to rescue Sid from a pretty peeved T-Rex.
Stand-Out Scene: Scrat is still looking out for that acorn, except now he’s hanging by his claws at the edge of cavernous drops.
Key Extras: A clutch of 3D shorts, music videos and a souped-up trivia track.
Clash Of The Titans
The Awesome: Zeus, and love child Perseus, got a last-minute 3D makeover for Louis Letterier’s CGI update of the hammy Harryhausen classic, and with a bit of luck the boffins at Warner Bros. will continue the technical tweaks for a 3D Blu-ray of epic proportions.
Stand-Out Scene: Choose between giant scorpions and the mighty Kraken for some proper 3D thrills.
Key Extras: A monster making of, and a few more of those missing minutes brutally excised for the theatrical run.
Shrek
The Awesome: The big, green ogre is doing the rounds on the big, silver screen in Shrek Forever After at the mo, but every instalment of the twisted fairytale is being 3Ded for imminent release.
Stand-Out Scene: Go back to the first film – still the funniest – and check out Shrek’s half-arsed rescue of princess Fiona, and the introduction of Donkey’s fiery love interest.
Key Extras: A pop-up ogre trivia track (in 3D, naturally) and plenty of song and dance routines.
Tim Burtons Alice In Wonderland
The Awesome: Alice is all grown up and heads down the rabbit hole in a Burton’s own-brand acid trip, where she’s greeted by a ginger Depp and the oversized head of Helena Bonham Carter.
Stand-Out Scene: Look out for the enormous grinning cat, who sounds like Stephen Fry, coming straight for you.
Key Extras: 3D character profiles, and an exploration of Burton’s Underland in an extensive making of.
Coraline
The Awesome: Henry Selick conjures all manner of freaks and monsters in this sensational stop-motion fantasy. Traditional techniques are married to tantalising technical possibilities as Coraline discovers her magical dream world is fast becoming a nightmare.
Stand-Out Scene: Coraline’s first foray behind the secret door is a visual feast of outlandish characters and eye-popping action.
Key Extras: Deleted scenes, a documentary on the painstaking production and an enhanced, Picture-in-picture commentary.
Robert Zemeckis A Christmas Carol
The Awesome: Jim Carrey gets animated as the miserly Scrooge in the master of mo-cap’s reinvention of the beloved Dickens tale. Perhaps not the greatest take on the story, the 3D trickery is still mightily impressive.
Stand-Out Scene: The arrival of Jacob Marley, followed by the flamey ghost of Christmas Past, realises the full, frightening potential of the format.
Key Extras: Plenty of footage of Carrey covered in dots and/or little ping-pong balls and a Zemeckis picture commentary.
Avatar
The Awesome: James Cameron said it would be out in November; 20th Century Fox fell over themselves to correct him, claiming it was only at the ‘conceptual’ stage. It matters not – we’ve seen 3D snippets on Blu-ray and it’s going to blow your tiny mind all over again.
Stand-Out Scene: The epic 45-minute showdown in the shadow of the Hallelujah mountains.
Key Extras: A 3D James Cameron leaping into your lounge to discuss the finer points of the production, which is prospect as weird as it is enthralling.
