The success of the 3D re-release of The Lion King has taken Disney by surprise. While a couple of years ago they had high hopes for 3D conversions, that had waned. Indeed the first movie they converted, Beauty & The Beast, has languished on the shelf bar small releases in places like New Zealand, simply because Disney didn’t have enough faith to push a proper theatrical release for it (indeed, it’s coming straight to Blu-ray 3D in the UK next week).
However The Lion King has been massive, with its re-release pushing it back into the top 10 highest grossing movies ever in the US. As a result Disney has decided they should do some more, with the company announcing a slew of 3D re-releases for some of the company’s classic films.
At the moment, the dates announced are only for the US, but hopefully we can expect a UK release too. Here they are:
Beauty and the Beast – January 13, 2012
Finding Nemo – September 14, 2012
Monsters Inc. – January 18, 2013 (Monsters University, a prequel to the original film, arrives on June 21, 2013)
The Little Mermaid – September 13, 2013
We’ll have to wait and see whether these movies can match the success of The Lion King, but I expect they’ll do pretty well, as I’ve never understood why Disney gave up on re-releasing their classic movies in cinemas in the first place, whether they’re in 3D or not. Especially with Beauty & The Beast, where they spent years working on the conversion and were then just going to hide it away so few would ever see it on the big screen, it made no sense.