Time for a ‘Little’ digital 3-D

When the sky falls on “Chicken Little” and friends in Disney’s animated adventure, which opens Nov. 4, audiences might feel the need to duck too. A handful of area theaters will be showing the movie in digitally projected 3-D.

At the El Capitan in Hollywood, Universal City 18, Plant 16 in Van Nuys, the Bridge in West L.A., Marketplace 9 in Thousand Oaks, the Exchange in Glendale and Irvine Spectrum 21, moviegoers will get special glasses to watch a version re-imaged by Industrial Light and Magic for theaters equipped with a system developed by Real D, which specializes in 3-D applications. Only about 85 theaters nationwide will show the movie in 3-D; the regular version will be shown in more than 3,000 locations.

The success of “Polar Express” in Imax 3-D caught the attention of studios and theaters. But unlike Imax, Real D uses a digital format and the same projectors as regular movies, with modified optics and coated screens that are less expensive.

“Chicken Little” has company. Next summer, Sony plans to release the animated “Monster House” using the Real D technology. By then more multiplexes should have the projectors and optics needed for 3-D.

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– R. Kinsey Lowe