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3D films. The phrase instantly conjures up memories of cardboard glasses found in cereal packets, entranced slack-jawed children and dinosaurs. I distinctly remember a lot of dinosaurs being involved.

Coraline 3D had none of these. The silly specs are still a factor, but they’ve grown up; today’s dimension-adding specs could almost be mistaken for celebrity sunglasses. If that celebrity were Jarvis Cocker.

As for the drooling, I’ll cheerfully admit to that. You see, despite growing up in an age where aforesaid cereal boxen were ten a penny, I’d never seen a 3D movie or, well, 3D anything before. No, not even The Polar Express. Part of that is to do with wearing glasses, part of that is a mere disinterest. However, when I donned my x-ray specs during the trailers, I was actually impressed, a feeling of entranced wonder that only deepened as the film began.

A notable moment near the start of the film, where a needle appears to jut out of the screen right into the viewer’s face, really made me sit up and take notice of this 3D thing. As the film progressed, it was clear that a lot of clever thought had been put into various depth effects, and while I became more accustomed to it, every so often a particularly inspired use of the mechanics made me giggle in wonder.

I think part of this is due to the film itself; its eerie presentation, its haunting characters, its entrancing alternate world. Whether I was more moved by the film or by the three-dimensional presentation, it’s hard to say, but the 3D experience definitely added something I wasn’t expecting.

A little bit of film spoilage follows:

Films these days, especially animated ones, strike me more and more as simply games on auto-play. Coraline was one of the strongest adherents to this rule I’ve seen in a while; the sense of exploration, of dimension-twisting imagination, of a quest and final battle all are crucial ingredients to many videogames.

Think Psychonauts twisted up with a bit of classic point’n'click — get flashlight, use flashlight on bat-dogs — but in today’s 3D. I’m getting strong overtones of American McGee’s Alice, as Coraline jumps through the rabbit hole; and even the graphical style, that of scrawny necks, spindly legs, smooth surfaces, dilapidated buildings, is reminiscent of any of a handful of games with a darker touch (the ‘sneezed on by Tim Burton‘ style).

Of course, this is ironic given the film’s stop-motion, albeit not entirely. Still, watching Coraline makes me want to make the game, not play it; if it has that effect on some of the young and talented, then only good things can come of it.

To me the interesting things happen when we’re watching the film, passengers in Coraline’s story, and start wondering what we would have done differently were it a game. Perhaps that, in itself, is the game — one of imagination and supposition, of creating our own possibilities and worlds, rather than blindly shooting zombies in glorious Technicolour.

Although saving the world from an undead apocalypse is always fun.

I’ve been wrestling with Python all day, so what better excuse than a digression into gaming (again). World of Warcraft’s second expansion is out tonight, so I suppose I’m just putting my WoW Insider hat on a bit early…

Speaking to someone recently about MMOs, he admitted that the fantasy and sci-fi theming of most popular games put him off. “If only it were a bit more realistic…”

My instant counter was that, despite the fantasy setting, a game like WoW is realistic in many ways. At a very basic level, once you’re immersed in the game and playing with a lot of other people, the elves/dwarves/orcs/dragons setting becomes mostly inconsequential. Conversation in-game is mostly about the real world, there are countless nods to popular culture in the game itself, and skills such as guild management, auctioneering and finances are remarkably applicable outside of Azeroth.
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