3-D Movies: 10 That Work

Pretty much every element of Avatar‘s visual production was top-of-the-line, but its groundbreaking use of 3-D is really what transformed it from an expensive Pocahontas knock-off into a record-shattering triumph. For proof, look no further than the scene when Jake learns how to…um…train his dragon. It still makes us queasy, in a totally awesome, free-fall-on-a-rollercoaster way. —Josh Stillman

Alfred Hitchcock’s only 3-D film stars the 24-year-old Grace Kelly as a woman targeted for murder by her husband (Ray Milland) and took its tense tale from a Broadway hit. The fullest stereoscopic effect is reserved for two ominous objects, a room key shown in close-up and a pair of shiny scissors. ”A murder without gleaming scissors,” Hitch explained later, ”is like asparagus without the hollandaise sauce — tasteless.” —Geoff Boucher

The first time nerdy Viking Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) successfully gets his dragon Toothless to fly, the 3-D filmmaking allows the audience to feel Hiccup’s exuberance while racing along the rocky Nordic coastline. But it’s in the film’s climax, with Hiccup and Toothless going up against a gargantuan evil dragon, that the film takes advantage of 3-D’s other great strength — communicating scale. —Adam B. Vary

Even films that put 3-D to good use tend to put an emphasis on candy-colored spectacle. Which is what makes Werner Herzog‘s spelunking documentary such an outlier. Given the rare opportunity to film the impossibly ancient cave paintings inside of France’s Chauvet Cave, Herzog used custom-designed 3-D cameras to bring the mysterious cave to life. By allowing you to look at the paintings, made on the bulbous surface of the cave walls, Herzog argues variously that the paintings represent an early form of cinema and the birth of the human soul. —Darren Franich

Stop-motion animation is particularly well-suited to 3-D. And combined with the delicious eccentricities of filmmaker Henry Selick’s punk-lugubrious style and Neil Gaiman’s story of a girl and her Other Mother, the 3-D enhancements in Coraline are essential to the mood of the madness: Button eyes have never looked so wonderfully, creepily button-y. —Lisa Schwarzbaum

To stunt or not to stunt, that is the question. If the cult favorite dance franchise’s third installment has any bearing, the answer would definitely be the former. Falling squarely in the no-gimmick-spared school of 3-D cinematography, the eye-bulging pop-and-lock hip-hop choreography is in yo’ face as if you were the other competitor. You just got served, dimensionally speaking. —Lanford Beard

Pixar’s buoyant story of an old guy, a young kid, and a house that floats through the sky, all the way to South America, tied to a bunch of balloons, is pretty splendid all on its own. But the addition of subtle 3-D — nothing popping out of the screen! — intensifies the emotional journey, not just the fun of air travel. —Lisa Schwarzbaum

Hollywood’s first major 3-D film, the original 1953 production of House of Wax reaches its 60th anniversary in April but, just so you know, the film’s tragic villain, sculptor Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price), doesn’t do well with candles — not after the wax museum fire that made him a lunatic killer. A horror classic — despite the 1953 review in the New York Times: ” [The film] raises so many serious questions of achievement and responsibility that a friend of the motion picture medium has ample reason to be baffled and concerned.” —Geoff Boucher

This long-awaited third installment didn’t really need an extra dimension to reach out and touch your heart, but Pixar did an amazing job of implementing subtle, seamless effects that added depth and texture to Woody’s world. Eyes likely welled at the end of the 2-D version, too, but the deft execution of 3-D helped make your old friends’ adventure even more immediate. —Jeff Labrecque

Twisting, turning, whirling, leaping dancers bounce out from a stage, or a street corner, in Wim Wender’s documentary showcasing late German choreographer Pina Bausch’s emotional, passionate moves. Wenders employs a subtle, beautiful use of 3-D that doesn’t hit you over the head but rather feels totally organic. —Solvej Schou