Gleeking Out
So. Over the weekend. Glee 3D Movie Concert Experience Show. Or whatever the title is. It was Glee. It was in a movie theatre. I wore nerdy glasses and forgot my contacts.
It was awesome.
Let me be the first to say that I don’t ordinarily buy into the whole “CONCERT MOVIE LIMITED ENGAGEMENT” gimmick. Nor do I buy into the 3D gimmick. Too much exposure to 3D gives me massive headaches. It’s also usually pointless. This was not the case.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Glee 3D Experiencaganzapalooza has completely turned around my opinions on 3D movies. I loved it. It was great. I wanted more. I was sad for it to end. No headaches.
I wasn’t really expecting much going in, but I did know several things:
1. They filmed some “behind the scenes” stuff, so it wouldn’t just be concert.
2. It would basically be the same tour that we’d neglected to buy tickets for before it sold out.
3. There would be boobs in 3D.1
When the show started, I was skeptical. I’ll be honest. The start you off by showing you a couple of clips of excited fans talking about what Glee meant to them. This was not in 3D. It was also not exciting, nor was it set to music, but I appreciated the effort. This carried on through the whole show between scenes – which was nice, but ultimately we would have rather seen a full concert that included the banter we knew was in the live show rather than the clips in between.
As for the 3D Effect - This was, possibly, the best use of the 3D technology I have seen yet. We were the only people in the theater aside from 2 people sitting a few rows behind us, and the 3D crowd scenes actually made it seem like we were in a stadium full of people. The performers were right there, up in your face, and seemed oddly more real than watching them on a flat 2D screen. The entire thing was brought to life – and without all the computer animation that can make me motion sick or give me headaches, it just seemed like were there, at a concert. There were times that I completely forgot it was in 3D.
The whole thing was absolutely wonderful, and I was surprised to see how much I also enjoyed the mini-stories of the fans in between. It did take away from the concert experience, but watching the clips – a dwarf girl (her own words, not mine!) getting elected prom queen, a gay teen looking to Kurt for support, a girl with Aspergers who made friends because of the show. And then there was the audience – the cameras kept panning around to different people; big people, small people, black people, white people, dads jumping around singing along, moms crying happily, and kids being absolutely thrilled to death that their favorite TV characters weren’t just characters – they were here and real and oh my god Puck’s mohawk in 3D.
It’s funny, I’ve never felt so proud, so impressed by a cast of characters from a television show. Glee is by no means my favorite show of all time, nor do I think they are all the best actors of all time – but these kids stepped it up and recorded music. Learned dance moves. Did this week by week for the TV show, and then turned around and spent their summer performing for fans across the globe. You can tell from the film – and from comments of fans who saw the show live – that they really, truly enjoy what they’re doing. They enjoy spending time with each other. They’re having fun, and it shows, and does remarkable things for their performance.
I had the privilege of meeting Darren Criss last summer. I was at a Harry Potter conference – Infinitus, for those who have been here awhile – and he was with the rest of the StarKid crew (give or take a few people) at their booth in the Vendor Hall. They weren’t signing autographs or anything, that was being saved for the autograph session the next day. But they were just sitting there, chilling, selling merch. So we said hi.
It warms my heart to see someone like him – so genuinely passionate about art and music and just an all around nice guy – go to where he is now. Sure, girls have been swooning over him since long before Glee came along2, but he’s really come a long way. His performance in the film is phenomenal.
All in all, it was worth the money. Cheaper than a ticket to the actual show and the 3D made it feel more real than just watching it on a screen. I’m not one of those drooling fangirls or people who ships things or someone who has cut outs of Mike Chang’s Abs3 on my wall, but I do love Glee. I love what it stands for. I love that the underdog is king, I love that everyone is given a chance to shine. This is 2011, and a show about misfits having singalongs is a hit show on primetime television. Tell that to the guys that wrote In The Heat of the Night. See what they have to say about that.
I’m looking forward to Season 3. I’m not going to freak out over who’s dating who or threaten to stop watching the show because Chord Overstreet is gone4, but I’m going to enjoy it. That’s the whole point of the show – enjoy it, enjoy life, enjoy friends. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
And, er, I guess – Don’t Stop Believin’.
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1. Dudes, seriously, take your girlfriends. Take your girlfriends. There’s a three minute clip in the middle that will make it entirely worth the $50 it costs to see a 3D movie and get popcorn and soda and year-old Reese’s Pieces and what not. Google it if you don’t believe me.
2. Nick actually professed to me while watching the Warblers perform exactly how handsome Darren Criss is. I had no argument.
3. Despite being promised in trailers that there would be MIKE CHANGS ABS IN 3D, there were not, in fact, Mike Chang’s Abs in 3D. This was a sore disappointment.
4. Nick did not know that he wasn’t going to be on the show anymore until I mentioned it halfway through the concert-movie-experience-thing. It was kind of like “Oh, shit? You didn’t know?” Way to drop a bomb, Manda. Eegh. Ah well. I didn’t like Sam anyway.
While I have absolutely ZERO inclination to see anything glee, it makes me smile to read your writings about it.
6 and a half more weeks…