When The Jazz Singer arrived in theaters in 1927, it was far from perfect. In fact, despite heralding the arrival of sound pictures, its audio was quite poor in quality, and it would take many years before the sound in sound films would be accepted as natural. But The Jazz Singer will forever be remembered in the film history books. I'm not so sure that U2 3D will hold the same kind of prestige as that film, but it ought to, because as the first live-action digital 3D film, it is certainly opening the door for a brand new kind of movie experience, one that will likely be the standard in coming decades, if not years.

The problem with U2 3D's prestige could be that it is neither the first 3D movie, nor is it the first digital 3D film. But people have never seen anything like this before, enough that we could consider those early analog 3D films the equivalent of D.W. Griffith's failed 1921 sound film Dream Street, which used poorer technology than The Jazz Singer. And we could consider those recent animated digital 3D movies as the equivalent of the 1926 film Don Juan, which featured a synched soundtrack of music and sound effects, yet no dialogue. Anyway, what I'm saying is that U2 3D must be seen, not necessarily because it's a great film, but because it's an important film, and you can say you saw it when.

Not much of a U2 fan? Well, I'm not either. I've never owned a U2 album (though I will admit to liking most of the band's early singles), and I never had any interest in seeing them live, let alone seeing a concert film of them performing. However, while most concert films are limited to fan appeal -- unless Martin Scorsese or some other great filmmaker shoots them -- U2 3D is obviously different. Plus, it was co-directed by well-known music video director-turned-Hollywood-player Mark Pellington (Arlington Road) and video maker Catherine Owens, who is best known for directing U2's "Original of the Species" video and content for the band's multimedia-filled Zoo TV tour.

If not for the unexpected box-office success of March of the Penguins, Arctic Tale would never have seen the light of theatrical release. The documentary would have ended up as a National Geographic special on whatever TV channel nature shows are broadcast these days (remember, I don't have cable), and I suspect a slightly less glitzy star than Queen Latifah would have narrated the show. However, Paramount Vantage is gambling that families will flock to theaters to see more polar adventures with adorable animals, even if the animals aren't doing anything we haven't seen before.

The success of March of the Penguins is that it introduced many of us to a phenomenon of nature: the mass marches and other rituals that make up penguin conception and birth. If you're a fan of nature shows you may have known all about the penguin march, but most of us did not. Unfortunately, Arctic Tale does not focus around a similar phenomenon. The movie concentrates its story around a baby polar bear and a baby walrus as they struggle to survive in the Arctic mountains and islands ... especially since in recent years, the ice melts earlier and forms later every year. The phenomenon here is actually global warming, although it is never mentioned by that name, but it is not a radical enough catalyst to muster much interest. The animals themselves are simply too predictable -- they swim, hang out on the ice, wrestle, hunt, and eventually grow up.

It should be a green-tie affair at the opening night gala of this year's Tribeca Film Festival. The event, happening April 25, will be hosted by Al Gore and is set to feature some entertainment that will focus on the global warming issue. This entertainment is part of a partnership with the SOS (Save Our Selves) Campaign, which raises climate crisis awareness and will include live performances from some of the artists participating in SOS' Live Earth concert series happening on July 7. The acts set for the gala weren't revealed, but some of those involved with the Live Earth shows include Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Mayer, John Legend, Black Eyed Peas, Korn and Melissa Etheridge, who recently won an Oscar for the song she wrote for the Gore-featured documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Also, the night will include the premiere of seven short films, each of which deals with the problems and the solutions of the crisis and each of which is shorter than ten minutes. The directors and titles of these shorts were not yet revealed either, because the seven showcased films have not been chosen yet. They will be selected by the festival's planners from the 60 shorts that were commissioned by SOS. Some of the filmmakers who participated include Jonathan Glazer, Kevin Macdonald, Abel Ferrara, Amy Berg, Ari Sandel, the doc duo Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady and someone from Aardman Animation (Peter Lord? Nick Park?). It isn't completely made clear, but it seems that all 60 of the commissioned films will be shown during the Live Earth event. So, if you can't make it to New York City for the world premiere of the seven shorts, you can see at least those if not all of them at one of the concerts (so far the only locations announced are Shanghai, Sydney, London and Johannesburg, while the cities in the U.S., Brazil, Japan and Antarctica are TBA). I probably won't be able to attend the gala or one of the concerts, so hopefully there will be another place for me to see the films. After all, this is the best news for shorts fans since Cannes' announced its own opening night compilation.

Learning is fun -- especially when done in 3-D! National Geographic is working with Real D, the leading 3-D cinematic technology provider, in order to bring their films into regular theatres. National Geographic currently makes films viewable in museums, science centers (if you're in Los Angeles you can see it at the reopened Griffith Park Observatory) and other learning facilities. These museums are already equipped with the 3-D technology -- mostly known as IMAX theatres.

Real D will distribute two National Geographic documentary films in 2007 giving them a wider theatrical release than they are used to. Real D is also working to bring their 3-D technology to more theatres nationwide. National Geographic has also decided to keep these films separate from the competition by making screening times during the day and not conflicting with show times for more mainstream films. These films will be geared toward a school-aged audience; they are expecting that most ticket sales will be to school groups for field trips.

I can't even remember the last time I watched a film in 3-D. It very well may have been the Honey I Shrunk the Kids show at Disneyland back in the 80s. I'm not even sure as to which theatres provide 3-D as an option in my area. I do think that National Geographic may be doing themselves a disfavor by not broadening their audiences beyond the young kids. As a fan of documentaries I think that it would be that much more of a draw to watch March of the Penguins in 3-D -- you'd actually feel like you were migrating with them, minus the possibility of freezing to death.

Since Americans already went crazy for a French movie set in a very cold place, Paramount Classics and National Geographic figure it's pretty much a no-brainer that we'll dig another one. To that end, they spent about $12 million - supposedly outbidding several other distribution houses - to acquire the rights to The White Planet, a French documentary about the plants and animals that live at the North Pole (in other words, a whole world away from where the penguins we know and love reside). Shot over the course of three long years, the movie is currently in post-production, so its ability to attract an audience is unproven. The film's producers expect to have it in French theaters at the end of March, however, and Paramount is clearly hoping that it turns out to be wildly popular.