The new trailer for Monsters, Inc. 3D (Dec. 19) might not show off the same complexity as Finding Nemo 3D, but there’s plenty of potential for enhanced depth of field in Pete Docter’s directorial debut, and the amusement park-like climactic chase will surely be more dynamic and immersive. This will be also a nice set up for the upcoming Monsters University (June 21, 2013).

“There’s an interesting balance in catalog titles because the older the film, the simpler the [3-D] complexity, but the harder it is to convert the software files to the latest technology,” explains Josh Hollander, Pixar’s director of 3-D production. “The primary challenge is just gaining access to the original assets and creating a production pipeline that works. The software that was used when we originally created the film no longer exists in that form, since software is constantly being improved and upgraded. We have this digital archeology to dig into the past and create a technical pipeline that uses pieces of the old software and pieces of the new software together. From there we have to get each shot to render, and lots of problems can occur as a result of the changing software as well as changes in our systems infrastructure. There are a lot of files that are missing, we either can’t find them or they are in a different storage location, so that’s the next challenge. Then you get into actually rendering the film and identifying the challenges that arise when making a 3-D version from the original 2-D version.”