By Lisa Conley
Round Table online editor-in-chief

Raking in close to $30 million during the first weekend of its limited two-week run, the “surprise success” of Disney’s The Lion King 3D has resulted in the scheduled 3D re-release of Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, the latter of which is currently already in theaters.

While many people seem eager to bathe in the rosy light of childhood nostalgia, I remain skeptical. Call me an embittered-cynic, but I adamantly refuse to buy into the money-making scheme that is these re-releases. Why spend almost $15 to watch a movie that I already own and can enjoy from the comfort of my home?

Granted, my VHSs are not 3D, but I have yet to see a movie that uses the technology so affectively that it actually makes a difference that it’s in 3D. Even the 3D effects of last year’s big-budget Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 were less than impressive.

George Lucas announced that the entire Star Wars series would also be re-released in 3D, one after the other, beginning early this year. Although this concept is slightly more appealing to me because I do not, in fact, own these movies, I still cannot bring myself to spend money on something that I have previously seen. Yet given the cult-following of these beloved sci-fi films, the re-releases will undoubtedly be a box-office slam dunk, inspiring more companies to follow suit.

Perhaps instead of exploiting the popularity of classic movies, movie studios should focus their efforts on creating new, original movies; movies that, given time, will become a set of classics for future generations.