But none of this will matter a whit to the hardcore fans, for whom Glee: The 3D Concert Movie was designed as a celebratory, self-validating experience. Tancharoen alternates full-song performances with short interviews of deliriously happy fans in homemade, in-jokey Glee-wear. He also delves into the lives of three young Gleeks in particular—a forcibly outed gay teen, a formerly friendless girl with Asperger’s syndrome, and a little-person cheerleader—each explaining how loving Glee taught them to embrace their differences and find acceptance among like-minded souls. Between the song choices (focusing almost exclusively on rousing numbers highlighted on the show, from “Sing” to “I’m A Slave 4 U” to “River Deep, Mountain High” to “Born This Way”), the fireworks-and-confetti-heavy production design, and the upbeat interviews, Glee: The 3D Concert Movie sometimes feels like an Up With People session, with one central message: Glee isn’t just a TV show, it’s a pervasively positive community experience that improves everyone around it.
One amusing disadvantage of the crystal-clear, you-are-there 3-D cinematography, and the focus on the audience experience is that in practically every shot, it’s easy to pick out off-message concertgoers who are bored, tired, or otherwise disengaged. But mostly, the screen is full of howling, bouncing fans of a wide variety of ages, showing their boundless love for their faux-teen idols. (Apart from Gwyneth Paltrow, who turns up to perform Cee-Lo’s “Forget You,” the show’s adult cast doesn’t appear here.) In a handful of group numbers and a series of solo or duet outings, the Glee kids bring huge energy and big Disney grins to their performances, and the ones who can dance throw in a lot of extra bounce-and-twirl to compensate for those whose choreography just consists of endless running back and forth across the stage. It’s a high-gloss, high-impact, extra-shiny production that fits the Glee dynamic to a T: While the show’s characters perpetually angst over the haters, the show itself ignores them, keeps grinning and counting the revenue streams, and sings out for everyone who’s drunk the Kool-Aid. There are worse philosophies.
