LEWISTON – Images of commando guinea pigs, dinosaurs and a house lifted by balloons will soon emerge from local movie screens.

Flagship Cinemas in Lewiston has gone 3-D.

“We’re trying to offer audiences new technology,” said Andrew Poore, the director of operations for the theater chain. “This is it.”

Flagship transformed two of its 10 screens in Lewiston to new digital systems, replacing the traditional 35-mm film used by most cinemas with hard drives and state-of-the-art projectors.

In the case of 3-D movies, the change is startling.

Poore screened a trailer for the animated “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” due out this fall. Through the supplied glasses, the trailer resembled an old View Master image.

But this image moved, seeming to shower the audience with meatballs and hamburgers.

“Cool, huh?” Poore said.

Unlike traditional 3-D with the red and blue lenses, the new 3-D uses clear lenses that hide a high-tech subtlety.

The depth is created by the digital projection’s ability to send 72 images per second to each eye. The left and right eyes see a slightly different image because the lenses are specially polarized, Poore said.

The glasses fit easily over prescription eyeglasses and may be thrown away after the movie.

The Lewiston cinema quietly kicked off the 3-D transition on May 22, showing the recent hit “Monsters vs. Aliens.”

The new technology will get a full kickoff on Friday with the release of Pixar’s “Up,” Poore said. The animated movie tells the story of an elderly man who escapes the world by lifting his home into the sky with balloons.

Other coming movies include “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “G-Force” in July and a 3-D re-release of “Toy Story” scheduled for October.

Poore hopes to draw big audiences.

“Once people see 3-D, they’ll want to see more,” he said. His company is making similar changes to theaters in Waterville and in locations in Massachusetts and Florida. For now, the local theaters in Auburn and Oxford will continue as they are.

Part of the reason is money. Though he declined to say how much the new systems cost, they cost exponentially more than 35-mm systems, he said.

He decided to make the leap because of the growing tide of 3-D movies hitting theaters, he said. Several recent titles could only run in 3-D.

“We couldn’t get ‘Hannah Montana’ or ‘The Jonas Brothers’ because we didn’t have 3-D,” he said.

For audiences, there is also an added cost. The movie studios enforce a $3.50 “up-charge” on every ticket for a 3-D movie. They also prevent the use of discount tickets and passes.

“We have no choice,” Poore said. “It’s a studio requirement.”

On the plus side, the 3-D movement is fueling an upgrade that reaches beyond the gimmick. Eventually most theaters will make the digital leap.

That’s the bet that led Gary Engvold made.

Last week, the head of Integrity Entertainment Systems led the crew that transformed the Lewiston screens.

“This is here to stay,” Engvold said.

Two-and-a-half years ago, his Albany, N.Y.-based business was about to fold. Too few new theaters were opening with the 35 mm equipment. He and his workers underwent training and went digital.

Since then, he has installed digital systems in more than 80 theaters around the country

In some ways, the transformation is similar to the conversion of LPs to CDs a generation ago.

“Most of the time, they come at 24 frames per second, just as they have for decades,” he said.

Currently most movies are shown on 35 mm prints. They must be delivered to theaters by courier and arrive in metal boxes. The prints are still kept in reels that contain about 20 minutes of film on each.

When they arrive at the theater, the reels are spliced together and assembled onto a large platter.

The new technology replaces all of that.

With the digital system, the movie arrives on a hard drive. Assembly of the film now means little more than dragging and dropping on a computer screen to add the trailers.

Where older prints commonly carry scratches, the movie will look the same three weeks later as it did on opening night, Engvold said.

It’s a quality Poore plans to pass on to audiences who watch movies in the digital cinemas. He also connected the screens to Blue-Ray systems for showing DVDs.

This summer, he is planning to open the theater for three mornings a week – Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – for free showings of such children’s’ movies as “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Kung Fu Panda.” The series is slated to begin on June 30.

“We’re trying to give back to audiences where we can,” he said.