Tron: Uprising Presents A Bold Digital Realm
Tron: Uprising, the new Disney animated series, follows the adventures of a young program called Beck (Elijah Wood), who becomes a heroic rebel leader in a virtual realm that exists within computers. This reality is the Grid that was visited by humans in the films and the series focuses on the programs that exist as distinct entities within the Grid.
The series actually takes place between the two films and has many aspects and references to the films, which will delight fans, while adding nuances and layers to the unique digital world. The cityscapes are wonderfully detailed and build upon the architecture seen in the Tron films. The result is that the digital world seems more complete, more vibrant, and more alive. Kudos to Disney's animation team for pulling off this feat.
Disney released a preview episode on iTunes, YouTube and on the Disney Channel that sets up the series and is a must viewing to understand what is going in with the regular series. In that preview called "Beck's Beginning" viewers are introduced to Beck a young happy-go-lucky mechanic and disc player in the distant Grid city called Argon. He has a joyous existence with his friends until the forces of the tyrannical program called Clu arrive and occupy the city.
Clu, is a doppelganger program of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges in the films) that became corrupted, took over the Grid and betrayed the heroic program Tron (Bruce Boxleitner, who reprises his role by providing the voice of Tron in this series).
After Clu's forces, which are led by General Tesler (Lance Henriksen), kill or derez Beck's friend, he decides to strike back against Clu's reign. Tron by this time has become a cult hero who was supposedly killed by Clu. So Beck decides to assume Tron's identity to inspire a revolution. Along the way he encounters enemies and allies including Tron himself, who passes on the mantle to young Beck.
Some of the graphics of Tron: Uprising are beautiful and faithfully represent the digital world of Tron but while the series is computer animated the series, on the whole, has a more traditional animated feel. It isn't an obvious approach but it helps distinguish it from the films. But in trying to set itself apart from the films the series goes too far in terms of the characters' anatomy that are grossly disproportional; characters are drawn with long, giraffe-like legs! It can be distracting but it doesn't detract from the show. Many sequences are simply stunning to watch and capture the essence of Tron, especially the latter film Tron: Legacy. It's an auspicious start for an animated series, one can only hope that future episodes maintain the quality seen in the first few episodes.
The digital world of Tron lives on with Tron: Uprising and it can be enjoyed by fans of those films, and even those who haven't seen them.
Lewis T. Grove