Tron and I have a complicated relationship. The first film is rather dull, but I still love the visual style and creativity. Tron: Legacy is everything you could want in a Tron sequel, but still doesn’t really connect, despite my appreciation for it. But I’m okay with that, and I’m enough of a nerd that I’ve been waiting for Tron 3 since 2011. Disney has finally given the green light to Tron 3, which begins filming in Vancouver on October 5, 2015. So far, only Garrett Hedlund (Sam Flynn) has been confirmed to return, but as long as Daft Punk comes back for another soundtrack, I think I’d be able to roll with anything. Read more…
The moderate success with Tron: Legacy seems to be pleasing Disney, as they’re looking to continue the series. While it had seemed fairly likely that Disney would at least attempt to make a third film, much was still up in the air. Now, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Jesse Wigutow is scripting the whole affair. Justin Springer is returning to produce, and director Joseph Kosinski is slated to return as well. I hope that they can improve on the shortcomings of Tron: Legacy and make an excellent sequel. And Daft Punk should come back for the soundtrack. And more Jeff Bridges. Lots of Jeff Bridges!
Disney XD’s upcoming TRON animated series TRON: Uprising, won’t be airing until June 7th, but for those of you who don’t want to wait, you can catch the entire first episode online. Although it’s not a live-action sequel, the animated series seems promising enough. It certainly has everything you’d expect from a TRON series, from Light Cycles and Identity Discs to spandex outfits, so its about as close as you’ll get to a sequel — at least, for the time being. They even managed to snag decent stars for the voice cast, including Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, and Pee-wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens.
On Disney this June, it looks like we’re getting some more Tron in our lives. Tron: Uprising will be a new CGI cartoon (with the main character being voiced by Elijah Wood) set in the existing Tron universe in which they’re searching for a new Tron. This could either be very cool or very bad – that said, this short teaser does look nice. At the very least, CGI is a perfect artstyle for this series given the setting! Read more…
Here’s a fan-made trailer for a non-existent film set in the Tron universe, entitled Tron: Destiny. Not much is known about the clip, but the production quality is pretty spectacular to say the least. The acting is even decent. These fan-produced shorts keep getting prettier and prettier. Not to spoil it, but I’d have to say he did magnificent job of rendering a light-bike, and definitely leaves us wanting more. It’s a shame that nobody has come forward to claim the video yet. But when they do, I expect we’ll find out more about what he may planned. Maybe an actual web series? It worked for Mortal Kombat.
I have to say that I still find myself letdown on a number of levels with the Tron sequel: The fanboy in me feels that it just wasn’t as good as it could have been, yet I know the reality is that perhaps Hollywood couldn’t do anything more clever than to rip off the Matrix. But the bright side of all of my disappointments is that there is a wealth of cool Tron goodies that have been released onto the market. And on one such case are these cool sets of Tron Kubricks from Japan — if you can just forget the sequel you can relive your childhood. Read more…
Tron Costume Guy and I certainly liked Tron Legacy, even if my boss Mr. Pinto didn’t. So did lots of moviegoers. Disney, for its part, put a lot of time and money into promoting the film, banking on it being successful, and according to Ain’t It Cool News, the film’s profits have just about “hit the tipping point.” AICN reports that Disney is almost ready to announce a third Tron movie, a direct sequel to Tron Legacy. Obviously, nothing is confirmed yet, but Disney’s already working on a cartoon series to make sure the franchise continues to have legs, so it makes sense that another movie would be in the works. Just do me a favor, Disney: more Daft Punk, yeah? Read more…
Okay, so maybe Fanboy head honcho Michael Pinto didn’t particularly like Tron Legacy, but I did! And, at the very least, it’s captured the heart and mind of possibly the world’s biggest Tron fan. That’s right — Tron Costume Guy, who might himself qualify as a digital entity due to his status as a living meme, liked the heck out of Tron Legacy. He even got to review the film for Wired. He compliments the sequel’s logical extension of the plot from the first film, the great soundtrack and, of course, the visual effects. Now, before you say “Well of course he liked it! He’s Tron Costume Guy!”, remember that diehard fans are usually the hardest to please, not the easiest. At least that’s what I’m telling myself when reading a review of a movie from a guy dressed like the guy in the movie he’s reviewing. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 18, 2010 in Animation, Cinema
So as the end credits start to roll in the theater my friend turns to me and says “that sucked!” But my reaction was “Well they did about as good of a job that they could have…” The original Tron was an impressive film on a number of levels, but the heart of the film was that it represented a breakthrough of computer animation on the big screen — but as a film it was quite average. So the problem is that if you’re going to make a sequel over 25 years later everything that was great about the first film is going to be dated. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 1, 2010 in Comic Books
How can you tell that Disney expect the upcoming Tron film to be huge? Because Marvel plans to cash in with a poorly done comic book based on the original film (Tron: Original Movie Adaptation #1) which will be released this week. Clearly the thinking is that fanboys will be nostalgic for the original and will buy almost anything with a Tron logo on it. Sadly a more creative team might have had fun with a creative interpretation of the original and done an amazing graphic novel — instead this preview reveals a bad tracing and coloring job: Read more…
Disney’s making a long-term investment in Tron Legacy, and fans of the original film (or of the actually-decent Tron 2.0 game) should be pretty pleased with that effort — the studio even secured electronica greats Daft Punk to score the film, and the genius of that is difficult to overstate. When I saw the Legacy trailer for the first time, the gritty, thumping soundtrack immediately stood out to me, and I wanted more. Thankfully, it looks like Disney is ready to help in that regard. TronSoundtrack.com just opened its doors, and though there’s not much there right now (a looping theme from the film and a mailing list sign-up), it should be populated with a lot more great tracks like the sneak peeks we’ve heard so far. If you’re a Tron fan and you haven’t already bookmarked the site by the time this article is over, I’d go ahead and sign up for voluntary de-rezzing. Read more…
The goodies are emerging from the San Diego Comic Con this year! The first gem is a longer trailer for Tron: Legacy which shows a great deal more footage than the previous teaser: Read more…
With the upcoming release of Tron Legacy, so many companies are rushing to create toys and games to hype the new film. Fortunately for fans of the original, there are a few new products designed specifically to pay homage to the original film, such as this one here. This Tron “Vintage Figure” will be exclusive to San Diego’s upcoming Comic Con International, and apparently comes with some neat little features, such as a case that lights up, and special arcade cabinet packaging. In addition to looking fantastic, they’ll only cost $40 each and will be limited to only 1,500 units, so you’ll need to pick one up while supplies last. Read more…
Okay, maybe that’s a pretty high estimate, but if you want to prove the Master Control Unit wrong, you’ll need to go to San Diego Comic-Con later this month and be one of the lucky 1,500 to people in line. Why only 1,500? Well, like so many other toys premiering at the event, it’s a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive. Rendered with in a translucent purple, this Be@rbrick features the famous circut design of the outfits from the sci-fi classic. For those of you fortunate enough to be going, you’ll want to head over to the Diamond Comics booth to pick yours up. No word on the price as of yet.
This is the full trailer for Tron Legacy and I like what I see: Disney has some amazing luck — not only does it look like they’ll please the fanboys with this film, but now they have an Oscar winner in Jeff Bridges starring in the picture. I like the fact that the art direction of film stays very true to the original, which makes the Syd Mead fan inside of me happy. Here are some stills from the trailer to ogle at: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 15, 2009 in Videogames
Never judge the game by the trailer — it’s the gameplay that counts! Good I’m glad I got that out of my system because I KNOW that’s true, but the fanboy in me is pre-sold on this because we’re talking about Tron. Now that’s a gamble as it’s a favorite geek franchise from back in the day, but frankly everything in this trailer feels like the perfect update from the quality of the voice over to bringing the look of the original film to the next level. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 25, 2009 in Animation, Cinema
I hate to say it: But it looks like director Joseph Kosinski is doing a nice job with this Tron update! What’s great is that they’ve kept to vision of the original art direction of the film and given it just the right dash of slick. I also like the fact that Jeff Bridges is in this film as well. Hats off to Disney for getting this one right…
Taking him into the maze! Of course being a mouse playing a maze game is second nature when you kit bash Mickey Mouse and Tron. This Tron Mickey Mouse Vinyl Collectible Doll is available for preorder at National Console Support, here’s their description: Read more…
