TRON

Tron is one of my favourite films of all time, it was released in 1982 by Walt Disney Pictures some four years before I was born. It is one of those films that has such a strong design style that its appeal to me has gone beyond the plot and the actual film. I love the look of the film. It’s minimalistic, functional but with great contrast with bright colours that you get from DOS or Mac’s Terminal. Whilst never reaching blockbuster status, Tron became a very popular cult hit and a staple for holiday time tv schedules.

The original film has gone on to give birth to several arcade games following the theme of lightcycles and the story beyond the original film has been played out in the computer game Tron 2.0. The luminous trimmed outfits and blocky early 80′s graphics have been looked upon fondly by many as the dawn of modern day computer graphics integrated with live actors.

Now, 28 years after the original film, a sequel is in post production and is due for release next year. The film will be shot entirely in Disney 3D and will be of IMAX 3D standard and as Billboard report Daft Punk, Everyone’s favourite Paris based electronica-dance-funk duo have created the score for the film which is a perfect decision from the guys at Disney and will give the film the ideal digital soundtrack.

You can watch the trailer here and judge for yourself what you think. From what I can see, the film is a lot darker that the first. Of course a lot of the teenagers or pre-teens who would have been the target market back in 1982 will now have teenagers or pre-teens of their own who have grown up in a very different world.

I am very much looking forward to the release, I like the design of the new film and I hope Tron Legacy sets as much of a standard for digital graphics as the original did. One final point on the design front… How about this for an updated lightcycle? (image from the wonderful site Geeksix)

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