Friday, July 31, 2009

This is Blue Leader to Blue Bikes.

Okay, I’ll admit it… growing up, I never had a Nintendo. And no, I didn’t have a Sega either. I had an Intellevision II, which was like a knock-off of a ColecoVision, which was more or less a knock-off of an Atari. But the good news about this was one game and one game only: Tron Deadly Discs. This game was rad and not only did I master the double disintegration disc throw, I could also perform the complicated disc block—shattering opponents discs into pieces. I was radical.

Not only was I a huge Deadly Discs fan, I was also a massive fan of Tron the movie, Disney’s 1982 feature film adaptation. This flick, starring a very young and hip Jeff Bridges, was WAY ahead of its time with incredible computer graphics, ultra-futuristic production design and some killer Frisbee action. And I mean “killer” in more ways than one.

Disney just released what they’re calling a “VFX Concept Test” for their 2011 sequel called Tron Legacy and I have to admit that it looks pretty fa-reaking awesome. It also stars Jeff Bridges and seems to keep continuity from 1982 to the present. You can check it out in full QuickTime™HD by clicking right here.

The effects look amazing, but there are three little things I’m worried about. First I hope the costumes in this clip are just for this light-bike test, I along with tons of other fans love the original style costumes. Second, I miss the light-cycles moving in only right angles while “on the game-grid”. And Finally, I’m totally not digging the ring-style discs. Anyone who knows Tron, knows they’ve gotta be Frisbee-style discs. Cuz, how do you drink from a ring? You’ll hafta check out the original to see what I mean.

There was also this sort of stick-it-to-the-man/anti-Big Blue vibe in 1982’s sci-fi classic. So we’ll have to see if Tron 2.0 goes after any modern-day mega companies, especially with Steve Jobs’ stake in Pixar—which essentially leads all Disney animation nowadays.

1 comment:

Justin said...

Love it.