Twenty Five Years of Tron 156
the_quiet_angeleno writes "I have an article in today's Summer Film Preview issue of Los Angeles CityBeat on Disney's sci-fi classic Tron, which is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year. The piece includes a discussion with Richard Taylor, one of Tron's visual effects supervisors on the film's groundbreaking effects, as well as director Steven Lisberger, on how the narrative incorporates the Jungian concept of individuation. Here's a sample: 'Visual Effects Society member Gene Kozicki, of the L.A.-based visual effects house Rhythm & Hues, believes Tron's legacy was in moving computer-generated visuals into the realm of storytelling. "Research into this type of imagery had been going on for over 15 years, but it was more scientific in nature," Kozicki says, "Once artists began to share their ideas and treat the computer as a tool, it moved away from strict research and towards an art form."
Tron! (Score:5, Funny)
Storytelling? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sadly, there was not a lot of compelling storytelling in that movie. The script was pretty bad, as was much of the acting (my opinion of course)
Tron opened against ET, and it bombed at the box office. Some people say that Tron's failure at the box office set back CG animation by 10 years. Most studios back then saw the technology as expensive and not worth the investment. Only after CG got it's feet wet in commercials and broadcast in the 80's did the movie studios embrace it again.
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That didn't stop it from gaining a cult following, several computer games, and this article. You can criticize the movie all you want, but the people who made it are already more famous and influential than you will ever be. They must have done *something* right.
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Re:Storytelling? (Score:5, Informative)
But it featured CG... The entire lightcycle sequence, for instance - well, not counting shots of the characters or the interiors of the vehicles...
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Re:Tron's box office numbers (Score:1)
Re:Tron's box office numbers (Score:5, Interesting)
To be blunt: What happened?
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There is also a recent comic book series about TRON. It continues the story from both the movie and the game.
Also, in the game Kingdom Hearts II there is a TRON world. As with the first Kingdom Hearts game it features many worlds, most based on a different Disney movie.
The real TRON sequel, video game, and comic (Score:3, Informative)
As the grandparent stated, the TRON 2.0 video game is absolutely the genuine sequel to TRON. The plot is solid, the gameplay is great, and the environment is oh-so-compelling- far superior even t
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Would you change your mind if they cast "The Rock" in some role or other?
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Speaking of Tron and ET... John Williams was the composer for ET, Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, and just about every other movie I can remember the theme song to. I've often wondered how things would have turned out if he composed the theme for Tron and someone else did Star Wars. Seriously, check out his movie credits:
John Williams [imdb.com]
Nuts to storytelling. Would it have been so easy to accept that terrible Star Wars dialog without the awesome theme music to carry things along?
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Re:Carrying a movie (Score:2)
I'll submit James Earl Jones as carrying the movie. The actor voicing MCP tried hard, and came up with a close second. Together they created the "Voice of Evil" sound.
However, Star Wars was also full of flashy exploding stuff... which all science fans know wouldn't actually make any of those sounds. Would it have carried so well if all those battles were silent? Also, I think the storyline of Tron, however clunkily rendered, was far more advanced for its time and the audience simply didn't have the tech bac
Last Starfighter (Score:5, Informative)
And, it *was* expensive. Unless you were after the CG look of the time, there was no reason to use CG.
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The Last Starfighter was a remake of The Music Man, only in space and without the music.
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--I cried when one of the little droids "died" cuz it couldn't hold on to the ship.
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"Poor Louie, God bless him... he's not with us anymore. "
You can thank me later.
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Good old Bruce Dern; what a classic.
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To be kind, I think maybe it's a generational thing. It was Disney after all. It really is a kid's movie and I was too old at the release to connect with it. Nothing inherently bad about that either way.
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It featured Common Gateway Interface? That seems rather unusual.
Perhaps there were, but I'm still trying to work out what Common Gateway Interface has to do with making movies.
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Back then the technology WAS very expensive, not worth the investment -- as well as limited and very complex.
The movie was pretty much an experiment, first and foremost.
Honour it! (Score:3, Informative)
Well worth playing, but not the best (Score:2)
If you can find a copy it's absolutely worth picking up, even at full retail. However, any retailer that has
Bring in the logic probe! (Score:5, Funny)
I also said "Greetings, programs!" way more often than I should have...
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http://aliens.humlak.cz/aliens/aliens_papirove_mo
It looks really neat and should be on any Geek's desk.
Is that a logic probe in your pocket... (Score:2)
More than just movies (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More than just movies (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More than just movies (Score:5, Funny)
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Actually I've got a lot of respect for Jay. He made the effort to create something and did a good job of it. Must be kickass at costume parties and halloween.
Just remember to wear a cup next time Jay, m'kay?
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Everyone, (including GP, no doubt) upon seeing the headline, was thinking of nothing else than the Tron Guy, hoping no-one would post a picture. There you went and spoiled it all..
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(And if you read this, Jay: no offense, but seriously.)
enough said (Score:1)
TRON was just the (Score:1, Troll)
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Tron: First Cyberpunk movie. (Score:2)
Tron was the first movie to ponder the concept of life inside a computer or a computer network. Even though Tron's worldview was more the black-and-white traditional superhero/space opera good-vs.-evil worldview rather than the more nuanced, shaded, and shady world of what we now know as Cyberpunk, it pos
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I think that was around the same time as "Otherworld" and "V: The Series".
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Automan, god those 90 degree turns were funny.
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Too many festivities (Score:1)
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Homeland security risk? (Score:2)
Was it a joke or something?
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Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 11:29:57 AM EST
Probably aiming for April 1 and missed.
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If you say so. (Score:1)
Now, a movie that came 5 years later is being touted as one that opened the doors to computer generated effects as art and a compelling storytelling platform. Someone's not blowing their own horn I hope?
And, seriously, a movie that sucked hard compared to A New Hope.
Mod me down, but
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Two words: Midichlorians.
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The DVD commentary is about the effects (Score:5, Interesting)
The funny thing was it didn't win an Oscar for special effects that year because the Academy felt they had "cheated" by using computers. (Of course, the computers were so slow they had to plan every shot out in detail because 'rerendering' would have taken too much time. And they communicated the data over the phone... by reading the numbers out loud.) Interesting to see how attitudes have changed.
Tron's Real Legacy (Score:3, Insightful)
The script was dull, and acting was horrible. That was the first time I ever walked out of a movie theater wanting my money back.
The Big Tron-bowski (Score:1)
"On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy."
"I shouldn't have written all of those tank programs."
I'll see your IT-related quotes and raise you one (Score:3, Interesting)
Dillinger: Doing our business is what computers are for!
Did Jung suggest we kiss our code? (Score:5, Funny)
As for which is the dumber movie about computers, I'd say it's a toss-up between Tron and The Matrix. At least Tron had attractive special effects and wasn't so goddamned pretentious.
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I think it all stems from my secret desire for my motherboard.
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Tron Remake? (Score:1)
It would probably be complete slop if they did it, but I would go see it out of curiosity.
They did a remake (Score:3, Funny)
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Oops not funny anymore
Troff (Score:1, Interesting)
Let us remember the TV Show: Automan (Score:2, Informative)
Where Glen A. Larson (what show didn't he make during the 70s/80s?) took the idea of Tron and ran with it for 12 episodes.
Where every episode involved a car chase in which Automan eluded the bad guys because he could make 90* turns and they couldn't.
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There's another show to mention: ReBoot. In a way, I see ReBoot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReBoot/ [wikipedia.org] as what TRON had the potential to be.
Twenty five years of Tron? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's Ironic (Score:2)
I read an article recently at http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/3/28/132751/380 [kuro5hin.org] - the department of Homeland Security has classified Tron as "sensitive" because some locations were filmed at a nuclear research facility, and they're worried about 25 year old nuclear secrets being revealed. They're appare
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Tron Rulez! (Score:2)
"Since Tron", not "Of Tron" (Score:4, Funny)
It's not like Tron has been in your face, except for the odd past-pop-cultural reference over the decades.
OB Simpsons Ref:
Homer: Uh... it's like... did anyone see the movie 'Tron'?
Hibbert: No.
Lisa: No.
Marge: No.
Wiggum: No.
Bart: No.
Patty: No.
Wiggum: No.
Ned: No.
Selma: No.
Frink: No.
Lovejoy: No.
Wiggum: Yes. I mean... um, I mean, no. No, heh.
Tron did not suck... (Score:5, Insightful)
As many, I was there and it was clearly groundbreaking. I distinctly remember that I had not been moved by imagery like that since I was little and saw my first Harryhausen or later 2001. Not from the script, which was Disney, but the imagery and immense scale, especially the light cycle race and the tank chase.
Sitting in a theater on opening weekend, huge screen and high quality audio, its few minutes of CGI and music, it was clearly a demonstration of things to come.
I can't help but think... (Score:2)
The problem is that if they had tried that with the hardware they had then, the movie would still be rendering today and would probably not appear in cinemas until all of its actors were retired.
See, software HASN'T changed that much in the intervening time; you s
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Remember the hot babe in Caddyshack?!?! (Score:3, Interesting)
"I wanted to go to Illinois Institute of Technology and become an Engineer, but when I went to open house it was all guys. I kind of got scared. I was a little freaked out. I got over that obviously. I was a geek."
http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2005/cindymorgan
*sigh*
17 Hours of Tron (Score:2)
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One of my favorite bad movies of all time (Score:5, Insightful)
I heartily recommend that all Slashdot nerds get copies of *both* (VCI released Dark Star on DVD, both original and theatrical versions). They're both like watching a long, slow inside shaggy dog joke.
What memories. "Computers are for USERS." Was that concept prophetic or what?
--
Toro
Tron made me. (Score:2)
So was it a bad movie? Maybe, but I don't care. It influenced my life in a positive way so greatly that it will alway occupy a place of honor and respect with me.
Tron was a Seed (Score:2)
So when is TROFF's anniversary? (Score:2)
I used to use TRON and TROFF all the time on my old TRS-80. Ah, the memories... line numbers filling the screen like a field of wildflowers.
But it seems like the poor C64 users never had a chance [wikipedia.org] to share my joy. Just the 128, and the rare C16 and Plus/4 had TRON and TROFF.
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So there.
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"Al Gore... This guys a real visionary. His favorite movie is Tron for Christsake!" -- Dennis Miller
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Mod parent up (Score:2)
Star Wars was simply the most over-hyped movie ever. I remember just how overwhelming the quantity of advertising and "news" stories about it were before it even opened. I saw it on a recommendation of my brother and was totally disappointed
It had improved special effects but it didn't have an interesting story, it didn't have any good science fiction element, and it didn't have anything interesting to say.
Tron at least had an attempt at an interesting them
Re:Tron Sucks (Score:4, Funny)
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I still like the effects. One of the big advantages TRON has compared to other movies is that the CG effects are meant to look like CG effects, after all the story plays inside a computer, the CG effects are not used to render a real world environment. Most other movies try to render real world environments and if time progresses they look very soon out of date. TRONs light cycles on the other side still look cool and stylish.