First Tron: Uprising Episode Rises Up Online

[John Funk]

First Tron: Uprising Episode Rises Up Online

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A young program rises up against the oppressive rule of Clu.

Disney's Tron: Uprising is a 10-episode prequel to 2010's Daft-Punk-powered hit Tron: Legacy. That technically makes it a prequel to a sequel, which I think they're calling an interquel these days. It takes place after Kevin Flynn's alter ego Clu turns on his creator, kills the great warrior Tron, and takes over the entirety of the "grid," the computer world in which they all live.

The first episode was released online earlier this week, and you can catch it here to the right. If you don't want any spoilers at all, I recommend you stop reading this article right about ... now.

Still with me? Good. Uprising follows a young mechanic named Beck, who rebels against Clu's lieutenant General Tesler after his hometown of Argon City is conquered and his friend "de-rezzed." (The grid term for death, natch.) Beck takes up the mantle of the legendary Tron to try and inspire the populace to open revolt, winds up over his head, but is then taken under the wing of the real, actually-not-dead Tron to train as his successor.

This first episode is pretty formulaic and you'll probably be able to see almost everything coming, but this still shows promise despite the paint-by-numbers. The visuals are very Tron-esque with a terrific art style, the action sequences are solidly choreographed and animated, and the music sounds like it was lifted directly from Legacy. Given how great the Legacy soundtrack was, that isn't a point against it.

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out, particularly since it takes place before the events of Legacy. Beck's revolution could hence be doomed to failure, which would be surprising for something produced by Disney.

Tron: Uprising will begin airing on the Disney XD channel on Thursday, June 7th.

Source: Entertainment Geekly [http://www.entertainmentgeekly.com/2012/05/13/tron-uprising-watch-the-first-episode-now/]

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[Galimor]

*Sigh*

International people are getting screwed over by youtube again. Can't watch the video. Seems awesome though, I really liked the movie. I'll look forward to seeing more from Disney about the Tron universe.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Err it's not available for us Brits. While you did praise it, I am otherwise not convince when I saw the trailer (especially when they were using a downgraded version of one of Datf Punk soundtracks), still I may changed my mind and give it a try.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Not available for us Canadians either


crrraaaaapppp!!

captcha: graveyard shift, oh HELL NO! I ain't EVER doing graveyard shift again! Fucking stupid lame ass working shifts thing

 

[V8 Ninja]

I'm not gonna lie; while I love the fight choreography and direction, I'm not a huge fan of the dialogue and I'm not remotely fond of the character designs. Other than the dialogue being generic, why does everyone look emo? Is Argon City in the "Emo" section of the Grid?

 

[Scrustle]

Wait, what? There's already a prequel to Tron Legacy in the Tron Evolution game. Where does this all fit in to the canon? Why can't they just make a sequel?

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well that makes little sense as a prequel given the reveals in the movie and what happened with Tron and everything....

Not to mention why they bother to call things "Tron" when he's barely in it.

That said, I thought that the Tron sequel had a mediocre performance, I didn't think it was a "hit" by any stretch of the imagination. I could be wrong, but most of what I saw about it around the time of it's release hardly seemed to be saying "blockbuster". That said, I am glad Disney still has plans for the property, and if I was wrong about it's performance, so much the better. I personally thought the movie was lacking, but I felt the whole thing had some potential to be modernized.

 

[Therumancer]

I'm not gonna lie; while I love the fight choreography and direction, I'm not a huge fan of the dialogue and I'm not remotely fond of the character designs. Other than the dialogue being generic, why does everyone look emo? Is Argon City in the "Emo" section of the Grid?

Well, most mass media properties are a generation or so behind reality, and with Disney it's two or three. Everyone probably looks Emo because Disney thinks that's what kids find "cool" right now, yet the whole Linkin Park fueled "Emo is cool" thing which lasted about 15 minutes before people got annoyed by it, and it turned into a sort of mock-culture rather than pop culture or counter culture. Disney is probably juas as out of touch as ever, but then again it's never really tried that hard to be on the bleeding edge.

I've always thought that the whole "virtual reality as reality" genere has a lot of promise, but nobody has ever been able to do it right."The Matrix" seemed like it might be on the right track, but then it crashed and burned, I also thought that the whole "The Matrix seems like the real world we live in right now" thing was pushing it a bit. To be honest I kind of think that Tron's design sensibilities and sense of fantasy and wonder, combined with some of the early writing and directing of the Warshwski brothers might be able to finally do it right. Not a crossover or something, but a combination of styles. Between them The Matrix and Tron have everything you'd need to do this right, but neither managed to hit all the right buttons the right way.

 

[yellowmage]

Haven't watched this yet, but, being a Brit, I apparently might as well not even try.

I'm just wondering how quickly I'd find a continuity clash with Tron: Evolution. Any of them (PS360 version, PSP version, Wii/DS versions (Battle Grids) All different places in the continuity. (And you thought Kingdom Hearts was bad!)). Would any Yanks (or others capable of actually getting to the video) care to take up my cause?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Well, it wasn't bad at all, I'll give it that. But it seems to be cribbing quite heavily from Batman Beyond, both in overall tone and character design.

Not that Batman Beyond is something terrible to crib off of, mind you.

 

[Goofguy]

Looks like I'll have to wait this one out, being from Canuckland and all.

I understand the franchise needs to be easily identified but the lack of Tron himself is kind of lame. Frankly, I don't even know why they called the first movie Tron.

 

[Tanis]

There IS a way to get around the whole 'not available in your country' BS

OT:
Eh, I guess it'll be something to watch seeing as how House, Castle, and Bones are all going to be ending soon.

 

[Porygon-2000]

John Funk, you are a cruel, cruel man. Why else would you put something up that only 1/23 of the population can enjoy?

 

[Starik20X6]

Why do they even allow them to region lock an internet video?! It's not like they have to pay to ship a copy out to me. How am I supposed to watch it now?

Spoiler: Hmm...

 

[Rainforce]

Why do they even allow them to region lock an internet video?! It's not like they have to pay to ship a copy out to me. How am I supposed to watch it now?

Spoiler: Hmm...

read about why most music videos are banned blocked in germany. (GEMA, etc.)
you cannot fathom the stupidity behind this.

also, locked out as well, of course. they really don't want any of our attention, do they.

 

[Nuttydwarf]

hmmm, that was a good vid.....well acutally it's just better then most of the c**p they're putting out these days.

 

[albinoterrorist]

Beck ends up not just failing, but completely blowing Tron's cover which lets him be corrupted by Clu.
Oh, and the military girl derezzes Tesler.
Totally calling it.

 

[deathyepl]

I'm just wondering how quickly I'd find a continuity clash with Tron: Evolution. Any of them (PS360 version, PSP version, Wii/DS versions (Battle Grids) All different places in the continuity. (And you thought Kingdom Hearts was bad!)). Would any Yanks (or others capable of actually getting to the video) care to take up my cause?

I've played the PS3 version of Evolution, and I didn't find any glaring continuity errors in this episode. My understanding is that they'd planned for this before they started production on the game or the newer movie, so hopefully continuity won't be much of a problem.

I am a sucker for Tron, so I understand that many folks will disagree with me, but I quite enjoyed this. There may be pros and cons, but I at least take comfort that it's not by Michael Bay. ;-)

 

[Coffinshaker]

wow, good job disney! of all people to embrace the new digital streaming age, I didn't think it would've been them! hope they post all the videos... not cheap out like other networks that post like 1 or 2 from a few seasons back.