SDCC 2010 TRON Booth

There's a Tron Car???

I am a big TRON nerd, always have been since the day I was one of 5 people in the theater to see the original... on it's opening weekend and I am excited about the new movie.

That said, doesn't the design of the movie strike you as wrong? Doesn't it seem that the people behind this are missing something very important about TRON when they look at suits that look just like real world motorcycle suits and say "That looks GREAT!"? When Lightcycles move like motorcycles - instead of something unique?

Most people don't realize it, but when they made the original TRON they actually did NOT make the CGI sequences look as "real" as they could. They deliberately went light on texture maps and created odd and unnatural movements to the vehicles in the world in order to create the vibrant and unique shapes that still resonate today.

These new designs look "cool" but they don't look like they belong in TRON and I am afraid that those at the helm of Legacy don't 'grok' the principle.

Anyway, hope the new movie is good.

That is basically a direct quote. Both MAGI and Triple I, the companies that did the bulk of the CG work for the film, made statements to that effect. They could have made it more realistic. They didn't want to. That doesn't mean they could have created photo realistic images at that point, but they absolutely could have put more 'realism' into the images if they chose.

I have produced a few historical exhibitions and what people say about a process 20 years later is often different than wh at they said at the time - for various reasons. Yes TRON was pioneering. Did they have techniques for greater realism that they chose not to use? Yes. Again, it's in the ART OF TRON book which was written as the film was produced Is there a quotation from the DVD that says "there were absolutely no other techniques we could have used."? I have the DVD, I even have that spectacular laserdisc edition, but i have not watched that doc in a long, long time and i would go with whiat was said in that (wonderful) book.

This also matches original interviews I did with the creators of the two TRON arcade games when they discussed seeing early footage and the designs and talking with both of the CG firms in trying to sync the images and content of the game to the movie ( interesting side note here, according to George Gomez, one of the designers of TRON, he decided who would be blue and who would be red. At the time of the production of the game they needed to know and Lisberger and his team had not yet decided. They apparently asked for midways input on which would be better for the game. Additionally, the grid bugs played such a large part in the game but the majority of their scenes were cut from the film and they left that one snippet in because that portion of the game had already been largely completed.

The more you know...

Where I was looking forward to it, but unsure before, now I can't wait to take my son and watch it. It is going to be special for me because I was literally a TRON geek from day 1. I am even more excited by the fact that this is shaping up to be a movie about fathers and sons and, again, that strikes me as perfect (and I am looking at this from a very 'I am the demographic' standpoint). From what you can tell of the plot it is looking very cool, it's just that the visuals - particularly the motorcycle suits and the over-machining (Like supposed CLU's helmet breaking up and folding back like we've seen in dozens of movies. Why does it need to do that in the electronic world? It doesn't. It could just de-rezz and vanish. Maybe there's a reason for it that is part of the story but it just gives me the impression that they don't fully 'get it'.

And I really am asking the question, does anyone contradict that statement from ART OF TRON in regard to the CGI on the DVD doc or in the commentary? It would be really interesting to know. I have a whole bunch of conflicting stories from the early days of the vide game industry and very often it is the same people contradicting themselves 10,15,20 years down the road. Sometimes this is for economic reasons as when they were originally interviewed they felt no one would ever be talking about whatever they were talking about 20 years later and on the interim whatever they were talking about is now worth a significant chunk of change - or involves significant recognition. So I am really curious about it (but not curious enough to watch that documentary). Sorry if I sounded snarky. Wasn't my intent. I am of generation Atari, so I sound cranky via e-conversation.

BTW - possibly the coolest thing in that trailer was the poster or vinyl album cover of THE BLACK HOLE on little Sam's dresser.

It will be 'interesting' to see those 'projected face' toys in person. My 7 year old son (who has watched the original probably 10 times or more by now) really likes the new recognizers but "also likes the original ones".

TRON toys seem always to go weird, which is cool.

BLACK HOLE - if they leave the design of MAXIMILLIAN and the CYGNUS alone and then do whatever the heck else they want to do to make a fun movie it will be a win.

When I first saw a few pics of the new Tron toys, I was pretty sure they were going to suck. I'm happy to say now, if these are really an accurate representation of what they'll be when we can get them, I was wrong. They look really good.
Can't await for the movie. I don't have high hopes for that either, and I hope I am again wrong.

But the TRON 2.0 video game was pretty good and the story was satisfying enough, and I was sure THAT would suck. There's always hope.

More importantly (at least to me,) is that white oldschool lightcycle a product, and does this mean we'll see other colors as well?

rumor on these toys is that there are no sculpted faces underneath those masks... instead there's some sort of electronic gimmick where the face of the figure flickers in to give you an image of the character's actual face.

seems pretty cool.

I really want to see these trailers, but I can't. I don't want to be spoiled. I want to be surprised. I want to get blown away when I see this on IMAX.

What I really want is the identity disc that they're selling at Entertainment Earth, that's the sort of Tron toy that I wished they had made when the original movie came out. Of course you could have just used a glow in the dark frisbee and called it an identity disc but that's beside the point.

I am so excited to see this flick that I had to bust out my TomyTronic Tron game :)
Am I the only married guy who's wife thinks he is nuts for loving Tron?

that this is a sequel and not a "re-imagining" of the original.

Awesome, can't wait for this. That Recognizer looks very very cool.