Tron [Blu-ray]

My son (8) quite enjoyed watching this movie, but probably I wanted to see it more having enjoyed it at the movies back in 1982. The actual film doesn't seem any better than I remember it in terms of picture quality, although apparently Wendy (Walter) Carlos's film score has been recovered as the original analogue master tapes had badly degraded. This Special Edition two disk set seems the same as the '20th anniversary edition' which also has the second DVD of deleted scenes, storyboards, the 88 minute documentary `The making of TRON', etc.. all of which is far more interesting to adults who saw the film as kids back in 1982, rather than todays kids. The extra's are all you could want really and worth a view (you even get Tron's cut 'love scene'). Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner (TRON) are very good considering they were the first to act against a blue screen for mostly the whole movie. David Warner is excellent as MCP and Sark, reprising his equally superb role as The Evil Genius in The Time Bandits (1981). Peter O'Toole had turned down his role (as he didn't fancy acting against a blue screen). TRON is actually a Hewlett Packard BASIC simple debugging command of the period, and stands aptly for "Trace On". So as we all know, "That's TRON. He fights for the users". Let's hope he's still out there. Interestingly, first use of the term `Users' has been credited to this influential movie.

A sequel called TRON 2.0 was in the works, but only the visually outstanding computer game version was released in 2003 (and as in the original film the 'Light Cycles' were a highlight). Despite it's innovation, on release TRON did relatively badly in the cinema (where it looked at its best), and ironically the well received TRON arcade game spin-offs made the most profit. Rumour has it that traditional Disney animators refused to work on this movie because they feared that computers would put them out of business. In fact, 22 years later Disney closed its hand-drawn animation studio in favour of CGI animation, following the rise of Pixar. TRON wasn't considered for an academy award for `animation' at the time, as it was felt that computer aided design cheated (it was nominated for both Best Costume and ironically Sound). In the "solar sail-ship" sequence, look out and see, for a brief moment, the cross-hatched silhouette of Mickey Mouse on the ground made to look like part of the terrain. This DVD's TRON has a 5.1 sound upmix that doesn't really add anything except perhaps a better sounding bass.

So the films worth owning as an historical cinema milestone, although the plot was a bit ahead of its time as many preteen boys, the target audience, naturally weren't quite so into computers and game consoles back then, and arcade games tended to be in 18+ locations. However it s well worth another watch, and the storyline can still hold most boys attention for one viewing (try renting if you don't want to buy even at this knock down price). The film was created in a period when one person could write the whole software, hence the storyline - Tron was the first, and best ever, global computer virus. This film is clearly the grand daddy of the quality movies 'Spy Kids III' and 'Scooby and the Cyber Chase', and is probably even better than both.

Watching "Tron" again filled me with a warm nostalgia for the three-and-a-half minute squawk of my brother's ZX Spectrum loading up on a Saturday afternoon. The impressive thing is discovering how good it still looks.

Of course it's dated somewhat. But the film has such a unique style that many of the computer animation effects still work. The lightcycle race, for instance, is still exciting. Part of this is due to the effective art design, which plays to the strengths of CGI animation of the time. Machines built from geometric shapes have glowing outlines, and look cold and electronic - just as they should.

The live-action element of the cyberworld sequences were shot in black and white and coloured later. This, together with the wonderful costumes gives the film a unique feel - half futuristic, half silent-movie - that prevents the film from dating as badly as other 1980s films. "Tron" does not look anywhere near as bad as most brat-pack films do now - and they were set in the "real world"!

This DVD package is great. The extras are extensive, the animated menus are a delight, and (most important of all) the film itself looks stunning. Best of all is the line, "Without Tron there would be no Toy Story" - said by the director of "Toy Story" himself!

"Tron" is fun and imaginative. Sure there's the odd clunky line thrown in to remind you how "new" computer language was in 1982 ("They couldn't build a circuit that could hold you"). But "Tron" works best as an update of the old black and white serials like Buck Rogers - it's just good, groundbreaking fun.

I first saw Tron when I was a young child, and loved the colours, style and of course the action with the light cycles etc. Now I am older and understand the conceptual representation of humans inside a machine, fighting against computer programs represented as other people, I can see that The Matrix owes an incredible debt of story to this film. Tron stood completely apart from the time in which it was made, and tried to communicate ideas about computing that few people really understood, whereas The Matrix embraced the time in which it was made and presented the ideas in a way that the mainstream could come to terms with, but both are really based on the same premise.

Tron deserves to be viewed and held up as a brave, visually stunning and, for the time, incredibly high concept idea that has stood the test of time. Yes the graphics and effects are dated, of course they are. Is Jaws a bad film because the shark looks like a rubber puppet? The sheer quality of film making does not tarnish with time.