Tron: The Original Classic Special Edition (Two-Disc Blu-Ray/DVD Combo)

PLOT: 

A disgruntled software engineer on a search for evidence that the successful videogame he created was stolen from him by the current head of monolithic software company ENCOM is transported inside a mainframe computer where he is forced to do battle against the evil Master Control Program.  Shininess ensues.

It's TRON.  Either you love it or hate it.  I don't know of anyone who thinks of the film as High Art, but there's no doubt that it was groundbreaking, in its day, and remains visually unique amongst films.  The best way to view TRON is to lower your expectations for great dialogue and a cohesive plot and just sit back and let the stunning visuals and creative sound design wash over you.

IMAGE QUALITY:

In terms of those visuals, Disney's Blu-Ray release delivers. I have never seen TRON look so good.  The image, whilst definitely revealing the idiosynchrosies of the unique production process of the film, is detailed, steady, and colorful.  Oh, so colorful.  TRON is a film that absolutely explodes with color and never has a home video release shown off those colors like this one.

SOUND:

As for the sound, the good news is that Disney doesn't seem to have tinkered too much in order to update the soundtrack for modern ears.  The bad news is that TRON's soundtrack quality isn't quite up to the standards to which we have become accustomed.  It's perfectly fine.  There is some nice, though sparingly-used, use of surround channels.  Wendy Carlos' score comes across clearly.  Dialogue is easily understandable.  Just don't expect miracles.  The film is nearly thirty years old.

SUPPLEMENTS:

The special features are informative and plentiful.  That said, if you already own the previous DVD release, you've already seen them.  There are two new brief featurettes focusing on the "Legacy" (See what I did there?) of the film and a visit by Director Steven Lisberger and his son to the Disney Archives to view production stills from the film.  The former is little more than EPK-quality and the second, though far-more-interesting, is something you'll probably watch once.  The running commentary on the film is ported over from a Laserdisc release from the 1990's.  Whilst it's informative, so much has happened concerning TRON since it was recorded, that a new commentary, perhaps including Jeff Bridges, would have been welcome.  One complaint about the new release is that the image galleries of production materials group images together instead of showing each individually.  There is also no option to zoom in on individual images.  The resulting size limitations render the supplement practically useless. In general, I've noticed Disney spending less effort on its supplements over the past year.  Let's hope this isn't going to be a continuing trend.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

To summarize, the HD transfer of TRON far surpasses any other home video release.  If you are a fan of the film, the Blu-Ray is worth picking up just for that.  Just don't expect much new in the way of supplements.

End of line.

In today’s cinematic universe, showing the insides of a computer or game program is mere child’s play. Even the most complex graphics and the most fanciful flights of the imagination can be brought to the screen if one has enough patience, creativity, and money. The two Tron films produced almost three decades apart represent the birth of computer graphics as a creative medium and a mature CGI world where anything is possible. No matter their lapses as narratives, the two films are fascinating examples of what the movies are capable of when thoughts can be processed by artists and rendered in images heretofore unseen and unimagined.

Game programmer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) found himself fired from his job at computer firm Encom when his ideas were stolen and claimed to be his by Ed Dillinger (David Warner). Dillinger has created a Master Control Program which has been systematically absorbing the other company programs and has now become powerful enough to dominate even its creator who must carry out its bidding. In an effort to overthrow the MCP, company programmer Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) and his girl friend Lora (Cindy Morgan) have created programs that are trying to overpower the Master, but they need help. Flynn convinces them to let him hack the MCP and retrieve proof that he invented those game programs and not Dillinger (and thus get his job back), but in order to get those files, he’ll have to assist in bringing down the MCP completely. As he’s working, the MCP digitizes Flynn and sucks him into the system where he meets the digital program counterparts to his friends: Alan is called Tron and Lora is called Yori. They’re battling to the death against Dillinger’s master program called Sark in a fight to the finish for ultimate survival.

The script by director Steven Lisberger may be rudimentary, but the concept is pretty fascinating. If only he could have come up with more involving combat sequences pitting the good programs against Sark’s squadron of evil henchmen and had more engrossing characters for his actors to play. They really are one dimensional embodiments of good and evil both inside and outside the computer, and while the visuals are impressive for their time (it’s easy to understand why fan boys latched on to this film; it looks like nothing else of its period and the visuals are still pretty dazzling more than a quarter century later), even they get tiresome after an hour when there isn’t anything more complex at its core than the flashing colors and impressively differing shapes of this first attempt at pictorializing computer circuitry.

Casting is interesting here as you have two nominal leading men not vying for the hand of a fair lady (she’s already made her choice) but working together for a common purpose. Jeff Bridges has been given the quirkier character while Bruce Boxleitner gets the standard firm-jawed hero part; both are excellent in their dramatically limited roles as good guys. David Warner, at the time the go-to guy for evil charlatans, plays another one here to good if not great effect. The welcome presence of Barnard Hughes is very much in evidence as an older programmer being put out to pasture while Dan Shor makes a nice impression as the third program inside the system assisting in the efforts to defeat the MCP. Not much is asked of Cindy Morgan except to look fetching inside and outside the computer, and she does this with no effort whatsoever.

Video Quality

Tron – 4/5

The film has been framed at 2.20:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. The live action scenes in the real world are stunning in their clarity with sharpness superb and no evidence of the age of the film. Color saturation is terrific and flesh tones are attractively realized. Black levels can vary from good to great at any given time but are almost always pleasingly inky. The animated sequences, however, cause some problems for the transfer. The matte lines sometimes flash a bit and there are some crawling pixels along those thin lines in the suits and backgrounds. The fluorescent colors that are prominent in the computer world sometimes bloom as if they’re out of control. And there is definite banding to be seen in darker colored backgrounds on occasion. The film has been divided into 19 chapters.

Audio Quality

Tron – 4.5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is a very impressive effort taking sound stems from this period and fashioning such an imposing enhanced lossless soundtrack. While some of the real world scenes lack thorough surround enhancement, the computer world is alive with all manner of surround activity, and the depth of the LFE channel will likely impress all but the most hardcore audiophiles. While there are numerous examples of directionalized dialogue, most of the speaking comes from the center channel and is excellently presented.

Special Features

Tron – 5/5

The audio commentary is contributed by director-writer Steven Lisberger, producer Donald Kushner, and special effects directors Harrison Ellenshaw and Richard Taylor. The quartet is proud of their accomplishments and find plenty to talk about in a rather laidback style during the film’s running time without any of them talking over the other one. Fans will enjoy listening to their discussions of the filmmaking process with this unusual-for-its-time film.

“The Tron Phenomenon” features cast and crew of the sequel (along with the producer and director of the original) discussing their high opinions of the film in this 9 ¾-minute featurette presented in 1080p.

“Photo Tronology” finds director Steven Lisberger and his son Carl taking a visit to the Disney archives and looking at and discussing production photographs of Tron. The younger Lisberger asks intelligent questions of his father and makes some astute assessments in this 16 ½-minute father and son featurette. It’s in 1080p.

All of the DVD featurettes below are presented in 480i.

Development features five vignettes about the film’s preproduction period:

• “Early Development” features director Steven Lisberger and producer Donald Kushner speaking of the beginnings of the story conferences. (2 ½ minutes)
• “Early Animation” is some test shots. (½  minute)
• “Computers Are People, Too” explains his story as if one were inside a Pac-Man game. (4 ½ minutes)
• “Early Video Tests” is a silent section of animation. (½ minute)
• “Gallery” is an interactive section featuring hundreds of photos and drawings which the user can flip through and mark for later reference.

Digital Imagery also features five sections on the computer animation to be used.

• “Backlight Animation” shows the stages of matting. (1 ¾ minutes)
• “Digital Imagery in Tron” has Richard Taylor explaining the four companies who combined efforts to render the images in the film. (3 ¾ minutes)
• “Beyond Tron” discusses the special effects work the Magi company did on the film. (4 minutes)
• “The Role of Triple I” features the other major effects house on the movie.; (¼ minute)
• Triple I demo (2 ¼ minutes)

“The Making of Tron” is an 88 ¼-minute documentary going from pre-production through release and looking back on the film’s influences.

Music features two sections with discarded music: the light cycle race (2 ¾ minutes) and the end credits (3 ¼ minutes).

Publicity features the 5-minute reel presented at the NATO conference, a work-in-progress trailer (1 ½ minutes), four theatrical trailers (1-2 minutes each) and the same interactive art gallery named above.

There are three deleted scenes introduced by the director and running 2, ¾, and 1 ¼ minutes respectively. They must be chosen individually.

Design is also introduced by the director and features two vignettes on the light cycles and two vignettes on the recognizers. They must be chosen individually.

Storyboarding features five vignettes introduced by Bill Kroyer. He discusses the storyboarding process, the layout of the main titles, the light cycles storyboard, and the light cycle sequence from the finished film.

Galleries once again offers the interactive four-part gallery section offering hundreds of drawings and photographs from the archives on the movie.

The disc offers promo trailers for Tron Legacy, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Prom, Cars 2, Tron Evolution, and African Cats.

The next disc in the set is the DVD version of Tron.

In Conclusion

3.5/5 (not an average)

Tron is not a great narrative adventure. The good versus evil scenario seems undernourished by today’s dramatic standards but just right if one is looking for an undemanding special effects-laden joyride. The high definition rendering is impressive and captures well the theatrical experience which fans will no doubt welcome.

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC