Thursday, October 21, 2010

Tron: Legacy: Anything but "Cheesy"

A remake of "Tron," the 1982 film that only made $33 million, is not something people saw coming. From the perspective of most young people, the only way they know of Tron is from the viral videos of Tron Guy.

The new Daft Punk/Tron Legacy poster
But Disney has done a great job reintroducing the movie to a new generation. Its upcoming sequel "Tron: Legacy," looks like one of those franchise reboots that gets people excited. Its initial trailer that ran before "Toy Story 3" this summer was very well done, with the recent ones only heightening the excitement.

 I have never even scene the original "Tron," and I feel like for most people who will see the upcoming "Tron: Legacy," their situation is similar.

Disney knows this, and has pulled out all the stops to make it a non-issue. They've instituted the new ElecTRONinca nightly dance parties at Disney's California Adventure park and have also made a replica of Flynn's arcade. Over at the Hollywood Pictures Backlot at Walt Disney World, the area will be made to mimic the interactive, digital world of Tron.

To get people who may look at "Tron" and go "that's just a cheesy kids movie" to take a closer look, they hired Daft Punk to write the score, and from what I can tell from the first trailer, the French duo have don an excellent job.

Disney got Jeff Bridges to come back, who, back when he made the original film was an up-and-comer, is now an Oscar wining actor. Olivia Wilde, former star of "The O.C" and currently featured on "House" will attract the teen audience, and also makes it more difficult to label the film as "cheesy."

The tone of the film seems to be dark and ominous, which translates to me as epic. It looks to have a triple threat: action, great special effects, and a gripping storyline.

Usually, I'm none too pleased with the film part of the Walt Disney Company (Tangled looks average, Pirates of the Carribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl's style and epic-ness seems similar to what this new "Tron" film will provide, but then they gilded the lilly with the second two) unless it's got a Pixar credit to it. But with this new Tron film, I'm excited.

Does "Tron: Legacy" and its tie-ins to the parks excite you, or is it just another overdone integrated marketing campaign from Disney?

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