Thoughts on the Animated Show, Tron: Uprising
August 1, 2013 in ANIMATION, ART, WEBSITES
ANIMATION – Thoughts on the Animated Show, Tron: Uprising
The Simpsons Quote:
Homer: “Er…it’s like…has anyone seen that film Tron”
Frink: “No”
Dr. Hibbert: “No”
Chief Wiggum: “No”
Rev. Lovejoy: “No”
Patty: “No”
Chief Wiggum: “No”
Frink: “No”
Marge: “No”
Chief Wiggum: “Yes…wait, I mean NO”
My favorite type of animated TV show is action/adventure. And today I’m going to be talking about Tron: Uprising. Which happens to be an action/adventure animated show.
You can either watch the video or read the transcription below:
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My General Thoughts About the Tron Franchise
I like Tron: Uprising. I watched it OnDemand. I used to have cable at the time. And whenever a new episode would update I’d watch an episode and I loved it.
As a kid in the ‘80s, I watched Tron the Movie. I thought it was weird. It kind of freaked me out a little bit. I wasn’t a huge fan of the movie.
But it was part of my childhood and I liked it okay. It was all right. So then I watched Tron: Legacy because I had seen Tron as a kid. And I made sure that I rewatched Tron before I went to watch Tron: Legacy .
Well, another reason that I liked or at least wanted to watch Tron: Legacy was because I’m a fan of cyber punk. So I watch Tron: Legacy and I liked it okay. I liked it about as much as I liked the original Tron movie.
I like the concepts. I like the idea and it’s a cyber punk movie.
Then I watched Tron: Uprising based on Tron: Legacy .
About Tron: Uprising
The story takes place sometime in between the Tron movie and Tron: Legacy . It kind of is like the bridge story. It’s basically about a program named Beck who takes the place of Tron. He tries to liberate the grid from Clue who has been established as this guy who kind of oppressed the grid.
So the gist of the story is that this character named Beck pretends to be Tron or at least it’s a little bit Batman Beyond-ish where you’ve got Tron and he’s training his new protégé, Beck, who is going to be liberating the grid or at least, this town.
The First Reason Why I Think Tron: Uprising is Cool
But what is it about it that makes me excited? What is it about it that is so good?
First of all, the designs the character designs on Tron: Uprising are designed by this incredible designer by the name of Robert Valley.
Now Robert Valley is amazing. He’s such a good artist, but I really, really like his designs for this show. And the show is a CG show. It’s a computer generated show and somehow they’ve managed to capture the design style, his design style so perfectly and clearly. It’s amazing.
So it’s really eye-candy. The look of the show, the colors, the way that it looks, the way it feels, the graphics, something about it, it’s just pretty, so beautiful.
You Can Watch it (as of the time of this writing) on Netflix
Because I didn’t watch the entire show all at once when it aired as it aired and I only caught it OnDemand I eventually wasn’t able to keep up. I kept forgetting to watch it. I just couldn’t make the time to watch it. So I eventually saw the rest of the show recently on Netflix.
The entire show is on Netflix now, the first season. The show has been tragically cancelled after the first season and that’s a bummer because the way that the season ends is wide open for the next season. It’s left wide open so it’s really disappointing to watch the show and then have it just kind of end, right? And you wanted know what would happen next.
The Second Reason Why I Think Tron: Uprising is Cool
One of the other reasons I really enjoyed the show was because it’s so well-written.
The stories are a lot of fun. It expands on the universe. I don’t know what it is about it, but it just pushes all the right buttons for me.
It has the cyber punk elements. It’s got this guy Beck is wearing this like white Tron suit that looks great and he looks cool. Like I said the visuals are great.
The characters, you get to like them. You get to enjoy their relationships to each other. It does have a little bit of that Batman Beyond vibe. If you like that show, you’d probably really like Tron: Uprising.
Back to Robert Valley , the character designs the caricatures of the actors in this CG show are really great. It captured their likenesses so well. Unbelievable how good they look.
Some of the original actors also voice the characters that they played on the movie.
In Conclusion
It’s a great show. I highly recommend it. Go watch it. It’s great. It’s so much fun.
Rumor has it that if you watch it on Netflix and if it gets good enough ranking on Netflix that they might consider running another season or creating another season. Whether or not that’s going to happen is up in the air.
I don’t know, but it’s worth watching anyway. If you’ve got Netflix streaming or if you can get it on DVD, I highly, highly recommend Tron: Uprising.
Go take a watch.
Have you Watched It?
If you have seen this show, go ahead and let me know so that we can talk about it and see what you have to say about it. I would like to hear what you think about this show.
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I love TRON: Uprising! I’m an old TRON fan from 1982. I got into the movie through the arcade game that was at my neighborhood grocery store down the street from my elementary school.
When TRON: Legacy was first announced I went crazy and kept track of it until it was released. My kids and I loved it in the theaters and still enjoy it at home.
My son and I watched every episode of Uprising as they were released (even though it was difficult to keep up with because of the constant changes in air times, odd breaks in the season, and an evident apathetic approach to the show by Disney XD. I was stunned when it was cancelled — it was too good of a show to simply stop where it did. Too many loose ends we want to see tied-up!
The animation is breath-taking, in a style which honors the original TRON while in the same setting as TRON: Legacy. The designers and animators have done a spectacular job in bridging the gap between Grids. The content is pretty mature, but not over-the-head of my son who started watching it just before his 10th birthday. TRON: Uprising was one of my two “never miss” shows on television before it was cancelled. I would love to see it return for another season!
We’ve been recording reviews and discussions of individual episodes and story arcs on our podcast, “TRON: Decoding the Grid”, and have posted five episodes covering the pilot to “Isolated”.
I’m so going to listen to the podcasts, sounds like a lot of fun.
Disney is STILL treating the show poorly. They don’t want to spend the money for DvDs or Blue Rays. The only way to watch the show is on Netflix or you can buy it from Amazon, one show at a time. I haven’t checked if it’s on iTunes though. Still, it sucks.
The problem with animated shows is that they rely heavily on the toy and merchandize sales. If the shows don’t sell the merchandize, they get cancelled, even when the show is quality.
And there was no merchandise for this show. By the time it came out, the TRON: Legacy toys had already been off the shelves (it, like other lines, faced the struggle of competing for too few dollars of discretionary income for toys along with problems of distribution, some poor sculpts for the 3 3/4″ line, and durability of the toys).
I saw a breakdown somewhere of the cost per show to produce TRON: Uprising vs. the cost per show of the live action Disney sitcoms, and the truth was evident: Even though TRON: Uprising was making a profit, the low-budget sitcoms earned far more money for the company. It’s really too bad. Disney didn’t use TRON to their advantage like they could have. Marketing was virtually nonexistent once the show began, the show was difficult to find (even for DVRs — virtually impossible for appointment viewing), and there was no little to no support through any other medium (books, toys, games). It seemed doomed to fail.
But that doesn’t stop me gushing about the great qualities of the show week after week!