Disney Delivers Wows with ‘Tron: Uprising’
Though there are only 2 films to its credit, the successful Tron franchise is frequently mentioned when it comes to landmark special effects. The original film from 1982 set a visual standard back then and that high quality was maintined when Tron: Legacy entered the digital fray in 2010. The series now continues with that same backbone of wowing imagery in the form of the new Disney cartoon series Tron: Uprising.
Make no mistake, some out there may be turned away from this avenue when I mention Disney and cartoon in the same sentence. However, Tron: Uprising stays very true to the entertainment level of its predecessors while bringing viewers into a wonderfully animated environment that combines elements of the traditional ink and sketch along with the more modern use of computer-generated imagery. The creative team behind this project has managed to seamlessly blend the two while combining a solid story that falls at least somewhat in line with the last film.
To catch you up to speed, the last film (Tron: Legacy) partially covered the fall of Tron, his transformation to the evil Rinzler, and then back to Tron by the end, as he slowly sank into the aquatic depths of the Grid he was sworn to protect. The timeline of this series is a little difficult to put my finger on though. CLU was wiped out at the end of Legacy along with what pretty much looked like the entire landscape of the Grid. In this new series, however, CLU is still up and about in a post-Tron age while a new program named Beck seeks to carry on the uphill fight for freedom. While the upstart underdog story is one we’ve previously seen used in other genres, it serves its purpose well here and is executed with believability. Beck has his faults as a program and is certainly not invulnerable, giving the show a welcomed degree on unexpectedness.
A good story, however, can be sunk by a roster of insufficient acting talent. Thankfully, we don’t even have to come close to worrying about that here. Maintaining casting continuity, Bruce Boxleitner, the original Tron, renews the roll while Elijah Wood provides the voice of our hero, Beck. Also on the roster is Mandy Moore, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Paul Reubens, and sci-fi standout Lance Henriksen as the evil General Tesler. The well-rounded group of actors breathe life into the cold digital environment, which spills over into other aspects of the show. The action is solid and the story is one that I am eager to see unfold. My only complaint is that I hope a little more explanation is given to the continuity and timeline of events following Tron: Legacy. We saw CLU vaporized on the big screen, though his presence is still mentioned here. That aside, Tron: Uprising is a wonderfully animated piece of work that is candy to the eyes and engaging to the mind.
Disney XD debuted Tron: Uprising on April 30th and will resume the series on June 7th at 9:00 pm Eastern. To watch the 31-minute uninterrupted premiere episode, please visit the Tron Sector fan site at http://www.tron-sector.com/.
Overall: 
I know you told me about this. I NEED to check this out!