Showing posts with label premieres. Show all posts
Showing posts with label premieres. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Tron Uprising premieres tomorrow
In 1982, one of my favorite movies was released. And as with everything that is good, it was a combination of several things that created this Eighties classic, but most importantly, it was about playing Video Games! At the time, 2D games were making a huge impact, moving from the old arcades into peoples living rooms with the release of the Philips Magnavox Odyssey 2 and the Atari 2600, which made it possible to actually play these great games at home for the first time (this was three years before Nintendo introduced its first 8-bit console and Donkey Kong in the West).
The movie Im talking about is of course Tron which starred Jeff Bridges, popular for his role in De Laurentiis 1976 remake of King Kong and known (then) for his Academy award nominations for The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. After twenty eight years, the much anticipated sequel Tron: Legacy was created in 2010 with the latest in 3D graphics technology, and tomorrow, Disney XD finally premieres the first episode of their new animated series Tron Uprising. Showing an interesting combination between 2D and 3D animation, Uprising will further investigate the story and background of the world of Tron, althought it actually takes place before Tron: Legacy.
Above: scenes from the pre-season episode of Tron: Uprising, released by Disney in May showing Beck, a young program living inside the Grid, an artificial world programmed by Kevin Flynn in the original movie from 1982. Beck is trained by Tron to continue his revolution against the armies of General Tesler. Below is Paige, one of the guards of the grid who is curious about the existence of the new Tron.
Tron (1982).
In the original film, Bridges (below) played software engineer Kevin Flynn, one of the brightest programmers who worked for ENCOM, a huge multinational technology corporation with defense contracts, researching the very boundaries of technological possibilities. In the meantime ENCOM is pocketing Millions from gamers blowing coins at the arcades on games Flynn had written but were unfortunately stolen from him by his colleague Dillinger (i.e. Space Paranoids, Matrix Blaster, Vice Squad and Light Cycles).
While Dillinger went on to become Senior Executive VP of the company, Flynn got fired and, living above his own arcade, trying to earn some of the money ENCOM is making off his creations, hes determined to find evidence by trying to hack into ENCOMs system, which is controlled by the MCP (Master Control Program), an all powerful program that became self aware and, running completely on its own, is secretly taking over other systems, including that of the Kremlin and the Pentagon.
Armed with TRON, a small program created to keep track of the MCP, written by his colleague Allan Bradley (played by Bruce Boxleitner) Flynn breaks into the ENCOM building and uses his ex-girlfriends computer at the laboratory facilities, where she was doing research on experimental laser technology, to capture real life objects and move them into a virtual reality. When Flynn is at the verge of breaking the system, the MCP uses the lasers to teleport Flynn into his realm to literally fight and beat him at his own game. Once inside, Flynn encounters human looking bytes of data, trapped in a highly advanced Orwellian world, where disobedient elements are obliterated, ruled and controlled by the elite guards of a cruel dictator, the MCP.
In 1982, George Lucass ILM created the first all digital CG images for Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, but Disneys TRON was the first feature film ever to use over 20 minutes of 3D computer graphics.
Below is the complete sequence of Flynn being teleported into digital the world of Tron, made possible by the pioneering work of four early CGI companies that produced the graphics: Information International Inc. (Triple-I), Robert Abel & Associates in LA, the Mathematic Applications Group Inc. (MAGI) and Digital Effects in NY.
Futuristic industrial designer Syd Mead and French comic artist Moebius (Jean Giraud) worked as visual consultants with high-tech commercial artist Peter Lloyd and Bruce Logan as director of Photography on the graphics. Giraud, a very talented comic book and storyboard artist, known in Europe for his comicbook series Blueberry sadly enough passed away this March. Below is some of the concept artwork he did for the original film:
Backgrounds.
Disney will air 18 episodes in the first season of Tron Uprising. The series has an excellent voice cast, starring Bruce Boxleitner as Tron and Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore and Lance Henriksen voicing the other major characters. Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, who wrote the screenplay for Tron: Legacy will act as consulting producers, they both also worked as producer and writer on almost 100 episodes of ABCs successful show Lost. Check out some of the great background artwork for the first season below (Click to enlarge).
Sunday, January 19, 2014
CN pulls DC Nation fans sign petition as iTunes premieres new episodes
This weekend, thousands of fans of the popular animated shows The Green Lantern and Young Justice were shocked to find out that Cartoon Network (US) had decided to pull their DC Nation block off the air.
While the buzz went all over the net, CN quickly twittered that they will absolutely bring DC Nation back, but fans would have to wait until January 2013. Cartoon Network is currently celebrating their 20 years of existence, which might explain the change of schedule, although most fans think the new hiatus is just another way of prolonging the current season.
Meanwhile, its business as usual at iTunes, that made new episodes of The Green Lantern TAS and Young Justice available for download yesterday. Meaning, that if you want to check out your what your favorite characters are up to, youll have to pay for it.
Already fans have created a petition to force CN to bring back their favorite shows, so if youre feeling the rage, make sure to leave your John Hancock there and/or get to iTunes asap. Word is the fresh batch of episodes wont be up for long at iTunes, once CN learns of the mistake. (For the new Green lantern episodes, youll need a season pass, although some fans seem to have found a workaround).
DC Nation premiered on Cartoon Network on March 8th this year, showing new cartoons featuring popular characters from DC Comics. DC Nation had just returned after a hiatus of four months, showing a few new episodes before CN decided to pull it off the air.
My guess is, the remaining episodes of both shows will not air until 2013, in order to catch more attention for the upcoming CG animated Beware the Batman and Teen Titans Go!, two new animated shows that will be part of DC Nation next year.
Above: The past meets the future in a scene from Before the Dawn, the episode from Young Justice that didnt air on CN this weekend, written by Kevin Hopps and directed by Tim Divar. The Blue Beetle fights Black Beetle after he was captured by extra terrestrials known as The "Reach and rescued by Impulse. He learned that if not stopped, Black Beetle will be the one to take over the Earth and enslave mankind in the future. All animations on Young Justice are done by Lotto Animations in South Korea.
Below: Hal Jordan AKA The Green Lantern is transported to an alternate world where steam is still the main power source in Steam Lantern. The unaired 15th episode was written by Ernie Altbacker and directed by Rick Morales. The first season consists of 26 episodes in total. A DVD containing the first part of this season was released on August 28 (unfortunately no HD release known as of date). All animation work on TGLTAS is done by CGCG in Taiwan (also responsible for Star Wars The Clone Wars).
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