"With TRON: Ares finally in cinemas, the digital frontier is glowing again (though a little dimmer than before). The news sent me back to the 1982 original, and honestly, rewatching it feels like discovering the moment cinema first embraced something new. Among the best CG films of the 1980s, a shortlist that barely existed at the time, TRON stands apart not just for its CG innovations, but for the sheer audacity of its vision."
"The film's neon grids, spinning light cycles, and crystalline landscapes might look primitive now, indeed, much of the movie relies on tried and trusted matte painting, but there's a strange purity to them, a sense that this was the first time someone looked at a computer and thought, this is a place we could live in. Let's remember, this was peak Atari, arcades were destinations, and the world was just embracing video games."
TRON: Ares returning to cinemas renewed attention on the 1982 TRON, a pioneering blend of computer-generated imagery and traditional filmmaking. The original showcased neon grids, light cycles, and crystalline landscapes that combined early CGI with matte painting to create a distinct, immersive digital environment. The film emerged during peak Atari and arcade culture and presented computers as inhabitable spaces. The visual-effects branch of the Academy rejected computer-assisted effects, leaving the film with only a Best Costume Design nomination. Rosanna Norton and Syd Mead designed sleek black suits traced with glowing circuitry, filmed in black and white and hand-coloured and composited to embody data as human.
Read at Creative Bloq
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