Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Fifteen Seconds On The Grid...

Weekly on the Grid...







A new teaser has been released for the Tron animated series...

Disney XD has a very short, fifteen second glance at what is coming in the new "Tron: Uprising" animated series. The series premieres in June and is part of the Mouse's effort to expand the Tron Universe.

Suits will be watching to see how the ratings match up with their plans for "TR3N" to be green lit. Let's hope that it's good (word is, it is), and that the ratings are as well.

Summer on the Grid will be very, very interesting...

Hat Tip to Geek Tyrant.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks as awful as the movie.

Truman Beinge said...

Great, another anti-Tron Troll.

2.0 and Beyond said...

Don't think so. The animated version looks very lame. Can't conceive of much of a range that the limited setting can provide.

The problem looks to at least lie in the trailer, if not in the series itself.

WhereIsTRON said...

I'm not getting my hopes up. The brief glimpse of the trailer reveals obvious "Samurai Jack" influences in the art design and the usual "Young apprentice learns from old master" plot hook that was probably used to draw in the 8-14 year old male demographic.

Quite honestly, I'm thinking this series might just be the PR burn-off from the soft crash that T:L took at the box office (shades of "Atlantis: The Series" turning into that direct-to-DVD movie).

Thinking like a Disney exec, the question becomes "Why sink money into a sinking franchise?" 1). The flagship movie performed softly, especially in the overseas market despite an all-out marketing blitz. 2). The tie-in video game absolutely cratered in both sales and ratings (as opposed to TRON 2.0 which only underperformed in sales but was otherwise critically applauded on the PC version). 3). POTC may have been soft in the US, but it absolutely cleaned up worldwide, virtually guaranteeing a 5th installment unless Johnny Depp becomes somehow incapacitated. 4). Disney now has The Marvel Comic characters which virtually guarantees the exact same draw (young males) they were attempting to get with the TRON franchise.

I'm sad to see the TRON franchise mangled in this way. More and more, the inside word is that the principal creatives were at fault and the movie itself was simply an exclamation point on the old adage, "You can't polish a turd."

My advice (for what it's worth) if I was advising the WD company - Drop the TRON franchise for 5 years. Let things cool down. Then, do a top-down re-design of the entire franchise (Need a starting point? Look at the work done for Diu). Go after low-cost media (flash/HTML5 games, quick CGI sequences) to re-gauge consumer interest. Expand to a serial story across multiple DVD releases (like the movie serials of yesteryear) to see how deep the interest has grown. Go on to video games / comic books if there's serious interest.

Anonymous said...

No. Just someone with good taste.

Anonymous said...

But I want to see a Tron Cycle coaster at Disneyland.

Honor Hunter said...

"But I want to see a Tron Cycle coaster at Disneyland."

You will.

It'll just have the word "Shanghai" in front of it...

Anonymous said...

"You will.

It'll just have the word "Shanghai" in front of it..."

But it's possible that they'll clone it in Anaheim. They are looking to fix and expand Tomorrowland by replacing Innoventions and Autopia, and since the R & D costs are done, it seems likely. Wouldn't you agree?

Anonymous said...

^
Doesn't look likely at the moment. It was being looked into, but all Anaheim DL projects have been shelved.

Anonymous said...

I believe by the end of summer if the DCA expansion is successful, there'll be a decision to go forward on fixing Tomorrowland. The place is packed seven days a week. They definitely to expand.

That's the plan right now. But things can change.

Anonymous said...

Tron: Uprising looks great. It's nice to see Disney allowing such a uniquely-designed show to air on one of their networks.

Between this, Motor City, and Gravity Falls Disney TV Animation is going to have a great year.