As blasts from the past go, they don't get any blastier than TRON. Disney's 1982 film that featured effects never before seen may be old, it may be a kid's movie, and it may be rather cheesy (it is from the 80's after all...), but I still loved it when I watched it again recently. Having heard the comments of my wife, who had never seen it before, I can only put this down to nostalgia! It's still one of my favourite children's films of all time.

TRON features a hacker named Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), who is trying to get into the secret files of a company called ENCOM, run by ruthless CEO Ed Dillinger (David Warner). His mission is to find the proof that it was he, not Dillinger, who created several video games upon which the success of the ENCOM empire was built. He ends up being aided (somewhat unwillingly at first) by ENCOM programmer Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) and former lover (now Bradley's lover, which causes a bit of tension) Lora Baines (Cindy Morgan). However, they hadn't reckoned with the MCP (Master Control Program), who manages to use a laser in the research lab to digitise Glynn and send him into another world – the world of computer programs...

While there Flynn has to find out how to help Bradley's program called TRON (also played by Boxleitner) defeat the MCP – he's the only program who can. But since they've both been put on the game grid, condemned to fight opponent after opponent until they die, what can they possibly do? The answer lies in Flynn's being a User, as he doesn't think or act like a normal program...

Off we go on a rip-roaring adventure through the electronic world, where programs are simulacrums of their Users. It's easy to tell who's on who's side (for the vast majority of the time, anyway!): blue = good, red = bad. (If only real life were this simple...) There are light cycle races, deadly disc throwing contests, a game where the aim is to strike the panels underneath someone's feet so that they disappear, and much more. It's all quite cheesy but good fun, with an appropriately quirky electronic-sounding musical score by Wendy Carlos. (For some reason though Jean Michel Jarre's "Magnetic Fields" also brings to my mind the image of Tron, Yori, and Flynn racing across the Game Sea in the Solar Sailor... strange but true.) The effects, although of course extremely dated by now, still don't look too bad and manage to convey consistently the impression of being in a strange and fantastical place.

Much of the credit for the film being so enjoyable goes to Jeff Bridges' endearing performance as maverick programmer Flynn, Boxleitner's energetic rendition of TRON, and David Warner's nasty, easy to hate Ed Dillinger / Command Program Sark / Voice of the MCP. Dan Shor puts in one of the cheesest performances I've ever seen as the program RAM (and also a co-worker who asks for some of Alan's popcorn – a very short role that one!), the plot is rather simple (though interesting) and most of the characters lack any real depth, yet somehow it all comes together to create a highly entertaining and enjoyable film. I guess it's just a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

For sheer nostalgia alone I'm tempted to give TRON 5 stars, but really it's only worth 4 (or, in my wife's view, 3...). It's hard to tell how youngsters would take it – I personally think they'd really enjoy it, but to be honest the visuals even in second-rate Japanese cartoons are probably more impressive these days, so they might find it all rather old-fashioned. Indeed with the dark sets and rather blurry images at times, it's more about the impression of what you see rather than what you actually see. (I hope that made sense!) When you consider that the actors were shot wearing black and white costumes and then the circuitry lines were hand-drawn on transparencies superimposed onto the film frame by frame, you can see why it looks like it does. On the other hand the computer graphics, such as those used for the light cycles and the voyage across the game sea, don't look all that shoddy even be today's standards.

At the end of the day this is probably a movie you'll either love, hate, or be completely indifferent to. Naturally the first set of people will be those who loved the movie as a child, and I am one of them, so I'm giving it 4 stars. :-D

This review was an entry to Michelle's Nostalgia Write Off

As for TRON, if you've seen the film, why not read the book or play the game?


See also my Top Ten Children's Movies

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8