TV Review: Tron Uprising Prologue

rating: 3.5

With the show itself not starting its run until June 7th, Disney have decided to drop a full length (31 minute) prologue for Tron Uprising on us via Youtube, as well as other sources around the globe. Thanks Disney XD, you're the best! Tron Uprising takes place between the original Tron movie and Tron Legacy, with Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz as consulting producers as well as writers for this prologue episode 'Beck's Beginning'. The story is of Beck (Elijah Wood) a program who does not want to put up with Clu's rule (remember Clu is the copy of Flynn that went rogue between Tron movies and was the villain in Tron Legacy - y'know, bad Jeff Bridges). Taking on the guise of Tron (the hero program that is presumed dead) Beck takes on Clu's armies and starts to make the programs in The Grid believe Tron is back. In a twist of fate the actual Tron (you know where he's been hiding if you've seen Tron Legacy and he's being voiced by Bruce Boxleitner here too - bonus) approaches Beck and begins to mentor the brave program against General Teslar (Lance Henriksen) after he imprisons Beck's friends, looking to place them all in 'The Games' Essentially what Disney XD have done here is turn Tron into a superhero cartoon. Beck is simply putting on the costume of Tron in much the same way Batman Beyond worked with Terry Mcginnis taking on the mantle of The Bat. How Disney cover that little twist in the Tron tale is by making this look, sound (the Daft Punk inspired soundtrack is class) and more importantly feel like Tron Legacy in all the right ways and more. This is one slick looking show, with fine animation that looks like a cross between Aeon Flux and anime racer Redline and covers it in more neon lighting at you than you'll know what to do with. The action is absolutely fantastic with more moments of Tron cool than you'd think could fit into half and hour, what with all the light bikes, fighting, disc throwing and sky diving and what's making this show even more promising is that Beck and most of the characters here are extremly likable already. Beck is a typical central hero so far. Standing up against injustice, doing the right thing, selfless and all that jazz but they've written this well and it's good to see this guy winning. Putting him up against Emmanuelle Chriqui's Paige (a villainess who I've already formed a crush on) is already making for great chemistry between good guys and bad guys and of course have Lance Herikson play the main baddie in the episode is always going to work as Lance Herikson's voice makes it work. Mandy Moore's Mara has yet to play too much of a part but no doubt it will in future episodes and as I said before having Bruce Boxleitner as Tron (as well as his alter ego) is extremely cool. I really like this pilot/preview episode for Tron Uprising. It was way stronger than the first Ultimate Spider-man episode and many of the first episodes of recent animated outings but then I'm a sucker for this new generation of Tron after enjoying the hell out of Tron Legacy so I'm probably a little bias. I'm looking forward to seeing where this show is heading and how they intend to play the Tron angle here given we know what happens next in regards to Clu and what not but hey, it's worked for Clone Wars and so far and with Tron Uprising's neon lighting, awesome action and likeable characters, everything is on the right track. Let the games begin...