Watch a film like 1982’s Tron today and you’ll find it not only dated but laughable. As a 40-year-old film, it certainly suffers in comparison to what you see in today’s blockbusters. But back then, it was incredibly revolutionary. Too revolutionary, in fact. The film was not considered a commercial success and was largely forgotten by the mainstream for a long time. Today it’s valued for its early work in computer graphics imagery, but most folks don’t know too much about the film.
Sticking it to the man, computer-style
Tron takes place in a universe much like our own, where a large conglomerate controls the world of video games. One outsider dares to challenge that company and finds it’s not really run by a person or a board, but a “master control program” that’s gotten a little too big for its britches. Using some prototype laser scanner that looks highly dodgy, that outsider is somehow beamed into the world of the computer itself. He embarks on adventures that lead him to become the savior of the computer world.
It’s a plot that could easily work in 2023, honestly. In 1982 I think the world simply wasn’t ready for what it got.
The inherent trippiness of it
Tron was created by Disney in the days when it was trying to explore legitimate science fiction. Star Wars had created an insatiable thirst for techy-looking fiction and Disney wanted in. (To be fair, so did everyone else.) Their first foray, The Black Hole, mixed dark, Jules Verne-esque themes with fun Disney robot characters. This created a black hole in Disney’s bottom line. Tron was meant to be a little more accessible and entertaining while still advancing the art form.
The human touch came from Jeff Bridges, then largely unknown. Bridges does sort of an early take on his “Dude” character as quasi-hippie Kevin Flynn. Sticking it to the man is Flynn’s entire reason for living, and he does so entertainingly enough.
The trippiness came from the animation. Disney wanted to show the inside of a computer in a way that made it seem futuristic and mystical. They relied on some of the best computer artists (in fact the only computer artists) in the world. What they got was something people weren’t quite ready for.
You gotta start somewhere
Doing computer graphics in the early 1980s meant insanely long render times for even the simplest 3D. It took planning and great care and I’m sure there were times it seemed impossible. Several effects houses were contracted, because no one effects house could do it all. At that time each company had its own custom-made software and none of it was compatible with anything. That meant you couldn’t move a half-finished project from one house to another, because you just couldn’t move the files. It didn’t work.
Even so, the overall look was surprisingly consistent and everything did come together in the end despite a lot of tense last minute work. What ended up on film was some of the most advanced CGI that had ever been attempted.
In fact it was so advanced that most of it wasn’t CGI.
15 minutes
There are, according to multiple sources, only 15 minutes of CGI in Tron. The total render time for that 15 minutes was over a year of computer time, however. The ability to do a full CGI movie was still almost 20 years away. What made the movie work was the amazing animation done by real animators.
Almost all of the live-action scenes were shot in black-and-white using high-contrast sets and actors in high-contrast outfits. Then, all the colors were painted in by hand on approximately 75,000 frames. Other parts of the movie were simply traditional animation that looked CGI-like. As Jurassic Park would do a decade later, the film tricked people into thinking that it was all CGI, while most of it was beyond the capability of the systems that existed then.
A lot more to talk about
The documentary below comes from the special features on one of the physical media releases of Tron. The people who were there will tell you, it was a harrowing project that very nearly didn’t happen. It was something no one really understood, and most of it was created without any idea what it would look like. As Jeff Bridges himself would say, far out man.
