Disney TV Show Spotlight: Tron Uprising

Mitchell Stein- Another important show in Disney Television history is Tron: Uprising. Coming off the success of 2010’s Tron Legacy, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (known for their work on Lost and Once Upon a Time) returned to the Tron franchise to produce the series as well as writing the first four episodes. Charlie Bean directed every episode for the series, with the exception of “Welcome Home”. 

In the days of the awful shows that Disney airs on both Disney Channel and the fairly new Disney XD channel, Tron: Uprising was one of the greatest things to enter the current days of Disney television shows. I really loved Tron Legacy, the 2010 sequel to the original 1987 film, which brilliantly reimagined the entire video game world of TRON. The cinematography in Tron Legacy really beats out the designs and special effects it used in the original and created a truly brilliant fictional world, built with streaks of various different colors to make up this entire world. The designs seen in Tron worked as a major inspiration for the new designs for the revamped Test Track in Epcot, or as I refer to it, Tron Track.

Since the possibilities in the world of Tron are just fantastic and endless, it only made sense for Tron to

be greenlighted for a TV show. Tron: Uprising premiered on May 18^th 2012. The series is meant to take place between the time of Tron and Tron Legacy, much like Star Wars: The Clone Wars had been, where the story was to take place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The story of Tron Uprising centers a young program named Beck, who becomes determined to take down General Tesler (an officer under the control of the diabolical Kevin Flynn look-alike, Clu) and Tesler’s army after one of the army’s members “derezz” his friend Bodhi. He realizes that the city of Argon is now being taken over by Clu’s armies and no one is able to help them, especially since the hero, Tron, is dead. Beck decides to rise above that and disguise himself as Tron to try to prevent further drezzments and to save his friends from being sent to “The Games”, and will continue to fight Tesler and his army until justice is brought to the city of Argon. 

Following in the steps of Tron Legacy, the animation in this series is so fantastic and jaw-dropping. The artwork is in this genius new style which I’ve never seen previously in a television series, and blends it with the already existing fantastic world of Tron. In fact, there’s this scene in the fourth episode during the Argon tunnel races that should have won an Annie for outstanding animation in a single episode, or series for that matter. The story-line in the show is so exciting and gripping, and the cast of characters are fantastic, and include voice actors from the original films. 

Overall, I really enjoy this series a lot, so therefore it upsets me to hear that it was cancelled after only nineteen episodes. Sadly, the ratings didn’t do too well and was pulled before Disney gave it a second season, but the ratings obviously shouldn’t reflect on the franchise. Tron Legacy made over $400 million in it’s domestic run in 2010 and it’s rumored that a Tron 3 will be coming to theaters sometime soon, so the ratings were really beyond my understanding. But this show is truly one of the greatest shows to ever hit Walt Disney Television, and if you haven’t already watched the series, I strongly suggest you give this one a look. It’s short, and it’s the best nineteen episodes you’ll ever watch.