The Geek Show Podcast has a spy deep inside of Disneyland who is called Agent X for his own protection. He’s brought scoops to the podcast before and has even inserted references and hidden treasures throughout the areas of the park he’s worked on honoring Geek Show… (As a guest panelist, I’m told he even slipped in a reference to “Swank-mo-tron” in Disney’s Elec-TRON-ica.)
On one of the most recent episodes of the Geek Show Agent X sent a message packed in an envelope full of token’s to Flynn’s arcade.
According to this spy, there are talks and rumblings about a Disneyland attraction in the future that involves the Marvel characters.
I know this report sounds vague on substance, but there are hints of more details to come. And details were sparse to protect the spies job and identity, but he’s a man on the inside and it’s being confirmed on the inside that there is a Marvel project for the park.
So… There you go. Marvel attractions at Disney theme parks. What does this mean for Universal Studios Islands of Advenutre? Only time will tell.
And if there are any readers with any more information about this, we’d all love to hear it.
I’d also love to hear what kind of ride you’d be interested in seeing for a Marvel themed Disney ride. Personally? I’d love to see a Pirates of the Caribbean type-ride taking through amazing scenes of Marvel battles… Pirates is a ride that holds up rather well and inserting Marvel characters with Disney’s animatronic technology sounds like it could be mindblowing.
On the other hand, this could turn into another Buzz Lightyear of Star Command ride.
It’s time once again for another installment of The Big Movie Mouth Off, starring Jeff Vice from MSN and Jimmy Martin from SLUG Magazine (and both are regular panelists on The Geek Show Podcast)
These are available on Comcast On Demand in Utah, online, and will be available elsewhere soon. They are produced and directed by Bryan Young (myself) and Elias Pate both from Big Shiny Robot! and ShineBox Media Productions.
The Big Movie Mouth-Off podcast launched yesterday as well! You can listen to it here. Be sure to subscribe to it in iTunes and rate it as positively as you can.
I’m a big fan of the original Tron film. I love it, warts and all. I have since I was a little kid.
I think it’s important to get that out of the way before I attempt in any meaningful fashion to review the film. And I don’t think that using nostalgia to prop up your enjoyment of this film is a bad thing.
Tron: Legacy is a film that takes place years past the events of the original film. Kevin Flynn, Jeff Bridges who reprises his role from the original, has vanished from the face of the Earth, leaving his corporate empire in the hands of his essentially orphaned son, Sam (Garret Hedlund). Circumstances lead Sam back to his father’s old arcade and he gets sucked into the grid, the world of Tron.
A war has been brewing on the grid between Kevin Flynn and his younger doppleganger Clu and Sam has been brought into the grid to turn the scales of the war.
There’s a whole bunch more added to the mythos of Tron that made varying degrees of sense. Like the new ISO life forms that were created spontaneously inside the grid. So what if it doesn’t make sense? It’s called a Macguffin.
There are a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-you’s revolving around the plot in the film, and it makes a kind of sense, but that’s really not why we’re here to watch this movie. We’re here for fun performances, beautiful women in Tron gear, kick-ass action, and a 3D landscape to blow our mind. Sure, this film is some form of masturbation. But masturbation is fun, so what’s wrong with that?
There is far more to like about this movie than to worry too much about it’s problems, though I can’t imagine anyone who doesn’t have some measure of nostalgia for the original enjoying this film.
I have to address one thing, though. I heard some people leaving the theatre complaining that Jeff Bridges was just playing “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski, but obviously they hadn’t watched the original Tron film. He was very much playing Kevin Flynn. And that’s what I loved most about the movie. It’s a lot of the same reasons I loved Superman Returns. Both of those films were love letters to the originals and gave the fans something they wanted. Sure, there are bigger fans out there than I am, but I enjoyed this immensely.
I’d also like to point out that the women in this film are all incredibly attractive and fun. Olivia Wilde is worth the price of admission alone.
My biggest complaint? I wanted to see Tron. They did a young doppleganger of Tron (Bruce Boxleitner’s character in the grid in the first film) and he was the main enforcer of Clu’s. There were a couple of great scenes he was in, but it simply wasn’t enough. One could get the idea that they just didn’t want to take his mask off because it would be as expensive to render him as it would be the film’s villain, but it would have made for a much better and more complete experience.
Bottom line: This film has its faults, many of them, but if you can overlook them with equal parts nostalgia and suspension of disbelief, then you’re going to have one hell of a great time.
Today sees the release of the Blu-ray/DVD combo 4 pack of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. Fantasia was a movie whose brilliance I didn’t understand as a child, I only knew that I liked the vague memories I had of it. Watching it again on Blu-ray I was actually impressed by it’s brilliance and how far ahead of its time it was, and the purpose of it. Watching it again, I was completely enamored by the concept and I hope that Disney does more like this.
The film opens up with an orchestra assembling in that beautiful world of 1940 Technicolor (which looks utterly amazing in Blu-ray) and a narrator steps out and explains the concept. Fantasia is different artists renditions of their impressions of music. An orchestra is employed to simulate the experience of going to the symphony and that’s really what the movie is all about. You’re going to the symphony and watching different artists interpret the movements of the music. Sometimes it tells a story and sometimes it doesn’t. I watched this with my kids and they were enamored by it, wanting to go to more symphonies if possible. (They’ve been to a couple and they love silent films, so maybe they’re exceptions to the rule).
It makes me sad to see that Disney only attempted to use this formula once more and it was in 2000′s sequel. It’s good, too, and also looks gorgeous in full 1080. But this kind of film is perfect for kids of today. It forces them to just sit and pay attention to beautiful music and imagery and hopefully get them to foster a healthy respect for classical music and art.
Another thing I was surprised by was that one of the pieces of music was set to imagery that showed the Big Bang Theory and single-celled organisms and their evolution into dinosaurs and the extinction of the dinosaurs. The narrator, Deems Taylor, explained evolution and the Big Bang as both science and fact. The fact that this wasn’t controversial in 1940, but would be unthinkable in today’s charged climate shows how far we’ve slid away from sense and reason in today’s world. I mean, consider that… What would happen if a Disney cartoon appeared today and talked about evolution as fact so casually? There would be riots in the street.
I would recommend this film to any music lover, lover of animation, or film buff. The animation and colors hold up strikingly and I want desperately to see Disney embark on more experiments of this nature.
Today seems to be Disney day, as without exception all of the releases worth mentioning are coming from Disney.
To start we have the Blu-ray/DVD combo 4 pack of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. Fantasia was a movie whose brilliance I didn’t understand as a child, I only knew that I liked the vague memories I had of it. Watching it again on Blu-ray I was actually impressed by it’s brilliance and how far ahead of its time it was, and the purpose of it. Watching it again, I was completely enamored by the concept and I hope that Disney does more like this.
The film opens up with an orchestra assembling in that beautiful world of 1940 Technicolor (which looks utterly amazing in Blu-ray) and a narrator steps out and explains the concept. Fantasia is different artists renditions of their impressions of music. An orchestra is employed to simulate the experience of going to the symphony and that’s really what the movie is all about. You’re going to the symphony and watching different artists interpret the movements of the music. Sometimes it tells a story and sometimes it doesn’t. I watched this with my kids and they were enamored by it, wanting to go to more symphonies if possible. (They’ve been to a couple and they love silent films, so maybe they’re exceptions to the rule).
It makes me sad to see that Disney only attempted to use this formula once more and it was in 2000’s sequel. It’s good, too, and also looks gorgeous in full 1080. But this kind of film is perfect for kids of today. It forces them to just sit and pay attention to beautiful music and imagery and hopefully get them to foster a healthy respect for classical music and art.
Another thing I was surprised by was that one of the pieces of music was set to imagery that showed the Big Bang Theory and single-celled organisms and their evolution into dinosaurs and the extinction of the dinosaurs. The narrator, Deems Taylor, explained evolution and the Big Bang as both science and fact. The fact that this wasn’t controversial in 1940, but would be unthinkable in today’s charged climate shows how far we’ve slid away from sense and reason in today’s world. I mean, consider that… What would happen if a Disney cartoon appeared today and talked about evolution as fact so casually? There would be riots in the street.
I would recommend this film to any music lover, lover of animation, or film buff. The animation and colors hold up strikingly and I want desperately to see Disney embark on more experiments of this nature.
Instead of experiments like that, Disney gave us another film out today, a live action adaptation of the silent piece in the original Fantasia, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, starring Jay Baruchel and Nicolas Cage. I haven’t seen it yet and have been told it’s much, much better than I’m expecting, but I just wanted to throw that out there.
The next three Disney releases today are documentaries that I’ve been dying to see and will now have a chance to. The first is Waking Sleeping Beauty, which tells the tale of the rebirth of Disney Animation in the 1980s. You can watch The Big Movie Mouth-Off review of that film “>here.
The next is Walt and El Grupo, which tells the tale of Walt Disney’s sojourn to South America with a group of animators. The thing is, they were asked to go by the government on the outset of World War II to act as cultural spies. Two great pieces of Disney history came out of the trip, including The Three Cabelleros, making this a fascinating documentary.
The third is the tumultuous story of The Boys. This documentary tells the story of The Sherman Brothers and their rifts through creative life. Maybe you haven’t heard of them specifically, but you’ve heard their music. They wrote “Supercalifragilisticexpealadocious”, the Jungle Book’s “I wanna be like you”, “It’s a Small World” and more.
Disney is coming back to their roots with documentary programming that is compelling and it’s great to see them back in form across the board. Between this and Tangled’s release in theatres last week, they’re on a roll.
And I would be remiss in being a Star Wars fan if I didn’t mention that Vampires Suck came out today. It stars The Clone Wars’ Anakin Skywalker, Matt Lanter in an Edward Cullen sort of role.
The only negative comment I can make about Disney’s new animated feature Tangled is that I still don’t like the title. Originally called Rapunzel, the film took on the name Tangled when Disney thought it might provide a broader appeal (read: boys might come see a movie if the title isn’t a girl’s name). Aside from that, Rapunzel, er, Tangled, exceeds all of my expectations and can easily draw comparisons to earlier masterpieces Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.
Alan Menken can take some of the credit for that; he scored those films as well as Tangled, and though the music doesn’t quite meet the bar set by the earlier films, the songs are catchy and beautifully sung by Mandy Moore. And the duet . . . the duet is a showstopper. Add Glen Keane to the mix as directing animator, (animator for Ariel and the Beast) and you have a recipe for a winner.
Tangled is the story of young and spirited Rapunzel, who has been kept trapped in a tower her entire life. And though her prison has no bars, trapped she is. Her loyalty to her mother keeps her from leaving, but her birthday approaches and the rebellious teenager inside begins to emerge. Her mother visits her often, using Rapunzel’s abundant locks to ascend the tower wall, but their relationship is complex. Rapunzel has never known another human being, and in her naivete doesn’t realize that her mother’s insults and criticisms are emotionally abusive.
She does, however, recognize that the world extends beyond her tower, and she dreams of leaving and exploring the kingdom. Her chance comes in the form of a bold and handsome thief named Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi, Chuck). The contrast between his worldliness and her innocence is fascinating to watch, and I found that for animated characters, they have a lot of chemistry.
And I must mention that the animation is exquisite. Every frame is rich with details and vividly colored. I particularly recall how detailed the lace at the cuff of Rapunzel’s dress looked. The landscape is so lush and fanciful it makes me want to grab some paint and a canvas and duplicate it. Or at least make an effort at it, for duplication would be impossible.
I also must mention that children will be enchanted by the noble steed Maximus and Rapunzel’s pet chameleon Pascal. These are not the kind of sidekicks that talk or sing, but they are still entertaining characters. I predict a lot of requests for plush versions of these guys as Christmas approaches.
The most magical and moving scene of all is what I will call “The Boat Scene.” I don’t want to give anything away, but the song and the lavish animation at that point in the film melts my ice-cold heart. If you don’t believe in fairy tales or that dreams can come true, you will after seeing Tangled. How much did I love this film? I’m planning to see it a second time this week, and I’ve already purchased the soundtrack.
Like your Disney Princesses a little less innocent? Then check out the pictures on BuzzFeed by Deviant art artist JosephB222. I’ve included just a couple here, but a recent trend seems to be re-envisioning the popular princesses. Like your Belle and Ariel zombiefied? Theres that, too.
The Ariel image reminds me a bit of Mara Jade, popular character of the Star Wars expanded universe. I haven’t read it, but I hear that Mara has a very important scene in the book “Sacrifice.” She’s long been known for her tough demeanor and red hair, and while Ariel is a bit too sweet and naïve in comparison, she certainly has the fiery hair to fit the role. Check out the spikes! Now, guys, be honest, wouldn’t you want to be “Under the Sea” with Sith Ariel? Maybe even “Kiss the Girl”? (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then watch the movie).
And now there is Belle. Ah dear bookish Belle from Beauty and the Beast. You have always been my favorite Disney princess. You wanted out of that little town and quiet village. No more provincial life for you! And you hold not one but TWO lightsabers! This is reminiscent of Asajj Ventress, recently seen in the Clone Wars cartoon, but her dress is more Attack of the Clones era Padme. We all remember that dress. It’s the one Padme wears while pretending not to be interested in Anakin, but her dress and the warm glow of the fireplace tell a different story. No wonder the poor guy was so conflicted. “I am haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me.” Yeah, we know THAT speech.
I really enjoy seeing new images of some of my favorite Disney characters, and an artistic marriage between them and Star Wars is a win-win. I’m not as happy with the versions of Jasmine, but it’s obvious a lot of work went into these images, and they are a lot of fun overall. I honestly never thought of Belle with a lightsaber, but I have to tell you, she looks badass.
Last night, Disney set up screenings across the country of snippets from the new Tron film Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3D.
Their point was obviously to rile up support for the film (being released December 17, 2010) and work longtime fans who came into a frenzy.
Put simply, based on this 20 or so minutes, my opinion is that this is going to be the film to beat for the holiday movie season. Sure, Harry Potter is coming out and will automatically do great, but this movie looks fantastic. (So does Harry Potter, but that’s besides the point.)
For longtime fans of the Tron mythology like myself, this batch of footage was spine-tingling. The first scene shown was one between Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner from the original film) coming to visit Sam Flynn, the despondent, thrill-seeking son of the hero from the first film. It seems as though Sam’s father (Kevin Flynn, Jeff Bridges in both films) disappeared some time ago, but a mystery has begun and Alan seems to think that Sam needs to investigate, starting at Flynn’s Arcade. My only problem with this scene was that Boxleitner was a little stiff (on the cheesy side, even) but it established the story of a father and son quite capably and powerfully.
Reluctantly, Sam then seeks out Flynn’s Arcade.
This is the Flynn’s Arcade we all saw in the first film. Every detail seems perfect. This is where the Nostalgia Factor his highest for me. The sets here were dusty and covered with plastic, but it has been so lovingly and perfectly recreated from the original film that I swooned. In fact, there are shots of Sam in the upstairs office of the Arcade that mirrored shots of Jeff Bridges in the original film and it gave me the chills. The detail is perfect and it’s obvious that this has been made by people who love the original film as much as the fans like us do.
Sam is then led downstairs, to a hidden office of his father’s and though he doesn’t recognize what he’s getting himself into, we do. The same laser that digitized Kevin Flynn in the original film is stationed directly behind the seat Sam takes and we know what to expect from here.
Then we see Sam fall into the grid.
He’s picked up quickly by a Recognizer and abducted. This gave us our first real look at the world of Tron in 3D. The Recognizer and all of its captives flew over the city in breathtaking vistas, offering us a look inside the computer world as such we’ve never seen before. This was full of awe for the character, doubly so for the audience.
There was a moment here, as they were assigning Sam to “The Games” (something so frightful the program before Sam commits suicide when he’s assigned to them), that I really missed the look of the old film. That grainy old school black and white with neon color… Don’t get me wrong. Once you’re acclimated to this world, it’s leaps and bounds better than the original, but for a moment it did seem jarring because we’ve grown up knowing what this world looks and feels like and this is a much more sleek X-Box 360 version of the world, as compared to the original’s 8bit roots.
Sam is then suited up and given his programming disc and sent to play in a life or death series of games. First we’re treated to a battle with the programming discs and then we get a taste of the light cycles. This is where the 3D really shines. They’ve added so many dimensions of space to the games that it might be hard to get your bearings but it’s visually stunning. The effects are incredible and this was the moment where I knew I had to see this on IMAX 3D when it came out (which I suspect was the point of this entire Tron Night exercise.)
At this point, Olivia Wilde’s character, Quorra, busts Sam out of the games in order to bring him to his father, who seems to have been trapped in this world for the last 25 years. She is absolutely stunning. I was mesmerized by her. I really, really couldn’t take my eyes off of her. And she’s good, too. (Why do I get the feeling she’s going to turn out to be a bad program?)
But it was the reunification of father in son that provided an unexpectedly emotional moment that was almost overpowering to the point of tears. They build up so capably in the snippets of film they showed prior to this (built solidly on the foundation of the original film) that their reunion is so heartfelt and perfect that I don’t know how well to describe it. There’s also that overwhelming wash of emotion that comes of seeing Jeff Bridges once again inhabit this world. And there’s something not right about it, too. He seems despondent. And, in a big tip-off for what might be future problems or the hint of a well laid trap, he seems oblivious to the message that got out of the grid and into the real world that brought Sam there in the first place. It raised a lot of questions for me and I’m going to die in the next two months waiting for answers.
After this heartfelt and somber scene, we were treated to a montage of images, beginning with a shot of Michael Sheen and Daft Punk leading into a pulse-pounding trailer for the rest of the film, including a look at the new aerial battles of the world of Tron. We’re also introduced to Clu 2.0, which is a digital version of young Jeff Bridges. I’m a little wary of him, but the movie looks so good I don’t care if digital Jeff Bridges is in it.
You can see some of the shots I talked about in this Daft Punk video trailer for the film below that Disney released yesterday called “Derezzed”:
I was also a little worried about Daft Punk, to be honest. I don’t know much about them and don’t specifically care for their music, but the use of music in the snippets of footage they showed us were perfect, for lack of a better word. Not just their music but the use of classic 80s anthems, too.
Long story short, I hope this movie blows my mind. And I will definitely be signing up to see it in IMAX 3D as soon as possible.
And be sure to look out for the new episode of The Geek Show Podcast on Monday. We recorded three episodes from the theatre and I was a guest panelist. In the first episode (coming out Monday) we all offer our initial thoughts of the footage. (As if you weren’t already pumped up about this film enough.)
From Marvel Comic variant covers to the huge light bike movie display, Tron Legacy promotion is everywhere. Here’s an online shopping list of my favorites.
1 TRON Hoodies and T-Shirts Threadless.com has some really cool Tron inspired hoodies and t-shirts that glow in the dark. Be the coolest kid under the black light!
2 TRON Limited Edition 3D glasses
Ever go to the movie theatre grumbling about the extra 2 dollars for 3-D? And then the glasses feel huge? Oakley has an overwhelmingly expensive answer!
Only $150!
3 TRON mouse and keyboard
What are you clacking on right now? Ridiculous! Get this high end gaming mouse and keyboard from the artists at RAZER
