Rating: 
Summary: A very cool film.
Review: This was the first big budget CGI movie, and it is great. People had very strong reactions to this film, loving it or hating it. I loved it, and when you see this updated version you will love Tron as well.
Rating:
Summary: Visually unique; a sci-fi classic...
Review: Few but the most dedicated science fiction film buffs are aware that the ground breaking, battle-array SFX of FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)were designed and executed by Walt Disney artists.The latter employed beyond-state-of-the-art animation and holograms to create the most formidable sci-fi classic yet produced (including...in my estimate...2001: A Space Odyssey).TRON is a similar piece of work. That is:it's technically unique and YET underappreciated. Released in 1982,TRON imagines a world of CYBERSPACE. Disney artists astound with anthropomorphic "bytes" and renegade computer programs battling for Cyber-supremacy. FANTASIA-caliber animation; CGI-image/animation; and "rotoscope"-photography (the technique maxed-out by Ralph Bakshi in LORD of the RINGS and AMERICAN POP)are used to construct a circuit-board universe where a Wicked Hard Drive dominated by a demonic MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM strives for apotheosis (godhead).Viewers may or may not buy the religious allegory that becomes overt.( MCP is the BEAST. Independent programs are persecuted into denying personal "reality" as created/written entities. MCP denies user-humans created/wrote him. He demands abject subservience from programs of Cyberworld...or destroys them.)The CYBERWORLD,however, is always star of TRON. Gladiatorial battles "fought" by Light-Cycle pilots barrelling across deadly "short-circuited" circuit-board terrains are stunning. These CHARGE of the LIGHT BRIGADE sequences of photon combat are breathtaking. Once again, DISNEY has created the technically wonderous. Actors Jeff Bridges & Bruce Boxleiter (Good guy user; Good guy Program),and David Warner(Bad guy; bad guy program and all-devouring Eron-like entity, MCP)are fine. TRON is far more than sum of its human or high-tech wizardry. It's art in the sci-fi genre; a film whose DLL-Time...after 20 years as curiosity and Star Wars victim...may have arrived.
Rating: 
Summary: Blast from the past...sort of
Review: I actually don't have many fond memories of "Tron". I saw the film as a child (on *shudder* VHS), and wasn't impressed with the overall result. But my friends and I constantly played Deadly Discs with Frisbees. Ever been hit in the shin with one of those? I picked this DVD up mainly because it was loaded with bonus features and had a low price. Surprise! The film is really cool. I can honestly say this is the best that "Tron" has ever looked or sounded, and the 88 minute (!) documentary is highly informative and entertaining. I would recommend this DVD to just about anyone. (Well, maybe not kids. My daughter was REALLY bored.)
Rating:
Summary: excellent transfer and killer bonus material
Review: Remember 20 years ago when you watched this film and wanted an energy disc of your own and one of those killer lightcycles? Now you can relive the fun and adventure, and cringe at the 80's fashions. This film was groundbreaking in its use of CGI, and the menus are full of CGI graphics too. They make you feel like you are back in the movie. The bonus documentaries are interesting and informative. They give you a look back to the excitement that all of those involved felt at the time of production, as well as everyone's recollections of the shoot from a modern perspective. the 90 minute documentary has some fascinating rememberances of a time when Tron was just being conceived, and it's growing pains. See, I knew that the scenes were all shot in black and white, what I didn't know was that all of the backgrounds were solid black. I knew where to spot Pac-Man, did you? I thought this was a great transfer, makes me hope that someday Disney will do the same thing with The Black hole. I loved the DVD menus with their Tron Universe animations running around and driving through the background. I know any twentysomething who grew up with this film will feel the same. unless you are disappointed because you bought the other version.
Rating:
Summary: Worth it for the outdated hairdos on disc 2
Review: Years ago, the only way to see TRON was on video, a terrible pan and scan experience considering the care with which Lisberger & Co. designed and filmed TRON. Now the DVD version has been reissued with a second disc absolutely BURSTING with bonuses. Disc 2 is one of those well-designed DVDs with production art, outtakes, alternate music cues, all accessible via the arrow keys. Best of all are the well-known outtakes, Tron and Yori's "love scene" and "morning after" scene, alternate end titles (with Wendy Carlos' music, not the Journey song), dozens of sketches and production art by Syd Mead and Moebius. Possibly best of all is a new, 88 minute (!) documentary on the film: great interviews, production photos, reminisces from cast and crew, and more embarrassing hairdos and fashions from the late 70s, early 80s, than anyone'd care to admit to. What makes TRON an enduring classic is that it bridged two eras of old-fashioned filmmaking and animation, with a new realm of digital, computer-generated (CG) imagery, still in its infancy. The story line itself bridged two eras of corporate computing resources and "popular computing," as it came to be known. TRON prophesied the revolution in "online" culture and politics, e.g. corporate control versus free access, information security versus open source, and even took a swipe at intellectual property rights. Children of the 21st Century info age need to see this film, if only to realize that "mom and dad" came from an era of 8-bit video games, teletype computer monitors, and ... the "personal computer" was still a revolutionary idea. TRON is a bit of history, but the bonus is that it's still a fun, entertaining movie. I sure hope that Lisberger can come up with a second film.
Rating: 
Summary: A deep look into a somewhat flawed film
Review: If Tron has a problem, it's more than likely rooted in that which makes the film so memorable: the attempt by the movie to humanize the inner workings of the computers that, when the film was made, were just beginning to become a huge part of our lives. The main effect embraced by the film was to make everything appear as colorless as possible in the computer world, which unfortunately can be extremely painful on the eyes after a while, especially since there is no attempt to show the "real world" in between the extended "computer world" sequences. Also, the virtual characters (which are all represented by the image of their "user"), are quite stiff at times (for lack of a better word), which is accurate, but not always the most exciting stylistic choice. Regardless of this quibble, Tron is very much ahead of its time. The importance of computers hinted at in this film has come to pass, with all but the artificial intelligence system of the Master Computer in use today. So much so, in fact, that one can see an image of a sea of cubicles at the software company, and shake one's head at the prophetic nature of the image. And this goes without mentioning the computer animation, which is now standard for all TV shows and movies being made. What this DVD does is prove to be an incredible source of information on the film. While I have not viewed the documentary or the commentary as of yet, I still very much give the features for this set my fullest appreciation. In addition to the previously stated features, there is just about every trailer connected to the film and an extensive gallery of production stills and merchandise. Also included is a segment from a PBS program on computers, where one of Tron's staff predicts that computer animation will be the norm in Hollywood. Twenty years later, this is true, and we are now able to study Tron as the pioneering marvel that it is.
Rating:
Summary: The new "Tron"
Review: As soon as the ads appeared on TV, I wanted to get this DVD, since I saw the movie in a theater and on TV a few times. The DVD is standard issue, but there's no information booklet, just a single page index. Other DVDs I have are more detalled in the booklet information. Watching the movie was a "blast in the past", and I really enjoyed it. I decided to watch for details, such as the Data General Eclipse and the Cray computers that the main characters pass by on the way to the laser lab. I did find one visual surprise. About 45 minutes into the movie, watch Sark's display panel on the upper right. It has a "Pac-Man" figure! The second visual surprise that there is some classical Disney animation in the movie, too. About one hour and 14 minutes, watch as the camera swings down from Sark's carrier over the plain to the ground. The animation is short, but I can only describe it as a bunch of green computer insects, and it lasts about 15 seconds. I also discovered that the character known as Crom (Compound Interest Program), Flynn's first adversary in the games and the first to "die", is played by Peter Jurasik, who later acted (as Londo Mollinari) with Bruce Boxleitner in the Babylon 5 series. The Supplementary Material Disc is well made with a lot of "stuff". I spend over two hours (more than the movie itself) looking thru it all. My favorite was the deleted love scenes which were wonderfull, but the director was correct in not adding it to the movie, because it seems better that Flynn brings love to the computer arena as a human, instead of the programs making it out off-camera. My only complaints were that some of the picture galleries (Storyboarding, Design, Publicity) gave me trouble when I tried to exit to the menu. Due to the lack of a booklet, and the menu exit problems, I only give it four stars, but the DVD is really worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: Another example of the dreaded DVD double-dip ploy
Review: Well, I hate to admit it, but it finally happened. I thought I was vigilant enough to prevent it from ever happening to me, but now I'm yet another victim. A victim of what, you ask? A victim of a movie studio's DVD double-dip sales strategy, that's what! I'm sure most of you digital videophiles are familiar with the scene: one of your fave flicks comes out on DVD with minimal extra features, and you buy it, never suspecting that the studio and/or distributor might put out a deluxe, mega-tricked-out collector's edition DVD of the same beloved movie sometime down the road. But sure enough, several months to a few years later, that's exactly what happens. Fortunately, I learned of Disney's double-dip tactic with TRON about four months before the 20th Anniversary edition's street date, so I was able to auction off my old platter of it on eBay before word-of-mouth (and of e-mail) spread about the new release. Fortunately, I recouped almost all of what I originally paid for it. If I'd put it on the block any later, I likely wouldn't've gotten as much for it, and... hey wait a minute, I'm going off on a tangent here. I'm giving you advice for selling your DVDs on eBay when I should be presenting my review of the item at hand. Sorry 'bout that. I'm gonna get back on track here with my critiques of this particular DVD edition's special features, starting.... ...right now. I think I'm getting a bit jaded with the bonus materials included with these special-edition DVDs. There was a time when I'd be almost ecstatic over the extra thingies that I'd be able to look at and enjoy long after the closing credits of the movie itself were rolling. But nowadays, it just doesn't seem as big a deal anymore. It's probably because just about every Collector's version movie platter contains pretty much the same things: one or more behind-the-scenes documentaries and/or featurettes, stills of the movie in production as well as various merchandise & promotional items, deleted/altered scenes, storyboard sketches, and of course the obligatory trailers and teasers. All of which can be found in this particular presentation, as well as a few other bits & pieces Disney picked up off the cutting-room floor. Oh yes, and let's not forget... ...the feature-length commentary track. TRON'S secondary audio channel is helmed by co-writer/director Stephen Lisberger and a few other TRON collaborators. Often they'll go over the making of each corresponding scene, as well as the movie's history of production. Throw in a few cute little anecdotes, and you pretty much have your basic informative commentary track. A few of the things the speakers mention here are also discussed in the behind-the-scenes documentary, so you might already be familiar with some of the things they're commenting on if you watched the doc beforehand. Unfortunately, I have to concur with a few of my fellow Amazonians about the TRON 20th Anniversary DVD's picture quality. The movie isn't quite as crisp & clear as the preceding bare-bones edition disc. I found the sound quality & separation to be as good, though. I really enjoy hearing the subtle background sounds that I never even noticed until I saw it on DVD. A great example of this are the famous Pac-Man video game sound effects that one can hear during the scenes on the bridge of Sark's giant CGI carrier/cruiser thingy. Well, I guess it's time for me to wind this up. If you already own this flick, I'm going to leave you with a little "Where's Waldo?"-type task: look for Mickey Mouse's head, which is drawn somewhere on the landscape of the CGI realm in the last half of the movie. Oh, and no fair listening to the commentary track (Lisberger & friends point it out)! 'Late
Rating:
Summary: Allegories and perspectives
Review: While many people may view the plot of Tron as lackluster, I feel that Tron does have a type of analogy that is extremeley relevant today: the concept of a monopolistic software company taking over programs produced by other companies and using all sorts of techniques to force the user to communicate only with programs created by the monopolistic software company. In short, Microsoft would be an equivalent of the Master Control Program. The only downside to the movie is the character development. I would have liked the character Flynn to show more shock at his own creations and how his own creations have been used against him. He did show shock when he passed by the enemy tanks while fleeing on a lightcycle, but that wasn't enough.
Rating:
Summary: I remember when I saw this for the first time
Review: well, that was about 12 years ago...
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