On July 9th, Disney’s TRON will celebrate 40 years! This story about whether the digital world is truly alive is one reason why fans love this IP. The other is in the fact that the avatars found in The Grid are fighting for freedom against an oppressive overlord. It was a time before the Internet, so to leave one world to enslave others from another meant hacking away at those barriers which protected each individual computer from a larger world.
The idea has been furthered in other works on television and film. Although the digital domain or examination of the hoodoo that goes on isn’t always the focus, Mainframe’s Reboot and even The Matrix is influenced by this film. But to return to this discourse has been difficult. Two movies have been made. The first one dealt with introducing viewers–to which Flynn (Jeff Bridges) learned just how sentient the programs are. Nobody back then really thought about the discourse writer/director Steven Lisberger wrote when Dr. Walter Gibbs spoke out.
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By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
from the 1990’s. Finding this red package under the mistletoe does not mean I’ll get a date with the lovely Amanda Pays — one of the reasons that I always watched this show — but the signature lightning bolt was too easy to recognize when I tried peeking through the wrapping paper.