Tron... Spatial Comparison

The following two clips: from the first and second Tron movies, are posted for a visual comparison. In the first clip, Tron lightcycle designer, Daniel Simon talks about the conceived look of the new film, plus there's a brief shot of the lightcycle in action at the end. The first clip is interesting from a design perspective because Simon discusses the abstract meaning behind the "face" of the lightcycle. Notice too, that in this remake of Tron, which comes out on Dec 17 (also my birthday) how spatial the lightcycle scene feels. As Simon says (smirk)... you can see the lightcycle from all angles, including the bottom.



The second clip is from the original Tron, which was produced by Walt Disney Films in 1982. I was eight years old and I remember having an asthma attack because I was so impressed; scared too if you must know.

Now the drama seems relatively mild in terms of space. Notice how aggressively flat the space feels. Then again, the conflation of the deeper spatial dimensional people within the flat, computer generated lightcycle graphics, could be said to create an almost violently dramatic textual contrast. Thus giving what were once cutting edge (but by contemporary standards relatively simple) graphics a near symbolic resonance of man versus machine. Check it out...