TRON:LEGACY Headlines from the Grid

Book review: THE ART OF TRON:LEGACY will get fans revved up with dazzling concept illustrations

Anticipating the hotly awaited theatrical release of Disney's TRON:LEGACY, a new hardcover art book details in lavish, plentiful images how designers and visualists created the conceptual art defining the look of this glowing futurist fantasy world.

Written by the film's co-producer Justin Springer with an introduction by production designer Darren Gilford and afterword by director Joe Kosinski, THE ART OF TRON:LEGACY is large-size hardback proudly shows off 160 pages of digital paintings, photographs and film stills from both 1982's TRON and TRON:LEGACY to illustrate the sequel's design lineage direct from the iconic original and how new design concepts evolved since. As the best of these making-of movie art books do, this volume is a splendid and beautiful journey into the world of Tron simply flipping pages and feasting your eyes on a couple hundred paintings and designs from the film — just a fraction of the hundreds more pieces of art created.

Chapters cover production and story topics ranging from the set design of Sam Flynn's house — created from empty cargo containers to underscore his off-the-grid lifestyle — to costume designs of the game gladiators, evolved vehicle designs of Light Cycles and Recognizers, and the large-scale designs of Tron City itself. Being fans of TRON's original 1982 iconic designs of bold geometric shapes and clean lines of light, LEGACY's designers and conceptual artists used the ideas and themes and extrapolated how Kevin Flynn's original constructs would virtually evolve as the computer servers hosting the TRON programs were left running for thirty years.

Recognizers fly high above Tron City as the End of Line club towers a mile above in the foreground and the game arena glows in the distance. Image © 2010 Disney Enterprises, used with permission. All rights reserved.

One of the story's main dramatic conceits is that time runs in different cycles between the Tron world and ours, so these intervening three decades on our side of the screen would equate to hundreds of years elapsed in Tron's virtual evolution. The designers and filmmakers insisted that new concepts honor their originating look yet embody modern aesthetic and engineering sensibilities so audiences will quickly and easily identify with this new look for a fan-favorite world.

Concept rendering of Kevin Flynn's personal Light Cycle he designed in the late 1980s, harkening back to the canopied design of the original cycles seen in TRON. Image © 2010 Disney Enterprises, used with permission. All rights reserved.

The immediate benefit of this artistic legacy is that the book provides rare 1980s concept artwork and still frames from TRON itself, often comparing costumes, Recognizers and Light Cycle designs side-by-side for comparison to show the flow of development into the film's darker, technically advanced appearance. The clean, bold geometric shapes used by contributing TRON concept artists like Syd Mead coupled with the CG-rendering ability of digital animation in the early '80s defined the film's aesthetic for a generation of fans. For the sequel, production design Gilford with concept artists David Levy, Daniel Simon and Neville Page adapted cutting edge CG ability and engineering theory to extend the 1980s designs into the 21st century's idea of futurist design and current visual effects' capacity to realize such virtual wonders. Plenty of stills from TRON:LEGACY show the final on-screen character costumes, vehicles, death-defying gladiatorial games and glowing cityscapes realizing the hundreds of concept paintings and renderings created over two years of pre-production.

Michael Sheen and Garrett Hedlund in TRON LEGACY. Image © 2010 Disney Enterprises, used with permission. All rights reserved.

THE ART OF TRON:LEGACY is one of the better in recent making-of movie design books thanks to its bounty of high-quality, large images showing off the skilled artistry and hi-res detail put into these concept paintings and CG renderings, along with many exclusive images which are previously unseen in any format. The progressions from 1982's TRON design to its 2010 sequel are thoroughly illustrated to support the film's concept of an evolved virtual world which audiences will see in 3D action this December. The dark, low-key design of the book itself further whets the appetite to see TRON:LEGACY in motion soon, and offers plenty of full-spread images for those fans inclined to study the film's designs more deeply. FilmEdge recommends THE ART OF TRON:LEGACY as a glimpse into our cinematic near-future for this highly anticipated film, and as an ideal treat to rez up on your film fan's holiday gift list. Enjoy, programs!