Even though the animated series Tron Uprising won't officially begin until June 7, Disney XD has just released the pilot episode "Beck's Beginning" on YouTube.
Tron Uprising takes place between Tron and Tron Legacy, and the pilot episode picks up shortly after Clu banishes Flynn from The Grid and defeats The Grid's main protector, Tron. In one area of The Grid, a mechanic program named Beck (voiced by Elijah Wood) decides to rebel against Clu and his army by assuming the persona of the presumed-to-be-derezzed Tron. "Beck's Beginning" details Beck's initial efforts to undermine one of Clu's henchmen, General Tesler (Lance Henriksen), and the many challenges he faces along the way. To give anything more away about the pilot would be a disservice to the fans, who should be seeing this for themselves in the window below.
What I can tell you about the Tron Uprising pilot is that looks amazing. This is one of the best looking cartoons I've seen since Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and I hope that they can keep this level of animation going throughout the series' run. Everything from the densely layered neon blue cityscapes to the numerous chase and fight scenes are absolutely astonishing to watch, and I can only imagine how much better they'll look after they are taken off of YouTube and are put on high-def flat screen TVs.
Of particular note is how much more of The Grid we get to see just in the pilot alone. Beck's profession as a mechanic allows him to repair various vehicles and machines; yet because the vehicles are machines are made out of data and not physical parts, Beck "repairs" them by breaking them down to wire frames and adjusting the data by hand. Beck does this on several occasions in the pilot, and it provides tantalizing example as to how The Grid is so similar and yet so different to our own world.
It's hard to tell from the pilot as to what kind of show Tron Uprising will be, if it will consists of stand-alone adventures, multi-episode arcs, or a combination of the two. I also have no idea if the show will refer to the characters and events in the original Tron movie and the recent Tron video games, Evolution and Battle Grids. Nevertheless, Tron Uprising is brimming with potential, and I can't wait to visit The Grid again soon.
In addition to lending his vocal talents to Tron Uprising, Lance Henriksen will also be voicing an android named Rook in the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines video game, which is being developed by Gearbox Software. In a recent interview with Gearbox Software head Randy Pitchford, Henriksen's return to the Alien franchise is part of the game's attempt to bridge some of the gaps between Aliens and Alien 3. (Henriksen previously did vocal work for the last Aliens vs. Predator video game that was released back in 2010.) According to Pitchford, Rook is of the same model as the Bishop android Henricksen played in Aliens and Alien 3, and he accompanies the marines in the game on their mission to LV-426.
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