Friday, July 31, 2009

CC 2009 Disney 3-D / Alice and Tron



Howdy folks, onto the other two films covered in the Disney 3-D panel. I’ll try to keep this one a little shorter so without further ado here we go.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND: Over the past few years Megan has slowly come to the opinion that Tim Burton films lack a whole lot of deeper meaning or subtext. While I don’t think this is true of all his films (especially his earlier ones) it is hard to argue the fact that some of his more recent films are much more about style over substance. This isn’t to say they are bad (In fact I own quite a few of them) but in some ways he seems to have moved away from telling classic fairy tale type stories along the lines of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Happily it looks like his take on ALICE IN WONDERLAND could very well mark a return to form of sorts.

Megan and I discussed that there may be no other source material on earth that is better suited for Tim Burton than ALICE IN WONDERLAND and based on what we saw I have a feeling we could very well be proven right when this film hits theatres next year. Based on the 3 or 4 minutes worth of footage we saw it’s impossible not to say that Burton truly gets the material. The film looks strange, loopy, quirky, off-putting and unsettling all in the same turn a direct translation of the strange, subversive genius of Lewis Carol’s classic. Every part looks perfectly cast and in many ways it’s hard not to think this is the story Burton was born to tell. I could be wrong and perhaps this movie will be all smoke and mirrors and not much else but based on what we saw I have a sinking suspicion Burton may have another classic on his hands.

TRON LEGACY: TRON was a staple for me growing up. It was one of those movies that blew me away as a kid and one that has stuck with me all the way through to adulthood. At the time I didn’t realize quite how cutting edge and ahead of it’s time it was, I just wanted to live in that world and ride a light cycle. Having said all that if you told me that some 20 years later Disney was going to even contemplate a sequel I would have laughed at you. For the most part TRON has always very much seemed like a product of it’s time, not something that could ever turn into a possible franchise. Here we are two decades later though and Disney looks to be doing just that, BIG TIME!

The idea of a new TRON actually makes perfect sense considering the gigantic leaps in technology over the past several decades and the way computers pretty much run our lives. The thing is for the most part TRON always seemed like more of a cult film to me and as such something that Disney would never put any real serious thought into continuing. After sitting through their panel however I think TRON LEGACY may very well be THE film to beat come 2011.

While very little was shown from the new movie other than a very short sequence with Flynn’s son and a now 3-D version of the footage they surprised everyone at Con with last year (If you haven’t seen it you should, it’s now available in Disney approved formats all across the web) the concept art and test footage coupled with the massive presence the film had throughout literally all of downtown San Diego shows that Disney and the filmmakers are doing anything but taking this sequel lightly. They are making a gigantic, big budget, tent-pole film meant to reintroduce the world to a way ahead of it’s time universe created all those years ago.

By all accounts everyone involved wants this movie to be huge. They want the world of TRON to be on everyone’s mind and they look to be pushing the envelop in terms of story, ideas and special effects in the same ways the original did in the early 1980’s. While out of all of the panels I sat through this one had the least actual footage to show, the imagination and heart on display from everyone involved was palpable. I think come 2011 we are all going to get blown to the back of the theatre by the awesomeness that this film will be and I simply cannot wait!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've always loved Alice in all its incarnations and I hope Tron doesn't dissapoint.