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Back in the days when Bucks Fizz were still a regular fixture in the pop charts and television had just a few channels to zap between, there was only one movie people were talking about – and that was Disney’s TRON.

As well as having a completely unique visual style, it was one of the first major studio films to use CGI to any large degree (some 20 minutes in fact). At the time however, it was refused an Academy Awards nomination because the voters felt the film “cheated” by using computer animation; in reality, the process was an extremely tricky one for the animators. Then, several years later, James Cameron’s The Abyss won the Best Visual Effects Oscar for the same kind of technology – proof positive that, as we’re only too aware, it can take time for innovation to be accepted and embraced by the masses.

Watch the trailer here.

Now, almost 30 years after the original wowed audiences, TRON is back – lightcycles and all. Taking its lead from the groundbreaking special effects of the first film, TRON Legacy shows what it’s now possible to achieve with a bit of imagination and a super powerful computer. Kind of like what our art directors do every day, except with a bigger budget, no diversity statements, and a hell of a lot more neon.

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