I need to talk about TRON: Uprising

Afther gushing about it on my weeknotes I ended up continuing (and completing) my watchthrough of TRON: Uprising.

Hear me out y’all, everyone should know about this show, it really is absolutely incredible.

This could have been The Clone Wars of the TRON universe.

And here’s the thing, where as Clone Wars—the one with 3D animation, not the shorter and just as fantastic 2003 version—started kind of slow, with the first seasons taking on a “villain of the week” approach, lots of jumps and plots in different planets or characters; Uprising does not waste anytime to be anything but what it is: The beginnings of a revolution against the tyranny of Clu, the program that betrayed Flynn and commited genocide for the sake of “perfection”.

The show doesn’t skip a beat, starting with Beck—a program mechanic–witnessing the deresolution of his best friend at the hands of the Occupation over Argon City. He begins his own rebellious campaign and disguises as Tron—the protector of the Grid who stood against Clu’s plans and allowed Flynn to escape. As Beck tries to escape from the authorities, he is trapped and interrogated, only to realize he’s being tested by Tron himself, who was pressumed dead until then. Tron tasks Beck with taking on the mantle and name of Tron and inspire others to join the uprising, in pursue of freedom.

The artstyle of this show is simply incredible, truly striking and full of color and contrast, the animation is bold and it accomplishes a lot of what we’ve seen perfected in movies such as Into The Spiderverse and KPop Demon Hunters, with an wonderful blend of 2D and 3D animation that holds up extremely well to this day.

Uprising tackles many themes with a mastery I just couldn’t believe. How someone gets radicalized to either side of the conflict, how people lie to themselves to keep it together, how some join a cause for selfish reasons. How trying to rebel can cause harm to innocents and how that may cause them to turn against you. How even the good guys keep secrets, why that may be a necessity in a certain context, or why it ends up not paying off in other times. Genocide, herd mentality, mind control, and many other topics are touched up, and pretty realistically in my opinion.

This manages to reach the heights of even Avatar: The Last Airbender in plenty of occassions, also presenting mature themes to a younger audience, and stays great throughout the whole show.

The soundtrack is incredible as well, with Joseph Trapanese—who collaborated with Daft Punk on Legacy’s soundtrack—taking a similar approach to the film’s masterful mix of electronic and orchestra. Everything fits like a glove, and it elevates every scene with grand success. It stands proud along Legacy and the rest of TRON’s soundtracks, which continue to be the one thing this franchise never gets wrong.

So, wrapping up, the animation is incredible, the plot is awesome, the music is great, the action is top notch, the spectacle is as good as what can be seen in TRON Legacy, and it is actually superior sometimes. Thanks to the limitless possibilities of animation. This show is full of shocking, colorful backdrops and silhouettes, epic moments of heroism and chaos. I can’t praise it enough.

Here are the horrible news: This show ended on the most incredible, gut-wrenching, hype inducing cliff-hanger I have ever witnessed, and it has not seen a continuation for 13 years.

I found myself literally screaming at how wild, how epic, how magnificently the stakes were set, the possibilities and the implications of what was to come. And it never did.

Apparently, TRON Ares is kind of a flop at the cinemas—just like every TRON movie before then. However, TRON Legacy has been trending in Disney’s streaming service for a few weeks, and even if the chances are extremely slim, maybe, maybe, there is some hope that someone out there will greenlight a second season of this masterpiece.

At this point, I would be happy with some fanfiction about this, maybe a comic? there must be something out there continuing this story, I need to see it through. Please, Disney Overlords, if anything needs a continuation more than a decade after its release, this is it.

By the way, I didn’t notice this before, but I think there’s some similarity between 1000xRESIST and TRON: Uprising, I wouldn’t be surprised if TRON inspired some of what we see in that videogame, so maybe give it a shot?

Anyway, now I want some TRON merchandise.