In preparation for the show’s launch next month, Disney XD has released the first episode of Tron: Uprising online, entitled Beck’s Beginning. The animated half-hour long show focuses on a young program named Beck who takes on the evil forces of CLU and his army. It takes place in the time period between the first TRON film and the sequel, TRON: LEGACY.
The show features the voice talents of Elijah Wood as Beck, Bruce Boxleitner as Tron, Mandy Moore as Mara, Emmanuelle Chriqui as Paige, Nate Corddry as Zed, Lance Henriksen as General Tesler, Reginald VelJohnson as Able, Paul Reubens as Pavel and Tricia Helfer as The Grid.
Here’s the official synopsis for “Beck’s Beginning”:
TRON: Uprising, Beck’s Beginning” introduces Beck, a young mechanic living in Argon City, a growing metropolis in a far off corner of The Grid that has just been occupied by General Tesler, a henchman of the notorious Clu. After his best friend Bodhi is ruthlessly derezzed by Clu’s army, Beck seeks justice for his lost friend and launches a crusade against the regime. His rebellion captures the attention of Tron, the greatest warrior The Grid has ever known, who sees the potential in Beck and trains him to be his successor. Labeled with the moniker of The Renegade, Beck sparks a revolution to fight for the freedom of The Grid.
Enter the grid below for the entire episode:
The writers of both TRON: LEGACY and the Tron: Uprising animated series, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, had this to say about the animated show:
Horowitz: “In writing Tron: Legacy, we had two hours to tell a story and a world that was so exciting and rich to explore. Tron: Uprising has been an amazing opportunity to explore the time between Legacy, when we see Klu overthrow Flynn and Sam’s arrival at the beginning, and take that time period and really go out into the Grid and see what happens.”
Kitsis: “When we wrote the movie, you would see a scene where they would pass through other sectors, and we always wanted to explore one of those sectors. So, for us, Tron: Uprising really explores the Grid, what it means to be a Program, what it means to be a Program going from living under Flynn to living under Klu, and we really get to dig deep into the world. This will allow us to really explore it in a deeper way. Not deeper than the movie, but we really get to explore the little sections of the Grid that we didn’t have time to show you.”
I think this is one of the best-looking animated series to hit the small screen in a long time. It’s got a true sense of style and doesn’t look like anything else currently out there. I dig that the theme is pretty much aligned with TRON: LEGACY in that it takes itself seriously and doesn’t play like a kiddie cartoon. Some solid action to boot.
Beck’s Beginning hits Disney XD on May 18, 2012 and the regular series debuts on June 7, 2012.