TRON (1982)

There is only about 20 minutes worth of actual CGI in TRON, but Disney Studios still deserves credit for pioneering 3D animation. Even though it was all outsourced, no other animation studio could convincingly create a computerized look with traditional cel painting to fill in the rest of the movie. TRON is a stripped to the bone, minimalist experience of thin lines and smooth gradiants.

So the plot is lame: a cyberworld exists inside a corporate mainframe where nerds are worshiped as gods by their programs. A tyrant called Master Control Programclamps down on freedom in its quest to replace the religion with fear, forcing the programs to die in an arena of video games. David Warner is fun as the snarling sadist Sark. Jeff Bridges seems able to entertain himself. Bruce Boxlightner is as stiff as Dudley Dooright, and poor Cindy Morgan has little to do but be the girlfriend.

But the artwork is as visionary as anything put on film. Syd Mead’s light cycles are legendary, as is the violent jai-alai deathsport seen in the movie but absent from the original arcade game (later to become Discs of Tron). Wendy Carlos contributes a memorable dissonant soundtrack in a mathmatical tuning, and Moebius provides costumes that would pass as athletic bicycle racing gear today trimmed with designs made from reflective tape. And the Frisbee…, ugh, nothing says Eighties like tossing a Frisbee to save the world!