Monday, July 27, 2009

Tron Legacy Has Virtual Characters with Heads Too Small and Necks Too Long

Tron Legacy is another one of those movies that take things a step up from the original with a better story, better graphics, and of course, better animation. Also, let's not forget that this sequel to Tron is going to be released in high-definition 3D. How's that for a movie that was inspired by the most basic and mother of all video games, Pong? It's movie-making history as it happens!

Anyway, the time has come for the world of Tron to really take shape. When the original had to rely much on rotoscoping to get the backlit animations to acceptable quality, Tron Legacy uses state-of-the art computer graphics together with live animation (or something in between) - a feat that filmmakers of the 80s only dreamt of and hoped to happen. Now the technology is here and you'd guess everything would be perfect in this sequel. Well, maybe not quite.

While the movie as depicted in the teaser looks slick and cool, one thing does get your attention and gives you a quirky feeling that says "that's not right!" If you'll just look closely at the movie still above, the head of this rider is a tad small for his body and this also makes his neck too long. It looks as if his face is just projected onto the helmet's visor from the inside. In the real world, the mouth is generally hidden from view behind the chin guard, but in this case, it's not and the whole face can be seen.

Of course there's the argument that it's supposed to be just a representation of the real world or that the helmet used is larger than the typical motorcycling helmet. Still, you can't help but feel that there's something wrong with the proportions. But it's one cinema secret that may not really matter and the movie will still provide great entertainment no matter what.