Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Tron: The Legacy pays homage to Epcot

Note the appearance of this building in the film, a homage to the defunct Horizons pavilion.

Tron: The Legacy continues the new Disney tradition of using visuals from Epcot Center in its motion pictures. This was evidenced in 'Iron Man 2' (refer to previous article) and has been repeated in this later Tron. (Note: Epcot currently has a Tron monorail, called the Tronorail). Given that EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) was designed to look like a futuristic city, it's not surprising that when a new Disney film calls for an alternate universe or city with a futuristic edge, images of Epcot Center factor in.

The weapon discs could almost pass for the circular symbols associated with Epcot Center while the technology handed to Sam Flynn to help him find Zuse is also shaped like the Horizons main sign (refer to above photo). A hologram that appears from a disc appears as a geodesic sphere representing Epcot's Spaceship Earth, much as one did in Iron Man 2, as well as a holographic version of the globe that travels across World Showcase Lagoon during the Illuminations fireworks show.

PopSpiracy's inner Epcot Center geek cannot help but love these references and hopes the Walt Disney Company will continue to pay homage to Epcot Center (and will stay true to it's original vision, something I feel is losing hold on the current Epcot).

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