Hello Computer

I finally watched Tron today. Not the new movie; the original, which I'd never seen. Getting my hands on it was surprisingly difficult. Apparently, Disney yanked the film from circulation about a month ago -- pulled the DVD from inventory, set its status to out-of-print, even got Netflix and iTunes to remove it from their services. Seems an odd decision to me, when they could capitalize on the interest in the upcoming sequel and make a few bucks, but I guess that's why I'm not a studio executive.

Fortunately, the library has a copy, and after a few weeks of just missing it, I got my hands on it a couple of days ago, and we watched it this afternoon.

Before I get into the details of the movie itself, I must confess my amusement at watching a much-younger Bruce Boxleitner in action, wearing bad 1980s glasses. Being a Babylon 5 fan, Boxleitner will always be Captain John Sheridan to me, and it's much more in my mind right now because I picked up my rewatch and am currently in early Season 2. ( Quick B5 digression, includes spoilers. )

Also, Peter Jurasik was in it, which is just amusing.

Where was I? Oh, right, Tron. I went in expecting that the special effects and animation were going to look cheesy to the modern eye, and I was not surprised. I'm sure the compositing and computer animation were state-of-the-art in 1982. I would say that the computer animation has held up pretty well -- the style is a bit blocky and outdated, but the animation itself is seamless, and by now it feels more retro than anything. The composite shots, though... not so much. Everyone's eyes and teeth are this scary shade of blue-gray, and there were many places where the blue screen was obvious. I have to wonder how it will look if they ever do a BluRay release. The story wasn't much to write home about, either. Still, it was fun, and I enjoyed finally getting to see scenes I've seen referred to in many other places. (Especially Kingdom Hearts II, which makes much more sense to me now.)

( Given the movie's age, we're probably past the statute of limitations for spoilers, but I'm going to cut for them anyway. )

And now, to see the new movie, probably sometime this week. Hooray!

FFIV/FFX -"Once a Guardian"

Title: Once a Guardian
Fandom: Crossover, FFIV and FFX
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 3625
Characters: Auron, Rydia, Leviathan
Spoilers: Yes, for both games
Notes: Written for the Alphabet Fic Meme, to first_seventhe's prompt "Children/Childhood - FFIV cast". In her original request, Sev gave me an option: I could write about any FFIV character(s), or I could write about Auron. One day, as I was turning ideas over in my head (while taking a shower; I tend to get my best/wackiest inspirations in the shower), it occurred to me: what if, instead, I wrote about an FFIV character and Auron? Thus was the concept of this story born. Thanks to justira for beta help! This is my first time ever writing in FFIV canon, so feedback on that aspect is especially welcome.

( Auron had never seen this part of the Farplane before. )