Disney+ Has a 100% Rated Tron Series—Inspired by Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Here is your friendly reminder that Tron: Uprising quietly rules. If you are even mildly curious about Tron: Ares next year, this animated one-season wonder is the smartest pit stop you can make. It still looks ridiculously good, it ties into the bigger Tron saga in some surprisingly nerdy ways, and yes, it is sitting on a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Not a typo.

Why Uprising looks the way it does (and why it still slaps)

Tron: Uprising didn't chase photorealistic CG. It went the other way on purpose. The team took a page from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which George Lucas pushed toward a stylized vibe inspired by Japanese anime and the 1960s British series Thunderbirds instead of the more realistic CG style other movies were chasing. Dave Filoni's crew even animated Clone Wars like live action: long shots, punchy lighting, and a workflow that leaned on editing over traditional storyboards. Inside baseball, but you can feel it in the staging.

Uprising borrows that philosophy and then doubles down. It blends CG with 2D sensibilities to land on an arthouse-cyberpunk aesthetic that looked like nothing else on TV at the time. That comes down to a murderer's row of artists: art direction by Alberto Mielgo, character design by Robert Valley, and vehicles by Daniel Simon. The result? Cinematic images on a TV budget, with moody, evocative lighting that earned Mielgo a Primetime Emmy in 2013 for Art Direction.

"I've done traditional animation for about 25 years and only really poked my toe in the water of CG within the last five or six years. The idea was to combine the two types of animation to create a distinct style for the CG show not seen elsewhere on television or in film. We approach it from a 2D aesthetic, and that's why it has the look that it does" — director/executive producer Charlie Bean, speaking to CBR

The series is a cult classic now, same as pretty much every corner of the Tron universe. And yes, that 100% Tomatometer is earned.

How it connects to Tron: Ares

Here's the thread Disney is pulling on: the Dillinger family. The original 1982 film set the board with Ed Dillinger as the corporate villain, and that legacy of human-made corruption reverberates through the franchise. Uprising sits right in that fallout, as Beck rises inside the Grid to undermine Clu's regime. Cut to Tron: Ares: the new film brings in Julian Dillinger — Ed's grandson — as the main antagonist, the guy who creates the program Ares. The setup hints at an AI-centric conspiracy that's been baked into Tron from the jump.

Plot-wise, Ares explores what happens when a highly advanced program crosses from the digital world into ours. It's a standalone sequel to Tron: Legacy — not a direct continuation of Sam Flynn and Quorra — but it plays fair with Legacy and doesn't contradict that ending. The existential threat of the Grid is still the connective tissue.

Timeline check: Tron: Uprising takes place between the original Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010). It's the bridge that makes Ares a lot juicier.

Where it all fits (by release)

• Tron — Film — July 9, 1982 — IMDb: 6.7/10 — Rotten Tomatoes (critics): 60%
• Tron: Legacy — Film — December 17, 2010 — IMDb: 6.8/10 — Rotten Tomatoes (critics): 51%
• Tron: Uprising — TV series — May 18, 2012 — IMDb: 8.2/10 — Rotten Tomatoes (critics): 100%
• Tron: Ares — Film — October 10, 2025 — Ratings: TBD

The quick watch pitch

Uprising is compact, stylish, and way more important to the new movie than people remember. If you want the vibe primer and the lore glue before Ares, this is the move.

Where to watch and when to show up

Tron: Uprising is streaming on Disney+ in the U.S.

Tron: Ares opens in U.S. theaters on October 10, 2025.