While fans of TRON may be holding their breath waiting for a sequel to 2010′s TRON: Legacy, Disney XD aims to hold you over with their futuristic animated series, TRON: Uprising.  With the debut of the first episode set to air on the network tomorrow (unless you’ve already watched it here), Disney has released a behind-the-scenes featurette with tons of footage and some great cast commentary from the recent press junket. We were lucky enough to bring you interviews with stars Elijah Wood, who plays Beck, and Mandy Moore, who voices Mara.

TRON: Uprising also stars Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nate Corddry, Lance Henriksen, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Reubens, Tricia Helfer and, of course, Bruce Boxleitner. The first episode, “Beck’s Beginning,” will air Friday, May 18 (9:30 – 10:00 p.m., ET/PT) with an uninterrupted encore on Disney XD on Monday, May 21 (7:00 p.m. ET/PT), followed by the series launch on Thursday, June 7 (9:00 p.m.).  Hit the jump to see the featurette.

The animated series TRON: Uprising, debuting with a special preview on the Disney Channel on May 18^th before premiering on Disney XD on June 7^th, takes place after the 1982 feature film and before the events in TRON: Legacy. Produced in CG animation with a 2D aesthetic, the series follows the heroic journey of a new character named Beck (voiced by Elijah Wood), a young program who becomes the unlikely leader of a revolution inside the computer world of The Grid.  You can watch the first episode here.

At the press day for this highly anticipated new show, actress/singer Mandy Moore, who voices Mara, the lone voice of reason and Beck’s loyal best friend and fellow mechanic, talked about how her character fits into the TRON universe, what she thought when she saw how her character would look, what a big TRON fan her husband (singer/songwriter Ryan Adams) is, how excited she is about how cool the show has turned out, and that she’s more of a girl’s girl than her tomboy character. She also talked about writing songs for a new album, doing voice-over work and singing on another Disney animated show, called Sheriff Callie’s Wild West (for Disney Junior), what she looks for in a role now, and that she would definitely be up for a Tangled sequel. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

While many TRON fans are still waiting (possibly in vain) for a sequel to TRON: Legacy, Disney XD is bringing fresh TRON goodness right into the comfort of your own living room.  The animated TRON: Uprising series doesn’t debut until June 7th, the first episode has been put online for those that are eager to get a peek at what’s in store.  I’m not exactly the biggest TRON fan, but I’ve heard really great things about Uprising.  From the bit of this episode that I watched, the animation looks pretty nifty and I’m sure fans of the films will enjoy visiting the TRON world through a weekly series.  The story takes place between the events of TRON and TRON: Legacy.

Hit the jump to watch the full episode.  The voice cast includes Elijah Wood, Lance Henriksen, Mandy Moore, Nate Corddry, Paul Reubens, and Bruce Boxleitner.

Disney’s new animated series, TRON: Uprising, released a new trailer in preparation for its launch date this June.  Earlier this month, we brought you a new poster and some footage, along with a TV spot and a new image.  The new trailer, however, gives us a better sense of the conflict in the world and what the characters’ roles are within it.  The animation reminds me a bit of the style of Peter Chung (Aeon Flux, Reign: The Conqueror); make of that what you will since it’s not exactly for everyone.  TRON: Uprising features the voices of Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reubens, Reginald VelJohnson and Bruce Boxleitner and debuts June 7th. Hit the jump to check out the new trailer. [Update: Disney XD has announced when you can see a special prelude to the series.  More after the jump.]

Last week, we showed you a poster and some brief footage from the upcoming animated TV series, TRON: Uprising, and now a new TV spot and image have gone online.  The series takes place between 1982′s TRON and 2010′s TRON: Legacy.  In the animated series, the protagonist, a program named Beck (voiced by Elijah Wood), starts an uprising (the title isn’t misleading!) in the fight against Clu and his second-in-command, General Tesler (Lance Henriksen).  Beck was previously trained to fight by Tron (Bruce Boxleitner), but then Tron disappeared.

TRON: Uprising will have to carry the TRON brand while Disney mulls giving the greenlight to TRON 3, but I don’t know how interesting the series can be since Beck’s “uprising” clearly didn’t do much to stop Clu.  Then again, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is ridiculously popular, and everyone knows how that story ends.  TRON obviously has a lot more work to do to build up that kind of audience, but at least there’s a precedent.  Hit the jump to check out the TV spot and image.  The show also features the voices of Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mandy Moore, Paul Reubens, Nate Corddry, and Reginald VelJohnson. TRON: Uprising premieres on Disney XD in June.

If you’ve been wondering what’s the status of Tron: Uprising, you’ll be happy to learn the show premieres this June on Disney XD.  Featuring the voices of Elijah Wood, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mandy Moore, Paul Reubens, Nate Corddry, Lance Henriksen, and Bruce Boxleitner, Tron: Uprising covers the events between the original TRON and Tron: Legacy.  The series is directed and executive produced by Charlie Bean (Samurai Jack) with Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (the writers of Tron: Legacy) acting as consulting producers.

With the show premiering soon, a poster and some new footage has hit the net and it features our first real look at the series.  If you thought Tron: Uprising was going to look like the first trailer, you might be a bit disappointed.  But as someone that loves the world of Tron and is still hoping for another sequel, I can’t wait to watch the series.  Hit the jump for more.

The Tangled Saga will continue this month with the release of the short film Tangled Ever After.  The story takes place on Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) and Flynn’s (Zachary Levi) wedding day, but their animal pals/ring-bearers have to go on a frantic search when they accidently lose the rings.  I’m all for any movie that brings us more of Maximus the Horse.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  Tangled Ever After will play in front of Beauty and the Beast 3D, which opens January 13th.

Tangled directors Byron Howard and Nathan Greno will continue the story of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi), and Maximus, The World’s Most Awesome Horse in the new short film Tangled Ever After.  Disney has sent out a press release announcing that the short film will play in front of Beauty and the Beast 3D.  In Tangled Ever After, Maximus and Pascal the Chameleon lose the wedding rings for Rapunzel and Flynn’s wedding and have to go on a frantic hunt to find the gold bands.  I’m sure it will be comical and cute like the movie, but I think it will be interesting to see how a modern Disney princess movie directly compares to a classic like Beauty and the Beast.

Hit the jump for the press release as well as the poster for Tangled Ever After.    The film Beauty and the Beast 3D opens January 13, 2012.

IFC Films has debuted the trailer for Love, Wedding, Marriage, the directorial debut of Dermot Mulroney.  Mandy Moore stars as Ava, a newlywed marriage counselor who learns her parents (James Brolin and Jane Seymour) are getting divorced: “Ava sets out on a dangerous path to save her parents’ marriage at the expense of her own, manipulating loved ones to achieve her objectives.”  Twilight hunk Kellan Lutz plays Moore’s husband.  Jessica Szohr plays her sister.

Love, Wedding, Marriage premieres on demand May 1, followed by a limited release on June 3.

Tangled has the distinction of being the 50^th animated film to emerge from Walt Disney studios. Lot of miles there. From being the king of the animated world, to the loss of direction in the 70’s and 80’s to the boom of The Little Mermaid and the run of animated hits that followed, to the complete lack of direction again in the 21^st century. At this point you have no idea what to expect from the Mouse house, and often can expect better from Pixar. And yet Tangled is one of their better films, a charming version of the Rapunzel story, where the princess (Mandy Moore) doesn’t need rescuing as much as the would-be prince (Zachary Levi) does. Check out our Blu-ray review after the jump.

After TRON: Legacy landed with a thud, I’ve found it difficult to care about where the story goes from here.  However, Disney still believes in their black-and-neon franchise and they’re moving forward with the new animated series TRON: Uprising.  The series will air on Disney XD in summer 2012 and cover the events between the original TRON and Legacy.  A teaser trailer for the series has gone online and if you loved TRON: Legacy, then you’ll probably love this too.  It has light cycles and stuff.

More promising is an upcoming remix of TRON: Legacy‘s outstanding score.  Pitchfork reports that Disney will release Tron: Legacy R3CONFIGUR3D on April 5th and it will feature M83, Photek, Moby, Com Truise, and others remixing Daft Punk’s score.  The remix soundtrack is available to buy in various special editions on the score’s official website.  Hit the jump to check out the TRON: Uprising trailer and the track list for Tron: Legacy R3CONFIGUR3D.

Mandy Moore (Tangled) and Rodrigo Santoro (I Love You Phillip Morris) will star in the supernatural thriller Falling Slowly. The film will mark the directorial debut of Buried scribe Chris Sparling and the sparse details provided by Variety confirm that Moore and Santoro will make turns as a couple whose apartment is “haunted by a dark presence.” Julie Snyder will produce the pic which is garnering my early attention solely based upon the strength of Sparling’s Buried script (for which he won the National Board of Review award for Best Original Screenplay).

In addition to Falling Slowly, Santoro also lends his pipes to the upcoming Fox animated film Rio alongside Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg. As for Moore, the recording artist-turned-actress performed a song from Tangled (for which she voiced the lead) at last night’s Academy Awards ceremony.

What are the Oscars without a little pageantry?  As it’s been done in years prior, the Best Song nominees will be performed by the folks who sang them in the movie.  Gwyneth Paltrow will perform “Coming Home” from Country Strong; Randy Newman will perform “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3; songwriter Alan Menken will provide piano accompaniment to Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi for “I See the Light” from Tangled; and songwriter A.R. Rahman will join Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine to perform “If I Rise” from 127 Hours.

Hit the jump for the press release and to hear the songs.  The 83rd Academy Awards will be held on February 27th.

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 50th animated feature film Tangled is out today in stereoscopic 3D and 2D, so now it’s time to have some fun. I had interviewed stars Mandy Moore (Rapunzel) and Zachary Levi (Flynn Rider) individually, so I knew the two of them together would make for a great on screen interview. Turns out, I was right. I delved into questions that are more serious individually, so this time around I wanted to lighten the mood and ask some questions they perhaps were not used to answering. Hit the jump to see the video interview as we discuss dressing up kids as Tangled characters, whether they get lifetime passes to Disneyland, why Zachary is a fan of Donald Duck, and whether wearing a band’s t-shirt to their concert is taboo.

Tangled could have been a disaster. Directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard really pushed for something different by attempting to modernize a classic tale for contemporary audiences while combining the classic storylines and imagery of Disney’s illustrious past. All of that experimentation can unbalance a film by leaning too heavily on one side or the other, but Tangled does a remarkable job at harmonizing the past and present. Gorgeous CG, an involving and up-tempo score, and some of the best sidekicks seen on screen propel this take on the character of Rapunzel. There is a sense of contemporary fun throughout the film, and yet the heart remains where it should; right in the middle.  My full review after the jump: