The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 49

D3 THE MORNING CALL, FRIDAY, JULY 9. 1982 1'" 'Jj 'p: v. -i- The computer villain in Disney's hew adventure fantasy, "TRON" lisiill 0m ri Ssr Jet I -i Mr 1 SCKfECK Call-Chronicle Film Arts Editor great fantasy adventure works very well without a treacherous villain doing battle with heroes who stand-for Good in the face of Evil. Over the years motion pictures from iWalt Disney's "magic kingdom" have 'featured some of the most memorable bad guys. There was the wicked witch with the poison apple in "Snow JiVhite, the tyrannical step-mother in "Cinderella" and the monstrous whale in "Pinocchio." Now with space-age technology and the mesmerizing magic of computer-generated images, Disney has created the futuristic fantasy "Tron," but the presence of a conniving, malevolent villain known as Sark reminds audiences that the basic elements of storytelling can't be avoided no matter how eye-popping the visual effects might be.

"Tron" plugs into the corrupt antics of a scheming executive of a large computer company who has appropriated clever and profitable video games as conceived by a talented young programmer on the corporation's payroll. Afraid that the young man will uncover his unscrupulous style of climbing to the top, the corporate chief along with the power of the Master Control Program is instrumental in zapping the youthful employee with laser beams that send him inside the computer in the form pf electrical particles. In his altered state, the young man must fight for his life in a realm of video games he created in the real world. As Dillinger the unethical executive and Sark, an electronic warrior who is i Dillinger's alter-ego, British actor David continues with a string of roles jthat highlights his talents as a big screen jmeanie. Moviegoers may also remember 'the slight, middle-aged Warner as Jack The Ripper in "Time After Time" and as The Evil Genius in "Time Bandits.

A practical chap who says he enjoys any acting assignment for which he gets paid, Warner completed his work on "Tron" almost a year ago. The inter-l vening time was devoted to complex -post-production which required blending live-action with computer-generated imaging. Although he spent the last few weeks touring major cities on behalf of an expensive film that the Disney studios hope will turn their sagging fortunes around, Warner had seen only 45 minutes of the feature-length movie when we met last week during his visit to Philadelphia. "They (Disney) aren't trying to hide anything," Warner insisted, "it's just a matter of so much to do in so little ime." having children grow up addicted to playing video games "I wouldn't mind my daughter playing video games as long as she reads, listens to music and plays sports," Warner responded. "Then she can sit down and play those games as long as the right amount of time is allocated.

If playing video games was all she was doing, I'd have to stop that," he added. Instead of video games to distract him from his studies or monopolize his teenage years, David Warner's often chaotic family life caused him to fail many of his school subjects and he never graduated or received a high school diploma. That's possibly one reason why working at the Disney Studios was such a pleasure for a man whose own childhood was considerably less than Walt's dream for every kid. "Without being schmultzie, you feel there's a family atmosphere there," Warner said of his introduction to the Disney style of filmmaking. "You go through the main gates and you turn right onto Dopey Drive and then onto Mickey Avenue.

I trusted the people at Disney," he said, emphasizing, however, that he's never been mistreated while working elsewhere. Although David Warner hesitates to predict whether "Tron" will set trends in motion pictures, he is obviously delighted with the film's potential to attract repeat business. And if ticket-buyers do come back again and again to witness this computer-age struggle in "Tron" between Good and Evil, he hopes that people will root for the good guys, "and I won't mind if they boo me and my gang." wmmmm any other movie ever made. Since Sark plays a very mean game of what appears to be laser-like frisbee in the film with his weapons able to blow his opponents to bits, one might suspect that David Warner would give any bunch of alert teen-agers a run for the money at a video game arcade. That's not the case at all.

"I can't play the video games," Warner says with a hint of embarrassment. "I've tried, and I can get a couple of zaps, but I'm really no good at it. Warner alsaadmits that he's never learned how to drive a car and he sees a link between his disinterest in technical skills and his incompetence with Pac-Man or the new video game based on the movie "Tron." "I only drive cars in films mostly in the desert where they know I can't run into anything," Warner says, kidding about his own inability to feel comfortable with machines of any sort. Although it might be fun to suppose that the "Tron" script prompted lively discussions about computers on the movie set, the fact is that Warner and costars Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner spent most of their between takes time talking about babies and theories on raising children. That was because Mrs.

Warner and Mrs. Bridges were both pregnant when the film was being shot and the Boxleitners had just had their first child. "I used to be more frightened of computers than I am now," Warner commented, attributing the waning of some of his fears to having an inside look at the complex, humming instruments, if only in the context of a fantasy adventure like "Tron." Does David Warner share the fears and concerns of many parents about Miller said that he and his staff have been working on the production for nearly six months, and budgeted a record Bucks County Playhouse amount to reshape the theater's stage into the Land of Oz. "One thing we've had trouble with, though, is that people think this is a children's play," said Miller "This is a full-blown production something for all ages." That misconception has unfortunately cut into audience turnout, and the play's run has been shortened. The play continues through July 18.

"South Pacific" will return to the stage for a week before "Mame" opens July 28. "We're starting to notice now that people are more interested in the play," said Miller. "The word has gotten out that this just isn't a small cast traveling around the country doing alO-personskit." A stage version of "The Wizard of Oz" entails not only expensive but difficult to render special effects witches and monkeys that sail he unusual lighting, explosions and shooting steam jets. The use of video projections recreates Dorothy's dreams and the wizard's power. One change, which alone is worth seeing, is the addition of a scene that was dropped from the motion picture.

Instead of a sidetrack through the poppy field, the Bucks production uses an original "jitterbug scene" that ended up on MGM's cutting room floor. Garland and her cohorts originally were interrupted by yellow "critters from the trees" along the yellow brick road on their work began after we (the actors) were finished. Everything that you see us touch in the fantasy world was added later. When I saw portions of the movie, I was really, really surprised with what they (the technical artists) had done." Dressed as Sark Lisberger named the character after Cutty Sark Scotch Whiskey in a white, skin-tight costume with black designs on it, Warner had no way of knowing while he was performing his role that those designs would eventually appear on the screen as floures-cent and neon colors one associates with video game displays. "We weren't rigged up with lights or anything that glowed," he explained.

Aware that "Tron" is the sort of film that showcases visual effects rather than the acting talents of its live cast, Warner accepts the limitations the film's style imposes. "I don't think that one is going to get nominated for an Oscar for he says, referring to the actors at least. Certainly, the designers and creators of the spectacular visual effects stand a very good chance of having their work recognized next spring at the annual Academy Awards presentations. "To be quite honest, I didn't have any other scripts lying around," Warner said of his decision to accept the part. "I'm always thrilled when someone offers me work," he adds, genuinely appreciative of any opportunity to work at his art in an industry that is notorious for so many out-of-work professionals.

"It's a question of using one's imagination. Hopefully, 'Tron' is a kind of marriage between actors and the technical artists. It was just different rather than difficult. It was a challenge. "This is not or 'Star This is 'Tron' and it's totally different from stage version of The Wizard Of the stage version, the cast does all of the original songs, including "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," and "We're Off To See The Wizard.

Finished prints of "Tron" were available only as of Tuesday this week when special screenings for the press were held in New York and Los Angeles. Committed to open the picture in theaters nationwide today, everyone at Disney was working overtime to meet the deadline for the film's debut. Back in January, writer-director Steven Lisberger and his production staff realized that not enough hands were available at Disney's Burbank-based stu- 66 opefully, Tron' is a kind of marriage between actors and the technical artists. It was just different rather than difficult. It was a challenge.

99 David Warner dios Southern California to complete the awesome amount of technical work still to be done on "Tron," and thus much of the unfinished footage with live-action was shipped to the island of Taiwan where hundreds of artists were employed to do the tedious frame-by-frame image enhancing that was required. That explains why the extensive closing credits for the film include a long list of names printed in Chinese characters. Having worked on the film for over three months, Warner said "the real Bucks County Playhouse has recreated Bucks County crew added from the Broadway script, is the tune, I Were King," a musical skit for the cowardly lion. In just one of several musical twists for i Wizard of Oz' magic recreated in New Hope theater way to Emerald City. A spell is cast on Dorothy, the brainless scarecrow, the tin woodman and the lion.

The troupe of yellow bugs mystically force the four to dance the jitterbug. The scene, which is both amusing and well choreographed, was edited because MGM studio executives felt it would date the film, according to Miller. "We knew we could have fun with it and thought it made the version a little different," he said. The cast of characters deserve a hand for making this version a near duplicate of the screen version. Dorothy, played by Eileen Griffin, even masters Garland's tone of a Kansas farm girl, despite her native New Yorker accent.

Why did Baum choose Kansas for the setting of his timeless tale? It's not all that certain. What is true is that his book and Garland's film put Kansas on the map for the rest of America. Instead of wheat fields and sunflowers, one more often gives thought to a homesick girl named Dorothy, her Ruby slippers and Toto (Dorothy's dog, not the rock group when the state is spoken of. Those ruby slippers eventually return Dorothy to Kansas, "the very heart of the western wilderness," and the "someplace where there is no trouble," as the script relates. The return to this simple state for Dorothy is the end of the rainbow.

And, although Kansas may not offer much, least likely a pot of gold, it is, after all, for Dorothy, home. fcy KAREN BALL Pf The Morning Call ucks County Playhouse's production of "The Wizard of Oz hauntmgly resembles the original motion picture that maHo Harlanr! a star in 1939 And if you come away from the New Hope (heater knowing you've been nostalgically (tudged into the past, then the Bucks County ast succeeded because letting the audience elive the famous film was their every intention. "We basically just took the movie and did a remake of it," said director and producer jlalph Miller. The cast took MGM's original movie, studied it, worked with it and carved a final production that is a finely-honed replica of the classic screen adaptation of Frank Baum'sbook. The current stage version has a few tidbits pf its own that make it an exclusive, while 4.1 i Slaying away irom copying me croaaway version and "The Wiz," the latter a jazzy black production that recently toured the nation and was made into a movie.

Miller and his staff wanted to rejuvenate the magic of parland's portrayal of the young Kansas farm girl sucked up by a ferocious cyclone and spun Off into a land of good and evil, flying feionkeys and munchkins. The Bucks production basically adheres to rank Gabrielsons initial stage adaptation, and includes most of the music by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg use in both the. stage and screen presentations. One selection, which the original film did not use but the.