Tron's Legacy?

There's an awful lot of buzz out there right now about the new Tron: Legacy movie, a long-awaited follow-up to the cult classic from 1982. But good luck finding the original Tron on DVD to watch ahead of the new holiday blockbuster. The DVD is out of print, and the only remaining copies available on Amazon are going for around $120. Same thing on eBay. According to the L.A. Times:

Netflix lists "Tron" as "availability unknown," only two of Blockbuster's 30 L.A.-area stores had copies in stock this week, iTunes doesn't offer the title and even specialty stores that pride themselves on stocking obscure used DVDs are empty-handed.

Why, you might ask, wouldn't Disney capitalize on all the hype for the new movie to sell copies of the old one? It seems like an incredibly stupid move not to have at least the old version--let alone the planned newly remastered version available for sale and rental in the weeks leading up to the premiere of the new movie.

The L.A. Times speculates that Disney doesn't want the now antiquated special effects of the original to turn off modern audiences:

"Tron" was a much more modest success than those films, however, earning $33 million at the box office and becoming a cult favorite for its groundbreaking use of computer-generated effects and a prescient story about computer culture. Today its effects might look quaint to sophisticated audiences.

Disney says it will release Lisberger's remaster of "Tron" sometime in 2011. It's possible the company is deliberately holding back on printing new copies of a movie that could alienate the broad, non-geek audiences they'll need to make "Tron: Legacy" a success.

"That film was ahead of its time," says Jan Saxton, an analyst at Adams Media Research. "But they want the focus to be on their new effort."

Stupid. Just really stupid, IMHO. Way to miss out on sales there, Disney! Because I can't tell the difference between the special effects in movies made in 1982 and one made in 2010...

I'm just glad I have that Tron special edition DVD Paul gave me for Christmas a while back! Who knew it would become a collector's item too?