• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 7, 2010

Yahoo has entered Tron's Game Grid by partnering with Disney on a video ad that demonstrates the speed of Yahoo's shortcuts for movie-related searches. The ad, featuring the distinct look and feel of Tron -- a "Tron-ized" version of the Yahoo logo -- has just begun appearing in pre-roll and rich media banners on the Yahoo Network and off-network sites like CNN, Hulu, Wired, and YouTube.

The ad will increase in frequency through the premiere of the movie "Tron: Legacy" on Dec. 17. The ad marks an extension of Yahoo's partnership with Disney tied to the Tron franchise that began at Comic-Con this past summer.

The movie features Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy son of Kevin Flynn. The 20-something-year-old looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of turbulent software and Web programs and games where his father has been living for decades. Once found, father and son start on a journey across the cyber universe.

"The ad was specifically created to drive awareness of our new features that make movie content easily accessible from the search results page, and the creative of the ad demonstrates how that feature would work for a search such as 'Tron'," says Meagan Busath, a Yahoo spokesperson.

The ad aims to promote the movie "Tron," but also Yahoo Search's new interface and functions supporting movie studios and its one-click search approach.

The movie -- reported as being produced on a $170 million budget -- offers state-of-the-art visual effects and a three-year marketing campaign not only to merchandise the movie, but for toys, clothes, jewelery and electronics. So it seems to be the perfect partnership for Yahoo to demonstrate its role in supporting the user interface of search.