Flynn contaminated by The Dude?

I really enjoy both Tron movies and frequently watch the two side by side.

One thing I noticed about the Kevin Flynn character. In Tron, he's certainly a hammy fun-loving wisecracker. Pretty sure of himself until he actually has to fight inside the games and his life depends on it. Even then, he still comes out on top.

However in Tron Legacy, it's like he turned the clock back on his personality and he acts more like an early 70's era hippie. He utters a few "cool" and "far out man" phrases that he never used in the first movie. The preoccupation with the pseudo Zen-Bhuddism thing is new as well.

Granted, he spent a really long time locked in the Grid World which certainly mellowed him as well as aged him so he probably became more retrospective. However, it seems like a little too much of "The Dude" from Big Lebowski has seeped into the character.

So does anybody think that's what happened? Did Jeff Bridges become so enamored with his "Dude" character that he now incorporates it into future characters?

I'm not saying this happens all the time. I've seen a couple of movies that he's done recently which seem to be free of Dude influence (although he now seems to be dipping into the Cowboy role a lot too), so maybe I'm just imagining things.