Robotech Movie To The Rescue

[Andy Chalk]

Robotech Movie To The Rescue

Robotech [http://www.cwtv.com/shows/smallville].

You may be asking yourself, "What's this about a Robotech movie?" That was certainly my reaction, but the project was actually unveiled all the way back in July at the Lawrence Kasdan [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2008/anime-expo/robotech] of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi fame was attached to write the script, but that's apparently changed now that Gough and Millar are onboard.

The project manages a certain, somewhat unexpected, Hollywood cachet beyond the fact that it's a Spider-Man [http://www.warnerbros.com/], who as it turns out is something of an anime fan himself.

The Robotech series as seen in the U.S. is actually an edited collection of three separate Japanese anime series, telling the stories of the three Robotech Wars against the Zentraedi, the Robotech Masters and the Invid. I won't pretend I know anything more about it than what a quick look at Wikipedia told me, but I did watch the show as a kid and I enjoyed it enough that I am both thrilled and horrified at the prospect of the movie. I'd love to see Robotech on the big screen, but I wonder how a two-hour movie can do justice to such a sprawling series, and whenever someone talks about a "reimagining," which this apparently will be, I get a little twitch in my right eye. For now, though, all we can do is hope for the best - and hope Spider-Man won't let us down.

Source: Toxicshock.tv [http://www.toxicshock.tv/news/2008/11/18/writing-team-for-robotech-remake-tapped/]


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[reaper_2k9]

I want to get excited about this but in the back of my mind theres a little voice going fail, fail, fail...

 

[John Funk]

They should make it a Macross movie instead.

 

[ZakuII]

This could be just the thing to recharge the western mech scene, video games and all. On the other hand, it could bury it forever.

I feel like someone's whispered in one ear "You've won the lottery", then in my other ear "But you only have 4 minutes left to live."

 

[GloatingSwine]

The back of my mind is looping on the possibility of them recreating the Sharon Apple concert complete with the attempted launch of the Macross, and Guld's fatal flight against the Ghost.

That's part of Macross, not Robotech. Trying to include it would be a one way ticket to lawsuitville.

Also, as it turns out, the license under which Robotech was created, and which Harmony Gold have used to prevent imports of Macross products wasn't actually legit in the first place. Tatsunoko only had the rights to international distribution of the original animation of Macross and Southern Cross, but they licensed out all subsidiary products as well (toys, model kits, games, etc). That got them sued by Big West/Studio Nue in 2002, so anyone making any Robotech products other than a rerelease of the original content based on anything but the Mospaeda era (which was Tatsunoko's all along), would either have to license any designs and characters they used seperately from Big West (which they may be less than willing to do, since Macross is their most powerful brand, and they'll be unwilling to let derivatives of it clash with their own products, like the Macross Frontier movie next year) or use Mospaeda.

Expect this movie to sail straight into Development Hell.

 

[Amnestic]

They should make it a Macross movie instead.

Just quoting this for emphasis. Also: This.

Cautious optimism for this movie. Hope it turns out well and doesn't

sail straight into Development Hell.

 

[NeedAUserName]

The back of my mind is looping on the possibility of them recreating the Sharon Apple concert complete with the attempted launch of the Macross, and Guld's fatal flight against the Ghost.

The back of my mind is splattered against my neck. But seriously, this would be quite cool, I mean I have never heard of the anime before, but if Michael Bay, has anything to do with it, and its anything like Transformers, then prepare for awesomeness.

 

[GloatingSwine]

The back of my mind is splattered against my neck. But seriously, this would be quite cool, I mean I have never heard of the anime before, but if Michael Bay, has anything to do with it, and its anything like Transformers, then prepare for awesomeness.

Without Macross, there would be no Transformers. (also, most of the original Diaclone vehicles were designed by Shoji Kawamori and Katsutaka Miyatake anyway)

 

[NeedAUserName]

The back of my mind is splattered against my neck. But seriously, this would be quite cool, I mean I have never heard of the anime before, but if Michael Bay, has anything to do with it, and its anything like Transformers, then prepare for awesomeness.

Without Macross, there would be no Transformers. (also, most of the original Diaclone vehicles were designed by Shoji Kawamori and Katsutaka Miyatake anyway)

Not to offend anyone, but before I saw the movie, the only stuff I knew about Transformers was what I could learn from the 80's cartoons.

 

[bue519]

I just hope this movie isn't as bad as Spiderman 3

 

[cleverlymadeup]

They should make it a Macross movie instead.

probly will be a Macross movie, most ppl think of the Macross saga as robotech

 

[ccesarano]

Without Macross, there would be no Transformers. (also, most of the original Diaclone vehicles were designed by Shoji Kawamori and Katsutaka Miyatake anyway)

Actually the Transformers show came from toys that already existed and they figured "hey, we can sell these with a half-hour commercial". I believe the toys were around at the same time as Macross or before.

Actually, lemme check Wikipedia.

Yep.

The Transformers began with the 1970s Japanese toy lines Microman and Diaclone. The former utilized varying humanoid-type figures while the middle presented robots able to transform into vehicular modes, with the latter robots mimicking everyday electronic items or replica weapons.

Macross didn't come around until 1982, so it came after Transformers.

As for the film, I'm a bit worried from the writers. Not a fan of Smallville myself.

The way I see it, they should just take Macross: Do You Remember Love and do that for the movie. Give the backstory at the beginning, and go right into where Do You Remember Love starts. If you haven't seen it, best you can do is Bit Torrent it and get a really shitty bootleg scan of it, since it has never been released in America and probably never will.

Then again, Harmony Gold DID release Macross as a box set, which I have sitting on my shelf.

 

[cainx10a]

They should make it a Macross movie instead.

The only thing I fear will lack in an American production of a Macross or for that matter a Robotech movie, is the songs of Minmei and all the idols that song for their pilot lover. In that case, "My Fiance is a Pilot" song which was pretty popular, but with such a factor which will without any doubt be missing from this movie, it won't really be what Macross was all about (Song, Romance and epic battles).

 

[cainx10a]

They should make it a Macross movie instead.

probly will be a Macross movie, most ppl think of the Macross saga as robotech

At least as far as I've always been told, Macross and Robotech are the same, in the way that Star Trek TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise are all the same are all. Same universe, same basic storyline, different events/characters/focus. Could be wrong, but that's how I've always thought it was.

Robotech and Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, have the same storyline. At least, the first season of Robotech, is SDFM, with the characters having different name, 'Protoculture' having a whole different meaning (SDFM - Love, Procreativity that only human possess and the Zentradi don't, being a generation of advanced super soldiers, and in Robotech - A source of energy).

But most important of all, were the songs of Minmei, which well, as you can guess, were changed for Robotech; crappy songs were used, I must admit.

 

[Zer_]

WTB Mechwarrior movie :<.

More on-topic. I hold some hope for this movie, we'll see how it pans out.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

They should make it a Macross movie instead.

This. This This This This THIS. Robotech was an example of everything WRONG with localization- sorry for fans of it. I loved it too, until I discovered Macross lacked all the things that bothered me about Robotech.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

It's going to fail. I actually liked Robotech, but there's no way any modern Robotech anything can be good... Although I did really like Macross Plus. But again, that's Macross.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

It's going to fail. I actually liked Robotech, but there's no way any modern Robotech anything can be good... Although I did really like Macross Plus. But again, that's Macross.

The newest Macross (Frontier) is pretty good. It has alot of homages to the original series, including:

A grizzled veteran who gets shot down and his last moments on camera are spent talking about pinapple cake. He comes back the next episode laughing "I couldn't go out like that!" in a lampshade of the death of Roy Fokker from the original series.

An effeminante male character everyone mocks for being effeminant, they call him 'princess'.

Bridge Bunnies

Crazy female Zentradi

"The Minmei Manuever"
-
It mixes some comedy in with the space drama.

Irregaurdless, Macross's story was superior to Robotech because it was uhh... Coherent. In Robotech "protoculture" was some wierd "force" humans had when they were in love- in Macross "Protoculture" was simply the ability to be able to reproduce (the Zentradi had deep cultural divides between them and their female counterparts and were a strict military society). Also Macross doesn't skip ahead to a completly different series randomly.