ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

With the success of The Transformers, it was inevitable but I am so excited. My favorite Space Anime Opera is finally getting made!!!!

http://movies.ign.com/articles/818/818558p1.html

http://movies.ign.com/articles/818/818866p1.html

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Wow!!! I'm soooooooo excited!!! Behind Transformers, this is the movie I've always wanted to see made. Hope they get talented people to work on it to give it the treatment it deserves.

~T

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

With Tobey Maguire's involvement (as producer and possibly playing Rick Hunter) and with him being a fan of the series, I think this could truly be an epic and faithful movie.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

I'd love to see the original source material, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, made into a live action film, but not the dumbed down Robotech. I doubt Shōji Kawamori will be involved, and that's a shame. He was the main story creator of the original Macross and designed just about all the machines and vehicles in the series, most notably, the brilliantly conceived transforming Valkyrie fighter planes.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

I agree 100%.

According to an article on Anime News Network, it is likely that no elements of Macross will be included in this movie:

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Never was into this show. I know it has to with planes that transform. But, can someone give me a quick synopsis of each version?

Thanks!

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/intro/

Robotech is an Americanized version of three different and very unrelated Anime series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. All edited and re-dubbed into an 85 episode series. It consisted of three story arcs all related to each other. The first one being the longest and probably the most popular: The Macross Saga. The second being The Robotech Masters and the third: The New Generation. Character bios can be found in the link I posted earlier:

http://movies.ign.com/articles/818/818866p1.html

There are fans of the original Japanese versions but to a lot of us, Robotech was our first exposure to Japanese Anime, even though it was an Americanized one.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

I cannot wait for this..... My favorite anime series! I hope they do it justice...

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Yeah, that's going to happen. The studio's going to say, "Well, we have this semi-popular cartoon series from the '80s that we can turn into a $100million sci-fi epic, but it was dumbed down for American consumption. Let's please all the hardcore anime fans by going back to the Japanese original, even though general audiences have never heard of "Macross"."

I don't have any problem with a Robotech movie -- sure, the series had some major plot holes resulting from the patch-up nature of the show, but nothing that can't be fixed. I quite enjoyed the Southern Cross and New Generation parts of the show, and hope the film is successful enough that they make it that far in the series.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Macross = Massively Overrated.

I don't hate the Japanese Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. On the other hand, I *do* see through it. There isn't much there. It's entertaining, and *dabbles* in some interesting themes, but doesn't deal with any in any significant detail. It's eye candy, pleasing to the superficial examination, and nothing more.

Granted, neither Southern Cross nor Mospeada possess Turgenyevian levels of sophistication on their own, but you don't see loads of folks with 36-episode attention spans claiming that Robotech is simply Mospeada plus a prequel, or Southern Cross plus a prequel and a sequel.

This next bit is 22 years of hardcore Robotech fandom talking, but I am sick of fans of the Japanese Macross congesting the Robotech newsgroups with their constant Robotech-bashing. I am sick of 36-episode attention spans claiming that Robotech is simply "Macross plus extras."

It's not; it's infinitely more than Macross ever was, and ever can be. Furthermore, I outright laugh at anyone who takes this a step further and claims that Do You Remember Love? is one of the greatest movies ever made. It's pretty, but it's hollow. There's no substance to it.

In each of the three original Japanese series, a couple of themes -- the common nature of humanity across political boundaries, redemption from the sins one has committed, and release from the weight of sins commited against others -- are shallowly treated (at best). But in Robotech, by virtue of linking these three stories together, and by virtue that they share identical themes, these themes are reprised with increasing power each time until the breathtaking climax of "Symphony of Light."

The casual and inattentive fan who thinks Robotech is simply Macross plus additional episodes, who cannot see the greater unity of the whole, who simply stops paying attention when Minmei's hand closes the photo album, misses not only the whole point of the series, but the entire reason Robotech is a near-masterpiece, whereas Macross is only a pop TV show.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

I'm betting that the hardcore Robotech and Macross fans will soon be united in their hatred of the new movie. Hollywood's track record with these sorts of things is not very good.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

I'm not going to get deep into this, but I don't consider Robotech "Macross with a few extra episodes." I consider it three independent series forced together. Its the same thing as if somebody took Star Wars, Star Trek 2, and Aliens, completely re-wrote them and passed it off as "new". How would you feel if something you worked on was completely changed and combined with other parts you had nothing to do with?

Maybe I shouldn't have used the phrase "dumbed down", but Macross was designed for everybody, nothing you couldn't see in a PG movie, but come on, Robotech was written and edited for children.

I used to really like Robotech. Then I saw Macross and thought it was vastly superior. I had the same reaction when I saw the BBC version of The Office.

Just my opinion. Its all a matter of point of view. Personally, just liked the story of the original Macross series.

Sorry for derailing the thread. This is about the American Robotech movie. All I ask is that they don't redesign those beautifully transforming Valkyries!

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

The "Star Wars/Wrath of Khan/Aliens" analogy isn't really a proper one, though -- the three constituent components of Robotech were all developed in-house by the same studio, and shared many of the same writers, basic storyline structures, and mecha-design principles. The three movies you cite were each respectively developed under vastly different creative circumstances, by different directors, and at different studios.

The commonalities between Macross, Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada allow them to be combined in a very thematically-harmonious manner, with overlapping philosophies and storytelling techniques. Putting together, say, James Cameron's Aliens with Tarkovsky's Solaris, wouldn't be anywhere near as analogous.

Robotech's literary value still has not changed -- and as a story, it is fairly generic. But so are Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada, by themselves.

It is the happy accident that when the "new" story was created by the compilation of its parts, the literary merit of each component happened to reinforce the merit of the other components. Robotech is far greater than the sum of its parts, because its parts independently treat the same themes and ideas...but when compiled and combined, they reinforce, foreshadow, and reprise these themes again and again.

Robotech would *not*, for example, possess this genius had Orguss been chosen instead of Southern Cross (as some Southern Cross-haters have suggested should have occurred), because Orguss is sufficiently divergent from Macross's and Mospeada's themes that it would have been a square peg in a round hole. The themes Macross initiates, however superficially, would have been interrupted, rather than reinforced, were Southern Cross substituted for something else.

The same can be said for any great piece of literature that had its origins in a compilation. Take the Bible (not my personal choice, but an accessible example):

By themselves, the individual components are relatively mundane. But in the choice of which stories or documents to compile (as opposed to those that were excluded -- to see these for comparison, see The Other Bible, ed. W. Barnstone), the work has a thematic and literary unity that far outshadows the individual parts.

Was its literary value the intent of its compilers? No more than was the case in Robotech. Again, we have the example of a happy accident.


I have to (respectfully) disagree with that last bit -- Macross was aimed by Tatsunoko at Japanese 10-12 year-olds. Robotech's main broadcast demographic when it first aired was actually the 15-16 year-old group.

It's been fairly well documented that the Harmony Gold writers made the decision to tailor the Robotech adaptation so that it would work on multiple levels for different audiences...they were hoping that children would tune in and be wowed by all the ginchy mecha, but also that the series would have a deeper resonance for whichever adults happened to tune in.

When you look at most of the animated shows on the air in that era (Voltron, GI Joe, Transformers, et cetera), Robotech stands out as a breath of fresh air by comparison. I can watch Robotech in the company of fellow adults to this very day and not cringe...unfortunately, the same thing can't be said about any of those other shows.


In the context of Robotech, though, the Japanese Macross was brain candy -- and this was taken to the extreme with DYRL. Long on pretty pictures, soft on story. It was a soap-opera, not a saga. (I still respect your opinion and preferences, though.)


It's cool -- agree that the Valkyrie/Veritechs should be retained as much as possible in the new movie, but if what they're saying now in the past week or so is true, Tatsunoko/Big West might be putting the kibosh even on that...

(Also, you might give the recent Robotech:The Shadow Chronicles feature film a look -- extremely adult-oriented, and the audience I saw it with this past winter tore the roof off the theater when it ended. Great flick.)

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

True but they are Very pretty pictures!!!

As far as the movie goes, I'd prefer a trilogy. One movie for each generation.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Sorry, I think Robotech was not edited for children, or at least american children. US cartoons generally do not have people dying (like Roy) or having inter-racial relationships back in the 80s, or even female impersonators (Lancer).

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

I agree 100%. I remember watching this when it was first aired and seeing people get blown away. I thought to myself, you don't see that in G.I. Joe. They also show Lisa singing in a bar drunk.

Also, for you younger Anime fans. You can never underestimate the hugh impact Robotech and Carl Macek had on bringing Anime to a mass audience. Sure there was Speed Racer and Starblazers before but Robotech was a different creature altogether. They used to have conventions just for it. I remember going to one of the first in 1986. They were showing Anime videos in a small room, these were not subtitled. We'd just sit and watch them and be amazed at the animation. This was how I first experienced Macross DYRL, Bubblegum Crisis, Fight! Iczer One, etc. over the next few years. Carl Macek was responsible for releasing Akira as well.

In my opinion there are certain times when Robotech works better than Macross. Take episode 19 (Bursting Point) for example. When Claudia is sitting not drinking her coffee and Rick (Hikaru), they are both thinking about Roy. The music in Robotech in that scene just packs much more of an emotional punch than the same scene in Macross.

Sorry for getting off the movie topic but I hate when people bash Robotech. It really did pave the way for all that followed.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Speaking of the music. I really liked the music to Robotech, but hated the American songs. I wish they kept the Japanese Minmay songs. I would be sad if the Valkyaries were not in the new movie. I had a model of one of them in the 80s. Damn thing was so cool because it really changed! The Macross HAS to be the same too.
I would love to see Macross: DYRL, and Macross Zero on R1 DVD!

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

What I remember most is watching "Force of Arms" when I was six and being freaked out when the Zentradi blew the hell out of the Earth. I didn't watch the show for a couple weeks after that, and when I tuned in again it was on Southern Cross and I didn't understand where Rick and Minmei went or who the Robotech Masters were.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

I'll join in with the others in saying that this show had a tremendous impact on me as a child. I would actually set my alarm to get up every morning at 6am just to watch it.

It also ruined GI Joe and Transformers for me. After seeing both sides actually dealing with death I just couldn't go back to watching soldiers jump out of tanks or parachute out of plays seconds before they exploded every single time.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

The animé crowd didn't start bitching for at least a year-and-a-half after Robotech started to air. It became a badge of how "true" an animé fan one was to bash Robotech and Carl Macek. Before one was accepted into "true" animé fandom, it was required that one repudiate the show that brought the vast majority of them to the cons in the first place.

It was kind of like the preening Old Trek fans did by calling themselves "Trekkers" to distinguish themselves from the "new" Trek fans, whom the media called "Trekkies."

I know...I was there, at the dawn of the Third Age of Animé Fandom.


Many of the Japanese Macross fans, I've discovered over the years, are blinded by their fanatical devotion to Lynn Minmay. Minmei is *identical* in Robotech -- an annoying crybaby, and a selfish little twit. In fact, most of the dialogue is a straight translation. The only difference is that her voice is even *more* squeaky and annoying in Macross.

Indeed, except for "Stagefright," all of the Robotech Minmei's songs are good, solid cabaret-style songs in the mold of the Gershwin songbook. The only problem is that the songs don't fit the character. Cabaret singers are supposed to be sultry, not whiny, and older to boot.

Robotech's soundtrack runs circles around Macross's generic-animé score. There are some pieces in Macross that are workable, but all in all, its score is completely forgettable. Only one of the songs in the Japanese series, "Do You Remember?", is particularly good. The rest are pathetic lollipop Japanese fluff like "My Boyfriend's a Pilot."

Gag.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Robotech begins and ends with Macross for me. Even as a kid when I knew nothing of how the show was created from three different series I always preferred the Macross stuff (though the Invid Invasion was pretty cool). I finally watched the "proper" Macross for the first time a year ago and thought it was superior across the board to Robotech.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

I used to have my dad wake me up early (he was always up before anyone else) just so I could watch it!

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I think there is always going to be mixed feelings amongst anime fans about Carl Macek. On one hand, he was responsible for getting those three shows into syndication, which was the way a lot of my generation and older got into anime. On the other hand, he did it by "creating" his own show using the anime as its base. No doubt, it followed the storylines of the original somewhat closely, but there was still a lot of modifications that wouldn't be acceptable today.

There isn't any point really in kvetching about nowadays, since the originals are readily available and people have a choice. But, there will always be people who have a problem with MST3K, broadcasting MXC instead of Takeshi's Castle and the Weinsteins modifying foreign films to their whims.

Jason

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Agreed, but Macross: Do You Remember Love? is almost unwatchable.

Once I got past the animation and tried to pay attention to the story and characterization, I was about to puke from the oozing, sappy, treacly sentiment...it is, quite simply from a narrative standpoint, crap.


Good post there, Jonathan. Exactly what I'm talking about, how Robotech is more sophisticated than its original Japanese components.

For example:

When I talk to people about Southern Cross, they seem only to remember the show up around to the episode "Stardust"...that is, the first one-third or so of the series. The pacing of the episodes was off, the characters were at their most annoying, and the war seemed trivial. The fact that the story (and the action) picks up a few episodes later seems to get forgotten, probably because people had been turned off by the first few episodes and stopped watching (or paying attention).

Nonetheless, from a narrative standpoint, Southern Cross is the most important part of *Robotech*...whereas Macross, everyone's favorite, is little more than a prologue to the Robotech story, and is, in the long run, not all that important. This, I think is why people either hate or love Southern Cross. It had a fascinating story, but quite frankly, few of the characters were particularly sympathetic. Indeed, the Macross characters were far more sympathetic, despite the fact that the story itself was rather hokey.

Southern Cross's major VITALITY stems from its establishment of the back-story, which sets up the Invid, and sets the theme of sin and redemption with which Robotech concludes into full motion (Zor's tragedy can be seen as a thematic foreshadowing of the Regess's moral liberation in "Symphony of Light").

Looking back now, I wouldn't replace the Southern Cross saga with any other story. Robotech wouldn't be Robotech without it.

Re: ROBOTECH - Coming to a big screen near you!!!

Robotech was a pretty important part of my junior high years. I got the Palladium RPG (the Zentraedi book was awesome), but it was really the "Jack McKinney" books that sealed the deal. I agree the cartoon hit at a turning point in terms of more grown up animation. It had that great little score. But the books I read and reread, all the way from #1 to #18 (The End of the Circle). I know they had more, but I felt the EotC completed the story as far as I was concerned. I really loved The Sentinels, even being nerdy enough to buy the first three episodes when Palladium offered them.

All of that said, I'm not dying for this film. Unless Max has blue hair and gives a beat down to Kyle (was that his name?).

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I loved the books as well. There is a part of me that wants to re-read them but I fear that it would shatter my nostalgia for them.

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Give 'em another spin -- they're much better than you may remember, and hold up remarkably well to this day.

If anything, they deepened and broadened the Robotech universe even further than the animated series was capable of, and Daley and Luceno's work remains the only place to find the fully-completed version of The Sentinels storyline.

It was nice to see the recent Shadow Chronicles feature film respecting this continuity (despite technically supplanting The End of the Circle), along with some nice nods to the McKinney books in the movie.

robotech fans misperception

“Compilation” is not an accurate word to describe robotech. As a matter of fact, the meaning, nature, and conditions of compilation had been explicitly defined by law and by judiciaries.

Any collection of other works for the purpose of providing reference(e.g. encyclopedia, compendium), review and commenting on those original works is deemed by copyright law as a compilation provided any excerpts used therein are QUOTED by means of the original authors’ name or pseudoname. the compilation is recognized as original works of the compilers by the law. However, will not imply disavowal of ownership (by the authors) of the original materials used as references in the compilation.

The bible contains the (allegedly) twisted words of God which were passed down verbally by generations as guidance to the believers. It was not properly documented at least until after the byzantium empire’s conquest over jerusalem. When the caeser of the time adopted the principles of jesus, many roman’s superstitious god/goddess and practices sneaked into the teachings of jesus which later give birth to christianity. The roman were the one introduced the concept of trinity and the method of worship. Many christianity applications today deviate from the original teaching as revealed by the apostle of GOD, jesus and many others before him(peace be upon them all). In other words, the principles of christianity today are absolutely impure.

The compilers of bible have never taken ownership of every words therein. Rather they ONLY expressly confess ownership of the COMPILATION works; the contents of bible are public property after all. In contrast to sdf:macross, army of the southern cross, genesis climber mospeada which are very proprietary. Robotech is actually patch-writing, copying, as well as illicit conversion of other authors’ idea. From the perspective of statute and scholar, robotech is really a work of “plagiarism”. Macek and HG themselves falsely claimed creative rights on sdf:macross, army of the southern cross, genesis climber mospeada by the expression of “staff of writers/directors/producers” and intentionally abandoned the listings of true japanese individuals behind the animation projects in the end credit which was very misleading to the general public then. The only right macek and HG may proclaim ownership is perhaps the sentinels series.

Robotech is seemingly good because the underlying original stories were good in their own right. The merits really belonged to these underlying stories(namely sdf:macross, army of the southern cross, genesis climber mospeada) which macek had plagiarized. The very general arc of robotech IS mundane, but, sdf:macros, army of the southern cross and genesis climber mospeada provided enrichment to robotech content. Therefore, robotech and macek really owed to the Japanese creators. The three animations retain their repute of uniqueness discrete from other animations, by their rather sophisticated philosopical issues, in addition to their true-to-life characterization portrayal and characters demeanour. Another element which differentiates sdf:macross, army of the southern cross and genesis climber mospeada from the rest of American animation, is their cinematic visuals and unique direction. what will be of robotech without these Japanese animations?

HG attempt with shadows chronicles even failed to compete with the qualities of these classics much less with comparable current anime. So, what will be of robotech without sdf:macros, army of the southern cross and genesis climber mospeada?

The most noticeable misperception among robotech fans is the belief that robotech improved upon the original versions. A simple idea of conflict over possession of exceptional energy source, rearrangement of characters correlation, re-spelling the names of characters and change to notion of a certain concept in order to provide unison IS NOT improvement. Robotech DID NOT enhance anymore value than what was already is. In actuality, it was the other way around; sdf:macross, army of the southern cross and genesis climber mospeada were the ones to provide content-rich for robotech in much detailed form. Without these animations robotech is mere empty shell!

Some fans even proposed robotech musical scores is better than the original scores. This is untrue, because, the score in sdf:macross, army of the southern cross and genesis climber mospeada were composed to suit their respective theme or kind of story. Similarly, Robotech score was composed to suit its so called grandiose scheme. Certain scenes, in the originals were purposefully left in silence, to give the intended atmosphere and degree of impact. Thus, robotech score and soundtrack were never better than the original compositions. Indeed, some set of score and soundtrack were inspired by the original scores, for example lonely soldier boy by michael bradley were inspired by the opening theme of mospeada. nevertheless, for some part, robotech score actually undermined the atmosphere and intended effect for some scenes.

Re: robotech fans misperception

Holy Crap- I liked Robotech- I have watched much of Macross.... I never ... ever could have the time or interest to post something like this.

You sir deserve a standing ovation
:stands:

Take a poweraide you must be thirsty.