Freiflug88

Sure there are some; Exosquad, Heavy Gear, Battletech, Invasion America, Red Planet, Wing Commander, etc. Note that these and others were released when nobody was minding the store at Robotech.

After looking through the interwebs I remembered seeing episodes of Wing Commander and Battle Planets way back, but I don't remember seeing several of the others. What disappoints me isn't the lack of Cartoon Space Opera, but the fact that they don't make cartoons like they used to do.

My point is that while HG was trying to get their act together, during one of the many upheavals the franchise faced, people on both all sides of the world moved on to over things. Robotech hasn't changed since the 80's except for the cliche darker and sexier sides of Shadow Chronicles.

I can see why the darker Space Opera were dropped in favor of other lighter shows. Here in america anything that is animated is seen as light or childish. Back in 1999 a comic book shop employee was charged with selling a hentai comic to an undercover cop in Texas. Despite the fact that all the mature and pornographic comics were sold in a backroom where no one could enter without showing a valid ID proofing they weren't under 21 could enter, the employee was proscuted on the arguement that since the porno comic was "cartoonish it was made and marketed for kids."

Also, ORE NO UTA WO KIIKE!

Of course. That's what was missing. I had a feeling the "Power to the Dream" Harmony Gold Dub was missing something.

Translation: All the robots are black and the women dress like deviantart rejects.

Too true, fortunately the real deviantart artists out there have realized that as well.

"I was unhappy with the new version of ariel in the shadow chronicles so I drew her the way I think she should look.

notice how her chest isnt bigger than her head" ~HappyPenguins

http://happypenguins.deviantart.com/art/Sh...attire-49884109

http://happypenguins.deviantart.com/art/TS...g-cute-54819066

Lets just hope that Khyron Pieman.....sorry Prime never learns how to pick up a gun......

Yeah, cause its so easy to just shoot bullets at people though an internet connection. I blast people with cannonballs through the piratebay all the time.

Guns are expensive and overrated anyways. Just take me to a decent hardware store, give me a $100 or so, and I will make you a flamethrower.

Warner Brothers is at the helm right? Didn't those come out with the Animatrix and Gotham Knight? That means, the next Robotech LAM tie-in won't be run by a second-rate Korean company... Studio 4c is gonna do it!!!

Personally I would rather see a reimagined Robotech series produced by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski from Warner Bros animation then a single movie spin-off of 6 5-min short stories done by Studio 4c, Production I.G., and Madhouse. If the Robotech LAM is a success I wouldn't be surprised if it led to animated spin-off material considering Robotech's anime origins.

Well unlike what some of the crazy fans say, Robotech is still anime and is marketed as such. If anything there really is no more market for space opera cartoons that aren't anime.

I honestly can't think of any Space Opera cartoons that were made in the West except the animated Star Trek series. I find it sad that most Western cartoon studios don't even attempt to make any serious cartoon shows anymore except for Avatar: The Last Airbender.

At the moment, however, they found an even better alternative to rely on: Hollywood. Surely the pool of talent there will help solve all their problems, leaving them free to do... what exactly?

I dunno reboot the franchise as Battle Star Galactic meets Transformers and dumped down for the American audience that is unaware of the definition of the prefix Proto. It will be remotely like that classic anime that was a cross between Space Ship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam, only with a really crappy story, cardboard charaters, and pretty Computer generated effects. Toss in a lesbian love triangle between a Starbuck rip-off, a Dominant female captain, and an asian Hanna Montana though and the LAM will become an instant box office hit and Oscar nominee.

It would be poetic justice if Warner changes the name Robotech in to something more contemporary for the LAM, trademarks it, and leaves HG with nothing.

Only one word in the english dictionary could describe how I would feel if that happened:

So, if HG were to dub Macross 7 and make it somehow watchable, then we could all get along?

Power to the Dub!

Power to the Dub Lovers

Power to the Money

I want new Fans

Power to the Fanfic universe!

Power to Protoculture's mystery

I don't wanna to share our power

The trademark I finally grasped

slips through my fingers

I'll hunt you down all the way

to the other side of a Neutron S black hole...

...(Basera Hunter breaks a few strings on his guitar and his flaming red VF-19 spins out of control and crashes in flames)

(especially that guy on Conan O'Brien with his recliner of rage).

Is there a clip of this? I knew David Letter used Robotech music, but now Conan O'Brein is getting in the Robotech act as well?

You have good points about the state of the Anime industry in the US. I don't think that TV broadcasts are exactly becoming more and more irrelevant. I think the widespread popularity of shows like DBZ and Naruto with ordinary consumers and fans is owed entirely to Cartoon Network's broadcasts. Anime shows can be popular with the average American consumer, but only after they see it somehow. Audiences become aware of the show through TV then they search the internet for ways of watching the shows when it is convenient to them. Honestly, if Macross Frontier was dubbed, edited, and shown weekdays by Cartoon Network (not Adult Swim) I bet that within a few weeks most of the Naru-tards would be trading in there ninja headbands for SMS jackets in between watching crappy Youtube videos of Macross Frontier set to Linkin Park.

Come to think of it after the Robotech LAM is advertised for theators would probably be the best time to market Macross as the "Original Robotech" to the American "Anime" fans who realize they have been missing out when they are shown the original source material unedited and uncut.

Will Spidey put the brakes on the LAM movie well beyond 2012..? And if so, does that mean all Robotech fans can look forward to in the next three years is multi-colored Shadow and Beta fighters? huh.gif

I read somewhere that Tobey was willing to act in Spiderman 3 and help produce Robotech behind the camera at the same time. I think other factors will most likely slow down the production of the RT LAM though. Setting the eternal debate of legal issues aside there are still the time consuming issues of the script, preproduction planning, production and the matter of creating all those CG Special Effects.

Y'know, I don't think they've ever explained (or even tried to explain) why they changed the particle missiles into "neutron-s missiles". I'm guessing they wanted something that would sound more impressive and sci-fi-ish. In the Prelude comic they explain that the "neutron-s" is short for "neutron star matter", which I guess makes them into enormous gravitational weapons.

That makes sense considering that the "Neutron S" test created a black hole.

Anyway, it sounded like they used the same voice actors from the previous series. Either that or quality of their lines were very similar to what we saw in Robotech. And what is the rock dude anyway, another alien species introduced in the secondary material?

I recognized the voices behind Roy Fokker, Maia Sterling, and Vince Grant, but I think the lines in this trailer are the corniest BS I have ever heard. As for the blue rock dude they called him "Air-rock" in the trailer and I think he is just a rip-off of "Thing" from Fantastic 4 and Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen combined into one useless character.

I would say something more efficient, but then that would make everything factions have fought for meaningless.

That would make the Haydonites the worst of the bunch, starting wars with people over a vaguely defined negative relationship with Protoculture, which everyone else has to use. They're like the Yuuzhan Vong from Star Wars. Guess it would be too cerebral for Robotech if conflicts did not revolve around some limited resource.

That "something more efficient" I imagine would likely be the Haydonite's energy source, unless the Haydonites turnout to be rival siblings of the Invid. Rather then evolving into supernatural the Haydonite's became cybernetic beings with their own variation of Protoculture and a robotic Overlord over a Regiss.

One thing I never understood about Robotech's "Netron S" thing is that in Mospeada those missiles are called "Electrically Charged Particle Missile" which is totally not what a neutron is. They had a two out of three shot of getting it right going on basic atomic structure.

Neutrons have no net electrical charge hence they are neutral, but that doesn't change the fact that Neutrons are electrically charged like Electons and Protons. I think they went with "Neutron S" because the name Proton Torpedos were already taken though.

Anyway, in the wake of Shadow Chronicles and Rising fiasco, what other things can happen to cause further outrage from the live movie with the current trend of remakes?

SDF-1 could have its main cannons replaced by the vacuum cleaner from its father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roomate the Space Ball 1

EDIT:

Beam me up Scotty, there is no sign of Protoculture around here.

Yeah, but this glosses over the real problem with the live-action Robotech movie. The fans want (and are, by in large, expecting) a faithful adaptation of the "Macross Saga" with all the familiar mechanical designs. Once you take those out of the picture, and modify the story to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit, what you're left with is a project that many fans have avidly pointed out that they DO NOT WANT.

That is an issue with almost every movie based on a popular franchise, its always the hardcore fans that are the most vocal in wanting a faithful adaption and are the hardest to satisfy. In the grand scheme of things they form a percentage of the moviegoers a Live-action Robotech moive would market to. Watchmen showed that a blockbuster movie cannot even break even if it appeals only to fans of the franchise. Making a movie that is "faithful" to the original source material is one thing, making a movie that is actually enjoyable to watch is another, and they are not mutually inclusive.

I could argue as an example that Macross DRYL wasn't exactly "faithful" to the original SDF Macross designs while Robotech: Shadow Chronicles was as faithful to the New Generation/Mosepedia designs as possible. We all know the movie that was more enjoyable, better paced, and better put together though.

Who knows? Maybe come Comic Con 2009, Harmony Gold/WB will announce that Big West decided to surrender all their rights to Macross after two years of intense negotiations and everyone can finally get on with their lives. happy.gif

No, WB will announce that they created 4 million 1:1 scale prop Zentradi warships that are now in orbit for the movie and that Steven Colbert will be the one firing the Death.. no Grand Cannon.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-r...e-a-death-star-

I don't think it's as big legal thing that has WB standing-fast on RT-LAM. The plot of RT alone is more than enough to get by. "Alien ship crashes on Earth. Earth gains a whole bunch of new technology from it just in time to enter into a war with some aliens." That alone is fairly generic to avoid licensing issues. After that, you can redesign a lot of things which is most likely to happen. Riding the wave of Transformers can be a good thing, but at the same time, it can be seen as WB's attempt to grab some of the transforming toy market.

Good point. I would also like to point out that for Transformers all the action was filmed before the Transformers themselves were even modeled in their final design. WB is likely still in predevelopment planing as they sort through the hundreds of pages of script drafts debating what to use for the movie.

So we look at the larger market. Is there a market for this movie?

Is there a market for this movie? There very well could be. I think that will always be a big demand for watching epic space battles, breakneck aerial maneuvers performed by mecha to avoid missile swarms, jet pilots acting like "Mavericks" at times, and watching believable characters in interesting and extraordinary circumstances. I think something a lot of us Macross fans are forgetting is that Robotech can and should be filmed and marketed first and foremost as an enjoyable summer blockbuster movie rather then just an 1980s cartoon brought to life in a new medium for Robotech/Macross fans. Star Trek was a hit because it was a fun action packed movie that even non-Trekkie/Trekkers could get into, not cause the redesigns looked so new and refreshing. Lets be honest here over 99% of American movie goers are not going to give a dam about how the appearance of a Live Action CG SDF-1 compares to some Shinji Kawamori guy's design used in some 1980's cartoon, but would be more then happy to see it punch into a giant spaceship and blow-up it up from the inside with nukes in a scene with pretty special effects and explosions.

Kind of ironic, at least I think, that one of the selling points about the film is that they brought back a lot of Robotech "alumni" to the project, but they've all worked on so many other series together that it really isn't a big deal.

Tell that to the Robotech fans who screamed that Tony Oliver and Dan Warren should have voiced Young Simon and Kamina in Gurren Lagann.

EDIT: I forgot that Janice is still alive after Shadow Chronicles, maybe people should ask Chase Masterson if HG got in touch with her to work on Shadow Rising. laugh.gif

Great idea. "Hey Janice... ah I mean Chase what song did you sing when you committed suicide to defeated the Haydonites in Robotech: Deep Shadow Nine?

This is something that's also been bothering me for the longest time, and I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on it: Is the Live Action Movie the death knell for regular ol' Macross in the States?

Mainstream American will always see Macross AND Robotech as mere cartoons in the footnote of the LAM as the material that inspired by and not really care. If the Robotech LAM somehow becomes the next Darknight and leads to a new Robotech series on Cartoon Network or something I can see HG continuing to be the c@$Kblock of Macross for the American market, but it won't change Macross's popularity with American fans. So don't expect Macross fans to throw their Macross DVDs in the trash over the Robotech LAM or anything.

I wouldn't go so far as to call the voice actors talented though. The "big name" voice talent that they were making a fuss about in the marketing blurb and the pre-release hype didn't do the movie any favors. Yes, they had Mark Hamill, but his character was killed off within the first twenty minutes. Chase Masterson barely had any acting credentials work speaking of, and I'll bet good money that she was only included in hopes of getting some Trekkies to buy the movie.

I was thinking specifically of Dan Worren's role. We know him best as the voice of Roy Fokker from Robotech and Yang Newman in the English dub of Macross Plus. Obviously throwing Roy's voice over General Reinhardt doesn't make the character as great as Roy.

what little there was in the way of new mecha was all horribly generic and/or stolen from Battlestar Galactica

Don't forgot that the shiny new shadow tech being a Trojan horse by the Haydonites subplot is a ripoff of the Cyclon EMP assault in the first episode of BSG. As for the Haydonite battle cruisers, they yelled replicator ship from Stargate meets Shivan cruiser from Freespace.

Humor me here: Barring whatever you feel about Macross Frontier, how did that show gain such an active, devoted following compared to Shadow Chronicles? Was it because of the classic Macross love-triangle formula? Was it because of the characters? Better mecha design?

Didn't Shadow Chronicles sort of deliver on these as well?

What Seto said, plus some things I would like to add.

The only thing Shadow Chronicles delivered was an amateur animated movie with the Robtoech banner. Maia getting annoyed at Marcus and the guys staring at Janice's melons in a bar DOES NOT make a Macross Love-triangle, a few talented VAs don't make great charaters, and going 3d doesn't make mecha designs any better then when they were hand drawn on 2d paper.

Your wish is my command...

FINALLY! After MONTHS and MONTHS of waiting, a friend of a friend of a friend said that this leaked footage is an ACTUAL SCENE from the RT LAM! Enjoy!

Saw that same clip posted on Topless Robot.com several months ago. For the real Robotech LAM they should cast Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie not only cause the Sterlings are the Smiths of Robotech, but because they will cost so much money to cast WB will have to rush the CG of the knife scene and make it just as crappy as the original to stay in the budget.

do you really want the return of this?

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Never was a battletech fan so this it the first time I have seen it. It looks like a VF-1J from Mars to me! Do I want the return of this? Hell yeah! If I had one I would put it next to my Roswell UFO model.

Who said anything about hiring actors. blink.gif We don't even have a script yet. You're throwing out names and words like "Chris Nolan", "A-List celebrities" or "IMAX". We're not even at that point.

1. In the Chuck Roven Robotech Clip, he speciffically stated that "Chris Nolan" wants to film Robotech in "IMAX."

2. I was trying to say that even if WB has to pay something like $20 mill to BW for the Macross designs it would be cheaper then casting overpriced "A-list Celebrities"

3. WTF do you mean by "We don't even have a script yet?" They never make scripts public. Don't tell me your waiting for another Robotech script leak or that your with WB.

Is that a Wasp you're talking about? tongue.gif

I can't resist a Battletech referance.

Good one

I find this unlikely. You make it sound like Robotech is some Transformers or GI Joe sized property. A vast majority of Americans have no idea what Robotech is.

You make it sound like the decision to make the Robotech movie is like American Idol or something.

To vote first dial: (1-325-427-4653) 1-Fck-Har-Gold

then:

For Robotech reimagined dial: ILUVLISA*

For Robotech Macross Saga: ILUVMISA*

For Robotech porn movie: FOCKLISAISAMILF*

For no Robotech movie dial: IAMGAY4BRIGHT*

Seriously the decision to spend money on pursuing or settling rights for the Robotech LAM rests in the hands of the WB execs writing fat checks and not with some popularity polls on cartoon properties. In the scheme of movie budgets $10-15 million to sort out the legal issues and get the Macross designs would be a bargain considering that A-list celebrity names cost a minimal of $20 million a piece. Just hiring Will Smith to act as Gloval would cost at least $80 million.

Edit: Replaced #(pounds) with *(star)

Also wouldn't the WB legal department check on this anyway before they even start working seriously on the project?

Of course they probably already have, but then again when Fox Studios followed through with a lawsuit over the rights for Watchmen Zach Synder just rushed the production so that the movie would be filmed before Fox Studios could bring WB to Court and have a judge order WB to stop producing Watchmen. Interestingly enough I found an article from variety magazine posted on Zach Snyder's blog that stated that "Fox said it would rather see the film killed instead of collecting a percentage of the box office" back in August of 2008. Turns out WB had issues over the Dukes of Hazard as well and (agreed in 2005 to pay producer Robert B. Clark at least $17.5 million for infringing on the copyright to his 1974 United Artists film “Moonrunners,” which became the basis of the Warners TV skein “The Dukes of Hazzard.”) ~http://www.zack-snyder.com/news/watchmen-news/foxs-watchmen-lawsuit-heats-up.

With that in mind I think that if any movie studio has a chance of pulling off a Robotech Macross Saga movie WB has to be it. Even if Big West denies the Macross rights for the movie, WB would probably be willing to just pay them off in millions for infringing and just write it off as being a cost of producing the movie.

Legally, yes. Easily.

That would be nice...but, well, we'll see, I guess. If this movie gets some serious traction, that is.

I always assume that any huge conglomerate could crush anything like a small anime production studio, but I could be wrong.

The Robotech LAM plagiarizing SDF: Macross and/or DYRL won't be anything like Disney plagarizing the 1960s Kimba the White Lion. Big West has its eyes on HG and is interested in protected its Macross franchise.

I share the sentiments of hoping WB gets Macross items and shows over here, but has WB ever gon this route before, or stepped into the "anime realm" in distribution?

One could argue that Batman Gotham Knight is "anime" that was commissioned by WB. I got the idea that WB has zero plans of distributing Macross series themselves in America and justed wanted to negotiate with Big West over the Macross designs for LAM.

I don't expect it to happen either, as I don't really think Tommy would like having Macross come over here. I think they just do the whole "if we could get it over here, we would" in regards to Macross to get the Macross fans off their back. Macross does provide some competition for Robotech, so having them have that out, or having a big corp. like WB bring it over wouldn't necessarily help the Robotech franchise too much.

One thing I have been considering is that HG has given up on the Robotech franchise and just wants to bank in with a mainstream Robotech LAM and leave the Robotech franchise at that. Keep in mind Tommy and Kevin are just the figureheads that we deal with it on Robotech.com, the high-ups at HG probably don't give a damn about Robotech when they have more success with their live action catalog and real estates deals. The heads of HG surely wouldn't think twice about letting Big West have the Macross trademarks in exchange for allowing WB to produce a Live Action Robotech: Macross Saga trilogy that could make much more money for them in several years then continuing Robotech: The Shadow Series at a snails pace ever will. Plus, its not like HG has put the Macross trademarks to any real use except for selling a few Macross toys on there website.

As for Macross providing some competition from Robotech, I would say that is an understatement. Robotech animation doesn't have anything against its Macross counterparts. Anime fans will watch Macross Frontier because its an interesting show on its own, where as fans will watch Shadow Chronicles out of either nostalgia and/or out of curiosity. The writing is on the wall that the Robotech monopoly is in legal terms only, the reality is that due to the usual fansub channels anime fans are choosing Macross over Robotech.

Even though they cannot legally do so?

How is that vouching working out for you?

What I meant, and I sure JasonC means as well is that HG and WB are hoping for a Macross Saga trilogy by ironing the legal issues out with Big West. We never said they were definitely making a Macross Saga trilogy.

In retrospect, it seems like Harmony Gold and 3DRealms must've been following the same marketing strategy... here's hoping they'll meet the same fate.

We all are until the Robotech Forever footage is leaked twelves years from now and blows all our expectations away.

McKeever's word isn't worth the kilobyte of so of database space it took to post it.

Everyone knows that everything on the Internet is free and 90% trash.

Alot will probably depend on the success of James Cameron's Avatar, Battle Angel.

Alot more so on Battle Angel since its actually based from an anime series. Cameron's Avator is its own original sci-fi story that in his own words is based on "every single science fiction book I read as a kid." ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(film)

Unlike Robotech or Battle Angel there is no established fan base or early material to draw from for a film like Avatar. The directors James Cameron and Chris Nolan though have both made the highest grossing films in history: Titantic and The Dark Knight. Planned properly though I think a Robotech LAM could easily be made cheaper then Avatar's $200 million budget if big name actors are not casted. Most of Avatars budget is being spent on motion capture CG to turn the actors into CG aliens like this: http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2007/11/avatar_...exy_dayglow.php. As for Robotech portraying humans as giants is a snap thanks to green screens and animating rigid objects in space realistically like mecha and battleships is a lot easier then animating CG aliens.

No offense to you, Freiflug, but it sounds like BS to me... similar rumors, all started by fans who "heard it from a friend", have been flying around ever since Harmony Gold announced that Maguire Entertainment got the rights to make a live-action Robotech movie.

We have it, from no less a person than Tommy Yune himself, that Harmony Gold approached Big West not too long ago to talk about Macross rights and licensing, and that Big West told 'em to go pound sand. I very much doubt that they'd change their minds just because Harmony Gold is asking indirectly through Warner Bros.

None taken. While my friend has never lied to me, I have nothing to go by on the reliability of his source plus I figured it was old news when my friend told me that the last time he talked to the HG Staff was nearly a year ago. I do believe though that the WB negotaitons for rights over making a loyal adaption of the Macross saga is accurate was HG's plan with great expectations, but its actual success is another story. If BW has indeed turned down the offer over Macross rights and licensing then I doubt there is little that WB can do as well.

Personally considering that the last time WB spend millions to stay as loyal as possible to look of the source material they got Watchmen which was an utter failure with the mainstream audience I think that WB will either shoot for a readaption of Robotech to avoid legal conflict or pack up rather then continuing to fight for rights.

and the fact that we've yet to see a live-action anime adaptation that could be called a success with a straight face.

Move makers go by the dollar signs and consider Dragonball Evolution and Transformers a financial success thanks to a large fanbase going to the theaters. In Robotech's case I think having a small fanbase amoung younger fans could be taken advantage of. Rather then trying to stay loyal to the source material of the cartoon that few remember from the 80s all WB has to do is make and market it as BSG with fancy transforming fighters and ships. Hardcore RT and Macross fans will complain, but sci-fi fans hungry for mpre BSG might flock to theaters.

If that is the case, WB could easily ends making a Macross's movie instead of Robotech

I like the idea xD

Same here. I am also hoping that Chris Nolan steps in and directs Robotech. According to an earlier statement by Chuck Roven, Chris Nolan wants to film Robotech in IMAX. Considering his great application of the Batman Mythology to Begins and the Dark Knight I definitely want him to do the Robotech LAM. Hopefully he has watched the Macross SDF and DYRL to see how the "Real Robotech Creators" portrayed things ex, the Itano Circus. Can you imagine how awesome it would be to see an itano circus in IMAX!

If only it were that simple... or that amusing.

Lisa DID appear in Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. The Haruhiko Mikimoto design (Misa Hayase) was replaced by a hopelessly generic-looking woman with her hair done up in a simple ponytail.

They changed Mikimoto's charater design. No wonder Robotech has gone down the drain. Mess with Mikimoto's designs and god will smite thee according to the guys at Destroy all Podcast.

I guess they decided that she wasn't worth the effort, so she gets seriously wounded early in the comic and spends most of the miniseries recovering, only to quit the military and become a member of the "Sentinels Council" instead, neatly getting her out of the way so they'd be able to minimize the number of VAs they'd have to call back.

Its funny how Robotech has drastically changed their charaters to act out of charater such as forcing Lisa the military girl to quit while Macross on the other hand simply says they flew off into the sunset The End... npw lets introduce some new orginal charters.

Robotech will never stand on it's own while it uses someone else's designs and lacks the originality to stand on its own.

A close friend and I were actually discussing this the other day, more so about how the future of Robotech lies on the LAM. According to a HG staffer he knows (he wouldn't let me know who, but I do trust my friend) for the LAM the plan is:to do a trilogy about the war (and possibly reconstruction) with the Zentradi. Whats more they hope to this with the designs and story as close to the original Robotech: The Macross Saga. In the words of my close friend "They want to make a Live Action DYRL trilogy except with the name Robotech." We all know about the dispute between BW and HG. Well according to my friend's source HG is trying to put WB smack dab in the middle of negotiations and are considering exchanging several trademark rights in exchange for rights for designs and story in the LAMs. Supposedly the biggest worry isn't about BW agreeing to negotiate with WB, but about the guys at WB deciding that the Robotech movie isn't worth the legal trouble and scraping the project.