Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles Movie
by Tommy Yune, Dong-Wook Lee
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DVD details
Actor: Dan Woren, Eddie Frierson, Gregory Snegoff, Iona Morris, Michael SorichDirector: Dong-Wook Lee, Tommy Yune
Brand: Funimation
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Animated, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-02-06
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Funimation
Product features:
- Everyone thought the war was over but the darkest battle has only just begun. Spectacular mecha action explodes onscreen in this long-awaited and eagerly-anticipated sequel to the blockbuster anime series that spawned a generation of fans! The legendary Admiral Hunter is missing as a deadly new adversary threatens the vulnerable survivors of the Robotech wars. Vince Grant and Scott Bernard must
DVD Reviews of Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles Movie
DVD Review: Bad 3D, Big Disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie is a big disappointment.
The drawn scenes are well done and pleasant, and could have made a great movie. However, the 3D scenes and 3D objects are unrealistic, unpleasant, unappealing, annoying, distracting, inappropriate, badly done. With those 3D effects, the whole movie feels like a cheap uninteresting low quality computer game.
I think 3D has no place in animation, except:
-- as a hidden tool to help setup and draw the scenes,
-- as an obvious tool to make a full-3D movie (as in Final Fantasy, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, ...).
In any case, 3D or CGI is not needed.
Watch "Ninja Scrool", an amazing animated movie. It has no 3D-CGI, and is better for it.
DVD Review: Mammoth Mammaries
Summary: 2 Stars
The character designs must've been done by the Japanese counterpart to Robert Crumb: the female characters in "The Shadow Chronicles" make Jessica Rabbit look like an Olympic gymnast. How ridiculously out of proportion? [...].
Other than that...although it was nice to see Scott Bernard get rid of his cowlick and (briefly) ride a Cyclone once again, since everyone else from "New Generation" is forgotten, this cartoon feels forced and artificial. It's damn near impossible to encapsulate that same emotional impact that's earned over the course of eight hours and 25 episodes in a single 90 minute sitting. Why do you think a movie based on a soap opera has never been done before?
[The exception to the rule being "Serenity" which worked because Joss Whedon is a frakking genius, and Summer Glau is hot.]
If you're a fan of Robotech then by all means see this movie, but rent before you buy and beware of the cartoon women who can't see their shoes.
DVD Review: meh
Summary: 2 Stars
I was a huge fan of this in the 80s just a heads upa nd now I am a grumpy guy who wanted more of the same. Just a caveat there.
This seemed to be a good opp to clean up all the continuity issues, false starts and other stuff.
If anything I am more confused. Retcon seems to be the word of the day for this offering. Retcon is fine if clearing up previous continuity issues but uh it seems lke the retcon stuff made more to me.
The music was great. The animation of the characters was pretty lame - they look like manga toons, the CGI stuff was lame.
Why is it so hard to explain what happened to the 99% of the other original characters we wanted to see? Where are they all? Why are some around and how did they get there (Louie for instance) but not the others? Okay the rest of the third generation stayed on earth and left behind for good prolly but it would have been nice if you could have thrown us a bone and they made cameos at least.
Where is the rest of the first and second generation? I understand there is a comic that preceedes this that has some of them in it.
Why do new characters need to be introduced when there are so many you could have chosen from? I was hoping there would be mixing and matching from the three different generations. I understand if there is some matter of copyright or what not but just spread the word about that if so and there would be a little more understanding maybe.
Good to hear the old voices. All this did for me was explain nothing and raise more questions.
Overall the production was flat, everyone seems in slow motion talking and walking around (for instance character A asks Character B a questions...5 seconds later character B drones out a monotone answer), new characters are sort of weak, too much purple hair. One character with purple hair is fine but mix it up a little more.
This is like Sentinals all over again.
DVD Review: Long time fan
Summary: 3 Stars
Well I'm 36 now and watched this anime in the early 80s. While I'm excited Robotech is back, I can't honestly say that The Shadow Chronicles was a good representation of what Robotech was and is to me. As a kid I started watching this anime because I saw huge transforming robots during a commerical. In the first few episodes I kept getting annoyed that they kept focusing so much time on the characters. I was used to Gobots & Transformers. Robots and actions. What more could a kid want. I almost stopped watching. But soon I became hooked on the characters and couldn't get enough of them. When the series ended I kept wondering what happened to Rick & Lisa. I watched the Masters series & New Generations (I also liked this) but still didn't get any updates on my two main characters.
Well 20 years later, I still have none. There is just not enough character development in The Shadow Chronicles. I didn't find any of the characters to be likable even though I thought Ariel & Scott were likable in the New Generation. The animation was sub par. Do all the females have to look like they have implants/enhancements?? I think a good story can stand on it's own. I'm quite fond of the animation in Appleseed. I'll probably keep buying future products from this franchise in order to support it in the hopes that someone, somewhere from any company will finally get around to filling in the gaps. To all the Robotech & Macross fanboys, yes I know it's three different series. But who cares. Anime is anime. If I enjoy it, I'll buy both Japanese anime and American dubbed ones so that they keep producing it. Yes, I've seen all the Macross episodes. I have to agree with one of the other reviewers. It's probably more Robotech in name than anything else.
DVD Review: Revisionist History
Summary: 1 Stars
I loved watching the original Robotech series in the '80s and then fell in love all over again by reading the novelizations in the '90s and now thanks to the DVDs I'm reconnecting with the series yet again in this decade. So after rewatching the first and third generations I decided to watch "The Shadow Chronicles." I wished I hadn't.
To say I hated this would be an understatement. It's easily the worst sequel I've watched since "Godfather III" and the worst idea at prolonging a series since the Star Wars prequels. I don't know how fans can like this except that cool transforming robots are involved.
Basically the first half-hour of this dreadful movie revises the battle for Reflex Point that ended the third and final generation of the original series. It writes out the rest of Scott Bernard's team except for Ariel and also writes out Ariel's brother and sister Corg and Cera. Depending on your point of view it also subtly changes the ending of the battle as the Regis doesn't destroy the REF fleet when she and her children leave. (Some would argue she only destroyed part of the fleet while those like me who are fans of the now "decanonized" novels think she wiped them all out. Logically, why leave so many of the Robotech Masters's weapons sitting around in orbit? But that's one of those nerdy fan debates that will probably never be settled conclusively.)
After it's done altering the end of the show people remembered (without even the grace of labeling it an "alternate universe" like the recent big-budget "Star Trek" movie) it moves on to setting up the new plot meant to wring some more money from the franchise. Stealing a page from "Babylon 5" among others, there's a new evil enemy known as Children of the Shadow. What's most insidious about this enemy is that they helped design many of the weapons the humans used in battling the Invid. It's really hard to battle an enemy with weapons they designed for you, as Scott Bernard, Vince Grant, and the new Skull Squadron soon learn.
Meanwhile, Rick Hunter and the SDF-3 are stranded in space, the Protoculture matrix they carry aboard being the only source of that strange yet powerful energy left in the universe. The race is on between humans and Children of the Shadow to get the matrix first--the humans because all their weapons rely on the stuff and the Children of the Shadow because they want to eliminate all Protoculture from the universe. (And considering all the trouble Protoculture has caused, who'd blame them?)
I have no idea if the sequels to this movie will actually be produced; you'd have to check with various fan sites for that. I'm hoping not. Besides tampering with history, the new plot was boring and cliche. Except for Ariel, Scott Bernard, and Louie Nichols, really none of the main characters from the three series are involved in the story. Instead it relies on characters from "The Sentinels" (a sequel TV series that was never produced except in novel/comic book form) and dull original characters who are merely echoes of the more iconic characters. Rick Hunter does get a cameo (he almost literally gets to phone in his part) but looks so old that he's unrecognizable, despite the fact that he is only about 53. (From reading the Wiki page about the prequel comic book series I know they made up an explanation for this, but really it was probably just sloppiness.) So really if you were hoping for something to tie it all together, this isn't it.
Other people have noted the animation looks different and relies mostly on Korean animation and cheap-looking CGI for the mecha/ships. This made the battles look more like the "Battlecry" video game than anything else. Really I thought the CGI stuff looked blocky and dull, not far removed from the days of "Tron" or the Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" video.
Overall this is a cheap, shoddy project meant to separate fans from their money. Don't be fooled!
That is all.
Description of Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles Movie
Everyone thought the war was over but the darkest battle has only just begun.Spectacular mecha action explodes onscreen in this long-awaited and eagerly-anticipated sequel to the blockbuster anime series that spawned a generation of fans!
The legendary Admiral Hunter is missing as a deadly new adversary threatens the vulnerable survivors of the Robotech wars. Vince Grant and Scott Bernard must race against time to unravel a treacherous mystery that could spell the end of the human race!
Features the voice talents of Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and Chase Masterson (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Extra features include Birth of a Sequel; featurette with director Tommy Yune composer Scott Glasgow and more. Winner
Created for the 20th anniversary of the popular Robotech continuity, The Shadow Chronicles Movie picks up where 85-episode series ended. In 2044 A.D., humanity is at war with the alien Invid, who occupy most of the Earth. The Invid ruler takes her people to "a higher plane" to escape the Children of the Shadows, aliens dedicated to the destruction of any race that possesses Protoculture. (Illogically, they fear the power of Protoculture, but they can destroy its users.) New characters and ones from the original series battle the Children of Shadows until a cliffhanger ending that makes it clear a sequel must be in production.
Although it helped to create the audience for anime in America, the original Robotech was an anomaly: a Japanese show that never aired in Japan. Producers at Harmony Gold edited together the unrelated series Super Dimension Fortress: Macross, Genesis Climber Mospeada, and Super-dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross. The Shadow Chronicles Movie is also an anomaly: an "anime" feature made primarily in the U.S. and Korea. Although they've added lots of flashy CG effects to the space battles, the film lacks the qualities that made the series a hit. Like Star Wars, Robotech used an interstellar conflict as a backdrop for a tale about friendship, romance, and heroism. The filmmakers spend the first half-hour of Shadow Chronicles filling in background material for new viewers; the rest is so packed with exposition and action, there's no time to get to know the characters--or care about them. The movie will appeal primarily to fans of the series and its manifestations in games, toys, novels, etc. (Rated TV PG, suitable for ages 12 and older: violence, alcohol use) --Charles Solomon
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