Robotech: The Movie, also known as Robotech: The Untold Story, is a 1986 animated science fiction film created by Carl Macek, based on Robotech, the original television series and franchise created by Harmony Gold.
The film was created using footage from two unrelated anime, the film Megazone 23 - Part I and Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross.
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Background[]
- See also: Megazone 23
Robotech: The Movie was primarily composed of the 1985 OVA film Megazone 23 - Part I with footage from Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, the subject of the second season of Robotech, spliced in. The film was adapted by Carl Macek and Harmony Gold after Macek failed to negotiate the rights to adapt Macross: Do You Remember Love? as the subject for the film. Macek's choice of Megazone 23 mostly stemmed from it sharing similar character designs as Macross, due to them sharing character designers.
According to interviews with Macek, the project had originally been intended to be more of a straight dub of Megazone 23 with dialogue and music changes to reflect the Robotech universe. As originally conceived, it would have been set during the events of the First Robotech War (while the SDF-1 was in the process of flying back to Earth from Pluto) with the protagonist Mark Landry, a relative of Rick Hunter, finding out about the government's coverup of the SDF-1's fate, and Landry fighting to make the information known.
However, distributor Cannon Films felt there were "too many girls and not enough robots and guns," and did not like Megazone's downer ending, either. Thus, Macek rewrote the story to take place shortly before the Second Robotech War, cut segments of Southern Cross footage into it, and commissioned animation studio The Idol Company to animate a new ending (which was later included on the laserdisc of Megazone 23, Part II). The new version involved the Robotech Masters kidnapping and replicating veteran officer B.D. Andrews to steal the memory core of the SDF-1. This new version of the film, however, left some glaring inconsistencies with the original series. In addition, this new story required bits of the Southern Cross series to be spliced in to the original Megazone 23 material. Megazone 23 was filmed on 35mm film while Southern Cross was on 16mm ... the visual inconsistency was very noticeable on the big screen.
The movie disappeared from the United States after a failed test-run in Texas that lasted only a few weeks. One cause for its poor performance was believed to be because Cannon saw Robotech: the Movie as a "kids' film". And when the demographics came back about a month after the test run, they saw that most of the audience was adults. This posed a problem, as Cannon had purchased advertising time only during child oriented programming. It was at this time that Cannon decided to pull the film until it could be properly retooled yet again. Unfortunately, before any further work could be done on the film, the bottom dropped out of Cannon Films and Robotech: the Movie only saw wide release in foreign (non-American) markets.
Megazone 23 would later be given two faithful dubs, one by Macek's Streamline Pictures in 1995, and a redub by ADV Films in 2004.
Cast[]
| Image | Character | Original Name | Seiyū* | Dub Actor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Mark Landry | Shogo Yahagi | Masato Kubota | Kerrigan Mahan |
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Becky | Yui Takanaka | Maria Kawamura | Iona Morris |
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Eve | Eve Tokimatsuri | Kumi Miyasato | Diane Michelle |
| Joanne Harris (singing) | ||||
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B.D. Andrews | B.D. | Kaneto Shiozawa | Gregory Snegoff |
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MODAT Security Commander | Richard Epcar | ||
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Rolf Emerson | Lorf Emerson | Makoto Terada | Michael McConnohie |
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Anatole Leonard | Claude Leon | Daisuke Gōri | Greg Finley |
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Professor Embry | Eigen Yumekanou | Kiyoshi Kobayashi | Robert V. Barron |
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Stacy Embry | Mai Yumekano | Mayumi Shō | Wendee Lee |
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Kelly Stevens | Tomomi Murashita | Miina Tominaga | Edie Mirman |
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The Robotech Masters | Dess, Dera & Demi | Hirotaka Suzuoki | Tom Wyner Greg Finley Tony Clay |
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Todd Harris | Shinji Nakagawa | Kōichi Yamadera | Daniel Woren |
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Pops | Coco | Hitoshi Takagi | Bill Capizzi |
| Narrator | Hirotaka Suzuoki | John J. Smith | ||
*Megazone 23 and Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross
Additional Voices
- Bill Capizzi
- Frank Catalano
- Ardwight Chamberlain
- Max Christian
- Cam Clarke
- Tony Clay
- Milton James
- Steve Kramer
- Doug Lee
- Kerrigan Mahan
- Dave Mallow
- Edward Mannix
- Michael McConnohie
- Mike Reynolds
- Gregory Snegoff
- Barry Stigler
- Clifton Wells
- Bruce Winant
- Tom Wyner
Notes[]
- B.D. with sunglasses and without sunglasses are treated as two different characters. B.D. with glasses is split off into the MODAT Security Commander.
- The ending created for Robotech: The Movie would later be used at the beginning of the International dub of Megazone 23 - Part II.
- Gregory Snegoff, Edie Mirman and Daniel Woren would all be cast as their respective characters in the Streamline dub of Megazone 23. Others, while not cast in the same roles, voice actors are cast in other roles; Iona Morris voices Eve, while Kerrigan Mahan voices Mori.
- Likewise, Kerrigan Mahan and Diane Michelle would later be cast as Mark/Shogo and Eve for the International dub of Megazone 23 - Part II in 1987.
- In the dub of Robotech, the Robotech Masters are all voiced by Bill Capizzi, though here they are voiced by Tom Wyner, Greg Finley and Tony Clay.
- At one point, Wyner and Finley's voices switch which Master they're voicing.
- A version of the film would be included in A&E Home Entertainment's DVD set of the original show, but due to licensing restrictions, the Megazone 23 - Part 1 portions were removed, shortening the runtime to just 29 minutes.
Video Releases[]
| Distributor | Year | Format | Region | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank Home Video | 1987 | 
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PAL | United Kingdom | 
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See Also[]
External Links[]
- Robotech: The Movie (anime) at the Anime News Network
- Robotech: The Movie at the Internet Movie Database