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Thanks to legal issues and a truncated release, Robotech: The Movie, now 35, is essentially lost in time.
Known for being primarily a patchwork franchise, Harmony Gold’s Robotech is one of the first great anime to really hit the mark in America. The show combined footage from the original entry into the legendary Macross series with other unrelated shows to create a mostly original series. While fans of the original certainly have less than optimistic opinions about the material’s Americanization, Robotech unquestionably planted the seeds for the success of later releases like Gundam and other mech anime outside of Japan.
Its success spawned Robotech: the movie, which premiered 35 years ago in 1986 and also fused footage from disparate sources. Little linked to the series and receiving a truncated output, Robotech: the movie is now mostly lost in time due to legal issues. Here’s how a forgotten entry in the controversial series is loosely tied to the story, and why it’s now become an unobtainable relic.
Robotech Story: The Movie
The plot of the film takes place more than 20 years after the first season of the series, known to fans as “Macross Saga. “In the shadow of the previous war and the destruction it caused, the human race attempts to rebuild their planet and live in peace. Unfortunately for them, the Robotech Masters invade, seeking to reclaim their stolen technology Quickly involved in this conflict is Mark Landry, an everyday kid who steals a robotics-related motorcycle. Also involved is pop star Eve, who herself holds a secret that could be the key to Earth’s salvation. .
The film merged images from the classic animated film Megazone 23 with that of Southern Cross of the Super Dimension Cavalry, of which the latter will again be used to create the “Masters Saga” for the second part of the Robotech series. This saw series creator Carl Macek order additional animation to complete the film’s ending, giving it a less depressing conclusion and also adding more action. This was after Tatsunoko requested little or no evidence from Macross to be used due to the simultaneous release of Macross movie Do you remember love. Sadly, it would be for nothing anyway, as the film was, upon release and even more so nowadays, virtually intangible entertainment.
Robotech’s Lost Legacy: The Movie
The film’s lack of brilliance, even among fans, is due to its microscopic release window in the United States. It was only shown briefly for a few weeks in Texas, after which it quickly ceased to be shown in theaters. This sparse buzz was likely due to the film barely being announced, with commercials mostly airing at 6 a.m. Those who saw it noted its nebulous connection to the series’ plot, which was a symptom of having to put unrelated footage together into a cohesive story. The fact that the characters’ initial ideas were altered to coincide with the pre-established continuity only made that loose connection even more blurry.
Perhaps Robotech: the movieThe biggest obstacle, however, was the odd lack of censorship, especially for the time. It saw a rather graphic violence and even an attempted assault is history. All of this was present in the already more adult-oriented Megazone 23, and the fact that it was kept probably came as a shock to the few parents who took their children to see it. In fact, it did relatively well in countries like Argentina and Belgium, where it subsequently received a VHS release. These video versions of the film, which contain it in its entirety, are considered extremely rare. Due to the amount of original content they contain, they are actually the only way to see the whole movie.
The only version of the original English version was a heavily truncated version contained in Robotech: the complete collection of the series. This version lasts less than half an hour, while the original version was almost three times as long. He explicitly deleted all sequences from Megazone 23, because Harmony Gold no longer had the rights to the images. Even if ADV Films obtains the rights to this film, it is unlikely that Robotech: the movie will never be reissued due to the destruction of the original film negatives. This means that even the recent agreement on the English release of Macross or Robotech streaming on Funimation will have little effect on the film. In view of these circumstances, Robotech: the movie is no longer considered a canon in the series, making this a particularly bittersweet 35th anniversary.
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