Dreamworks' new Voltron series

[mr3urious]

I admit, I've never really given a crap about this Bowdlerized amalgamation of two completely unrelated animes growing up, but this reboot coming to Netflix in June has certainly piqued my interest. It will utilize more stories focusing on the human characters, and will supposedly have a slightly darker tone, like having more intense, high-stakes battles. Euphemisms for death might even be averted, too, going by most of the other DW shows.

Plus, Jeremy Shada will be voicing one of the characters, so it's awesome to see him as something other than Finn the Human!

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/03...-series-release-date-set-voice-cast-announced

 

[Drtooth]

I got a couple of the original series tin box sets cheap and I have to admit, I really dig Voltron. It's got Michael Bell in it, and they had some hilarious accidental foresight by Bowdlerizing the death of a character the original Japanese production company realized it was a mistake to kill and made an expy of. Plus... while I'm usually the other way around, I think the US made a better opening themesong than Go Lion. Wan plahs wan plahs wan... No thank you.

Though I've always been amazed that when it comes to Voltron, Battle of the Planets, and Robotech, their fanbase never once whined about how much they chopped up, censored, and reedited those series, even though there was no alternate venue (legal or otherwise) for viewing these series uncut. Maybe about by the time Robotech rolled around some older, more savvy fans would find some extremely expensive subtitled pirate VHS (or even just raw). And frankly what they were doing was not too different from a certain children's television dub company that got crap from fans who just watched fansubs anyway. Seriously, I can not stand to sit through a Battle of the Planets as a Gatchaman fan. Even with Casey Kasem and the guy who plays Scrooge McDuck.

I'm actually pretty excited by this new Voltron series. I caught a couple episodes of the one they did in 2003 or so and it was alright. You gotta love how these things work. Go Lion was mildly sort of popular when it came out in Japan, but pretty much in between virtually unremembered or not well known, but we've got at least 3 American series based on it. Meanwhile we got Doraemon just a couple years back and it was unsuccessful, and we also just got a Fujio Akatsuka series in the form of Osomatsu-San. And the fangirls have already latched on tight. It was big at the convention I was at, almost every artist was selling some for of Osomatsu based fan art prints.

 

[mr3urious]

I'm actually pretty excited by this new Voltron series. I caught a couple episodes of the one they did in 2003 or so and it was alright. You gotta love how these things work. Go Lion was mildly sort of popular when it came out in Japan, but pretty much in between virtually unremembered or not well known, but we've got at least 3 American series based on it. Meanwhile we got Doraemon just a couple years back and it was unsuccessful, and we also just got a Fujio Akatsuka series in the form of Osomatsu-San. And the fangirls have already latched on tight. It was big at the convention I was at, almost every artist was selling some for of Osomatsu based fan art prints.

The last Voltron show to air was Voltron Force, a pseudo-sequel to the original that only lasted 26 episodes on Nicktoons, and didn't get proper closure. Hopefully Legendary Defender will last a lot longer thanks to DW's deal, and even a better theme song that that gawdawful rap number Force had.

 

[Drtooth]

A new Trailer has surfaced and they sure didn't skimp on the animation. They're using people from Legend of Korra here, so it has the same anime look to it.

Other than that, it managed to take some of the camp out of the original. Pidge's voice is that of a normal person, and not the inside joke that Neil Ross used. Seriously. That's the only reason Pidge talked like that. he just used a goofy voice as a gag and they said "yeah. let's do that." Also Sven has a more appropriate if cliche Japanese name. So no Swedish Chef accent.

 

[mr3urious]

A new Trailer has surfaced and they sure didn't skimp on the animation. They're using people from Legend of Korra here, so it has the same anime look to it.

Other than that, it managed to take some of the camp out of the original. Pidge's voice is that of a normal person, and not the inside joke that Neil Ross used. Seriously. That's the only reason Pidge talked like that. he just used a goofy voice as a gag and they said "yeah. let's do that." Also Sven has a more appropriate if cliche Japanese name. So no Swedish Chef accent.

There's a really good voice cast behind it, too. Josh Keaton, Jeremy Shada, Cree Summer... the list goes on.

Also, Shiro was the Japanese name of the character. So they seem to be sticking a little closer to the source material in this incarnation.

 

[Drtooth]

I have to admit, between Battle of the Planets and Voltron, Voltron was mush less a crap show than what BOTP was for its source material. I'd say things like Voltron and Robotech were respectable as far as slamming two unrelated shows together and censoring the heck out of it are concerned. Not so much BOTP. Maybe I have a bias because I'm a fan of Gatchaman and haven't seen enough Macross or Go Lion or the other shows that both series used. With Voltron, they did have some goofy moments. Men voicing women because of budget reasons, Pidge talking like a cartoon character, Sven's accent. But removing that, it was softened enough to make it come across as a standard 80's American cartoon for syndication. Not too violent, but not too softened like a network show. I find it respectable, though a little questionable. I only saw a few Go-Lion episodes, and they were what Japan had at the time. I liked it, but it's one of those "It's only famous here because the original studios didn't care much" type shows. The ones contrasted by the fact we just got Doraemon and it wasn't successful.

BOTP, however? The big name voice actors couldn't save it. They threw in an obnoxious robot that wasn't there to pad out what they had to remove. The decision to give Jinpei Torrets Syndrome so that he sounds like Scrooge McDuck impersonating Klunk from Dastardly and Muttley. Just overall unwatchable if you're a big fan of the original series. I really want to track down the Saban dub, only for Bryan Cranston's dub voice.

I'm glad that we're in an era where we can give these Japanese homages to something like an American produced Voltron series. I remember not having access to Speed Racer, but having...well.... this...

Something that owes itself more to other Fred Wolf cartoons, like TMNT and Toxic Crusaders than it does the Japanese original.

 

[mr3urious]

Just saw the first episode which is really 3 episodes combined, and it was excellent. It was a bit slow to start seeing as they needed to establish things, and the team doesn't form Voltron until the last few minutes, but this was still a solid way to start things off. One big change in this new series is that Pidge is now a girl assuming a male identity, obviously to add some gender diversity to a previously all-male team. Lance has a cockier personality this time, clearly mirroring Sokka from Avatar, which is no surprise seeing as how this new show is from many of the same staff. And Hunk is more of a bumbler with a big appetite and a weak stomach.

The conspicuous CG of the mechas and vehicles looks a lot better than I thought now that I saw them in action, with a good amount of shading and detail applied to them. And I was right that "Never say die" was (mostly) averted, and why shouldn't it? Netflix has no S&P department to speak of, and the other Dreamworks cartoons avert it as well, so why should Voltron be any different?

Voice acting-wise, we've got a solid cast. Most notably, Jeremy Shada plays someone totally opposite Finn, and sounds almost nothing like him to boot. Rhys Darby is also entertaining as the royal advisor Coran, clearly channeling his character from Flight of the Conchords at times.