Robotech: The Untold Story (1986) animated movie review

Overall verdict: 4/10

The Good: Decent art and animation from the Megazone 23 footage, catchy songs, good background music 

The Bad: Mediocre voice acting, slip shod editing, clashing art styles, misuse of good music, plot lacks coherence, dull dialogue

***********Review***********

In the mid 80s, Successful animated series like G I Joe and Transformers were getting theatrical movie releases. Naturally a budding franchise like Robotech would want to jump on the band wagon. 

The tumultuous production of this Robotech movie, otherwise known as "Robotech: The Untold Story", resulted in a complete mess. 

What was to be a straight up dub of the "Megazone 23 part 1" OVA modified to fit into the Robotech Macross Saga time-frame became a horribly edited mish mash of Megazone and Superdimensional Southern Cross because Japanese anime studio Tatsunoko prevented Carl Macek from using elements from Macross and the distributor, Cannon Films, demanded more action footage.

"The Untold story" (now relegated to secondary canon, thankfully) tells the tale of the Robotech Masters' first attack against earth and its subsequent cover up (hence why the characters featured in season 2 of Robotech were not aware of this first invasion attempt). 


During a skirmish, they capture a high ranking military officer Col B.D Andrews and create a clone of him to cover up the actions of the Robotech Masters. 

While The clone keeps the public unaware, the Masters seek to hack into the earth forces' computers and recover the information stored within the "Memory matrix" that was on board the SDF-1 when it first crashed to earth decades ago.


 On the ground, a young biker named Mark Landry discovers a transformable Robot vehicle with information about the cover up conspiracy. 


Now hunted by the clone Andrews, Mark must make contact with E.V.E, the artificial intelligence inside the Memory Matrix, and uncover the conspiracy before the Robotech Masters succeed in their plans.

If the synopsis did not sound coherent here, it is 10 times less so in the actual movie and the clashing animation styles only serve to enhance that fact. 


The quality of the artwork, from a high quality OVA and a mediocre TV series respectively, do not blend at all and is highly inconsistent. 


Slip shod editing rendered the narrative very difficult to follow. You even have scenes with characters talking to each other and the background changes during the same dialogue when it cuts to another angle of the scene. It makes the entire movie feel like exactly what it was: two separate shows edited together with little effort to make them match. 

For fans who have watched the original Robotech series, the Southern Cross stock footage is so out of context that it is funny. You hear a deep male voice coming from Dana Sterling's Veritech (there is even a brief shot of Dana yelling in a man's voice ordering a retreat) or when a characters who are obviously Louie Nicols and Angelo Dante refer to each other as Todd and Nick respectively.

Barring the drastic changes from its source material, Megazone 23, the film would fare no better even if one does not compare it to Megazone. 


The characters in the Robotech movie are two dimensional good guys or bad guys but thankfully Mark Landry does get a decent character development arc going from hot headed irresponsible punk to a genuine hero.

One positive point could have been the number of catchy songs that were written specifically for this movie. They remain among the best songs ever in the Robotech soundtrack; even famous Rock band "Three Dog Night" contributed a piece. 


The conspiracy storyline was well plotted and effective at keeping you guessing but, as mentioned earlier, both positive points were also marred by horrible execution. The songs were used in with the most inappropriate scenes as if the creative team just inserted the songs to fill in long gaps of silence.

Movies that were hastily re-edited at the last minute would forever remain exactly that. Robotech: The Untold Story suffered that fate and the disappointing result clearly shows. 


Would harmony gold have produced a better movie if Tatsunoko and cannon films had not imposed their restrictions? That is hard to say as the original concept never went beyond a film pitch. But lamenting a movie that could have been does not change what something is. 

And Robotech: The Untold Story is a story that should be left untold. A disappointment so bad that even the original creator denounced it.

***********Review***********

Entertainment: C+

Art: B-

Animation: C

Story: D+

Voice Acting (English): B+ 

Characters: C

Music: B

Replay value: C-

"Brains": D

Robotech II: The Sentinels (1988) OVA movie

Overall verdict: 6/10

The Good:  Decent character design, good voice acting, more natural character interactions, serves as an intriguing pilot movie, nostalgic revisiting of classic characters.

The Bad: inconsistent artwork, horrible pacing, over use of repeated animation, some questionable new designs.

***********Review***********

ROBOTECH II: THE SENTINELS was meant to be the start of a new series following the adventures off the ROBOTECH: THE MACROSS SAGA characters on an expedition mission the the far reaches of space. 

A myriad of reasons caused production to be halted and only less than 3 episodes worth of material was ever completed. Despite the various setbacks, Harmony gold edited the remaining completed material into a 75 minute feature meant to bridge the gap between the first and second Robotech sagas. 

Following the defeat of the giant Zentradi armada, the remaining Zentradi have joined forces with the humans to build a massive vessel, the SDF-3. They intend to reach the home-world of the Robotech Masters, the masterminds behind the Zentradi invasion, and establish peaceful relations with them. 

Thanks to the truncated nature of the completed animation, the movie is split into two story arcs. The first takes place around earth. As the heroes of the first Robotech war prepare for their interstellar voyage, new heroes try to earn their place among those chosen for the expedition. 

Here we are introduced to the hot headed Jack Baker and the intelligent and spirited Karen Penn. Re-introduced are the characters from the Macross saga like Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes, who are in the midst of planning their wedding. Fans would no doubt get a kick out of seeing their favorite characters, older but instantly recognisable as the same people they knew and loved.

The second story arc takes place around Tirol, the home-world which the Robotech Masters abandoned to search for the lost protoculture matrix, leaving their old, sick and young behind. 

The invid led by the dreaded Regent (husband of the Regiss) takes this opportunity to launch an all out invasion of Tirol. Amidst the decimation, an aging scientist called Cabell and a familiar looking man named Rem try to survive and carry on their research.

As expected, the earth scenes featuring the recurring macross saga characters are pretty much all talk and no action other than a combat simulation at the beginning.

 Most of the action takes place during the Tirol invasion scenes. Thankfully the voice actors put up an excellent performance and the script keeps the dialog very natural preventing the slower scenes from feeling dull.

Many fans have lamented the lower quality animation but really, the artwork is no less inconsistent than what was in the original series and the animation is actually on par with the The Masters season. It is sub par for a movie but one must remember that Robotech II The Sentinels was produced as a TV series. 

While there are scenes with better than usual animation, such as the opening sequence with Jack Baker and Rick Hunter flying their Alphas, there are also a lot of animation short cuts, repeated animation to pad out the run time, and even unfinished animation.


Another common complaint is the altered character designs for the returning Macross saga characters. Keep in mind that this show takes place 8 years after Macross saga. Eight years can do a lot to someone's appearance especially characters like Rick Hunter and Lynn Minmei who went from teenagers to full adults. 

If anything, the changes in appearances of said characters gives a sense of realism of the series, showing that characters do not remain immortally young unlike other TV animated shows.

Visual changes aside, the music was also changed for this movie. There is much more reliance on synthesiser music which can be a mixed bag. This style is great for fast paced scenes, or scenes involving the alien invid. Outside of those, the music sounds like something out of a generic video game. 

While this show does provide some answers for fans, no one else but fans who have watched the original series would be able to understand it. Furthermore The Sentinels concludes rather abruptly; actually showing the SDF-3 leaving earth would have been a much more fulfilling conclusion but given the limited resources available, this is also not unexpected.

Despite the valiant effort of the creative team, Robotech II: The Sentinels loses points for its abrupt ending, inconsistent story and mediocre animation for a movie. It serves as a decent enough teaser for any fan looking to follow the rest of the unfinished tale in the Robotech novels or comics. 

For fans of Robotech, watching Robotech II The Sentinels would be like returning to visit a family that one has not seen in years. It is a quick simple visit to catch up on old times and marvel at how much they have changed over the years, nothing more nothing less.



***********Review***********

Entertainment: B-
Art: C-
Animation: C

Story: C+
Voice Acting (English): A 

Characters: B

Music: B-

Replay value: B-
"Brains": D-

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020) Direct to Video animated movie

Overall verdict: 7/10

The Good:  Stylish designs that evoke 90s comic book and animation artwork, decent level of detail, good fight choreography, excellent voice acting

The Bad: shallow characters, choppy animation, stiff character movements

***********Review***********

Mortal Kombat as a franchise has been synonymous with gruesome violence, over the top gore, with characters and storyline that are both overly complex and simplistically juvenile at the same time. The 2020 animated movie SCORPION’S REVENGE is no exception.

From director Ethan Spaulding (JUSTICE LEAGUE: THRONE OF ATLANTIS, SON OF BATMAN) and Studio Mir (VOLTRON LEGENDARY DEFENDER), this adaptation of the famous video game franchise looks sounds and feels like a grand tribute to the 1990s; the heyday of Mortal Kombat’s popularity. If this was intentional, I do applaud the creative team for it.

At first glance, the artwork and designs are visually striking. Characters look like a mix of the angular designs popularized by the Bruce Timm/Paul Dini fronted DC Animated Universe series, experimental works like AEON FLUX, and fighting genre Japanese anime of that era. 

Sharp features, solid blacks for shadows, scratchy airbrushed backgrounds, and the way shots are framed all evoke the art style of comic books.

The animation is, unfortunately, less impressive. The whole movie seems to be animated at a lower frame rate than other direct to video animated movies. This is a problem for simple actions like characters walking or gesturing makes them move in a rigid jerky fashion. 

Thankfully the fights look great and the often larger than life anime styled action gets around the low frame rate by combining dynamic angles, creative framing, exaggerated movements and even the games’ “x-ray camera” to show internal injuries. Just that a few of the slow motion scenes do feel like they were animated in old Adobe Flash.

As expected this is one of the most violent animated movies I have seen, standing toe to toe with the likes of NINJA SCROLL and AFRO SAMURAI. The gore and bloodletting is true to the source material. 

It is nice to see the attention to detail that the animators paid to innards, guts and torn flesh. Now if only that same level of attention was paid to the story.

With its title one would expect a tale focused squarely on the character of Scorpion aka Hanzo Hasashi. An exploration of his early years, how he rose to become leader of his ninja clan, the fateful betrayal at the hands of a rival ninja clan led by the ice powered Sub-Zero, returning from death as an undead warrior, and his final act of vengeance at the Mortal Kombat Tournament. 

Well....not quite. The story we have breezes through only Hanzo’s betrayal, death and return. Material that barely covers slightly over half of the already short 80 minute run time.

The other half is a rehash of the same story we have seen multiple times in the games, comics and even the live action movie by Paul WS Anderson: dutiful Shaolin monk Liu Kang, actor Johnny Cage and special forces member Sonya Blade get recruited by thunder god Raiden to fight for earthrealm in the Mortal Kombat tournament hosted by the sorcerer Shang Tsung. 

At very least, Scorpion’s quest has been woven in nicely with the earthrealm fighters’ tournament plot; a welcome change from just being a powerful henchman or a walking plot device.
With two plots running parallel and such a short run time, one would think the movie to be a mess right? Well here is where the movie benefits from the simplistic nature of the source material; the characters in the games (especially the first game where this movie takes its material from) have straightforward motivations and personalities, and the movie retains all that. 

This allows the plot to movie quickly while still giving ample setup for each character and fleshing out their personalities. Everyone gets some form of development though I was a little disappointed that Scorpion himself did not. He started with vengeance and ended still obsessed with vengeance but then again that’s his character from the game.

On the scale of video game animated movies, MORTAL KOMBAT LEGENDS: SCORPION’S REVENGE is right there with STREET FIGHTER THE ANIMATED MOVIE. Much better than the likes of, say, TEKKEN or VOLTAGE FIGHTER GOWCAZER. 

 It is enjoyable, action packed, stays very true to the game and I loved the 90s homage visuals despite the animation shortcomings. Although the movie does not reach the heights of DANTE’S INFERNO or POKÉMON 3 thanks to its simplistic straight forward story, one thing it does better than Street Fighter was its focus on its core cast instead of jumping around to showcase as many different fighters as possible.

A decent win for fans, though no where near a flawless victory.



***********Review***********

Entertainment: A
Art: A-
Animation: C+

Story: B
Voice Acting (English): A 

Characters: B-

Music: C+

Replay value: A
"Brains": C-