Product Description

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58048 in DVD
• Brand: Funimation
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Animated, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 88 minutes

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

Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews

Robotech Returns - FINALLY!!!!
It's been over 20 years since the proposed Robotech sequel series, The Sentinels, was canned. Some of the other reviewers on this page have some misconceptions about this movie, it seems... First of all, Shadow Chronicles is most definitely intended for longtime fans AS WELL AS NEW ONES. The major reason that many of the older characters do not reappear in this story is that the producers of the film wanted to make it as accessible as possible to a general audience. To be sure, you'll get the most out of it if you have a working understanding of past Robotech, and there are several nods here to the fanboys, but overall the story is general enough to be understood by the lay person. (While it is true that Harmony Gold has had difficulty utilizing the Macross character/mecha designs in the past and/or locating many of the old voice actors for this project, these are only two reasons for the absence of many of the original characters.) On to the review...

Being a longtime fan, I had mixed feelings about the prospects of The Shadow Chronicles, but I wanted to go into it as much as possible with an open mind. First, let me say that I liked the movie, and it was exciting to see something new in the Robotech universe (especially on the big screen!) after so long. I had fears that this movie wouldn't feel like Robotech, but it actually did.

There's no reason for us to expect a new project in this universe to feel like Robotech - afterall, the original series was assembled out of necessity at the time, based on existing products. There's a great difference between adapting existing material to fit your needs and creating something new from scratch, and the only thing we've seen in Robotech before in this vein was the little bit of animation completed for the Sentinels... So above all else, I'm pleased to say that I think this new project lives up to the Robotech name.

The character animation overall is quite good. I enjoyed the new character designs (and was not bothered by Rick's new look either). I did feel the new character animation was a bit more American-style and less anime-style (mostly with regard to the returning characters, strangely enough), but it is quality work nonetheless.

The movie works well as a sort of "pilot" to set up a series or more features, yet has a pretty decent story in and of itself. I think the new enemy has potential to make good villians, although I also see the possible pitfall of them becoming merely one-dimensional token bad guys - something Robotech has never had to worry about before. The cast of heroes seems promising, with enough variety yet familiarity for some interesting interactions and plot developments.

Now onto some of the negatives... First of all, I appreciate that the CGI is much easier and less expensive to put together than full old-school animation. With that in mind, I can accept that many of the backgrounds, ships, space stations, etc. have to be done CGI. If it means we can have more Robotech, I can live with it. However, the smaller hand-to-hand combat mecha are a bit of a different story. They simply don't convey the excitement of the mecha in the original series, and their movements do not have any "weight" to them. During what should be intense moments of battle, I didn't feel the excitement of the events taking place. To be fair, I did eventually get used to the CGI mecha as the feature progressed, but I highly recommend the use of traditional animation for the mecha in future installments, or at least working to make the movements of the CGI mecha more realistic and less blocky so they don't distract from the story.

However, my biggest complaint with the movie is the recreating of several scenes from the original series. I see no problem with creating new scenes in the environment of the old series (specifically the last two episodes of 'New Generation'). Indeed, that seems to be necessary in order to make this new production work. What I do have a problem with is recreating the old scenes in a way that makes them directly conflict with those of the original series. It would have been just as easy to create new scenes with the Invid characters Ariel and the Regis (i.e. events that could have occurred during the same timeframe as the original series, simply not shown on-screen), rather than changing the existing scenes to fit the arc of this new storyline. So I'm a bit baffled as to why they chose to do this, and hope they don't "mess with the gospel" this much in future installments. That and the CGI are my major complaints with this project.

In conclusion, I thought the movie was a lot of fun, though with some technical and plot problems as mentioned above. I look forward to seeing more Robotech!

Pay Attention to the Central Message Here
"The Shadow Chronicles" represents a strong effort by Frank Agrama and Tommy Yune to carry on the Robotech legacy. Since Robotech was such an extraordinary series, expectations for this film were very high. Many people who own the DVDs, comic books, and Jack McKinney novels consider Robotech to be one of their favorite shows, if not their favorite show, of all time. Given that the fans are so loyal, dedicated, and passionate, it is understandable that some of them would be disappointed if this film didn't turn out to be as spectacular as the series. But "The Shadow Chronicles" is a step in the right direction.

The outstanding characters and plot-twists made Robotech extraordinarily compelling during the 1980s. Watching the characters change and evolve as the series unfolded is what set Robotech apart from just about every other animated series (or any television series, period) at the time. In fact, very few science fiction shows since have offered the audience anywhere near the breadth and depth of the human experience as Robotech. Throw in the path-breaking themes lying just beneath the surface like bi-racial relationships, a positive view of women in the military, and a meaningful role for the United Nations in bringing people together, and the show had all of the elements necessary to remind viewers of the adversity they face in their daily lives and what it takes to be successful in this world.

This film is an effort to distill those elements into a brief, 88 minute thumbnail. On the first viewing, "The Shadow Chronicles," its characters, and dialogue seem to fall flat. In fact, many hardcore fans may have visions of "The Phantom Menace" while watching it for the first time. However, with subsequent viewings, it becomes apparent that Ariel's evolution as a person (err, Invid) is the film's central message. Her transformation from the timid and delirious alien into the moral compass of the REF effectively captures the spirit that made the series so extraordinary to watch.

Many viewers won't notice this during their initial viewing because the film has a lot of material crammed into such a short time slot. There are a lot of things going on, and it can be difficult to determine where the various characters are (Earth orbit, the deep space base, or near the SDF-3) during any given scene. Combine this with the radical departure from the vision of the Haydonites set out during "The Sentinels," and the film can be downright confusing for hardcore fans to follow the first time around.

However, as full-length feature DVDs become the future of Robotech, "The Shadow Chronicles" is a step in the right direction. At its core, the film keeps the most important elements of the Robotech legacy intact. Viewers may complain about the appearance of the characters, video-game-like battle animation, the music, or the absence of some key characters from the series, but these issues are trivial in the long run. The departure from the story line of "The Sentinels," is a larger problem since the consistency among the series, comic books, novels, and role-playing game was such an important part of what made Robotech successful. But this problem, too, can be overcome in time.

Is "The Shadow Chronicles" a good film? Clearly. Is it a great film? That's debatable. But it is obvious from watching it that Agrama and Yune have a great film in them. Robotech is very much alive, and fans should look forward to what Harmony Gold has to offer in the future.

Robotech SC
Continues the story of Robotech picking up exactly where the last episode of the TV series ended. If you haven't watched it in a while, I highly recommend watching the last three episodes prior to watching the new movie. Takes many elements of the "Sentinels" plot as well as elements from the McKinney novels, but doesn't follow them very closely (that's a good thing). I was very pleased with the movie. It does have the feel of a "pilot", but really, that's exactly what it is. It introduces a host of new characters, and has several returning characters from the original series and "Sentinels". Almost the entire original voice cast return for this movie. New voices include Mark Hamill and Chase Masterson. The Invid are there, of course, but it also introduces a mysterious new enemy. Don't look for a strong conclusion at the end. This wasn't really designed to be a stand alone product. If all goes well, we'll see more Robotech: Shadow Chronicles in the future.