'80s Anime Icons Collide! The ROBOTECH / VOLTRON Crossover Is Finally Here!

Two iconic worlds from classic anime are set to collide this week with the highly anticipated and long awaited release of the Robotech / Voltron crossover hitting comic book store shelves. The five-part series from Dynamite Entertainment sees two of the most iconic mecha cartoons from the '80s sharing the spotlight in a epic story written by Tommy Yune.

Allowing these two properties to co-exist in one universe obviously means setting the story outside of their respective canon timelines. First things first: This crossover involves the Lion Force Voltron (sorry Vehicle Force) and the Macross Saga of Robotech (Masters and New Generation will have to wait their turns). The cover of Issue One reveals that Roy Fokker is still alive and kicking (with a bit of a Captain Harlock look to him wearing a Skull Squadron eye patch), and has the Black Lion sporting the Robotech Defense Force symbol and armed with Veritech weaponry. A preview of the issue's first few pages also reveals Voltron's Galaxy Alliance has characters from Robotech as members.

What else can we look forward to seeing? Zentraedi and Robeasts up against Voltron and the SDF-1? Rick Hunter butting heads with Commander Keith? Space Lions and Veritechs fighting side by side? Will Max Sterling at some point pilot one of the Lions?

Here is what Dyanmite has to say about the cross-over:

"Two of the greatest anime legends of all time are about to collide in one epic saga! The Lion Force team faces the return of a mysterious ancient adversary that could jeopardize the very existence of Voltron itself. The repercussions threaten to reach across the fabric of time and space, all the way to Earth. How will Roy Fokker and the Skull Squadron cope with such a new menace, especially with the Zentraedi looming over Macross Island?  What opportunities will King Lotor pursue in a crisis like this?"

During the packed Robotech / Voltron panel presentation and Q&A at New York Comic Con in October, the creative forces behind the series promised a return to an edgy anime look, and adherence to three of Voltron's popular M's: Mecha, Mullets, and Mice.

After the joint panel at NYCC wrapped, I caught up with Jeremy Corray, Voltron's Creative Director and Rob Koplar, the Vice President of World Events Productions. In addition to some good old fashion ed geeking out, we talked about this groundbreaking team-up.

QUESTION: Tell me how this amazing team-up finally came to be.

CORRAY: It's something we talked about doing for several years and it just seemed to make sense. They kind of come from different source material, different backgrounds, and we've got these Robotech fans over here and these Voltron fans over here. You both share this appreciation for Japanese manga and anime. Let's see what happens and we can bring them together. When Tommy [Yune] took a look at the two story lines, I think he’s really found an interesting way to blend the two without having it to be forced. Because I think that was one of the most important things, as Tommy alluded to, is we don't want these story lines to be forced. He's really found a natural way to blend them together. It'll be really an interesting story that unfolds there. 

KOPLAR: And really giving fans that throwback. So he's giving them that, you know, what we could imagine it only on the playground. "Wait a minute. What if two of your favorite shows mashed up together would be like? So I think you're going to see those moments, those big money cover moments that we want to see: Veritech Fighters taking on Robot Lions.

QUESTION: You obviously had to do some creative rewriting to make it all work. Were there certain rules you had to adhere to or was it an open field for anything?

KOPLAR: Tommy and I just had very initial conversations. We wanted to find that entry point. What was that event horizon thing that happened that could really change and do this kind of alternate universe thing? And play a little bit of 'What If?' you know? And that's what we're doing here. We found that in an episode of Voltron. I said, "Well, you know I mentioned this episode about the captive comet." And not to give it away, Tommy'll kill me if he heard that, where the Voltron Force was nearly killed and really taken to the brink of going back to that entry point in these two universes we'll slice together. So it's just cool to see the Black Lion all done-up like a Veritech. I think he's going to deliver. 

QUESTION:  Looking at the cover art, you can see the Black Lion is wearing the the Robotech Defense Force symbol.

KOPLAR: Yeah. And with the book you also get Tommy Yune's take on the Voltron universe. So, as you saw with King Lotor up in this kick-ass Zarkon command ship, he's really he's taking advantage of this time to play in our sandbox to kind of flesh out some of the 'What if's?' and, King Alfor you saw with the Blazing Sword. So he's going into that a little bit too and kind of that Shakespearean power play that goes on. I think you'll be happy.

CORRAY: I mean a lot of times it's tough with intellectual properties, right? Because everybody's very proprietary about whose rights go where, and it's like ‘Oh, you know this is our turf, and this is their turf,’ and then on the business deal, each party has to give a little something. I mean because any time you attach property to something there's typically royalties involved. So most companies, when you do something like this, it's typically out of passion, just out of ‘We want to see this happen!’ It's not about money because both parties give a little. I think it was our relationship with Harmony Gold that really allowed this to happen.

QUESTION: What was it like seeing the first finished panels with these iconic characters together?

CORRAY: Yes, it’s something I didn't think I would ever see, but it's interesting. When you see it, it's very impactful. You know, you see the Robotech next to Voltron and there’s something harmonious about that, you know? It's something nice about being able to play in each other's sandboxes, and when you have a good relationship with each other, it can work. 

KOPLAR: And then just to see the parallels between some of the characters. Between our Captain Keith and Rick Hunter and things. What happens when they meet up? So, what Tommy's doing is really unraveling and he's not giving all the answers away. It's really gonna be a drawn out story when the book does drop in December.

KOPLAR: It felt like going up into your childhood bedroom again, and you're like, "Yes, this is like that undiscovered closet that all your toys were in, and you're playing with all your toys again. Except they have this nice, new, fresh coat of paint, you know?  But after some of the reinterpretations of the last Dynamite book, which was excellent, particularly in the writing department, I think fans are ready for a real kind of throwback. Something that feels like what they know and love.

QUESTION: So when you're in the creator's room, are you and Tommy banging heads on 'Who would win?" scenarios like Lion versus Veritech, SDF-1 versus Voltron, and so on?

KOPLAR: We mainly thumb wrestle a lot for it. (laughs) This is part of an initial line that Dynamite will be doing more Robotech comics. So we understand and want to kind of help Dynamite kick-off this project together in a big way. So you know we can see the title for Robotech. Voltron will play a backup band for a little bit there just to help kind of launch our friends there. So it's been in the works since 2005. 

KOPLAR: We always wanted to do something together and we came very close to doing it as a team at the end of last year. It's just that you do find a lot of crossover in the fans. And that fans who maybe haven't given Voltron a look in awhile come back to it. And the same with Robotech. I'm just like Tommy, who's going back and researched a lot with GoLion, I'm rediscovering Robotech, which was always on in the mornings and I kind of knew it. But again, like Tommy worked with Voltron so much that I'm the Voltron guy. So, I'm just enjoying the hell out of re-watching some of these episodes. And just the appreciation for the animation and the kick-butt action that just I'm like, "Wow. I remember this now as a kid." So it's been a real thrill for me.  And a better understanding too of the influence that Robotech had on just anime culture as a whole, And I understand now Robotech's contribution to the culture in addition to being a great saga.

QUESTION: Did you find yourself at any point going back the source material?  As in Macross or GoLion?

CORRAY: Sets of fans that are kind of colliding because, you know, Voltron was more of a kids show, really. Robotech was more adult-focused and a little bit more mature. With the story lines, and maybe GoLion, the source material is pretty dark. Themes that are way age non-appropriate for this six to twelve year old market that Voltron was going after. But, you know, they're there in the Voltron version kind of below the surface. But we didn't focus on them in the US version. When you get a little older you see on the internet and stuff like that, the GoLion version is extreme, or extremely violent.

KOPLAR:   I've stuck to Robotech, but I would love to check out Macross, it looks totally awesome, I was seeing all the continuations being done in Japan. Just like, "Wow, when are we gonna get those over here?"  That's just, you know, that's really kick-butt stuff.  So it sounds like things are always in the works over there.  They have their live-action movie, we have our live-action movie. So parallels between the two companies, you know. They're in real estate, diversified and stuff, and then, as are we. It's just kind of a natural mash-up, one that I think is, as you saw in the artwork there just great to see Voltron back in that kind of manga form. It feels right.

Issue #1 of Robotech / Voltron hits comic book store shelves and comiXology tomorrow (yes, New Comic Book day falls on Christmas Eve this year). 

You can also catch a five-page preview HERE.

I will have a follow-up post with news about the big screen plans for Voltron as well as what we can expect in the future in regards to the exciting news of DreamWorks Animation's recent acquisition of the series!

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Film Review: PACIFIC RIM ★★★★☆

If you grew up in the '80s like I did, and a fair, if not an unhealthy portion of your TV viewing time was spent on animated fare like Voltron and Robotech, Pacific Rim may be the answer your adolescent prayers. Guillermo del Toro's big screen giant robots versus giant monsters sci-fi extravaganza does not disappoint as far as taking CGI-heavy battles to a new level of intensity and intelligent storytelling in an age when Michael Bay's Transformers series had until now set the technical high bar for 3D mech FX-heavy acrobatics.

The plot is straight forward enough and easily best described by its tagline "In order to fight monsters, we created monsters of our own." But to elaborate further: In the future an inter-dimensional rift in the floor of the Pacific Ocean offers safe passage for invading giant alien monsters known as Kaiju to lay waste to cites all over the Earth. With casualties reaching the millions and conventional weaponry proving ineffective, humanity constructs giant mechanical warriors called Jaegers to counter the growing alien threat.

The human Jaeger pilots must jockey as neural pairs, one controlling the right hemisphere, the other the left of the 25 story high gladiators in order to effectively combat the ferocious threats. Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam leads the cast as Raleigh Becket, a troubled pilot who's still dealing with the loss of his brother years earlier in combat with a Kaiju (which means "Giant Beast" in Japanese). Idris Elba gives another stellar performance as Stacker Pentecost, the no-nonsense leader of the international Jaeger strike force. Few can deliver and pull off with the necessary weight and bravado a military pep rally speech capped off with the soon to be iconic "Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!" Attention Bill Pullman's Independence Day President Whitmore: You have been served.

The mind blowing visuals put forth come courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic. The jaw dropping battles between beast and machine have never been realized like this before on the big screen. For Rim's target audience, which I am unabashedly a part of, much of what we see may have been pre-visualized since our childhoods regarding the behemoths' battles, but it all seriously comes to deafening and tangible life when seen through del Toro's capable eyes. The director takes complete joy in staging sequences with epic scope and gritty weight you'd never think possible. Seriously who can't marvel at witnessing one of the massive mechanical gladiators double fisting train cars to pummel the living bejeezus out of one of the alien beasts?

I had three summer 2013 movies on my "insanely excited to see" list, Pacific Rim being the last of them to be released. I still find it hard to believe I left the theaters following the first two with a feeling of meh befuddlement at what I had just seen, instead of the "gee whiz" wonderment I had hoped for. The third time is a charm here with Pacific Rim, and when I reached the closing credits I felt like I had been taken back to my adolescent self right after a great episode of Voltron, Robotech, or a Godzilla Saturday afternoon movie double feature.

Much credit should be given for the human side to the story and the solid cast that pulls off everything that happens when the film is not in full throttle mode as an FX heavy extravaganza. Charlie Day brings his signature It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia cadence to Dr. Newton Geiszler, a high strung scientist who finds much nerd joy in analyzing the Jaegers' internal organs. Day's gift for comedic timing keeps the film from sinking too deep for too long into dark drama. del Toro's Hellboy himself Ron Perlman is also recruited here to do what he does best playing Hannibal Chau, an extravagant lord of the Hong Kong underworld who makes his fortune from harvesting and selling various parts of recently slaughtered Jaegers. The human cast, their stories, and the simple but nonetheless layered clever plot all add to Rim's big pluses that keep this from being a mindless one-dimensional big budget B-movie.

So let's talk the presentation. Hands down, IMAX 3D is seriously the only way to go. The kinetic energy, the spectacular big screen eye candy and the excessive (but welcome) primal pandemonium is a big screen triumph in tandem with both formats. There is nothing small about this movie. Go big. Go IMAX. You can also add del Toro to your list of directors who work with 3D with flawless results. Not once was I taken out of the moment with a sequence that didn't benefit, or worse was hindered, by poor conversion. Rim boasts one of the best conversions (shot digitally with the RED EPIC camera) I have ever seen for such a quick cutting, fast paced film. The past year has enjoyed improvements in leaps and bounds in regards to the technology. Sure its still vastly over utilized, but a year makes a huge difference in the big screen presentation. del Toro is never at a loss for a beautifully framed shot, and the film's extensive 3D conversion accentuates his layered canvass. Shallow depth of field makes the simpler wide shots epic while the battle scenes gain that much more of a deadly and mighty punch with the added dimension.

To write off this film with simple on the surface comparisons to Transformers, Godzilla, or various anime series would not be fair here, even though those respective franchises' DNA is easily detectable throughout. del Toro has drawn obvious influence from many sources to mash up their strongest and most familiar elements into intense high-tech big screen sparring matches in the ocean or in between towering buildings in Hong Kong. Pacific Rim is a fan boy homage made by a fan boy, and includes both overt and subtle nods to elements that made the climatic ending to battles on any given episode of Voltron exciting to viewers.

Pacific Rim, loud proud and intense, delivers everything promised to its intended audience on truly an epic scale, and in my book successfully hits all the right marks. Guillermo del Toro masterfully morphs his many influences into a stunning dark world of its own. Combating gargantuan metal gladiators and massive ferocious creatures from the underwater depths of hell have never been treated so well on the big screen and provide for a healthy amount of nerd cry worthy moments. Sure the film does skew heavily to a particular fan base, but it's by no means inaccessible. Rather I saw it as fun summer fare on a monstrous level. While it can be a violent ride at times, it manages to keep to the lighter side of its PG-13 rating. Pacific Rim is a spectacular ride, smarter and gloriously grander than anything else it can be compared, to and will rank as one of 2013's best action sci-fi crowd pleasers.

Pacific Rim opens in theaters in 2D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D on July 12th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★★☆
Director: Guillmero del Toro
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman
Screenwriters: Guillmero del Toro & Travis Beacham
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 131 minutes

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TRAILER: 'Pacific Rim' CES Edition

A new version of Guillermo del Toro's giant robots versus aliens epic Pacific Rim was showcased for the techies attending CES this week. This alternate cut of the original trailer provides a lot more action and an inside look at the human jockeyed Jaegers, the super sized robot suits (and not as in the corporate business sense).

For any fan of old school Voltron and Robotech, this film looks to be a dream come true on the big screen. For the youngens who love anime, Gundam and the like, its their party too. Sure there are a boatload of easy on the surface comparisons to be made to Cloverfield and Michael Bay's bombastic Transformers series, but the obvious plus side this is simply Guillermo del Toro, so we have a solid shot at a decent script as well as an intelligent homage to the giant robot genre that is an obvious influence.

Per Warner Bros:

From acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ epic sci-fi action adventure Pacific Rim. 

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. 

But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

Oscar® nominee Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) is directing Pacific Rim from a script by Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans). 

Pacific Rim is set for release in 3D on July 13th and stars Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Idris Elba (Luther, Prometheus, Thor), Rinko Kikuchi (The Brothers Bloom), Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Horrible Bosses), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy).

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