Coming to a cinemas near you or not? That’s what some speculators from Variety are spelling when WEP were more interested in making the iconic series into TV format rather than its live-action film counterpart. But then a few days later, another source came up saying “Hang on a sec. We’ll scrap that scrapped idea with Voltron movie. We’ll planning to do it anyway?”
That’s very annoying after hearing for several months of hype for this. So why don’t we find out it’s true or from the this MTV interview with WEP’s thoughts for the blockbuster film.
MTV NEWS: So, right at the start, let’s clear up any confusion regarding the live-action “Voltron” movie. Where is it at, and what do you have planned?
TED KOPLAR: Well, Voltron is one of the great iconic brands from the ’80s, and a lot of people don’t know this but in its heyday it outperformed The Transformers. … We’ve had a lot of interest over the last couple of years in bringing back this franchise, and the movie has always been and still is the locomotive that’s driving our thinking. All this serves as a staging platform for the motion picture.
RICHARD SUCKLE: As a matter of fact, we’ve been working over the last several months meeting with various screenwriters, and we’re actually on the cusp of securing an A-level screenwriter who’s going to write the “Voltron” movie. That’s all part of the plan here: reintroducing the brand to the fans who’ve watched over the last 25 years and to a new generation. We are very close to securing a screenwriter who’s going to actually write the feature version — so that’s always been part of the plan.
MTV: This project has been in development for a long time now, with some starts and stops along the way. What have the difficulties been in bringing it to the big screen? Have there been some stumbling blocks, or a certain element of the project that you’ve really been taking your time with?
KOPLAR: The story’s been the critical part — that we come in with the right message for both the new generation and for the old generation. We’ve had some takes, but I think we’re getting close.
SUCKLE: In any situation when you have a famous piece of intellectual property, there’s always a responsibility and an expectation, but I don’t think there’s ever been a real stumbling block.
MTV: Well, there’s been some earlier drafts of the script, including one from Justin Marks that I know of. You mentioned that you’re bringing on a new screenwriter, so are you starting from scratch or building on an existing script?
SUCKLE: We are [starting from scratch]. As far as Atlas Entertainment, we’ve never been involved in any of the previous versions, so I can’t speak to them. We came in and said we want to talk about the property and build it from the ground up, because we have a particular way we want to approach it.
MTV: Can you tell me a little about that approach? Are you envisioning a big-budget, effects-driven blockbuster? 3-D, maybe? What’s your vision for the film?
SUCKLE: Those are all things we’ve talked about, but as much as it has a very strong robot element, this is a movie and a franchise that is driven by characters — these five people that in some or another are a representation of all of us. It’s really about how you have five different personalities working together in order to come together to form Voltron.
KOPLAR: The whole show is about teamwork — about a group of kids with various backgrounds who learn that the only way they’ll succeed is through the positive parts of each one’s background and bringing it together to make the robot work.
SUCKLE: It’s not like we’re doing anything far different from the source material other than to make it a character-driven film. The effects, the 3-D… The eye candy is the easy part. It’s got to be a movie that has really dynamic, interesting characters and a really strong narrative. You know the eye candy is going to be there, because it’s part of the fabric of the original material.
So that character-driven element is really what we’re focusing on, and that’s what the writers that we’ve been talking to have been told about what we want and what we’re looking for.
MTV: Do you have a timeline in mind for the live-action film? Are there certain marks you want to hit in the roll-out of the “Voltron” universe?
SUCKLE: You never can tell, but I think that if we’re lucky going into 2011, and in a perfect world, if we could have a “Voltron” movie sometime in the summer of 2013, that would be what I would consider a very likely timeline.
MTV: There’s mention of the new animated series receiving an “edgier” update, but what about the film?
SUCKLE: To me, you have to update it and give it a fresh coat of paint for 2010-2011 and beyond. At the same time, it’s important to have those certain nostalgic elements. It’s not that we have to hit those moments over the head, but there should be stuff within the visuals — if not also in the dialogue and the references — that make those people who grew up watching the show feel like we are taking great care to both satisfy you and introduce new stuff that feels like it lives organically in the 25 years Voltron has existed.
MTV: You said you’re about to name a new writer, but what about a director? How close are you?
SUCKLE: We’ve had a lot of inquiries, because there are a lot of fans who grew up with the show and see the potential like we do, but it would be premature for me to name any names.
MTV: Will there be any crossover between the animated series and the live-action film?
KOPLAR: Our hope is that the group of people we have are open to everybody sharing ideas, thoughts, whatever it is.
SUCKLE: It’s important that all these pieces are working together, because it is a specific plan that we want to realize. The cartoon, the new show, the Mattel deal — they’re just sort of springboards to ultimately what will be the feature. It’s always been about driving the feature.
KOPLAR: All these component parts are going to come together like Voltron.
So now we’ve been confirmed that the TV series remake and live-action movie works are in place, along with the host toy merchandise going about in place, we should be seeing more and more these developments coming into the horizon at a closer time. One would hope so!
Cause I would hate to see things just dropped out of the air like that, if nothing’s working out as it should be.
Many of you guys still missed the good ole days of Voltron? Do you used to get the cool robot toy like these?
(Sorry about the video quality. It’s not my video. I just found this on Youtube when searching for old school Voltron toy commercial, and it sounded pretty bad in the beginning…)
Well. Not anymore! Cause you can get them on collectibles now.
At least that’s what collectible game manufacturer, Monsterpocalypse, are giving us high school fans of robot toys.
Gameplay works with a huge mat thats has all the square marks the Voltron and Lotor’s forces collide in seeking the ultimate conquest of the universe. These square marks comes with many special abilities that grants the player to do many things. Some of them can be good for you to get far in the game. And some of them can be bad for you to let your enemies beat the game ahead of you, depending which side of the force you choose to play.
This board game comes with a couple of nice Voltron figurines, mostly mecha, that featured in the TV series.
Very nice!
Great fun for all ages (from 14+ plus as the pic above says :-/). Expected to arrive in stores in July 2010. Selling for US $49.99. Check with your local retailers when they’re expected to come out!!
Since my last post on my own Voltron toy that I “constructed” out of the Toyanmi box and it was another sheer piece of classic toy many mecha enthusiasts would love to have, I bumped into another mecha enthusiast who happens to like building Voltron toys too.
But… this time! He makes them using Lego parts!
Literally!!!
Check out the video and his impressive Lego-building skills after he won this award at a brick building competition.
One thing you’ll notice is around 0:50, you will see all the 5 main hero characters from the show, built as Lego men (or woman for the Blue lion^^). The detail of the character design was incredibly accurate! You’ll also notice towards at the end of the video, there are other mecha builders putting their mecha toys on display.
I praised this guy for doing such marvellous type of work. His passion, his desire to make one of the best classic mecha in the series as a stand-still robot toy for all mecha fans to enjoy!
This is it! This is my first official toy review on my blog. Believe I never give reviews like these before. Been wanting to do this for months since I got the toy months ago.
So bear with me. I’m going to have to give a go.
When I first purchased this in November, I knew I was going to send myself up for a big ugly surprise with the BIG spendup.
The shipping fee was just nasty shock to deal with as well… Nevertheless I went on and check out my goods and see how it fares.
I have the following item displayed here.
After working on putting the entire package into one super awesome robot in just under 2 hours, this is what it turns out to be…
I must say. I was really quite impressed with the entire process of unpacking, assembling and finally ‘piece’ them all together. All of the 5 coloured lion pieces were easily ‘configurable’. Meaning they were easy to fold up. Nothing difficult to move the internal structure around with those lions. It was a just matter of getting used to listening to the ordinary clicks when putting them altogether.
The entire body
Black Lion Head
Black Lion Body
Red Lion
Green Lion
The lion legs..
Blue Lion
Yellow Lion
Now comes with its reputable sword and shield!
Voltron…. DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE!!
Voltron charges for battle!!
I must say. I’m liking this toy quite a lot. I like what I’m seeing this toy provides for an old school mecha love like myself sees when having a big toy put into your bedroom on display so people can see what an amazing toy construct it stands up.
All two-thumbs up to Toynami for producing this great toy collector’s edition!
Thanks for stopping by, reading my toy review! I hope to do more of these in the future.
Voltron Lion - Armed and ready to defend the Universe
Synopsis:
Another childhood favourite from the 80s. As mentioned from Wikipedia, the story revolves a team of 5 young lads piloting 5 powerful lion robots, each with different unique abilities whose purpose is to serve and protect Planet Arus from the evil clutches of King Zarkon, ruler of the planet Doom. The story revolves how 5 young men dispatched by the Galaxy Alliance were supposedly to do some space exploration as part of the mission, however led them in a war-torn planet. They were later captured by King Zarkon’s men and taken back to Planet Doom for enslavement and King Zarkon certainly takes a huge interests in ensuring every planetary conquest he seeks will result in having human enslavement counts increases. The lads broke free, escaped on one of the enemy ships and flew back to Planet Arus, sought refuge in castle Arus and piloted the 5 lion robots to form the greatest defender of the universe, known (which we all know so well) as Voltron. Voltron, a combined robot with 5 lions each acting as its limbs to give us a giant robot that faces any evil monsters King Zarkon’s dispatches and ultimately destroys them (and succeeded in defending Planet Arus).
The epic sounds of Voltron opening music theme/transformation sequence thrills me to the bones! :)
Here are the list of the Voltrion Lions’ heroes, mecha and villians (as sourced from Wikipedia.org)
Characters:
Keith Kogane : Commander and leader of the Voltron Force, who pilots the Black Lion that forms the bulk of Voltron. Keith wears a red uniform in the original series, and a black uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Keith is a quiet individual who spends much of his time pondering his decisions, thinking up new strategies, and simply being a leader. He also has a hobby of reading books. He can often be found doing so either in the pilot’s lounge, or in his room. He seemingly cherishes Princess Allura and is thought to be somewhat protective of her; his worst fear, according to Voltron: The Third Dimension, was that she would be forced to marry the evil Prince Lotor. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Keith originally ran a dojo prior to being recruited by Hawkins.
Lance: Second-in-command of Voltron, who pilots the Red Lion that forms the right arm of Voltron. Lance wears a blue uniform in the original series, and a metallic red uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. He is a tall man, both wiry and wily, Lance is always cracking jokes and teasing others whenever he gets the chance. He is the only one in the group who contests any of Keith’s commands. He is a ladies’ man and a great pilot, though reckless at times. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Lance was forced into the mission to Arus due to his criminal record.
Pidge: Pidge is the youngest and smallest of the group; he pilots the Green Lion that forms the left arm of Voltron, and wears a green uniform. His home planet Balto was destroyed by nuclear missiles from King Zarkon. Pidge graduated from the academy at a young age, and his specialty is science. Like the others, he is well-trained in martial arts, and uses his size and agility to his advantage. Pidge is not afraid to speak his mind, especially to the villains. His heart is often in his words. Pidge has a twin brother, Chip, who is a member of the Vehicle Voltron Air Team.
Sven: Sven, a Norwegian pilot, was the original second-in-command. He piloted the Blue Lion and wore a black uniform at the very beginning of the series. In Episode 6, he was badly injured during an attack by Haggar, and was sent away to the planet Ebb to be healed. He was killed in the Japanese version, with his younger brother appearing later in the series. Ebb was attacked and raided by Lotor’s Forces and Sven was captured. The prison ship on which he was transferred accidentally crashed on Planet Doom where Sven went into hiding becoming a hermit within the caves. He eventually encountered Allura’s cousin from the Planet Pollux, Princess Romelle, who had been sent to the slave mines after she rejected Lotor’s advances. During Sven’s time on Planet Doom he witnessed Zarkon and Lotor’s cruelty to their slaves, which drove him to the point of madness. He recovered thanks to Romelle’s emotional support and helped her escape Doom. Sven was later reassigned to the Planet Pollux with Romelle and her brother Prince Bandor. Sven eventually fell in love with Romelle, though he was reluctant to pursue his feelings because he felt he was unworthy of her. Sven was always very quiet and reserved, and spoke only when he had something important to say. Though he may not show it, he is a very emotional person, and his heart is always leading his mind in any decision. Sven does not appear in nor is he mentioned in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Although Sven no longer pilots the Blue Lion on a regular basis after Episode 6, he continued to be featured as a pilot for the Voltron Force in the opening credits of the series while Allura appears in the closing sequence. Sven does pilot the Blue Lion into combat alongside his colleagues on one more occasion, however, during the second season episode, “Who’s Flyin’ Blue Lion.”
Princess Allura: Princess Allura of the planet Arus is the ruler of the Kingdom of Altair, as well as de facto ruler of the entire planet, and is also the object of Lotor’s affections. Daughter of the late King Alfor, Allura inherited her father’s authority on his death and is commander in chief and head of state for the planet Arus, and thus Commander Keith’s superior. However, later she takes over for Sven as the pilot of the Blue Lion that forms Voltron’s right leg, and defers to Keith during operational engagements. Allura wears a pink uniform in the original series, and a metallic blue uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. Though a bit naïve, especially with matters of romance, Allura is a strong-willed person, and is very capable of ruling her planet, though some like Coran and Nanny tend to doubt this ability. She is capable of invoking the dead, particularly her father, the late King Alfor. In The Third Dimension, Allura later learns special mind skills that could allow the Voltron Force to control the Lions without having to be in the cockpits, and also helps the others to learn it as well. She also has feelings for Keith.
Hunk: Hunk is the strong-man of the group, piloting the Yellow Lion that forms Voltron’s left leg. He is shown wearing an orange uniform in the original series, and a metallic yellow uniform in Voltron: The Third Dimension. He may look tough and mean, but has a soft heart, especially when it comes to children and puppies. He is never late for a meal. Though his friends tease him about his appetite, most of Hunk’s bulk is muscle. It is revealed that he eats “-’Fruit Loops’ (almost) every morning”.
Voltron Mecha:
Black Lion: Piloted by Commander Keith. Piloted by Allura in one episode. Unlike the other Lions, the Black Lion did not have a “closed” hangar. Throughout the series, it was assumed that the Black Lion’s hangar was located on the large tower fronting the castle, which was previously occupied by a winged lion statue which hid it. When the Black Lion was first activated, this statue crumbled apart to reveal it, and the Black Lion folded its seldom-used wings. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, it is shown that the winged lion statue literally morphs into the Black Lion when the lion is launched, meaning that this statue is nothing more than a disguised form of the Black Lion.
Red Lion: Piloted by Lance. by Princes Allura in one episode since Lance was using the Blue Lion to find the cure for the deadly flowers. The Red Lion’s hangar was located inside a volcano near the castle.
Green Lion: Piloted by Pidge. Piloted by Keith in its first launch, before the Black Lion was recovered. The Green Lion’s hangar was located in a forest near the castle.
Blue Lion: Piloted by Sven up to episode 6, and thereafter by Princess Allura (although Sven would return to pilot the Blue Lion on one more occasion in the second season episode “Who’s Flyin’ Blue Lion?”). Piloted in one episode each by Keith, Coran, and Nanny together, and a replacement pilot (who turned out to be an agent of Zarkon). Piloted once by Lance when he went off to a distant planet to find the cure by which to heal the Princess. Lance piloted the Blue Lion because the planet had a special magnetic field that only the Blue Lion could overcome. The Blue Lion’s hangar was located underneath the moat that surrounded the castle.
Yellow Lion: Piloted by Hunk. The Yellow Lion’s hangar was located inside a cave located in a desert near the castle. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, its hangar was redesigned to resemble a sphinx-like form instead of an ordinary cave.
Villains:
King Zarkon: King Zarkon of the Planet Doom is one of the rulers of the Drule Empire, though by no means the absolute ruler. He is constantly using others as scapegoats for his own failure, including his son Lotor. In the Japanese version, however, he is the evil ruler of his own Empire, without anybody controlling him. Where as he was killed off the japanese version of the series finale, Zarkon resurfaces in Voltron: The Third Dimension, having redeemed himself prior to his final defeat, and became a member of the Galactic Council. His redemption, however, was a ruse by which he and his son worked together to take over the alliance.
Prince Lotor: Prince Lotor is the son of Zarkon. He dislikes his father greatly, and wishes to rule in his place with Princess Allura by his side, to whom he has developed a strong and obsessive attraction. So powerful are his feelings that he is unable to even destroy a holographic image of Allura. Lotor also has an even stronger hatred with Keith, because he’s seen Allura’s love towards Keith. Because of Allura and Keith’s love, Lotor is more determined to kill Keith than any other Voltron Force member. Lotor is a very sly, smart, smooth, powerful man, who exudes force and emanates what seems to be pure evil, except when Allura is around. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, Lotor was mortally wounded in the final battle, and was converted into a cyborg after he was placed in prison. However, he escaped and perpetrated his revenge on the heroes, though he still has feelings for Allura. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Lotor met Allura while they were children during Zarkon’s invasion of Arus. In the comics, Lotor follows a warrior’s code of honor and sees all non-Drule life forms to be inferior.
Witch Haggar: Haggar the witch is the one responsible for creating all of the Robeasts Zarkon uses. She is notorious for using her dark magic to cast hypnotizing spells over people. Though she was once good and beautiful, she is now evil and ugly. It was Haggar who was responsible for originally splitting Voltron into five components in the American version. In the Japanese version, she is hinted to be King Zarkon’s mother thus making her Lotor’s grandmother where she was killed in the end for revealing Lotor’s true maternity. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, Haggar went into hiding after the final battle, but rejoined Lotor in his conquest schemes. They strike a deal in which, if Lotor conquers the universe, she gets the magic of the lions while he gets the universe and the lions themselves. In the “Devil’s Due” comic series, Haggar had no part in Voltron’s origin story, replaced by an ancestor of Zarkon’s, though she is well versed in it. She also attempt to brainwash Sven under Merla’s wishes
So what is about Voltron became such a cultural phenomenon during the 80s got entire North America so crazy about these mechanical feline that seemed to woo in the youngsters of all ages?
Well.. Pretty much everything.
Its story telling. Impressive cast of characters and mecha. Unique monsters (or Robeasts) Voltron mecha gets to face. The way how the plot captures our imagination and makes our excitement all very electrying! It couldn’t get any better than this I realise.
There’s further hidden truths or secrets about Voltron I never realised before whilst googling it for quite some time now. Especially this series was originally created in Japan (produced by Toei Animation under the name of Beast King GoLion) and suggested it was far more violent and has more bloods and gore. And it suggests plenty of human cruelty acts as human slavery is the strong theme behind the series. And how World Events Production (WEP) decides to censor and edit the entire show, rebrand it to the American audience as a different product altogether. It intrigues me a lot and that’s something I’ll look forward to writing more about sometime in the near future.
But for now. Let’s embrace of what appears to be one of the best cartoon import series that was ever produced in our time. I thank WEP and Toei Animations for making this happened.
After I finished browsing online shopping details of Voltron Masterpiece 25th Anniversary edition, I stumbled upon a strange cartoon character that looks so ‘pouty’ in roundness.
I thought it’s big circular round hands and feet, my next best guess was going to be Doraemon (a popular classic Japanese robot cat for kids) that could match this description perfectly. But to my surprise (and my amusement ^^), it turns to be a like this….
Hello Kitty Voltron
The artist chickenpoppod certainly have the humorous imagination in order to come up with something like that.
But wait! That’s not all. How bout this?
The Original Voltron
Now that’s classic! :)
Source: The images do not belong to me. Â Courtesy of fan artist chickenpoppod from Fanpop.com
CollectionDX and several online mecha blogs raving about the new Voltron scale model that comes with die-cast material and plastics. Moreover, it’s a true Chogokin type model hence it’s sounded to be much higher grade of material quality for it to be priced very high (retailing around USD $150).
And it’s a commerative package for 25 years since it went on air in 1984 so it’s gonna be ultra special obviously! And because it’s a limited edition, according to Toynami, the production is only expected to continue until the end of December this year. They will not be produced any more in the near future. So you’d better get your hands quick on these ones while they’s still in hot pursuit!
They are two main online web places you can get it for a great cheap price.
1. Amazon.com – Currently retailing at USD $60.00. There’s a shipping charge of USD $10.00, if you’re not a US resident.
2. Entertainment Earth – Currently retailing at USD $70. The shipping fee stands at a whopping price of USD $50.95!! That’s pretty steep! :-/.
Guess I know which of the two should I pick. I think I’m going to get one while NZ’s exchange rate is very high against greenbag. ^^
And here’s the Youtube link (provided by RetroJunk) just to commemorate that. It’s for everyone to enjoy what was once one of the greatest cartoons ever appeared on 14-inch TV sets!
After coming back from my long holidays during the European summer, I decided to google online to find any exciting news of robots being made into the headlines. And so far all I’m hearing are Transformers and Voltron. They’re both appearing a lot in the search fields a lot and most people remembered very well how Voltron really took it off when it appeared in our TV sets, scheduled to air after school hours. And everybody loved the show. All the elements such as music, action, lions, characters and a family of 4 mice gave us a great lasting impressions that everybody was completely over the moon with it.
And now 20 years later, we have another chance to rekindle our childhood days when one of US movie entertainment companies are planning their movie production schedule in 2010, expecting its movie released by 2011. Just like how Transformers movie franchise did, Voltron is also heading down this path as well. Nice!
In addition, it’s also getting scores of interests from a couple of media companies who wish to produce animated series of Voltron and they’re get to be on air on many of American cable channels for kids.
As soon as I read this RSS link feed from the CartoonLeap.com, I was completely left flabbergasted and stunned. I never would imagine that Hollywood producers would be seriously considering this as the next potential for bringing all the retro kids’ TV programmes onto the big screens.
Well…. For me. They’re not just any kid programme. They’re the super cool programmes that gets people in my generation talking about it for years.
Seriously! We’ve seen so many DC and Marvel comic characters and superheroes being brought to life into Hollywood films in the last 4-5 years as part of Hollywood’s business strategy to entice the demographics from the comic book industry, seen as a niche market (and being successful, nonetheless). And now they’re pursuing this? Retro classic cartoon robots?
Goodness. If there is such thing as a twist of fate in my life’s journey with cartoon robots, I gotta say I’m lucky to know my blog turns out to be a blessing.
Voltron Wall Poster
After watching the lion-combining-into-robot-Voltron sequence (see Youtube clip below) over and over again, nostalgism soon became my best friend. :) Sweet old childhood memories of my former life starting to resurface, and they instantly flashed right before my very own eyes. It had me thinking, “Did those robotic ‘cats’ really did merge into one big robot?” Each of them transform into a limb of an arm, leg and a body. I never thought of it that way before. But back then it was so absolutely cool. Revolutionary even! In that form. Oughta give credit to Go Nagai’s Getter Robo with the combine concept. If this is the beginning of many retro robot shows getting a major revival or a comeback, then there’s gotta be endless excitement with the developments of old-school mecha that will keep old school mecha fan happy-tappy. New mecha fans should get into it as well. They gotta love it.
Which begs me another question in regard of this new project developments Hollywood are planning to do. Some suggest Michael Bay to provide some ‘directorship’ influence on the Voltron film. But to me, I’m thinking why…? Why not somebody else this time? We’ve already seen him making two Transformers film (and now a third one coming. ) So why should he taking another retro-robot movie adaption project again, even though it’s a different title. After all, they are so many talented directors out there in the US showbusiness like Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg, Sam Raimi etc.
Sam Raimi? Now that’s my kinda pick for good Voltron movie director. I wish.
After all, Michael shouldn’t have all the fun with this. Let other directors have a go with them.
