Despite it’s success story in the mid 80s, Robotech has
also been seen as a cursed series.
Ignoring all of the controversies around its creation in the first
place, it seems like any and all attempts to continue the epic saga beyond The
New Generation has ended up crashing and burning. And those lucky enough to see some kind of
beginning never got a proper conclusion.
It’s been a point of frustration for die hard fans who have just wanted
some new adventures with Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes and the crew of the SDF3, but
always ended up getting next to nothing on that front. Well, we saw how badly Robotech: The Movie
bombed (so bad it never got a US theatrical release, though it did have one
overseas). So today on Top 5 Wednesday
I’m looking at the other Top 5 Abandoned or Unfinished Robotech Sequels. Are they really all that bad? Eh, depends.
Let’s take a look.
While Robotech’s first direct sequel was still in the
works (more on that later), creator Carl Macek was already planning far beyond
that with multiple follow ups. The only
one that had the most planned out was titled Robotech: The Odyssey. The outline would see new adventures for
Rick, Lisa and the crew of the SDF3 after the events of The New
Generation. Allegedly, the episode count
would have been massive, intended to fill every single weekday for over a year
and the story would eventually find a way to loop itself and lead directly into
the original opening of the Macross Saga.
There’s other interesting and out there ideas like time travel but
whatever planned clearly never came to pass following the failure of Robotech:
The Movie and Robotech II.
Believe or not, the Robotech Movie we got was once had a
wildly different story that actually did a better job of fitting into the
cannon. Originally, the film was just
supposed to adapt Megazone 23 Part 1 and would be set during the Macross
Saga. It would see Mark as Rick Hunter’s
cousin trying to discover what happened to the SDF1 while also coming into
conflict with Edwards, who is attempting his own coup against the Earth’s
Military. Most of the reason for the
radical change from this direction came from the rather dour ending of Megazone
and the need for more action sequences, which led to Carl Macek using unused
footage from Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, which then meant he had to
change the entire story to line it up with Robotech’s Second Season and
everything went downhill from there.
#3-Robotech 3000
Yeesh, this is one I and many others are glad never saw
the light of day. As the title implies,
this Robotech sequel would’ve been set over a thousand years after the First
Robotech War. The show would also be an
entirely CG TV series inspired by the success of similar shows like Voltron:
The Third Dimension and Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles. However, this entire idea was quickly
abandoned when the only footage comprised of one short reveal trailer was
unveiled at FanimeCon 2000…and was met with overwhelmingly negative
backlash. The animation looked below the
standard set by those aforementioned two shows and nothing even closely
resembled anything associated with Robotech like transformable mecha. Like I said, the trailer can be found online
and one quick watch will reassure anyone that this one was abandoned for good
reason.
#2-Robotech: Shadow Rising
In 2006, Robotech returned after a near twenty year
absence with a brand new movie, The Shadow Chronicles. The film took place during and after the
original Series Finale of Robotech and seemed set to be the beginning of a new
string of Robotech stories, the first of which had the running title of Shadow
Rising. However, the Robotech curse
endured even though The Shadow Chronicles did become a reality. The reasons behind Shadow Rising’s
cancellation vary from the less than enthusiastic critical and fan reception
(including me, it really isn’t that good and I’ll link my review below), to a
new focus on Warner Bros trying to develop a Live Action Robotech Movie. Personally, I think The Shadow Chronicles not
being the slam dunk fans hoped for is the true culprit. Like I said, you can check out my thoughts in
my review from July 2016 below:
Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles:
http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/robotech-shadow-chronicles.html
http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/robotech-shadow-chronicles.html
While The Masters Saga and The New Generation have their
fans, it’s the Macross Saga that gets the most amount of love from Robotech
fans. The Sentinels was meant to answer the
long gestating question as to what became of Rick Hunter and the crew of the SDF-3
during the Second and Third Seasons of the series. Sadly, a combination of budgetary cuts and
the backing of toy manufacturer Matchbox pulling out sent this project crashing
and burning before take off. While there
is the compilation film that collects the only 3 episodes produced and the Comic
Continuation, there has never been any further movement or discussion on
bringing The Sentinels to life in animated form as intended. While Robotech: The Movie had its fair share
of disastrous issues, it’s the failure of The Sentinels that truly led to the birth
of “The Robotech Curse” that has prevented further sequels and stories from
ever seeing the light of day.
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