My apologies for my hiatus last month. You see, last month my class was Game Design and Development Analysis, which was an examination of videos and media in a very dissected manner. In short, my entire class consists of writing games reviews for a month straight. For once, I had a class that made writing game reviews or any reviews a form of graded torture. Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but it definitely restricted my free time of playing the games let alone speaking of them.
So, onward and upward, my first thoughts to be posted in a while is that American animation have become stagnated. Don’t get me wrong I love and watch The Simpsons on a regular and almost sadistic basis; the reason is because I find it hilarious and all shows lately seem to be a copy of it. South Park deserves honorable mention for keeping the ideas fresh while maintain their rooted animation style and Archer, well, the dialogue in Archer is the glue that holds the show together, and Jon H. Benjamin is awesome for this role. But when it comes to pure hand-drawn, fluid animation, well, the last thing I have seen that was any sort of good was the Secret of Kells, and the story for that felt only ok for me.
I believe I have made it no secret that I love Anime. Yes, pure Japanese Animation, preferably with subtitles and the original Japanese voice actor’s voices. Not bad anime, either, that good stuff. I realize when I say anime, the first thought that comes to many American’s minds are Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Bleach (shudder). That seems likely, since those are those are the most prevalent ones on TV. The stuff I am talking about though is Neon Genesis Evangelion, FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, and to a lesser extent even Trigun. You know what these series have? Hand-drawn animation with fluid action scenes and most of all, deep, emotionally involving storylines and mythic stories that force that continuously capture my imagination.
Today though, kids, we are talking about Two specific animated shows: Transformers and Robotech. Ok, that’s kind of a lie, not Robotech but Macross, if one was to be proper. Let me explain…
The Robotech series is an amalgam of 3 separate anime series, because for some reason the standard anime length of 26 episodes was not enough for syndication in the USA. So, we have Macross, Calvary Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA all shoehorned into one saga. On paper, I’m sure this made a ton of sense, but in practice, it was dumb as hell, as far I thought. The only one worth watching is the first 36 episodes, known as Macross. Ok, on to Transformers.
Transformers is a Saturday Morning Sci-fi cartoon about two robot races in a civil war with each other over, I dunno, dominance? Transformers seems more relative a series to the US public, so my explanation will end at, they are robots on earth, in disguise, and can transform into vehicles, animals, or dinosaurs, depending on circumstances. They fight the Decepticons, who are essentially the same thing except evil. Classic good vs. evil story with transforming robots, which was based on a toy line that did the same.
And you know what, Macross is light –years better, and somehow gets lees attention. Macross is the story f humans finding some kind of otherworldly huge space battleship that crash lands on an island. No aliens are present, so the humans reverse engineer the technology to re-fit the battleship. The also create Valkyrie jets, which are based off of the real F-14 Tomcats, and they can also transform. They all transforms in giant gun wielding mecha, or a halfway between the design called Gerwalk/Guardian modes. So, the original aliens that where chasing this giant battleship warp in and begin attacking Earth. Series= Start.
What makes Macross better? The mecha designs for one. Look at these pictures of Optimus Prime pre and post transformation:
And now look at the transformation scheme of a Valkyrie from Fighter to Gerwalk to Battroid mode:
Look at the transformation of the Valkeyrie! The thrusters become the machs “legs”. The cockpit of the fighter eventually becomes covered by a large armor plating for the pilot. Even the gun pod has a definite place where it came from, the under carriage of the fighter. What about Optimus? How about that trailer behind him? Gone. You see, in the series of Transformer’s, even n the recent movies, Optimus’ trailer disappeared into thin air. It sometimes even appeared when he transformed right back on him. That is what I am getting at here. Please, even if you have profound nostalgia of watching the show, I implore to go watch Generation One (1984-1991) of Transformers. Seriously, it plays regularly on a Disney channel called Hub. My wife and I watch it sometimes and you know what? We laugh our asses off! The show’s premise revolves around jokes only a ten year old could laugh at, and the mythology involved with the show was a constant back and forth of Autbots and Decipticons barking and shooting at each other, with very little effect to one another. Macross? Go watch Macross on Netflix (remember, the first 36 episodes of Robotech). Do yourself a favor; don’t get attached to any characters either.
OK: Spoiler warning here: Since the series is pushing 30 years old, I am going to make some parallels here. Three-fourths through Macross, Earth is destroyed. And I don’t mean that in some sort of metaphorically way. I mean every 90% of the entire human race and most of the flora and fauna was completely and utterly destroyed. Even when the SDF-1 Macross (the name of that there battleship) destroys the entire alien race orbiting Earth, the return to Earth as the most somber thing. I have ever seen in a cartoon.
What did Transformer’s have that Macross didn’t have? Umm….more characters and model designs. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Transformers growing up and cold think of nothing better. But seriously, my problem is Transformers get so much more attention because it was based off a popular toy line. Macross had toys, but they were nowhere near as popular in this country as opposed to Japan.
I want a proper Macross Movie I am tired of this:
What in the hell is that even? I asked my wife, who had a teacher in one of her compter animation classes that assisted in making the first Transformer's movie (plug: Full Sail doesn't f**k around when it comes to staffing). You know how that thing up there becomes a robot to a jet? In short, it technically DOESN'T!!! Watch the new version of Starscream transform, then do it in slow motion. Some of a Transformers' mass is purposefully hidden because the mecha design is so complex that it technically doesn't make sense. The story is just not there, even by the cartoon's standards. The story of both movies revolve around Shia LeBouf life and how he coups with giant robots living in his world. That's crap. The cartoons where about civil war between two completely dissenting groups and Earth just happens to be a new battlefield.
So yes, I want a Macross movie, because Macross has a very simple story laid out. F-14 Tomcats Jets (or retcon them to F-22 Raptors, like the Starscream, I don't care) that turn into mecha fighting an alien force bent on destroying Earth, for no better reason than they are afraid of the effect of human culture on their military super machine. BOOM! Make that crap! The movie writes itself!
So, if anyone from Hollywood is looking to make a retreaded Saturday morning cartoon movie in live action, as seems to be the trend so far, then somebody get on that yesterday. Here are the facts of Saturday Morning Cartoon remakes I stand behind:
-I don't want a Thundercats movie. Thundercats sucked. It always did.
-I don't want a Master's of the Universe Movie. I mean, really, do you really want a damn Heman movie? We got one of those in the 80's. It wasn't good then, it's wouldn't be better now.
-We already got a G.I. Joe movie. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but I am so glad i didn't pay for movie tickets to see it.
-We already have FOUR Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles movies. That'll be quite enough, thank you.
Now yes, I know Transformers was anime, it being animated in Japan, but every thing else about it (writing, production) was US made, which might explain the overall episode to episode story being bad. But Macross, genius....
Please writers and directors, stop looking in this countries past for material and looks toward the East for much more powerful stuff. Macross predates Transformers by even two years, and for my money, I would rather say the trailers alone for this movie would attract more people to it than Dark of the Moon.
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