Let me say this, I love this film... I absolutely love it. I am a Macross fan, and for any Macross fan who loves the original TV series, you will enjoy this film. Even if your not a fan of the series, you will enjoy this film. My rating shows a bit of my bias to that I'll admit to that up front, but I'm not afraid to admit when the film has it's own faults.
It is a retelling of the original series. But that's not a problem, it was made a couple years after the original and unlike some series that have usually a TV movie that does a retelling, it's usually a cut and paste job of the series and slaps it together.
No, this film had a theatrical release with an all new story (a retelling but still a new story) and brand new cutting edge animation of the time to really separate itself from the original.
It is truly a visual spectacle to behold. For this was hand drawn animation at it's finest. You will never see hand drawn animation in this detail in anything else. It still holds up very well to this day. When you see the VF-1 Valkyries in space (or Veritech for the Robotech fans) It is beautifully detailed out from the paneling on them, to the shading and the firing of the multiple missiles. Even the space battles have insane amounts of detail to them. But nothing seems to compare to the opening's beautiful Reveal of the SDF Macross, it is a massive wow factor.
Another thing to note, the music selection is perfect and works harmoniously with the animation and doesn't ever feel like it's out of place. And Mari Iijima (The actress that plays Lynn Minmay) her songs are placed through out the film But there is one particular song in this film that shot her off into super stardom in Japan. I won't spoil what song it is for you, but it plays a massive part in the film, that is what I will say.
However the film has it's faults as I said before and I will not deny them. Biggest faults are in it's story. It is a retelling of the original that is going for 2 hours. And there is not much you can do with the very large diverse cast of characters from a TV series that spanned 36 episodes and now is condensed to 2 hours.
So while some of the more minor but still somewhat important characters may make an appearance, they're subplots are either omitted or skimmed over like in the case of Max Jenius And Milia Fallyna (Known as Max Sterling and Miriya Parina in Robotech).
In the case of the main cast though, they changed Hikaru Ichijio's (Rick Hunter in Robotech) origin and Lynn Minmay's (Lynn Minmei in Robotech) origin. They stayed relatively true to Misa Hayase's (Lisa Hayes in Robotech) origin however.
But the telling of the love triangle is vastly different. Where as in the TV series Minmay is a character no one likes for being what she is... A teenager caught up in the moment with a budding singing career. In here she's actually very sweet, kind and loving, despite her singing career and would do anything for Hikaru.
Misa on the other hand, in the series you had to warm up to her. In the movie you still have to warm up to her but she whines a tad bit more than she did in the series.
And Hikaru Ichijio... He's very much the same lovable idiot that fans of Macross know from the TV series. I've read from others complaining about a certain scene that makes him appear as chauvinistic pig. The scene in question I won't spoil. But you'll know it when you see it.
In a way, yeah it does look a bit chauvinistic. But I don't think that was the intent. Even though he's a good fighter pilot, through out the Macross series, he kept showing how much of an idiot he could be, especially when it came to women and there feelings for him. This I feel was more a moment of him showing some of that idiot from the TV series and I personally think it's funny. Others don't.
The Love triangle that is done in the movie is a tad forced and you will notice that it's more forced in this one than in the TV series. But it's OK. For a film trying to condense down a 36 episode TV series, it still did a good job at handling the Love Triangle as best that it could. The rest of the movie makes up for some of the faults in the story itself.
While I love the Japanese dub, I absolutely hate the English Dub. The original English dub was done in Hong Kong in 1986 and was a way to teach natives of Hong Kong, English, and it has a mix of both people from Hong Kong and a couple Australians in their, probably the voice coaches for the Hong Kong actors. it's a very horrid dub, and I really don't recommend it since it will ruin the viewing experience of the movie. This same dub can be found on the heavily edited "Clash of the Bionoids" VHS tape as well.
I highly recommend people watch it subbed, but if you really cannot live with watching a movie subbed, then I hope you won't dock the movie points because of a horrid dub.
It is a retelling of the original series. But that's not a problem, it was made a couple years after the original and unlike some series that have usually a TV movie that does a retelling, it's usually a cut and paste job of the series and slaps it together.
No, this film had a theatrical release with an all new story (a retelling but still a new story) and brand new cutting edge animation of the time to really separate itself from the original.
It is truly a visual spectacle to behold. For this was hand drawn animation at it's finest. You will never see hand drawn animation in this detail in anything else. It still holds up very well to this day. When you see the VF-1 Valkyries in space (or Veritech for the Robotech fans) It is beautifully detailed out from the paneling on them, to the shading and the firing of the multiple missiles. Even the space battles have insane amounts of detail to them. But nothing seems to compare to the opening's beautiful Reveal of the SDF Macross, it is a massive wow factor.
Another thing to note, the music selection is perfect and works harmoniously with the animation and doesn't ever feel like it's out of place. And Mari Iijima (The actress that plays Lynn Minmay) her songs are placed through out the film But there is one particular song in this film that shot her off into super stardom in Japan. I won't spoil what song it is for you, but it plays a massive part in the film, that is what I will say.
However the film has it's faults as I said before and I will not deny them. Biggest faults are in it's story. It is a retelling of the original that is going for 2 hours. And there is not much you can do with the very large diverse cast of characters from a TV series that spanned 36 episodes and now is condensed to 2 hours.
So while some of the more minor but still somewhat important characters may make an appearance, they're subplots are either omitted or skimmed over like in the case of Max Jenius And Milia Fallyna (Known as Max Sterling and Miriya Parina in Robotech).
In the case of the main cast though, they changed Hikaru Ichijio's (Rick Hunter in Robotech) origin and Lynn Minmay's (Lynn Minmei in Robotech) origin. They stayed relatively true to Misa Hayase's (Lisa Hayes in Robotech) origin however.
But the telling of the love triangle is vastly different. Where as in the TV series Minmay is a character no one likes for being what she is... A teenager caught up in the moment with a budding singing career. In here she's actually very sweet, kind and loving, despite her singing career and would do anything for Hikaru.
Misa on the other hand, in the series you had to warm up to her. In the movie you still have to warm up to her but she whines a tad bit more than she did in the series.
And Hikaru Ichijio... He's very much the same lovable idiot that fans of Macross know from the TV series. I've read from others complaining about a certain scene that makes him appear as chauvinistic pig. The scene in question I won't spoil. But you'll know it when you see it.
In a way, yeah it does look a bit chauvinistic. But I don't think that was the intent. Even though he's a good fighter pilot, through out the Macross series, he kept showing how much of an idiot he could be, especially when it came to women and there feelings for him. This I feel was more a moment of him showing some of that idiot from the TV series and I personally think it's funny. Others don't.
The Love triangle that is done in the movie is a tad forced and you will notice that it's more forced in this one than in the TV series. But it's OK. For a film trying to condense down a 36 episode TV series, it still did a good job at handling the Love Triangle as best that it could. The rest of the movie makes up for some of the faults in the story itself.
While I love the Japanese dub, I absolutely hate the English Dub. The original English dub was done in Hong Kong in 1986 and was a way to teach natives of Hong Kong, English, and it has a mix of both people from Hong Kong and a couple Australians in their, probably the voice coaches for the Hong Kong actors. it's a very horrid dub, and I really don't recommend it since it will ruin the viewing experience of the movie. This same dub can be found on the heavily edited "Clash of the Bionoids" VHS tape as well.
I highly recommend people watch it subbed, but if you really cannot live with watching a movie subbed, then I hope you won't dock the movie points because of a horrid dub.