Forgotten Anime: “Robotech the Movie”

Distributor: Rank Home Video (UK)
Original Year of Release: 1986, 1985 (Megazone 23), 1984 (Southern Cross)
English Video Release: 1987, PAL VHS, English Dubbed
Japanese Title: Megazone 23, Southern Cross
Runtime: 82 mins

It’s been over nine months since my last instalment of this series, so I have decided to resurrect it. I really want to review all of the old video tapes I have as generally no one seems to talk about this stuff anymore. Most reviews will initially be revisions of stuff I published on my old defunct “Lost World of Anime” website and blog. First up will be a film that has fascinated me for a long time, so much so I created a now dormant website about it; “Robotech the Movie”.

I’m going assume people reading this review are already familiar with the “Robotech” story, so I’m not going to give a synopsis of the series. Instead I’ll plunge headfirst in the story of this film; some 16 years after the events of episode 36 of “Robotech” (the final episode of the “Macross Saga” arc), the Earth has begun to rebuild and is peaceful again. However the Robotech Masters have arrived to retrieve the memory matrix from the computer that was on board the SDF-1, which crash landed in the Pacific in 1999. A platoon of Bioroids is sent down to battle the humans. Solider Todd Harris and his squad members are sent in to fight off the attack. But something strange is happening. Civilians are being captured alive by the enemy. Colonel B.D. Andrews joins in the battle and fights alongside Todd's unit. However Andrews is captured, and the enemy retreats much to the Earth Defence Forces puzzlement.

On their flagship, the Robotech Masters make the surprising discovery that one of the captured humans, Andrews, is a high ranking officer at the Robotech Research Centre where the memory matrix is being held. The Masters decide to make a bio-genetic twin simulant of Andrews, who will be able to follow their orders to the letter. The Masters dispose of the real Andrews and the other captured humans then send the cloned Andrews down to Earth. Upon arrival, the clone manages to gain control of the Robotech Research Centre and orders a cover up of the alien invasion. After a crushing defeat in a battle against the Bioroids, Andrews proposes that they use the alien computer found on board the SDF-1, named the E.V.E, to provide a counterattack plan. But before he sets the plan in motion, he gives orders to transmit the entire computer's data to an old abandoned satellite. He explains to his team that this is just to warm up the computer, but they have their doubts. The data is in fact being intercepted by the Robotech Masters.

Later we meet Mark Landry, a teenager who works at a motorcycle repair shop. He receives a phone call from his friend Todd Harris. Todd is a little agitated, and asks Mark to meet him in an underground car park. There Todd shows Mark a large motorcycle called the MODAT 5. The machine is in fact acts as a database terminal to a giant military computer as well as transforming into a robot. Todd tells mark that he stole it from the military in order to expose cover-up about the new invasion by Supreme Command and Colonel Andrews. He tells Mark they must contact "Eve", but their conversation is cut short when Andrews men come to retrieve the bike. In the confusion, Mark escapes with the MODAT 5 and unbeknownst to Mark, Todd is killed by Andrew's men. An attempt is made to search for Mark and the bike, but Mark has already disappeared and gone back to his workplace. There he gets the bike repainted red and tells the story to his disbelieving workmates.

Despite the death of his friend and warnings he gave about the bike now in his possession, Mark is roped into using the bike in a student film starring him and his girlfriend, Becky Michaels. As Mark and Becky film a scene together, pop star Eve appears on a giant screen bellowing out her new hit single. Mark wonders if she is the "Eve" Todd was referring to. After the shoot, Mark decides to ring into Eve's TV talk show to see if she knows anything about Todd and the MODAT 5. But the call is cut short on TV, even though Mark continues talking to Eve for several minutes assuming his call is still being broadcast. Eve suggests that he brings the MODAT 5 to the studio, but on his way there several of Andrew's men in civilian clothes try to capture him. They fail, and soon transformable bike mecha, known as Harguns, along with military vehicles are sent in to apprehend him. Mark once again eludes capture after a fight on a highway which destroys most of his pursuer's equipment and sends Mark and the MODAT 5 crashing into a neighbourhood playground. Mark is unsure if Eve set him up, so he disguises himself as a delivery boy and searches the TV studio for her. However he soon discovers the shocking truth behind Eve.

“Robotech the movie” is one of those films where the story behind the film is far more interesting than the film itself. However the story of the production of the film, even in places like Wikipedia and as told by other supposedly reliable sources and writers, is often flat out incorrect and repeats easily disproved myths that have built up around the film over the last 30 years. This mostly due to fact the film, outside of a few European and South American releases, did not have a wide release. My own research material I have accumulated over the years includes interviews with the film’s creator Carl Macek, (such as Bob Miller’s extensive interview in “Animato! Magazine”, Spring 1990 and his interview on  ANN Cast, Anime News Network in January 2010), the film’s entry in the “The Animated Movie Guide” (written by Jerry Beck, who hatched the plan to form Streamline Pictures with Macek after seeing a film festival screening of “Robotech the movie” in 1987) and Peter Walker’s Robotech Research website (Peter actually saw the film in the cinema in Dallas in 1986).

The origins of the film go back to 1985 when Harmony Gold was contacted by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films, who had seen a news report on TV about “Robotech” and the popularity of anime on US TV. Both companies hatched a plan to release a “Robotech” film to cinemas in time for the Christmas holidays. Cannon Films was a notorious film company run by two Israeli immigrants that released mostly B-movie shockers. Some of their more well-known films include “Death Wish II”, “Invasion U.S.A.”, “Runaway Train” and “Lifeforce”. I recommend watching Mark Hartley’s fantastic documentary “Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films”, which just shows how insanely the studio was run. Realising that a “Robotech” film could not be completed in the time allotted, Harmony Gold looked at existing films which could be used. “Macross: Do You Remember Love” was immediately struck out as Tatsunoko (the studio that had animated “Macross”) had optioned the film for a US theatrical release in case “Robotech” was a massive success in the US. They even forbid Harmony Gold the use of any “Macross” terminology, such as “Super Dimensional Fortress”, “Zentradi” and even “Protoculture” for any planned “Robotech” theatrical feature.

Eventually Macek stumbled across an OVA called “Megazone 23”. Due to fact it was born out an aborted TV series and had an inconclusive ending, Macek commissioned anime studio AIC to create a new ending for the OVA (which makes no sense if you’ve seen the original OVA) based on his story with other additional animation of generic looking outer space scenes (stars, planets, galaxies etc.) to create an opening title sequence for the film. This early version of the film was to be set during the SDF-1's return to Earth after accidentally warping to Pluto's orbit in the third episode of “Robotech” and supposedly was a straight dub of the OVA with few cuts. The profits of the “Robotech” were apparently meant to fund the follow up TV series “Robotech II: the Sentinels”, which Macek was handling the production of in Japan.

However when Macek returned from Japan to check in on the production of the English dubbing of the film, he was horrified by the direction and acting. Worse still was Harmony Gold had already previewed the film to Menahem Golan who despised it. His directions to Macek to fix the film are the stuff of legend (as per Macek’s recollections); “They didn't understand it; they didn't like it. There was too much talking. So they said, 'Cut this scene out and cut this scene out; they've got these girls; there's too many girls; get rid of this; get rid of that. I was told I had 24 hours to make a new movie. So I said, 'Okay, what do you I want?' And the Cannon people said, 'We want lots of guns, lots of shooting, lots of robots.'”. According Macek, he recut the film with random pieces of footage from “Southern Cross” TV series (which formed the second arc of the “Robotech” the TV series). Again, more recollections from Macek, about how it went down; “I edited together a new version of the Robotech movie in about six hours. I went into a meeting the next day. I played the film silent, and I acted out all the parts for about eighty minutes, and when it was over the lights came on and Menacham Golan said, 'Now that's a Cannon movie'”.

While Macek’s statements about his interactions with Golan seem absurd, judging by the comments of those interviewed for Hartley’s Cannon Films documentary, it’s entirely likely it happened just as Macek states. But the film’s release, reaction to the film and its supposed failure are basically myths in Robotech and wider anime fandom. Frustratingly these myths are repeated ad nauseam with little to no evidence to back them up. In July 1986, Cannon Films test marketed the film in 35 cinemas across the Metroplex area of Dallas, Texas. Not realising the “Robotech” series had a wide demographic across many age groups, the company only marketed it to children. The film was generally only screened in matinee sessions and TV advertising limited to very early morning slots. Yet despite this Macek claims that the film did very well; “It did exceptionally well at the box office 'Robotech the movie' beat the hell out of (Roman Polanski's) 'Pirates', and did respectable against James Cameron's 'Aliens', which was amazing to me”. Reviews of the film were good as well. In the September 1986 Lone Star Comics newsletter, “The Lone Star Express”, Derek Wakefield wrote a very favourable review in his anime column “Banzai!” and noted that the film “had several good reviews by critics”. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the only paper in the region to review the film, gave it a 7 out of 10 score

The real reason for the film’s failure to be allowed a wider release was Cannon Film’s own incompetence (Macek’s recollections again); “When they got the demographics back, they realised - it was poised to open in 1,400 theatres a month later - they got the demographics back, they realised 95% or more of the audience was adult. And they had committed to buy time on every major kids program, they were going to market this thing to children. And it was reported that children couldn't stand this movie, there was loud explosions and kids were crying. It wasn't a cartoon for kids. And so they freaked out. They got cold feet and withdrew the film from distribution so they could figure out how to retool it and remarket the film”. In several Harmony Gold sponsored Robotech convention programs in late 1986, it lists promotional videos for the film in the schedule as well as stating the feature was “coming soon to this area”. However the film was never retooled or remarketed for a US audience. The film did get a successful theatrical and video release in Argentina plus video releases in the UK, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands. By 1987 Cannon Films was finically in dire straits after some very bad finical decisions such as the acquisition of Thorn EMI film group and a few too many box office bombs. The company folded a couple of years later.

Eventually Harmony Gold’s licence for “Megazone 23” expired. The official line from the company is that as Macek despises the film (and over the years he’s made it very clear he hates it) and they don’t want anything to do with it. Despite that statement a fair amount of material relating to the film has been released over the years; a two part comic adaptation in 1996, a wealth of promotional material relating to the film on ADV Film’s “Robotech” DVD box sets, the sale of a Garland bike figure from “Megazone 23” on Harmony Gold’s online shop, and bizarrely an incomprehensible 29 minute edit of the film with all of the “Megazone 23” footage excised which was released on a “Robotech” DVD box set in 2011. My own personal opinion is that Harmony Gold cannot be bothered relicensing “Megazone 23”. It’s nothing to do with Macek’s feelings on the film. In the 2000’s, ADV Films did have the licence to “Megazone 23” while simultaneously holding the licence for “Robotech”, yet the film was never released. As Macek was an employee of ADV Films at the time and was credited as a producer for the “Robotech” DVD sets, naturally he would have pushed hard to have any release of the movie vetoed.

My personal feelings on the film are mixed. It’s a pretty strange beast. The soundtrack, filled with a great selection of original pop music, is a highlight of the film. Being a fan of “Megazone 23”, the “alternate ending” is pretty darn cool compared to the original, but makes little sense in terms of the original OVA's plot. Of course I can easily see the many, many flaws in “Robotech the movie”. The major one is that the “Southern Cross” footage doesn’t mesh very well with the “Megazone 23” scenes. And of course the “Southern Cross” material was previously used in a completely different context in the “Robotech” TV series. There's also the problem of having two different sets of characters that never interact at all during the entire length of the film. The second major problem is that he plot is also a complete mess. The original material was literally cut up into small pieces and reassembled into a different narrative, with only the nearly non-stop dialogue relaying the plot, which serves as a glue in attempt to hold everything together. The audience is practically bombarded with dialogue and plot almost for the entire length of the film. It's all a bit tiring really. Macek was pretty much forced to attempt to string everything together as one cohesive narrative through this dialogue because of the way the film was edited and complied. But it doesn’t really work all that well.

I readily admit that the film is pretty bad. In fact it’s a total mess of film. However I do find it to be kind of a fun film. It's utterly silly and filled with almost non-stop action. But it's not exactly the worst part of the “Robotech” universe. That title has to go to the abysmal “Robotech: Love Live Alive”. But honestly, how well does this film stack up against the rest of the franchise? Not a great deal of the material in the “Robotech” universe is what you'd call a work of art. A lot of it is poorly written, is full of cliché ridden dialogue and has plot holes a mile wide. Take for instance “Robotech II: The Sentinels” which at times is as poorly written as “Robotech the movie”, and still it’s considered by most “Robotech” fans as part of the official story. You also have the continually changing meaning of the word “Protoculture” in the original TV series. One minute it has the same meaning as that in “Macross”, next it seems to be an actual fuel source.

Despite the fact I do see why people think it's a bad film, I am continually perplexed as to why fans despise it so much when the other parts of “Robotech” are just as bad or worse. According to an article by Peter Walker on the Unofficial Robotech Reference Guide website, it was the San Antonio, Texas branch of the C/FO (Cartoon/Fantasy Organisation) that first made a lot of negative noise in regards to the film. Peter also rightly notes that most people who write off the film as terrible probably have never even seen it. Prior to its first appearance on torrents and Youtube around 2008 or 2009, the movie just hadn’t been widely accessible to fans, especially those in the US who were mostly the ones deriding it. For whatever reason, “Robotech the movie” is regarded as an anomaly in the “Robotech” universe. I understand why Harmony Gold doesn’t really wish to acknowledge it or the fact Carl Macek, in his own words, wanted "for everyone to forget about it". But the fan hate is something I’ll never understand.