Voltron

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Doddle Guys

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I have to say I had a smile on like an eight year old when I heard that this was gonna be brought back on the big screen. Every kid has that one superhero or character they love and for me it was Voltron. How do you guys feel about a Voltron movie? Or do you think people are going to feel like it's a rip off Transformers.
 
It would be fantastic if they abandoned the spacially and physiologically-impossible Transformers robot styling and stayed closer to the Go Lion art direction that became Voltron. All that Michael Bay junk is so cluttered and blurred, you can't tell what you're looking at.

What made the original Transformers or M.A.S.K. and RoboTech / Macross worlds work was the fact that the toys actually worked.
 
The Bay Transformers models are junk and greeblies for the sake of junk and greeblies. You can't tell the characters apart in robot mode.

The Voltron Lions can work physically as depicted; the toys proved that. Now, granted, the concept itself is pretty silly, but the kid in me would love to see them try. (Incidentally, I bought a Voltron t-shirt not two days ago.)
 
It may end up being viewed as a Power Rangers rip off, eventhough Voltron predates the Power Rangers.
 
LOVED Voltron as a kid. I don't know about this, though. I'd prefer if Voltron stayed alien. Maybe we follow a teenager recruited from Earth ala The Last Starfighter. Keep it as an off Earth adventure.
 
The question the producers should first ask themselves is why does the universe need to change - at all? The backstory was good enough. The minute Shia or Bieber are suggested for some convoluted boy-next-door-is-recruited-to-save-the-Earth plot is the minute they should tear up what they have so far and go back to the original TV universe.

The explain for the studio... and on to casting!

 
There is a definite tendency toward "hey! This is really popular! Could be bank if we made a movie based on it! But . . . let's change everything about it!"
 
Erik Olson said:
The question the producers should first ask themselves is why does the universe need to change - at all? The backstory was good enough. The minute Shia or Bieber are suggested for some convoluted boy-next-door-is-recruited-to-save-the-Earth plot is the minute they should tear up what they have so far and go back to the original TV universe.
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Well, Shia aside, I think if they kept it alien it would need a really good audience 'in' point established as an identifiable character. Someone who takes us on the journey of accepting this preposterous stackable warrior robot.
 
I dunno; always worked for me the way it was. The characters were identifiably human and directed by the Galaxy Alliance based on Earth. Good enough.
 
David Jimerson said:
I dunno; always worked for me the way it was. The characters were identifiably human and directed by the Galaxy Alliance based on Earth. Good enough.
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Ah, maybe you're right. I forgot about the Galaxy Alliance. I was running under the hazy memory influenced assumption that it was more akin to Star Wars. And I guess that right there--Star Wars' story, statistically at least, works--is reason enough to disregard my opinion.
 
I guess it sort of depends on who you're going after. If it's, say, 14 year-old girls, then it helps to have a cute boy and some romantic story, and sure, make him come from a suburban high school. But then, if you're going after 14 year-old girls, why would you pick Voltron as your vehicle?
 
David Jimerson said:
I guess it sort of depends on who you're going after. If it's, say, 14 year-old girls, then it helps to have a cute boy and some romantic story, and sure, make him come from a suburban high school. But then, if you're going after 14 year-old girls, why would you pick Voltron as your vehicle?
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Because he has fangs? ;)
 
They have to change the designs of the lions. Try to imagine the original boxy design of each selling as a live action anthropomorphic-ish android... it looks, sounds, and feels like an old Volvo because of the boxy designs the mechs retained in the cartoon.

It will not, as the case many cartoons and video game characters and worlds, translate properly without looking extremely dopey.

However, they do not need a Smurfs, Transformers, etc storyline. It can retain the same exact storyline in a two hour feature film format and survive in this climate, if not do extremely well.

I am a Voltron Fan, even have the intro theme in my feature (seeing if we can get the rights to use it) and also a Tranzor Z, Gundam, and lots of anime and video games. The reality is that they do not translate well to live action in pure form: you almost have to bend a few visual details to get it to look right or you're going to lose a LOT of money.
 
I say they go with this look...
voltron-cartoon-lions.jpg
 
I used to love Voltron when I was a kid. I had the whole toy set, even the big castle thing.

Hopefully they will be able to make a good film out of it. Transformers had so much potential. I agree the designs were overly complicated, but when the Autobots and Decepticons were not moving around so quickly they looked pretty damn cool. The problem with Transformers was that the story, character arcs, and dialogue were just not that good. I think the designs were the least of the problems with those films considering the script problems they had.

I do have to say, the early concept art for Voltron's live action film looks promising.

voltronexcl3-big.jpg


voltronexcl2-big.jpg
 
It's already an expensive movie and a gamble, any other way would make it more expensive and a worse gamble.

The only thing I hope is that it's not Rhianna or Justin Bieber as a pilot...
 
David Jimerson said:
Except that it appears to be taking place on present-day Earth. (And, as usual, LA.)
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Seriously, does any city on Earth have such a fatalistic and vain view of itself? I mean, not even NYC is as caught up in its own demise as LA on its dreariest day. The concept art is early art, of course. That said, I pray this isn't some Michael Bay interpretation of the franchise. The artist obviously aims to pay homage to that other lamentable franchise.
 
Give it to Zack Snyder. He actually cares about the material he adapts from, and his style would probably suit the thing. If all you want is butts in seats, go make another movie about sparkling vampires.

Interestingly, I'm reminded of the hubbub over 2009's Star Trek. I had a lot of people tell me that it was imperative that it be adapted to appeal to a wider audience. I for the life of me never understood why it was so imperative -- so that people who didn't like Star Trek suddenly would? Why would I, as a fan, want to support the continuation of the franchise if it was turned into something I hated? Sounds like a girlfriend who tries to change everything about you.
 
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