It seems like every question we get the answer to about
Voltron: Defender of the Universe sparks a few more questions, and that was certainly the case after we
posted news this past week listing lots of information about the upcoming DVD sets for "Lion Force" and "Vehicle Force" cartoon episodes. One of the questions we got asked a lot was "what about
Fleet of Doom?"
For those of you not in-the-know,
Voltron: Fleet of Doom was a special extra-long episode that featured the evil forces of Planet Doom and the Drule Empire creating a new series of robeasts, which could combine (much like Voltron could!) into a more powerful single entity, and about how both Lion and Vehicle Voltron teams had to team up together to fight this menace. Not to mention Haggar's abduction of the spirit of Princess Allura! This special aired in the USA as the last new item from the original show's run, but many feel that it was meant to flow chronologically between the Lion Force episodes and the Vehicle Force episodes, and transition between the two. So fans are wondering: will this be sold as part of the Lion Force DVDs? As part of the Vehicle Force DVDs? Or separately? Well, we asked Media Blasters, and the answer is "that has not yet been planned". But we're going to let you know as soon as they finalize that decision, okay?
Another question we get asked is whether or not there will be closed captioning on these releases? Media Blasters answers that there are none planned. They've checked with WEP, the producers of the show, and as far as WEP knows, no CC tracks were ever created. So it looks like we're out of luck there. Also, at this time there are also no plans for language support on the primary episodes other than English. However, the second collection may have a featurette about
Voltron in other languages (see below), and please don't forget that those English tracks will be remastered in Dolby 5.1!
Next up, we tried to find out if any new extras have been finalized for
Collection 1: Blue Lion, due late next month. Yes! Besides the already-announced Original Pilot: "The Voltron Trilogy", the Staff Interviews, a "Making of the DVDs" featurette, and and Insert of Episode Synopses with Original Air Dates, the folks at Media Blasters has gotten clearance to also include an hilarious
Voltron-themed skit from the Cartoon Network/[adult swim] series
Robot Chicken !
So, then, what are things looking like for extras on the
Collection 2: Yellow Lion set, due in mid-November? Well, they don't have a for-sure list of finalized supplements just yet, but they tell us that they're planning on possibly including
Voltron clips in 4 languages, some more featurettes with the original crew, and maybe even some of the old ads! Wow, we know many MANY of our readers are crossing their fingers, hoping for the latter, so stay tuned and we'll let you know if that comes to pass, okay?
Next up, we asked about the special collector "tin" packaging, and how long those will be available, would they ever be reprinted on down the road, etc? In other words, just how "limited" are these? Media Blasters responds that they haven't made any decisions about whether they would ever reprint the tins, but not to count on it: make sure you get your copy before they're gone! And it goes beyond the special packaging, too. If they DO put it out in "cheapie" packaging at all, either down the road after the tins are gone, or perhaps even sooner if high-end mass market chains request them to, they'll certainly consider doing it, but only as a "non-special" edition, with the extras stripped off! Why? To quote the folks at Media Blasters: "
We want to make sure the true fan is happy with his special edition release, and doesn't feel cheated because (a mass market chain shopper)
got something almost as good for a cheaper price." Thumbs up from us for that response, Media Blasters; it shows you truly care about the dedicated fans that have kept the legacy of
Voltron alive for the last two decades! We're certain there will be plenty of collector tins to go around for all of the demand, and then some, but those of us who spring for those sets would hate the idea of find these in the bargain bin on down the road!
Finally, we asked the folks at Media Blasters a VERY direct question about these releases. Let's look at the exact wording of the question, as compiled from concerns we've seen from fans all over the 'net:
Fans are starting to wonder just how good these could possibly be. Are there ANY compromises that will have to be made along the way in producing these DVDs? Are all episodes full-length, as-originally broadcast? Are there any episodes that are edited-length, to allow more room for commercials? All original music attached? All original openings and closings? What about "bumpers" to lead into and out of commercials...are they in place as originally shown, or at least among the extras to be viewed separately without interrupting the flow of the story for non-existent commercials? ANYTHING that's on the down side, fans would rather know about up front...?
That's exactly what we asked. Media Blasters gave us a very nice answer, too, and one with which they asked the producer of these DVDs, Sean Molyneaux, to provide. Here's what he said:
That's actually an interesting question, because as far as I know, there is more than one version of Voltron that was actually aired. Some of the audio was revamped about a year later, I'm not sure why. We had to chose the version of the audio that sounded best. As far as I can tell the only difference between the two versions of the audio is the "And now for scenes from the next episode of Voltron" sequences. One set had the clips from the episode voiced, and Narration from the awesome Peter Cullen telling you about the episode in between each line. The second set had the character dialog muted, and Peter Cullen's narration running straight over the preview. As much as I'd like the version with more Cullen, we couldn't find a good version of it, and it seemed like the earlier one, interspersed with character dialog, was the original, so that's the one we used.
Our version is full-length, and has all the bumpers in the original places. The original show was designed to have a "mini-cliffhanger" and a pause every six minutes or so. The show really seems to flow better WITH the bumper interruptions than without.
The one big difference is the FONT. For the first few episodes of Voltron, the main locations are titled on screen. They weren't on the film we used as our source, they were added later as video titles. As near as I can tell, this Font is available exclusively for certain brands of solid-state titling video machines. It and the machines are both pretty much out of use. I couldn't find a clean version of the font for the computer, so to keep everything sharp we opted for a slightly different font.
The other thing to keep in mind is that we went back to the original film, shot in Japan in 1981. That's 25 years old. We did a lot of work restoring it, but its not going to be absolutely perfect, especially in later episodes when the reels for the stock sequences had been played about a thousand times. Compared to what the original Voltron masters looked like, trust me, it's a miracle, but compared to today's slick, perfect computer animation, it'll still look a little rough.
As we said: nice answer! But that last bit may concern some of you a bit: "it'll still look a little rough." Hmmm, but he points out that this is in comparison to modern computer animated shows. Will it look good as compared to other products of it's time? Well, we have perfect confidence in him and his team. But just to be sure, we're going to be taking a look at the first episode soon! Yep, Media Blasters is kindly sending us a disc that contains the first remastered
Voltron episode on it (just the first episode, not the entire collection), complete with video clean-up and with English 5.1 sound. We'll post pics, and post news with a short mini-review, just as soon as we get that and have a chance to look it over. Stay tuned!
