Product Details

• Actors: Mark Hamill, Chase Masterson, Yuri Lowenthal
• Directors: Tommy Yune, Dong-Wook Lee
• Format: NTSC, Anamorphic, Color, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Funimation
• DVD Release Date: November 20, 2007
• Run Time: 180 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000WE5I10
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,329 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Movie (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

ROBOTECH:SHADOW CHRONICLES THE MOVIE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Robotech Returns - FINALLY!!!!, February 6, 2007

By 

indyindiemusicfan (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles Movie (DVD)

It's been over 20 years since the proposed Robotech sequel series, The Sentinels, was canned. Some of the other reviewers on this page have some misconceptions about this movie, it seems... First of all, Shadow Chronicles is most definitely intended for longtime fans AS WELL AS NEW ONES. The major reason that many of the older characters do not reappear in this story is that the producers of the film wanted to make it as accessible as possible to a general audience. To be sure, you'll get the most out of it if you have a working understanding of past Robotech, and there are several nods here to the fanboys, but overall the story is general enough to be understood by the lay person. (While it is true that Harmony Gold has had difficulty utilizing the Macross character/mecha designs in the past and/or locating many of the old voice actors for this project, these are only two reasons for the absence of many of the original characters.) On to the review...

Being a longtime fan, I had mixed feelings about the prospects of The Shadow Chronicles, but I wanted to go into it as much as possible with an open mind. First, let me say that I liked the movie, and it was exciting to see something new in the Robotech universe (especially on the big screen!) after so long. I had fears that this movie wouldn't feel like Robotech, but it actually did.

There's no reason for us to expect a new project in this universe to feel like Robotech - afterall, the original series was assembled out of necessity at the time, based on existing products. There's a great difference between adapting existing material to fit your needs and creating something new from scratch, and the only thing we've seen in Robotech before in this vein was the little bit of animation completed for the Sentinels... So above all else, I'm pleased to say that I think this new project lives up to the Robotech name.

The character animation overall is quite good. I enjoyed the new character designs (and was not bothered by Rick's new look either). I did feel the new character animation was a bit more American-style and less anime-style (mostly with regard to the returning characters, strangely enough), but it is quality work nonetheless.

The movie works well as a sort of "pilot" to set up a series or more features, yet has a pretty decent story in and of itself. I think the new enemy has potential to make good villians, although I also see the possible pitfall of them becoming merely one-dimensional token bad guys - something Robotech has never had to worry about before. The cast of heroes seems promising, with enough variety yet familiarity for some interesting interactions and plot developments.

Now onto some of the negatives... First of all, I appreciate that the CGI is much easier and less expensive to put together than full old-school animation. With that in mind, I can accept that many of the backgrounds, ships, space stations, etc. have to be done CGI. If it means we can have more Robotech, I can live with it. However, the smaller hand-to-hand combat mecha are a bit of a different story. They simply don't convey the excitement of the mecha in the original series, and their movements do not have any "weight" to them. During what should be intense moments of battle, I didn't feel the excitement of the events taking place. To be fair, I did eventually get used to the CGI mecha as the feature progressed, but I highly recommend the use of traditional animation for the mecha in future installments, or at least working to make the movements of the CGI mecha more realistic and less blocky so they don't distract from the story.

However, my biggest complaint with the movie is the recreating of several scenes from the original series. I see no problem with creating new scenes in the environment of the old series (specifically the last two episodes of 'New Generation'). Indeed, that seems to be necessary in order to make this new production work. What I do have a problem with is recreating the old scenes in a way that makes them directly conflict with those of the original series. It would have been just as easy to create new scenes with the Invid characters Ariel and the Regis (i.e. events that could have occurred during the same timeframe as the original series, simply not shown on-screen), rather than changing the existing scenes to fit the arc of this new storyline. So I'm a bit baffled as to why they chose to do this, and hope they don't "mess with the gospel" this much in future installments. That and the CGI are my major complaints with this project.

In conclusion, I thought the movie was a lot of fun, though with some technical and plot problems as mentioned above. I look forward to seeing more Robotech!

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needed more Khyron..., February 17, 2007

By 

D. Koeniguer (Great Falls, Montana United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles Movie (DVD)

Some of my fondest memories as a kid were sitting down to watch Robotech in the mid to late 90s when it was briefly featured on Cartoon Network. The original show was such a gem considering the time it was made---their was so much substance to it, so much originality---and now, look what it's become...

1. The CG was awful. Macross Zero was released earlier and had CG that was far and away superior to anything this film had to offer. All of the Mecha were awkward and boxier than a 83' Volvo. It seems as if Harmony Gold was so desperate to get this film to market that they didn't take the hour and 28 minutes to actually watch it and realize that their CG was reminiscent of "The Last Starfighter". Of course...characters that we can actually identify with and a decent story helped too.

2. The dialogue was largely stilted, stiff and seemed to be either poorly written or poorly translated. Notable exception to this was Mr. Tony Oliver---still, as always, masterfully giving us the voice of Rick---if only for about three lines.

3. The techno-speak was overdone to the point of foolishness. I agree with the other reviewer---"lose this 'delta vector theta niner' [...]. Well said. We Robotech fans do not need that garbage to fill in the dead air, a simple "De-Fold" followed by something constructive would have sufficed.

4. I'm glad I'll live to see 2044...since all the women have huge racks and perfect bodies at that point in time. Too bad I'll be in my sixties. And seriously...blue hair was cool in Max Sterling's (or any Zentraedi...since they're aliens, I'll allow it) case...but can we seriously stop w/ the purple hair/mauve eyes or blue hair/blue eyes combo on every other character?

5. The movie putters over the finish line with all the grace and style of a heavily drugged elephant, wrapping up with a cliffhanger ending...which is really little more than the same situation the story opened up gift-wrapped in the trappings of accomplishment. Look at the situation...okay, the Invid left Earth (because they pretty much didn't want it anymore). What else did the humans really accomplish? The Haydonites suffered a trivial setback and the SDF-3 is STILL lost. Hooray! Our enemies either gave up fighting us or consider us only a minor aggravation! This is not the humanity-reaffirming Robotech that we know and love.

If I have to wait another ten years to see a quality Robotech product, I will...but if I'm writing another negative review in 2017, I'm gonna be upset. The title says it all...a little Khyron in this movie would've helped tremendously.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Robotech SC, December 18, 2006

By 

Brian J. Mcafee (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles Movie (DVD)

Continues the story of Robotech picking up exactly where the last episode of the TV series ended. If you haven't watched it in a while, I highly recommend watching the last three episodes prior to watching the new movie. Takes many elements of the "Sentinels" plot as well as elements from the McKinney novels, but doesn't follow them very closely (that's a good thing). I was very pleased with the movie. It does have the feel of a "pilot", but really, that's exactly what it is. It introduces a host of new characters, and has several returning characters from the original series and "Sentinels". Almost the entire original voice cast return for this movie. New voices include Mark Hamill and Chase Masterson. The Invid are there, of course, but it also introduces a mysterious new enemy. Don't look for a strong conclusion at the end. This wasn't really designed to be a stand alone product. If all goes well, we'll see more Robotech: Shadow Chronicles in the future.