Product Details

• Actors: Nicholas Guest, James Horan, Alexander Polinsky, Rino Romano, Elizabeth Daily
• Directors: Andre Clavel
• Writers: David S. Clark, Michael Kramer, Pat Allee, Paul Diamond, Robert A. Heinlein
• Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Surround Sound, Collector's Edition, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: July 5, 2005
• Run Time: 778 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009I8QI6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,750 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Complete Campaigns is a four-disc compilation of the Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles series that was originally released on eight DVDs: The Pluto Campaign, The Hydora Campaign, The Tophet Campaign, The Tesca Campaign, The Zephyr Campaign, The Klendathu Campaign, Trackers (including the four bonus episodes), and The Homefront Campaign. While Paul Verhoeven's dark, satirical adaptation of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers seriously strayed from the novel, this Verhoeven-produced TV series--part sequel, part remake, all CGI animated--hews closer to the spirit of the novel, a space-age twist on a World War II battle adventure. Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles is a series of military skirmishes and assignments on a variety of fronts, such as Bug City, water-dominated Hydora, the desert planet Tophet, the jungle planet Tesca, fiery Klendathu, and good old Earth.

The episodic nature works perfectly within this framework, and the mix of Marine grit ("No retreat, no surrender!"), military jargon, and understated melodrama give a feel somewhere between the steely seriousness of an old-fashioned war comic book and the spectacle and romance of a Japanese anime space opera. The CGI animation is less ambitious than in such feature films as Toy Story, but it's one of the most impressive examples of the animation made for TV. The detailed designs, rich textures, 3-D modeling, and awesome sense of scale (not to mention the pumped-up action and whiplash speed of the bug army) give it the look of an impossibly sophisticated video game, with the rat-a-tat editing and soaring camerawork of a Hollywood movie. The budgetary shortcuts are evident in moments of blurring and jerking, but overall it's startlingly effective. The PG-level violence may not be appropriate for younger viewers, but it's aimed at an older crowd and has won a loyal adult following.

The packaging is very convenient (a shelf-space-friendly four discs in Thinpaks), but unfortunately, serious Roughnecks fans will want to hold onto their old discs. Cramming the eight discs of content plus bonus episodes (granted, Trackers was a short disc) onto four single-sided discs apparently left no room for the producer/technical commentary tracks that accompanied most of the previous discs. The only bonus features are photo galleries and a fold-out illustration. --Sean Axmaker, David Horiuchi

Beyond Roughnecks at Amazon.com

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The Book

Stills from Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles (click for larger image)

Product Description

FOLLOWS THE ADVENTURES OF RICO, CARMEN & CARL, A TRIO OF HIGH SCHOOL BUDS, LURED TO ENLIST BY THE THRILL OF ADVENTURE ONDISTANT PLANETS, THESE UNSUNG HEROES ARE UNAWARE THAT THE BATTLE OF THE BUGS IS ABOUT TO RE-ERUPT, SENDING THEM ALL TOTHE FRONT LINES OF THE FIRST INTERSTELLAR WAR.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

131 of 134 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Band of Brothers Style Space War, July 6, 2005

By	Gene Hargrove (Denton, Texas) - See all my reviews

This is a television series based both on a book by Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers, and a movie of the same name, directed by Paul Verhoeven. The movie was problematic in several respects. On the director's commentary of that movie, Verhoeven explains that he did not have enough money to create the alien insect warriors and create the human military technology in Heinlein's book. He decided to create the aliens and present the human soliders without the weapons that they had in the book, making it appear implausible most of the time that the humans had any chance in the battles at all. This series corrects this problem by providing the troopers with weapons that give them that chance. The other problem with the movie was that Verhoeven disagreed with the political theory advanced in the book, in which only those who serve in the military can become full citizens and can vote. Apparently having lived through World War II as a Dutch child, Verhoeven has a very low opinion of any militaristic society. He therefore satirizes Heinlein's views and fills the movie with military uniforms based on Nazi uniforms, often making it hard to sympathize with the defenders of humanity. Verhoeven's satire was great in Robocop, but produces an uneasy effect in the movie. Happily, the military philosophy is hardly mentioned in the series and the military uniforms are not based in any obvious way on German World War II dress. The series actually resembles most closely the cable mini-series Band of Brothers produced by Tom Hanks for HBO. In the Hanks series a group of soliders train, fight their way across Europe, and end up in Germany. Like Hanks series, Roughnecks is organized into a series of campaigns, beginning with battles on Pluto (there is nothing much about basic training until episode 20) and ending up with a defense of Earth on the ground. People die; the ones who don't are affected and change in various ways, for better or worse. With regard to the animation, it was incredible CGI 3-D style animation for its time. It is not quite as good as Toy Story or Shrek in many respects, but the main reason is that it was operating on a television budget, not a major motion picrure budget. Plus it was trying to animate characters that looked like real people rather than cartoon characters. The goal of the series in terms of animation was the same as that of the creators of the film Final Fantasy that appeared about a year or so later. This series does not miss the quality of Final Fantasy by much and it did it first. Because the series was canceled four episodes before the end of the season, the title of the DVD, suggesting that it is complete, is controversial. The four episodes that should have completed the forty episode season, 33, 38, 39, and 40, are still missing. The DVD gets to forty with four clip show episodes, which summarize past events with voice over narrations. The last of these is a court martial of the Lieutenant Rasczak, reshowing events and questioning whether he acted properly. These four clip shows allowed the producers to meet their obligations to produce 40 shows without having to create new CGI images. The series is not actually complete in that four planned episodes were never finished. However, The series does have considerable unity. In truth, the series could have been tied together nicely if it had ended one episode earlier with the funeral of Lieutenant Rasczak and the elevation of Johnny Rico, the main character in the book, to lieutenant to replace him. There is actually no end to the war in the book, and no plan to end the war in the series. Presumably the creators of the series meant to continue the war for many seasons. Thus, the final episode can be regarded as a hint of what would have come in the future with Rico now functioning as an officer. The series is a worthy tribute to Heinlein's book and will most likely be regarded as an important step along the way in CGI animation. I have given it five stars because technically is probably more of an achievement for television than Final Fantasy was for the big screen. One regret is that it is not in widescreen. The opening scenes in each episode are in widescreen, suggesting that it would have been possible to produce widescreen much as Babylon 5 was reformated from 4:3 to 16:9. It is sad that this fine animation project was never given an opportunity to find an audience on television the first time aournd, since it was scheduled at such a poor time of day (very early morning), when sci-fi fans were unlikely to be awake. Hopefully, it will do better as a DVD collection.

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Lowdown on the Roughnecks: STC Boxed Set, July 28, 2005

By	Mr. Hook "misterhook" (Omaha, Nebraska United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Purchasing the Roughnecks DVD boxed set will not only save you money, but it will easily clear up any confusion surrounding the proper play order since the 4 volume set is clearly sequenced and labeled. The disc breakdown looks something like this:

Disc 1: The Pluto Campaign / The Hydora Campaign
Disc 2: The Tophet Campaign / The Tesca Campaign
Disc 3: The Zephyr Campaign / The Klendathu Campaign
Disc 4: Trackers / The Homefront Campaign / 4 Bonus Episodes (the clip shows)

There is no new material here, still no conclusion to the series. In fact, there is LESS material than you will find on the individually packaged campaigns. The "Extras" have been paired down considerably and there are no foreign language tracks or subtitles of any kind. The only extras included in the boxed set are the same Photo Galleries you will find on the original releases and an exclusive illustration insert. The artwork on the insert is fine and I liked the fact that it listed the titles of the individual episodes on the inside, but the chapter breaks on the DVDs are still identical to the original releases and don't necessarily match the original episode transitions (although some do).

So in summary, here are the Pros and Cons of owning the Roughnecks: STC Boxed Set:

PROS:
-------------------------
- You will save nearly $100 (or more) compared to the price you'd pay if you buy each campaign disc individually.
- The campaign order is clearly labeled and already sorted out for you.
- There is a pretty fold-out picture included.
- It takes up less space on a shelf.

CONS:
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- No foreign language tracks
- No subtitles
- No filmmakers' commentaries
- No technical commentaries
- No filmographies
- No easter eggs

So if you want to save money and shelf space, by all means, get the boxed set! If, on the other hand, you are a true fanboy like myself, you will cherish the commentaries on the original release discs and bask in the additional replay value.

RE: Drunik: My discs played just fine - you should send yours back to Amazon.com for a free replacement set - pronto!

59 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good show, but dated, June 22, 2005

By	MildCritter "the critter" (Rome, GA United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

Starship Troopers Chronicles is a continuation/retelling based on the original Starship Troopers movie by Paul Verhooven. The series adds considerably to the variety of the Bugs, shows the Skinnies for the first time, and treats the cameraderie, training, and discipline of the soldiers with the utmost seriousness, not with the vicious mockery of the movie. They are followed through several campaign story arcs that take them to widely varying planetary environments, even eventually back to Earth to fight off an invasion of their homeworld. The characters and their relationships show great interplay and tremendous growth as the stories unfold. Unlike the movie, the power armor introduced in the book is everywhere, and the major characters of the book are there, along with quite a number of excellent new folks.

STC was an excellent show for its time, but it was never given proper treatment by U.S. television. The characters, designs, artwork, and stories were excellent. This was one of the earlier shows done with motion capture technology, so much of the animation is not up to current standards, but so what? It's still a good series, far better than the abomination of a movie that inspired it, and much closer to the spirit of Heinlein's superb original book.

It's very unlikely that new episodes have been produced for it. The producers said several years ago that there was effectively zero chance that the missing four episodes would be produced, so it's probably just a repackaging of the earlier material, maybe with some decent extras. It would be wonderful if those extras included the scripts and preliminary art from the unproduced eps.