Customer Reviews

Vytor: The Starfire Champion

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was very happy to have received THE original four episodes of "Vytor: The Starfire Champion".
I believe that World Events Productions, Ltd. (The producers of "Vytor" as well as the legendary "Voltron" series) will be making "Vytor" available on DVD as a 2-disc set.
The first disc will contain the four episodes that were originally broadcast on US television in January 1989 (starring the voices of Michael Bell, Peter Cullen, Neil Ross, Allison Argo, Pat Fraley and others), as well as a second disc that took the four episodes and made it into more of a "telefilm" with a different voice cast.
The video looks pretty good on both of these discs. The audio on the original four episodes disc is truly spectacular! It has both stereo music and stereo effects.
Why did this show have only four episodes? The four episodes were first shown as a preview for the series in January 1989, but later in the year bankruptcy issues (I believe) prevented this series from being expanded.
It is truly a lost piece of animation history. It had a very rich and compelling story of how a perfect world fell apart at the hands of a greedy king. "Vytor" has great pro-social values and is great viewing for any one at any age. It is timeless, and certain elements of it (the advanced technology within this otherwise primitive world) can still be fully appreciated today. It's not too violent, and it will definitely appeal to fans of 80s cartoon fans.
I almost forgot -- the animation on this is quite superb....highly detailed, rotoscoping techniques make this a visual feast for the eyes.
What can I say.......it is , again, truly a lost piece of animation history that you must discover for yourself. Get ready to explore a new world with "Vytor".

In the 1980's kid tv was a huge thing. Almost every major toy release had a tv spin off. Some shows were created just to sell the toys. It was big business. Kids could easily find hours of cartoons in the mornings and afternoons of every single day of the week. As the generation got older, animated tv series based on toy lines began to die down. If a show was going to run now, it needed to be able to stand without a major toy maker's backing. Vytor was one of the shows created during this period. It was a show that could have had a toy line but had to be made well enough to go without one. However it was only approved for the length of a mini-series. When the show aired it had ok ratings, but not ok enough to have a full-time series follow it. It now lingers in cult status by the young kids of the 80's that became the teens who would make up generation X. I was one of these people. I remember watching this show as a kid. It only aired for one week and everyone that I know who saw it wondered why it ended in only one week. The show had a very creative storyline. One that would actually make for a pretty awesome live action film if ever made. It featured settings similar to the Alien world of James Cameron's "Avatar" to Geoge Lucas's "Cloud City" from Empire Strikes back. It tells the story of the winner of the StarFire Tournament who is destined to reunite 3 Kingdoms torn by war. Watching this dvd brought back memories. It features 2 versions of the series. One with a new soundtrack and voice work and the other features the series with its Awesome original soundtrack(which I am glad to see, as the original music was one of the things I recall most). Both versions appear with better picture quality. If you have never seen this series its worth grabbing. I showed it to my kids and they found it to be very good and it still holds up to this day for us nostalgic adults as well.

Timely shipping and good video quality. The show definitely brought back memories.