Battle of the Planets Rages on DVD

[James Harvey]

www.dvdreview.com

Rhino Home Video is continuing its trend of releasing classic 70's and 80's cartoons with the first two volumes of the first Japanese cartoons to make it to American shores back in 1978. Battle of the Planets, created from the Japanese cartoon "Gatchaman" and later transformed into "G-Force", ran in America paving the way for the 80's wave of American and Japanese action cartoons including "Transformers" "Voltron" and "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe". Rhino has decided to bring the series out of retirement and release it in the U.S. on video for the first time ever.

Evil aliens from the dying planet Spectra attempt to capture the Earth and its interstellar allies to plunder their natural resources. The Spectrans' ruthless leader, The Great Spirit, secretly controls his troops through his henchman, Zoltar. The Spirit will stop at nothing until the planets of the Federation, including Earth, belong to him. The only ones who can stand in their way are Mark, Jason, Keyop, Tiny, and the Princess - the five members of "G-Force". Each member's special powers work together to fight the Spectrans from the "G-Force" base with the aid of 7-Zark-7, their computer.

Each episode will be presented in its original fullscreen aspect ratio, but will be graced with a new Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Each volume will contain two American episodes of "Battle of the Planets" as well as their Japanese counterparts from the "Gatchaman" program presented in Japanese with English subtitles and ridiculously long titles. One bonus episode of "G-Force" will also be included on each disc. Vol. 1 will contain the episodes The Space Mummy and The Space Serpent (with "Gatchaman" episodes The Giant Mummy that Calls Storms and Revenge of the Iron Monster Mechadegon) and the bonus "G-Force" episode The Blast from the Bottom of the Sea. Vol. 2 will contain the episodes Atttack of the Space Terrapin and Rescue of Astronauts (with Japanese doppelgangers Gatchaman vs. Turtle King and The Evil Ghostly Aircraft Carrier Appears) and the "G-Force" episode The Robot Stegosaur.

Both volumes of "Battle of the Planets" will be available on October 23rd for $19.99 each.

[Calhoun07]

I truly hope this comes to pass. Rhino has a bad habit of announcing titles then delaying them, and even acting all of a sudden like they never said anything about it in the first place. Like the oft delayed RUTLES ALL YOU NEED IS CASH. Battle of the Planets has been delayed two or three times already, so I hope this October date is true and final. I am getting distrustful with their information, however.

[Frozen]

I too hope this is true. I've been hankering after BOTP/Gatchaman for SOOO long now - and I love the idea of having the two versions on the same disc!

Fingers crossed, eh?

[Calhoun07]

Did you get the Gatchaman DVD, Frozen?

[Frozen]

I assume you mean the recent 'revision'? I have the first volume on video, which I picked up cheap on e-bay. I liked it, so I'm probably going to get the DVD. It's on my 'must buy on DVD someday' list...

Well, my next post will be my 200th (yay!), so I'm off to compose something lasting for this personal milestone...

[James]

I have the Gatchaman OAV collection of video (twice - ask Amazon about that error) and they are not a patch on the originals. While they follow the plot closely (too closely IMO), there is very little character interaction and virtually nothing of the team in civillians.

The GodPhoenix is flat and badly designed and the music - on the whole - stinks. There are tiny elements of Bob Sakuma's original score on volumes 2 & 3.

Still, better than nothing and a fair attempt to squash three series of Gatchaman on 3 volumes...

The DVD should be great. Mollin UK's attempt earlier in the year (before going bankrupt before releasing the second DVD) was under par with very bland special features. Presentation was top notch however and you did get 4 BotP episodes. They were, of course, in the wrong order.

This Rhino release has been delayed so many times I'm beginning to wonder if it will see the light of day! Fingers crossed as this an amazing step forward!!

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

On the other hand, the OAVs had some nice brainless eye-candy battle scenes...but I agree that in terms of depth, you'd have better luck searching a fish bowl.