Robotech Love Live Alive is out!

Stores like Wal-Mart have it out already. read more for reviews.

REVIEWS ARE COMING OUT

http://www.robotech.com/community/forum/messages.php?id=31

MEMO1DOMINION
1.STORY
IT'S DANA STORY ALL OVER AGAIN THOUGHT THROUGH LANCERS EYES NOW. NOTHING LIKE THE LLA THAT WAS UP ON YOUTUBE BEFORE IT GOT TAKEN DOWN. STARTS OFF WITH LANCER TELLING THE STORY OF RETAKING EARTH WHERE THERE IS NEW ANIMATION FOR IT. YOU GUYS SEEN THE TRAILERS AND THEN IT GETS INTO LANCERS STORY. YOU FOLLOW HIM ALMOST LIKE WHAT HE WENT THROUGH NEW GENERATION. BUT THE SHORT, SHORT VERSION. INTRODUCTION OF HIS FRIENDS USING NEW GENERATION PLOT STORYS. THEN ENDING THE MOVIE WITH A SURPRISE. I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE SOMETHING WITH SCOTT AND ARIEL FROM SHADOW CHRONICLES BUT NOW LOOKS LIKE IT LEAVES IT OPEN WITH LANCER AND SERA. THE STORY DID ADD MORE CANON TO OUR HEROES FROM NEW GENERATION. YOU WILL FIND THIS INTERESTING.

2.ANIMATION
NEW ANIMATION IS GOOD BUT WISH THEY WOULD HAVE MADE IT NEW TO ITS FULLEST. I CAN SEE WHY THEY TRIED TO MAKE IT CLOSE TO OLD ANIMATION AND FEEL. BUT THIS PART SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE STORY ADDED (TAKING THE MOVIE INTO A 2 PART). MAYBE HG CAN TELL A BATTLE BETWEEN THE MASTERS AND THE INVID INVASION LATER WITH NEW ANIMATION. LOOK VERY INTERESTING. SO WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF THE STYLE AND NOT JUST A LITTLE. SO I FEEL THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH NEW ANIMATION..

DARTALLION DID A GOOD JOB IN THE RESTORATION. THOUGHT I HAD MORE INTEREST IN THE STORY I DID NOT SEE A FLAW BETWEEN STYLES OF NEW ANIMATION OR OLD. THOUGHT MANY YOU GUYS MIGHT HAVE YOUR OWN THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT. EVEN THE NEW ANIMATION IN BETWEEN THE STORY FELT OLD. AT TEH END IT ALSO FELT LIKE PART OF THE OLD.

3.MUSIC
WOW. THE SCORE WAS GREAT. GREAT JOB THERE SCOTT AND TEAM! THERE WAS MUSIC FROM THE SENTINELS I THINK. AND AS WELL AS OLD MICHAEL BRADLEY MUSIC AND MORE. CLOSING CREDITS MUSIC WAS GREAT.

4.SOUND EFFECTS
GREAT JOB. YOU KNOW WHAT, THEY GOTTA GO BACK AND RE-DO SHADOW CHRONICLES. ALL I GOTTA SAY.

5.VOICES
THE NARRATOR IS BACK. DON'T KNOW WHO STARTED THE RUMORS OF HIM BEING DEAD BUT THE MOVIE SURE FELT OLD SCHOOL WITH HIM. WAS VERY NICE WITH THE OPENING INTRO. ALSO BRINGING THE OTHER VOICES BACK WAS A PLUS. INCLUDING ROOKS.

SCORE ON 1-10
HARD TO GAGE SINCE ITS ROBOTECH. STORY HOLD IT UP THERE. THOUGHT I WISH THERE WAS MORE NEW ANIMATION STORY AND NOT JUST WHAT WE KNOW. IT WAS FUN TO WATCH AND LISTEN. BUT HG BEEN PUMPING UP NEW ANIMATION AND THAT IT TOOK LONG BECAUSE OF IT WE ONLY GET WHAT WE KNOW.

SO TO BE FARE I GIVE IT A 9.
BUT WITH A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT THAT WE DID NOT GET WHAT WE WERE TOLD AND WHY IT TOOK LONG. OVER 2 YEARS SINCE ITS ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THIS NEW ANIMATION AND DELAY LEAVES YOU THINKING.." THATS IT? IT TOOK THAT LONG FOR THAT?"...

WILL ADD MORE AS MORE OF YOU GUYS SEE IT. GREAT TO HAVE IT PART OF MY COLLECTION.


AND SORRY I WAS VERY BRIEF BUT DID NOT WANT TO SPOIL IT.


WILL HEAR OTHERS CHIME IN LATER. AND THERE IS A THREAD IN THE STORYS FORUM TO TALK ABOUT THE STORY. SO WILL BE POSTING THERE AS SOON AS EVERYONE GETS A CHANCE TO SEE IT.


SilentDues
Well, I literally just saw it. Before I go any further, please beware MAJOR untagged spoilers! Without any further... well, ya' know~

The STORY

Gotta say, I really liked it! Tommy, Greg, Cam especially, you guys did an excellent job on what could've turned out to just be a copy-paste of Mospeada's original Love Live Alive. Far from it, what we have here is something of a cross between "Dana's Story" and the Gloval Report movie some may remember, but with the added twist of some new footage. Not a whole lot, but some.

Going into Love Live Alive, know to expect the movie equivalent of a flashback story (ergo 'clip show') as nearly the whole story recounts The New Generation, but I re-emphasize I got so much more out of it than that. As opposed to the super-long music video vibe the Mospeada version has, Robotech's perspective explores what made the characters and their interactions. The core of their journey toward the Reflex Point destination.

One tweak I really liked in this flashback story, along with Lancer's narration, came with some of the character introspections given by him and going back to the 'present' as Lancer relates to a very friendly reporter his life. Speaking of, REALLY loved the reporter, very fun personality and helped really make those brief moments surprisingly cool. Again though, expect more a retrospective on the Third Robotech War than where he is beyond that.

Make no mistake though, for Lancer's past before he met Scott's team and after, we get some damn cool material IMHO. The opening few minutes are VERY memorable as we get the return of Robotech's original Narrator along a whole new tie-in point of view of the Invid invasion, it's so cool seeing stuff come together that originally the mid-80s couldn't pull off. Big YAYS to seeing SX Point 83 become Reflex Point, 10th Mars' battle, Dana cameo~

That's stuff near the beginning of the movie, while near the end of the movie is when the very fun stuff happens! We do get some singing from Michael Bradley as Lancer, even if it was recorded years back, we get an incredible rendition of his own "We Will Win!" (very cool parallel to the end of The Shadow Chronicles btw!) and a very beautiful scene involving "Lonely Soldier Boy" that brought tears to my eyes. Yes, I'm serious.

You guys should know, the voice actor that gets the most chops flexed turns out to be Cam's role as Lancer, he's kinda in the same position Dean Stockwell was for that Galactica "The Plan" movie. The rest of the VAs do return (I admit it was hard making out where Admiral Hunter's archival cameo was), but they don't get near the same amount of perspective as our Yellow Dancer. Not that that's a bad thing, but again, go into this knowing what to expect, Love Live Alive is Lancer's story.

The very end of the movie, snap, there's such a HUGE spoilery moment right before the end-credits that changes ERVERYTHING in the Robotech universe. I really don't wanna give this one away, but needless to say it does move the story forward contrary to what many were afraid this story wouldn't do. The 'present-day' events itself appear to be set slightly right after the end of The Shadow Chronicles, least that's the impression I got during a camp fire scene with the whole team.

If you guys want me to give away the end of the movie, I will, but I REALLY don't want to... BUY this release if only for Love Live Alive alone! You can watch it before or after The Shadow Chronicles, I say the latter as well because we get a very cool something after the end-credits! Remember how I mentioned the original Narrator's return, well, see for yourself...!

The ANIMATION

Well, the animation quality, I really like what we got! For the majority of the story that gives us a New Generation retrospective, it appears that Harmony Gold uses their Remastered version and all the better, while their remastering job on the original feature-exclusive stuff is pretty dang good. You guys should know about the aspect ratio, in staying true to the original New Generation and Mospeada feature, the entire movie is in 4:3.

Despite being a fullscreen format, it doesn't appear anything substantial was cropped from the sides of the all new animation's material. Speaking of the new animation, it's very interesting how this worked out, it's done very similar to the style of the original anime more-so than The Shadow Chronicles' updated designs. The new stuff mainly applies to the pre-2042 flashback stuff and some very interesting material near the end.

I think both sides of the animation melded pretty well together, even though I prefer The Shadow Chronicles' quality a bit more and hope Shadow Rising is more along those lines, it'd be nice to see mecha battles more along how the 10th Division's is presented here. Mind you all I'm no animation expert myself, but I have seen the original Mospeada feature and it's very cool seeing that spirit maintained and respected so well. The new stuff, there ain't a whole lot, but I love it!

The DVD FEATURES

Really wish we could've gotten a DVD commentary with Tommy and some of the guys, maybe they can still do a podcast on it some time (I'd pay for that!), it would've been very neat hearing their thoughts on both this story and the original New Generation arc. LOVE the teaser trailer included, pre-production gallery's sorta neat, just wish we could've gotten a TAD more. Remember for Shadow Rising, my friends?

I did like seeing some of the originally Blu-Ray-exclusive features on The Shadow Chronicles' new DVD, the Robotech 3000 motion-capture thingy for instances. Skimming over that disc, all around looks good, all the original collector's edition extras of that have been kept. So yeah, don't worry about having yet another copy of this feature, ya' get new extras material if you didn't get the Blu-Ray and a back-up for a very cool movie.

Wrapping UP

The case is very cool, I like the exterior packaging and Lion's Gate did very well in how to keep the discs safe. I'm now including it with my A&E set and stashing my older Collector's Edition release from FUNi alongside my Protoculture set. All around, LOVE this new Robotech material!

Thank you, Cam Clarke! Thank you, Greg Snegoff! Thank you, all the returning cast! Thank you, Tommy Yune! Thank you, Harmony Gold! You have a VERY happy customer who is VERY ready for Shadow Rising. Peace out and remember, that Protoculture will always be in my blood~