Customer Reviews:
Makes a better series than movie.......2005-08-11
A few years ago I decided to watch Starblazers: Quest for Iscandar on account of simple nostalgia. Watching all of the episodes took quite a bit of time, however, so I decided that rather than sit through the entire Comet Empire series, I would just watch the condensed version, the original movie CE was derived from.
There are major story differences between the movie and the series. Essentially, this movie doesn't exist in the overall Yamato/Starblazers continuity. Since the series could not have possibly continued with the movie ending, it was disclaimed shortly after release by the powers that be, serialized, and given a much more upbeat ending as the Comet Empire season we all remember here in the US.
The movie ending is not only a surprise, it also has serious problems for an American audience. Namely, after watching for over 2 hours, I expected an ending that would at least make some sense. Apparently, the japanese characters that appear let you know exactly what happened, but all I saw was the Argo floating away into the distance and a small flash of light. This is a major letdown, particularly after several previous false endings.
On the plus side, the music and animation are a startling improvement on Iscandar, and the Andromeda was really cool, with its double barrelled Wave Motion, errrm, Undulation Gun. Although I am not a big fan of Japanimation and this is probably considered some sort of heresy among its crowd, I'll take the Comet Empire series over the movie.
Customer Reviews:
Worth it if you are a real fan........2007-03-09
Really enjoyed the story behind the series. Maybe too short.
Customer Reviews:
Agree with the previous reviewer, but..........2003-09-15
Remasters of mono soundtracks into 5.1 sound can often cause serious problems. Sure, if you have the resources of Paramont at your disposal, you can come up with something like the Star Trek original series DVD's, but for a small outfit like Voyager a 5.1 remaster would wind up sounding horrible.
Secondly, the original theatrical ratio of the Yamato movies was in fact, 4:3 (aside from "Be Forever," which switches to a widescreen aspect ratio mid-feature, something which VEI preserved). Add to this fact that "New Voyage" was a TV special. I would much rather see the entire picture, as upposed to someone cropping it into false widscreen.
That said, this is a great movie marred by Voyager's lackluster presentation, and (non)preservation of their masters. Between the release of the VHS version and the DVD, the masters have actually disintegrated so that the main feature has TAPE FLAWS!! At one point it looks like you're watching a tape that's being eaten by your VCR.
If you have the VHS version and it's not disintegrating, don't bother with this disk because your tape is actually a better presentation. The extras do not make up for the damage to the main feature.
I would've given this dvd five stars but:.......2003-07-22
1.Voyager Entertainment did not digitally re-master this in 5.1 dolby digital sound.
2. There is no second dialogue track for English.
3. And worst of all, just like all the voyager releases of the yamato films it is not presented in it's original theatrical widescreen aspect ratio. With all that said, It's still one of the great modern space operas. If only Voyager Entertainment will sometime remaster these films in widescreen, and offer the series (starblazers) and these films in superior 5.1 sound and digital cleaned up versions. And maybe someday they will offer westerners the option to buy the original uncut japanese star blazers films, and t.v. shows. Not the kiddieized censored versions people get here in the u.s. .
A Lot of Action of the Gamilon Fleet.......2002-11-10
One thing I like in Yamato [Star Blazers] is its mechanic designs. In this feature film, there are a lot of scenes in which my favorite Gamilon fleet appears (so 5 stars). The Gamilons face a strong enemy and Yamato [the Argo] comes to their rescue.
"The New Voyage" and "Be Forever Yamato" (in this order) fit between the Series Two and the Series Three of Star Blazers. The development of the relationship between Desslar [Desslok] and Kodai [Wildstar] which turned from enmity to subtle sympathy in the Series Two is the underline of this story.
Space Battleship Yamato: New Voyage.......2000-02-05
This OAV continues the Yamato saga after the second series (Comet Empire saga). The animation is up to their usual standards, which is very good, and the script is, for the most part, well-written. We continue to see the character development of Kodai (Wildstar), Yuki (Nova) and Desslar (Desslok), as well as a little more of the Yamato universe. This video introduces 2 new characters, trainees Kitano, Tokugawa (Engineer Tokugawa's [Orion] son - in the Japanese version, the engineer was killed during the final Comet Empire conflict) and Sakamoto (who looks suspiciously like Sato [or Conroy] from the first 2 series). We also get to see Kodai Mamoru (Alex Wildstar) and good ol' Queen Staasha (Starsha) or Isacandar and....well, you'll just have to watch it, won't you...
All kidding aside, this is a good video and very enjoyable to watch, and the soundtrack (if you can find it) isn't bad, either.
Customer Reviews:
Good movie, bad discs!.......2005-04-21
Space Battleship Yamato is one of the seminal anime films -- arguably, without the Yamato juggernaut launched by the movie (remember, the TV show did poorly, and it was only with the compilation, that Yamato fandom really began to take off), Gundam, Macross, Urusei Yatsura and all of the other greats of anime may not have been made.
The film is OK, good but not great. As a two-hour movie spliced together from 48 or so half-hours of TV, it has a very rushed feel to it, and you don't get a sense of the crew as a unit. It'd probably help viewers to see the Space Battleship Yamato TV series (or failing that, Star Blazers) to get a firm grip on each character and their relationships with one another and the plot as a whole. That being said, the film does hit the highlights (including the spectacular battle in the Seven Color Nebula) and still manages to give a sense of epic, grand adventure.
Where the disc takes a nose-dive is, well, the disc itself. Mine will not play on any of my DVD players -- and I exchanged the disc at least three times (once through Voyager themselves, and a couple of times at Suncoast). On one player, it plays fine until the layer change, and then the picture breaks up dramatically. On all my other players, the disc won't read at all. I am not buying another Voyager disc after this, since the encoding was so shoddy.
DVD:
- Farscape Season 3, Vol. 6
- Farscape - The Best of Season One
- Flash Gordon: Box Set (Space Soldiers/Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars/Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe) (3DVD)
- Flash Gordon - Spaceship to the Unknown
- Flash Gordon - The Purple Death from Outer Space
- From Conception to Birth
- Galactic Gigolo
- Harmagedon (Collector's Series 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Harry and the Hendersons (Special Edition)
- Heavy Gear - The Dragon's Shadow
DVD
DVD
General
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Final Yamato
Space Battleship Yamato: The New Voyage
Space Battleship Yamato: The Movie
Be Forever Yamato
Space Battleship Yamato: The Making of an Anime Legend
