My Rating: 5/5
Voltron was an American cartoon during the 1980s based off of the Japanese original anime called GoLion. America’s version had subtle, yet important variations from the Japanese original, like how America’s version had far less violence and adult themes. America’s version also had additional episodes. Voltron fantastically combined magic and science fiction, and it was aimed towards adolescent viewers. A young adult like me still enjoys Voltron because it brings back good childhood memories, and its simple story is well written. In my opinion, a well-done, simple story is much better than either a simplistic story or a poorly made complex story, which, unfortunately, is the norm for Hollywood. The Voltron cartoon had a superb introduction:
From days of long ago,
From uncharted regions of the universe,
Comes a legend, the legend of Voltron, Defender of the Universe.
A mighty robot, loved by good, feared by evil.
As Voltron’s legend grew,
Peace settled across the universe.
On planet earth, a Galaxy Alliance was formed,
Together with the good planets of the solar system,
They maintained peace throughout the universe,
Until a new horrible menace threatened the galaxy.
Voltron was needed once more.
This is the story of the super force of space explorers,
Specially trained and sent by the alliance to bring back Voltron,
Defender of the Universe.
Voltron was secretly developed by the most advanced scientists and the greatest magicians in the universe, and they lived on the wholesome planet, Arus, under the awesome leadership of the mighty and wise King Alfor. King Alfor allied with other planets to fight against Emperor Zarkon, who has been trying to enslave the universe to satisfy his insatiable ego. Before King Alfor died during this epic battle, King Alfor hid Voltron and many other great secrets. King Alfor’s body died, but his spirit secretly lived on and strategically waited for new heroes to command Voltron and use King Alfor’s many great secrets to continue the virtuous fight against Emperor Zarkon.
In the Japanese version, Voltron was called GoLion, and GoLion was a sentient, magical super robot who was a little too arrogant, so a goddess or angel decided to humble GoLion by breaking GoLion into five pieces, taking away GoLion’s autonomy, and sending its seemingly lifeless pieces into planet Arus. The angel only allowed GoLion to operate again if 5 heroes piloted GoLion for the universe’s greater good.
After Emperor Zarkon conquered and enslaved many planets throughout the universe, the 5 heroes selected by the Galaxy Alliance finally arrived at Arus to uncover the secret of Voltron and much more. The 5 heroes are Keith the leader, Sven the oldest, Lance the most independent-minded, Hunk the strongest, and Pidge the smartest. They have the help of the late King Alfor’s daughter, Princess Allura, and her people of Arus, along with the Galaxy Alliance. The 5 heroes are not completely aware of it, but they also have the help of the just, mighty,and wise spirit of King Alfor, who is like a guardian angel for all good people against any evil forces.
Each of the 5 heroes control the five sections of Voltron: Voltron’s two legs, two arms, and torso plus head. Each section is a magical, robot lion that can exist autonomously, but the five lions can combine together to form a single, much more powerful magical robot, Voltron. Sven pilots the blue lion that represents water, is fundamentally powered by water, and can form Voltron’s right leg; Hunk drives the yellow lion that represents the earth, is basically empowered by the earth, and can change into Voltron’s left leg; Pidge steers the green lion that represents life, is essentially fueled by wind, and can transform into Voltron’s left arm; and Lance mans the red lion that represents energy, gets its main energy from heat, and can convert into Voltron’s right arm. Keith controls the main lion which represents leadership or unity, is vitalized by lighting, and can become the torso and head of Voltron, thus Keith leads the team and guides the energetically and magically shielded metamorphosis of the 5 separate lions into the single entity, Voltron, by saying the following:
Keith: Let’s form Voltron! Activate interlocks. Dinatherms (sp?) connected. Infra-cells up. Mega-thrusters are go!
All 5 teammates: Let’s go Voltron Force!
Keith: Form feet and legs. Form arms and torso. And I’ll form the head.
When the Voltron Force wants to sunder powerful invaders, Keith says, “Form Blazing Sword.”
Later on in Voltron, Sven is replaced by Princess Allura. She is naively young, but good and has lots of potential, especially because her late father, King Alfor, watches over her like a guardian angel.
The Volton Force’s 5 lions are very powerful and its 5 heroes are great warriors and even better teammates, but they always need to combine to form the even more powerful Voltron to defeat Emperor Zarkon, because Emperor Zarkon is clever and determined to conquer the universe with his powerful army consisting of his foolishly evil son (Lotor), robot humanoids, mighty fleets, dangerous witches such as Haggar and her mighty robeasts, and his seemingly unending swarms of slaves coming from countless conquered planets across the universe. Furthermore, Emperor Zarkon recruits other evil forces around the universe, especially the evil Empress, Merla.
Voltron was inspired by past comics and cartoons, and in return, Voltron inspired more comics and cartoons such as Voltron vehicles, Daltanius, the Power Rangers, and many more. In my opinion, Voltron is one of the best out there.
Another great comic and cartoon from Japan is called “Robotech.” Robotech is an epic anime centered around earthlings battling against alien invaders. The earthlings fight fire against fire by using alien technology to create and pilot huge machines that can transform from all types of vehicles and flying craft into humanoid robots to defend earthlings. Robotech is not simply about good versus evil, but a complex story of humans and aliens struggling to survive in a confusing universe. Robotech is a much longer, more detailed, and more mature anime than Voltron. Robotech does have a major flaw: its characters and dialogue are still too simple and childish for its complex setting and themes.
On the other hand, Voltron flows gracefully because its simple characters and dialogue combine well with its simple setting and themes. Voltron is simply an anime centered around how the good side is ultimately better than the evil side. Voltron and its good friends may suffer greatly under evil forces, but in the end, Voltron and its good friends always overcome. Even then, Voltron is a lot more mature than most cartoons and even many other TV shows with live people.
Each Voltron character has a simple, but unique personality. Each character never changes and there are many characters, unlike many simplistic shows with many simple personalities that are fundamentally similar with one another or with many stereotypical characters. Then there are the many shows with complex characters that do not really have a consistently unique personality, but are complex or overly dramatic for the sake of drama. Voltron has one main theme (good vs. evil), but Voltron alters this theme just enough to make each episode uniquely interesting. Voltron also slightly reinforces each character’s unique personality in each episode.
The Voltron cartoon comes in two versions: hand animation and computer graphics (CG). Each version consists of two seasons, with the hand animation being the first of the two forms. In my opinion, the hand-animation version is far superior than the CG version, which is called Voltron: the Third Dimension. The first version is better in every way. The CG version may have 3-D computer graphics, but the computer graphics look weird, especially the people. I only enjoy the first version and pretend the second version never existed. I read that Hollywood is making Voltron into a live-action film and I read one of early scripts. I thought the script was horrible for many reasons, and I do not want to waste any more time on the lousy script, but I will say the Hollywood script was horrible because it turned Voltron into something it is not.