Korra 2.0 - Space Lions
June 10, 2016 9:35 AM   Subscribe

Voltron: Legendary Defender returns! From Dreamworks Animation and Studio Mir (of Legend of Korra fame), the 1980s amalgamated hit returns on Netflix in an 11 episode season. Trailer here!

Voltron: Legendary Defender is the latest incarnation of Voltron, a cartoon created for the United States by mixing together the Japanese anime shows Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. On the production side of the new show are names very familiar to fans of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Joaquim dos Santos, who directed episodes of Korra and Lauren Montgomery, who was a supervising producer and storyboard artist for the show. Joining them from Korra is Studio Mir, a South Korean animation studio which brought consider ingenuity and creativity to the show in the process of bringing it to life.

Additional Information!
posted by Atreides (42 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Awesome. I plan to watch this with Fleebnork Jr. this evening.
posted by Fleebnork at 9:38 AM on June 10, 2016


Anybody ever think that these prophecy spouting people need to backdown and potentially reevaluate "You five were brought here for a reason" prophecies... I mean... seriously in the world, these are the people who you want responsible for saving humanity?

Also, very engineering to have an engineer evaluate the choice of target for projectile vomit.
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:44 AM on June 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm really hoping Junior Lorensen digs this because I have a boss original Voltron die cast set of Lion figures that I really really want to pass down to him. I saved up my allowance for-freaking-ever for it circa 1983. But only if he has the necessary reverence and appreciation for the monumental gift I am bequeathing to him. Otherwise: it stays on the curio shelf next to Puppet Angel.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:45 AM on June 10, 2016 [9 favorites]


If this is half as good overall as the trailer snd sizzle reel have been I will be very happy.

Also hoping we get Peter "Optimus Prime" Cullen to do the opening voiceover.
posted by mephron at 9:52 AM on June 10, 2016 [4 favorites]


So... all dudes? They didn't even cut to Princess Allura-has-a-lion era?

They've done a great job of capturing-yet-updating the look of the series. That kind of homage is great. Seems like they could have leaned a little harder toward 'updating' in that particular respect, though.

There's a lot of cool stuff I want to share with my daughter; more than we've got time for, really. If this had some women in it, it'd make the cut.
posted by gurple at 9:54 AM on June 10, 2016 [8 favorites]


I'm actually excited for a piece of my childhood to be resurrected? This is such a new and weird feeling.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 9:55 AM on June 10, 2016


So... all dudes? They didn't even cut to Princess Allura-has-a-lion era?

I don't know if they plan to follow the original, but at a certain point Sven gets injured and Allura begins piloting the Blue Lion. Maybe that's their plan here, too?
posted by Fleebnork at 9:57 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Mutha. Fuckin. Voltron.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:00 AM on June 10, 2016


I've just noticed that there is no Sven, but a guy named Shiro. Browsing the website now.
posted by Fleebnork at 10:00 AM on June 10, 2016


Also, Wikipedia shows "Pidge/Katie" and has a female voice actress.

Last post for a bit, I promise
posted by Fleebnork at 10:03 AM on June 10, 2016


What about Battle of The Planets/G-Force?
posted by ericbop at 10:03 AM on June 10, 2016 [4 favorites]


I haven't had a chance to watch yet, but I'll bet the price of a new sockpuppet account that ol' Shiro is dead/incapacitated meat within the first five eps.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:19 AM on June 10, 2016


Also, Wikipedia shows "Pidge/Katie" and has a female voice actress.

Seems like a natural gender-swap. I probably played with the toys for a year or two before I ever saw the cartoon, and you could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out that Pidge was a dude.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:22 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


It can't be Korra 2.0--or Avatar either--if it's all dudes. Or all dudes and one girl. I think I'll give it a bit and see if they improve on the original's sexism--oh yeah remember that episode where the princess got spanked by her caretaker for leaving the palace? I didn't till I was trying to show the old series to my kid. So gross. They need to stay far away from that part of the original series.
posted by emjaybee at 10:35 AM on June 10, 2016 [9 favorites]


The word is that Shiro was the original name of the character that became Sven in the original GoLion, before it was localized into Voltron, and was included as a nod to the original series.
posted by JHarris at 10:52 AM on June 10, 2016


A few years ago, I was talking to a coworker about a project and said it was "coming together like Voltron". It turned out this was one of those pitiful fellows whose parents wouldn't let them watch television when they were young, and so I had to explain the idea of a giant robot made of lions and-- "Wait, a lion piloting a robot?" No, no, it's a robot made up of lions-- "like, a living robot?"-- no, the lions are robots, and they come together to make-- "so little robot lions turn into a big robot lion?"-- no, it's a robot human, and-- "so why do lions want to turn into a human?"-- no, the lions are driven by humans-- "so they ride the lions? And then they jump off and the lions become robots?"-- no, they're inside the lions-- "the lions, like, ate them?"-- no no no, they're giantrobot lions, that fly through space, with humans inside each lion, and then it turns into one giant robot and it then creates this giant lightsaber out of nowhere, only they're not supposed to use it for some reasons, and--

Anyway, Voltron is fucking nuts.
posted by phooky at 11:04 AM on June 10, 2016 [37 favorites]


Holy smokes, how did I not know about this?

Okay, so, remember that scene where they all decide to go swimming, and the Princess climbs out of the Blue Lion in a pink bikini and all the guys are like "Whooaaaaaaaaaaaaa she's a girl" and it was like they had all discovered their sexual identities right at that moment?

Let's just say little Katemonkey had a very similar reaction.
posted by Katemonkey at 11:53 AM on June 10, 2016 [19 favorites]


I watched the first episode last night, and am watching it again right now with my mom.

It is exactly what I wanted the original Voltron to be when the DVD sets came out and I tried to watch it again as an adult. Except no Voltron Theme Song. No Peter Cullen either, for those who want to know, but that doesn't bother me. I really miss the theme song.
posted by monopas at 12:35 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


So who else heard "Activate interlock! Dynotherms connected! Infracells up! Megathrusters Go!" in their head while watching the sizzle reel, even though they didn't say anything?

I haven't watched Voltron in probably... 25 years? I had no idea I still knew that by heart and did not expect to have such a goosebumpy reaction to seeing the big guy come together again. They got me. I'm on board.

(They showed the dynotherms connecting! That's what a dynotherm looks like! I think I need to take a walk...)
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 1:56 PM on June 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


Avatar and Legends of Korra were good looking shows, but the #1 reason people loved them wasn't the animation. So hiring the same animators to do a show that looks like it falls squarely into the "boys toys of boys are for boys" school of marketing isn't doing anything for me,


That said, if they had the original theme song I would be a little more interested in watching.
posted by thecjm at 2:43 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm really hoping Junior Lorensen digs this because I have a boss original Voltron die cast set of Lion figures that I really really want to pass down to him. I saved up my allowance for-freaking-ever for it circa 1983. But only if he has the necessary reverence and appreciation for the monumental gift I am bequeathing to him. Otherwise: it stays on the curio shelf next to Puppet Angel.
posted by soren_lorensen
Soooo... are you open to adopting?
posted by TheNewWazoo at 3:27 PM on June 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


Well, I'll probably watch it some afternoon when I'm indulging in legal-in-seattle recreation. But yeah, put me down as one of the people who would be way more interested in a remake of Star Blazers. That show freaked me out hard as a kid.
posted by lumpenprole at 3:27 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


I just finished the first episode and it didn't suck. Will watch more with Fleebnork Jr. over the weekend.
posted by Fleebnork at 3:58 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


...way more interested in a remake of Star Blazers...

Space Battleship Yamato 2199
posted by The Tensor at 4:06 PM on June 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


Just watched 30 minutes of the first episode with Junior Lorensen. The Sacred Action Figures were brought out and disassembled (which probably hasn't taken place in literal decades so it took some doing). The kid is only almost-four so most of it is going way over his head, but lions are cool, 'spolsions are cool and lions whose heads pop off when you push a button are super cool.

For my part, I'm really disappointed at the lack of girls (Pidge is not a girl in this). I really hope that the plot plots in a way that corrects that soon because it's a bummer that in 2016 this is still a thing.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:17 PM on June 10, 2016 [4 favorites]


thecjm: I watched both shows for the animation which starts out so-so in AtLA but improves considerably in LoK. It's closer to a combination of unique factors from story and animation I felt kept viewers interested to seeing how it played out in the end.

Although I've not seen the 1st episode yet and I do agree that it's disappointing how there's lack of a female main characters in the cast but there's still a lot of other episodes to go through so I still have hope.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 4:34 PM on June 10, 2016


Guys Voltron wasn’t actually very good.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:55 PM on June 10, 2016 [5 favorites]


Rewatching Voltron made me hate the availability of media and its ability to ruin perfectly good nostalgia.
posted by advicepig at 5:22 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Guys Voltron wasn’t actually very good.

You shut your filthy mouth.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:31 PM on June 10, 2016 [3 favorites]


Guys Voltron wasn’t actually very good.

You shut your filthy mouth.

Ok, fair.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:33 PM on June 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


(Pidge is not a girl in this)

Juuuust keep watching.
posted by mephron at 6:12 PM on June 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


Juuuust keep watching.

OMG SPOILERS!!! (thx actually tho that is good to hear)
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:58 PM on June 10, 2016


If you haven't seen the Japanese original - Beast King GoLion - do yourself a favor and check it out. Most of it is what you remember from the 80's, but... well, consider this synopsis of the first episode: In the future, Earth has been ravaged by nuclear war. Survivors are captured by an evil alien race of the Galran Empire led by the ruthless King Daibazaal to work as slaves or fight in a deadly arena...
posted by Trinity-Gehenna at 10:30 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Watching a couple more episodes this morning with Jr. I have to say the only letdown of the show is the music. It's all pretty generic sounding synthesizer meh. I do miss the original theme song quite a bit with its triumphant sound.
posted by Fleebnork at 4:51 AM on June 11, 2016 [2 favorites]


lumpenprole I second The Tensor's recommendation for Space Battleship Yamato 2199 - it was a fantastic Star Blazers remake. I wish it was dubbed in English, and with the love and care of the original, but if you can deal with subtitles, I highly recommend it.

I loved the original, I remember racing home after school to see what would happen next and if they would complete their mission on time to save Earth. Not sure I've ever seen a serialized cartoon that had such stakes, where people could actually die, and the machinations of the villains was more than one dimensional, for kids, until Avatar and Korra.
posted by kmartino at 9:51 AM on June 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


oh, awesome! I know what I'm watching next!
posted by rebent at 10:42 AM on June 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


Not sure I've ever seen a serialized cartoon that had such stakes, where people could actually die, and the machinations of the villains was more than one dimensional, for kids, until Avatar and Korra.

Sorry that you missed out on RoboTech then, because even as the bowdlerized franken-translation of three unrelated shows that it was (one more than Voltron, which was only stitched together from two), it fit that criteria.

Though like the original Star Blazers, RoboTech hasn't aged well. I wish it could have gotten a modern remake like Yamato 2199, but the rights situation makes that pretty much impossible.

I think the best part of Yamato 2199 is that they acknowledged some of the localization weirdness that happened when it was repackaged for the US, and rolled those plot points back into the original mythos, using them as a springboard for serious worldbuilding. I didn't think I'd find a Yamato related project that I'd like better than Tim Edred's Star Blazers Rebirth (though the live action movie came close), but Yamato 2199 hits it right out of the park.

And that's a lot of thoughts on shows other than Voltron, but I think I did mention it up there somewhere, so it's not entirely derail.
posted by radwolf76 at 2:43 PM on June 11, 2016 [2 favorites]


oh man :( fat jokes. I just... and no women? And.... is it worth it to watch another episode?
posted by rebent at 6:57 AM on June 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


nope. Got half way through ep 2. what a disappointing stinker of a show.
posted by rebent at 7:11 AM on June 12, 2016


Really enjoying this so far. I was a fan of the old show as a kid but haven't tried to go back - I think I knew it wouldn't age well. But this does capture a lot of what I loved about the show with more coherence. It's really pretty, too.
posted by PussKillian at 1:20 PM on June 12, 2016


oh man :( fat jokes. I just... and no women? And.... is it worth it to watch another episode?

Definitely worth sticking past episode two.
posted by Atreides at 7:34 AM on June 13, 2016 [2 favorites]


FYI, Fanfare post is up for the show now. Warning: It's for the whole season so unless you've watched it all, it could be spoilery.
posted by Atreides at 1:42 PM on June 13, 2016


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