Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

SnoopyStyle Five extraordinary orphans called G-Force fly their spacejet Phoenix to protect humanity from threats across the universe. Zoltar from the planet Spectra is the main evil villain. They are guided by robot 7-Zark-7 who flies around by flapping its cape in the underwater Center Neptune. There is also the robot dog 1-Rover-1 with a propeller tail and computer voice Susan. The five kids are Mark (Casey Kasem), Jason, Princess, Keyop, and Tiny. Mark flies a plane into the tail of Phoenix. Jason has a race car. Princess rides a motorcycle. Tiny has an all-terrain vehicle. Keyop stutters gibberish.This was adapted from the Japanese cartoon Gatchaman. There are so many bits that I remember from my childhood although most of it is in the introduction. The stories are a jumble of wild monster of the week. Most of them are long forgotten but there are some very memorable ones. I also remember the ping pong game which they often reuse. 7-Zark-7 and 1-Rover-1 are fun robots for little kids but those scenes are disconnected from the rest of the show. So much of these are great childhood memories and problematic adult watch. The episodes are disjointed and simplistic. One begins to understand how the show was cobbled together from the Japanese anime and robot additions. The memories are terribly sweet and the reality of watching this show as an adult is a recognition of interesting monster ideas.

Izzy Brings back nostalgia. I remember when I was a little boy and couldn't wait to get back from afternoon school to see my favourite cartoon- Battle of the Planets. I remember after watching it I would use my towel as a cape and put on a toy helmet, and for the next few hours, I was in my own little world saving the planet from evil forces (mostly as Jason, my favourite G-Force). I also remember vividly being disappointed as to why I still couldn't transmute into Jason even after performing the Transmute process to perfection time and time again.I also recall back then that I found it strange that 7-Zark-7 always told the story from his base, something that was never done in other cartoons. I even found it stranger that whenever 7-Zark-7 had physical contact with G-Force, Mark, Princess et al always seem to be very wooden and out of proportion. Nowadays of course, we all know the reason for this as they were in fact 2 separate cartoons with 7-Zark-7 only acting as a filler due to the many cuts from the original Gatchaman.Back to the real world though and a few years back, I was very happy to find that BOTP was released on DVD (at quite a high price I must add), of which I bought both seasons 1 & 2, hoping to relive back my childhood days. It was however a case of Must-Watch-Because-Buy syndrome. Whilst the first few episodes were good such as Attack of the Space Terrapin, and whilst the Phoenix transformation was (still) cool, in summary BOTP has unfortunately aged with time. And I only realized how the 7-Zark-7 scenes disturbed the flow of the show- G-Force was busy saving the world, and what is Zark busy with? - How to get into bed with Susan.Since buying those BOTP DVDs I have also since purchased Gatchaman, and whilst it has aged (as with BOTP), it is IMO a much better prospect than Battle of the Planets with a more stronger storyline.So in conclusion, if there are any middle-aged people out there wanting to relive their youth and watch what was arguably the best programme during their childhood days, I would recommend watching a few episodes of BOTP to get your adrenaline going and relive fond memories, but don't overdo it, and then proceed to watching the original Gatchaman.P.S. Even after 20 years of not watching BoTP, I still found that I had the same excitement and lust I had for Princess whenever she was on-screen.

static22 i just read one users comments on the battle of the planets set and felt it was necessary to put up a differing opinion. the botp (gatchaman) series was wonderful. if you watch the original Japanese version and not the dumbed down americanized mess. all the dvds come with the original episodes hidden in the bonus materials section. please watch those (with sub titles of course) and if you ever hear casey kasem, you're watching the wrong ones. the originals are the way the series was meant to be viewed. action, blood, swearing, not sanitized for a younger viewing audience. do yourself a favour, buy or rent these, watch the right ones, and you will be pleased.

grendelkhan Those of us who watched this series in the 70's tend to have a deep love of this show. Those who have been able to see the uncut Gatchaman episodes have seen what it could have been. Those who have seen the "G-Force" version have seen how bad it could have been. It was revolutionary in its time, and some of it still holds up well.Sandy Frank brought Tatsunoko's Science Ninja Team Gatchaman to America as Battle of the Planets. The names were changed to protect the innocent, or because they foolishly thought American kids couldn't identify with Japanese names, like Ken, Joe and June. Oh, well, Whatta ya gonna do? Instead, they became Mark, Jason, Princess, Tiny and Keeyop, with voice work from Casey Kasem, Ronnie Schell, and Janet "Judy Jetson" Waldo. To further the ties to then-popular Star Wars, a robot, 7-Zark-&, was added, with obviously inferior animation. The series was moved from Earth to outer space. People sill died occasionally, but not in as large numbers as in Gatchaman. Exploding planes and ships were always robot controlled and Spectra forces aways ejected, much like in the later GI Joe series. But what still set this apart from other animated fare was the mature storytelling.The characters had real feelings and motivations. They sought revenge, felt jealousy and fear, had relationships, and got hurt. The battles were spectacular, even after being heavily censored. The villains were unabashedly evil, not misguided. The heroes didn't always win, at least not completely. Plus, there was character development and ongoing sub-plots. Quite a change from the Superfriends and Scooby Doo.The main flaw with the series is the censorship and the added footage. The new animation was greatly inferior and detracted from the plot. The distributors didn't have enough faith in the viewers and felt an overwhelming need to protect them from violence; however, this audience was in love with Star Wars and wasn't afraid of a little violence. The later G-Force version stuck closer to the storyline and showed that most of the violence could be left in without being too graphic, editing only the most extreme scenes.The series was highly influential in Japan, inspiring many imitators, including the live action Power Ranger shows. In the US, it inspired a cult following, but did little to pave the way for better animated shows, at least immediately. In later years, fans of the show would end up in the tv world and would import greater numbers of Japanese animated programs. Now, Japanese shows and manga comics account for a large segment of youth entertainment. The dvd revolution has finally brought the uncut Gatchaman, along with the altered BOTP, to American homes, through legal means, rather than bootlegs. There's even talk of a continuation of the show and/or new show. Although somewhat dated, there's still quite a bit of entertainment value here.