Gatchamania.net - Print: 1978 Battle of the Planets movie?

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Posted by lborgia88 on 22-01-2010 at 01:40:

1978 Battle of the Planets movie?

I came across this youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/X0oMALKAVo0X#p/c/C63087CCC4202B1C/0/zu9ffzKHSw4

It's in 7 parts, and the person who posted it says it is:

"'Battle of the Planets: The Movie' (1978) is a 68 minute feature where several episodes are edited onto one Storyline. The G-Fore team's adventures here are all earthbound, just like in the original japanese Gatchaman. The Movie also includes scenes of violence and loss of life originally edited from the 'censored' BotP TV series. There is a special character intro for this Movie. Also 7-Zark-7 is played by David Bret Egen instead of Alan Young and the 'BotP theme' is a strange 'club version'. The Episodes used to make this movie are: 'Attack of the Space Terrapin', 'Big Robot Gold Grab', 'Ghost Ship of Planet Mir' and the 'Invasion of Space Centre' episodes."

I had certainly never heard of this before. I'm not familiar enough with these BOTP episodes to recognize all the changes that might have been made here, but I sure can tell that Zark has a different voice!

Posted by clouddancer on 22-01-2010 at 01:54:

Thank you for finding that LB and posting the link. Huggles

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Posted by tatsunokofan on 22-01-2010 at 01:55:

Hi all!

This "movie" was something that Sandy Frank had put together back during the BotP boom in 2002 as a potential means of getting the series back into public view, and was intended to be either shown on TV (Through someone like the Cartoon Network) or as a home video release. A rough cut was put together before the project was shelved, and that rough cut eventually saw release as bonus material on the U.K. BotP DVD set, which is where it was sourced from for its appearance on YouTube.

James

Posted by clouddancer on 22-01-2010 at 02:01:

Thank you for that information James.

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Posted by lborgia88 on 22-01-2010 at 04:15:

Ah, that explains a lot. Thank you, James -I knew you'd have the info!

FWIW, I don't like Zark, but I have to admit I find his new voice here rather jarring, as I've become so used to his original voice.

Proof that, under the right circumstances, anything can grow on you!

Posted by gatchamarie on 22-01-2010 at 09:44:

Thanks for sharing your find, LB and thanks to James for the info regarding it.

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Posted by gatchamarie on 22-01-2010 at 09:54:

ROFL 2 You're right, LB, regarding Zark's voice! I don't know about you but somehow I kind of prefer it from the original ... maybe I'm trying to find an excuse or something with which I might try and bear watching Zark instead of eliminating him completely from my view!

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Posted by Tengu on 22-01-2010 at 16:09:

I thought it a great re imagining.

And proof Zark can work.

Nice to see it around for the Non UK viewers

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Posted by lborgia88 on 24-01-2010 at 20:13:

It's a shame it never made it to TV or home video release -I think a lot of BOTP fans, 25 years later, would really have enjoyed it. A lot of them might have been scratching their heads and thinking "I don't remember it being this violent," or "Did Zark sound like that?" though.

Posted by Madilayn on 24-01-2010 at 20:33:

I really enjoyed watching it - must see if Ste can source me a copy in the UK!

I like Zark's voice - the "darker" tone to it seems to suit it better. Funny, he sounds like Sosai X in the 1996 Engligh dub version of the Gatch reimagining (which I really like).

Now am going back and watching BotP again!

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Posted by Springie on 24-01-2010 at 20:34:

I agree...Zark was waaaay less irritating in this. I enjoyed watching it with less Zark interruptions, too!
Thanks for sharing this!

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 24-01-2010 at 23:09:

Planet hasn't been on the gold standard for a while.

Zark was much less annoying. See, they could have pulled it off.

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Posted by Becky Rock on 25-01-2010 at 00:38:

I think its because Zark's voice was more mechanical so he sounds more like what his character was supposed to be. They weren't trying to make him cute.

If they had brought back the series, I wonder if they'd gone with the version of Zark in this movie?

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 25-01-2010 at 02:54:

In the past thirty years, SF tropes and elements have become more common in popular culture. If they were doing BotP now, Zark would be less annoying (certainly less of a self-centered hypochondriac), and probably not be credited with doing everything from watching the galaxy to designing the wallpaper at Center Neptune. And the added animation would mesh better with the original.

It wasn't until episode 11 of BotP that they gave us Zark's 'Birdstyle' outfit. And Susan appeared around episode 12, as did 1-Rover-1.

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 25-01-2010 at 15:09:

This is a great find, LB! Thanks so much for posting it, and thank you, James, for the background information!

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Posted by JohngPR on 07-02-2010 at 16:08:

Very cool. I'll check it out after I'm down watching the Gatchaman episodes that are included, just to see the differences.

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Posted by gatchgirl on 13-02-2010 at 17:45:

wondered if that was the one I have... now I know it is... Thanks James

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