VOLTRON: Legendary Defenders

[Minerboh]

Where can i watch it guys? We don't have Netflix in Greece!

[Personamanx]

Finished the first episode and it was a pretty decent watch. You can really see the influence that "Legend Of Korra" had on it's design sense and it's storyboarding, which makes sense as a lot of it's crew previously worked on it. I don't have any real nostalgia for any previous incarnations of the franchise (Have only ever watched Third Dimension) and truth be told giant robots aren't much of a turn on for me. But it was well put together and the character dynamic worked for me. I'll probably pick the episodes off over the course of the week.

[kalorama]

I've never seen any previous iteration of the Voltron animated franchise, and I generally don't consider myself a big fan of giant outer space mecha stuff. But I thought the trailer looked pretty good and saw that this had some good talent behind it. And I've seen enough relatively recent examples of similarly-themed shows that I liked well enough that I decided to give it a shot.

All in all it's pretty good so far (on episode 7 right now). The visuals are quite good (a must for me), the writing pretty solid (although I do think they short-handed a bit too much of the background stuff in the pilot), and the voice acting is pretty good (although there are some rough spots). The characters, as a whole, too often come across like stock archetypes, but they work well enough in the context of the story. Overall, it's a fun, relatively light ride.

I'm glad the reaction to the reveal about Pidge was handled the way it was because, honestly, it was pretty obvious right from the very beginning. If they'd tried to play it like it was really supposed to be a secret, my eyes would have rolled out of my head.

[Personamanx]

Six episodes in. I'm digging it, no individual aspect of it is really worth writing home about but it all forms together to make for a very enjoyable whole. Just like Voltron!

[kalorama]

Six episodes in. I'm digging it, no individual aspect of it is really worth writing home about but it all forms together to make for a very enjoyable whole. Just like Voltron!

I agree for the most part, with the exception of the design/animation which I do think is very high quality. I wish the current DC animated DTV features and Marvel animated TV series looked nearly this good.

[Personamanx]

I agree for the most part, with the exception of the design/animation which I do think is very high quality. I wish the current DC animated DTV features and Marvel animated TV series looked nearly this good.

Oh don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good in this series thus far (8 episodes in) especially in regards to designs and animation.

The Paladins and the individual lions look spectacular, as does the Castle of the Lions. But the villains and the aliens don't really do much for me, the villains all kind of blend together and it feels like they were playing it safe when it came to the alien races. I just don't think they're going to be terribly memorable. The environments (Outside of the Castle) aren't really doing anything for me either. Granted the giant robot genre doesn't really make environmental design easy, I was hoping for a bit more.

Studio Mir does it's job well, and With Joaquim Dos Santos on board the storyboarding is great. There are just some moments that don't feel as well pulled off as they could have been, maybe they could have used more in-betweens or maybe the boarding could have gone differently. I dunno, it's good but I keep feeling that it could be better.

Maybe I'm just spoiled. Lol. In any case despite some faults I still really do think it all works very nicely together.

Except for the units of time measurement. Why do the Alteans have years but not seconds?

[justinslot]

Haven't started watching this yet--one question: Pidge has a brother in this continuity, right? Curious what the chances are of Vehicle Voltron a few seasons down the line...

[BeastieRunner]

Haven't started watching this yet--one question: Pidge has a brother in this continuity, right? Curious what the chances are of Vehicle Voltron a few seasons down the line...

I think they mentioned father and brother. I haven't finished it yet.

Also, the crew working on this show doesn't seem too high on vehicle Voltron. Or at least, knowledgable about them.

[Personamanx]

Yes, Pidge's brother and Father were kidnapped alongside Shiro.

No word on vehicle Voltron, they still have plenty of Lion Voltron to tell going by the cliffhanger.

[GamerSlyRatchet]

Yeah, I think they've only been using the 80's cartoon for inspiration.

[Holt]

It might not be worth it financially. They'd have to pay to license the Japanese show Vehicle Voltron came from, and from what I can tell Vehicle Voltron was never as popular as the original to begin with.

[justinslot]

Watched it today. It's an improvement in almost every way over the original, with a few exceptions:

--The old opener was much more distinct. They couldn't get Peter Cullen to do the narration again?
--The old lions merging animation was better. But it's hard to beat 80s anime style...the old show was a triumph of robot design and occasionally glorious animation over...a whole lot of dreck, actually.
--I kind of miss the old music? Even though it was repeated ad nauseum.

But other than that...this was solid giant robot cartooning. Voice acting was great. (How did the old show's cast sound mediocre to bad but then were great on the Sunbow shows?) I thought the Avatary designs would annoy me but...I dunno, I got into this much easier than I ever did with Avatar or Korra, neither of which I've made it through more than a couple of episodes, though those shows didn't have any nostalgia appeal for me (I'm old!) The changes to Shiro (not Sven!) and Pidge (without spoiling anything) worked really well. Keith is the Luke Skywalker of this show. I was afraid the first season would be a total cliffhanger, but it's only a semi-cliffhanger, enough of one where you don't feel mad about having to wait months to find out what happens (there is some payoff in the end.) Recommended.

[BeastieRunner]

My only complaint on the departures from past Voltron inspiration and continuity is Coran.

Let the Paladins make the jokes. Lance and Hunk have it covered. Coran is a little too silly for my tastes (but my children love it).

[Jcogginsa]

Yeah, I think they've only been using the 80's cartoon for inspiration.

Nah, there are clear inspirations from Voltron Force as well as the original GoLion

[kalorama]

Unless Netflix has changed it's model, there absolutely are more coming. Probably in November/December, if previous series are any indications. Netflix almost always gives animated shows a 24-26 episode order, they just release it as two separate "seasons" to get product out to the consumer sooner. They did the same thing with their exclusive season(s) of Dragons. It was always ordered as a single block of episodes, they just released the first half as Season 1 to put content on the service while "Season 2" was being finished up. I believe that had a July/January release, but I'd have to look to be sure. And since Dragons is getting another batch of episodes later this month, the six month pattern is still holding. So if Voltron is a success, I won't be surprised to see another batch this time next year as well.

It wasn't a question of whether there would be more episodes next season. I fully expect that there will be. I was addressing the implication that Netflix had somehow failed to release all of the episodes intended for season 1 at once and the specific question of whether there would be more season 1 episodes coming in the short-term.