Voltron Force, The Forgotten Series, Surpassed My Low Expectations

Like Beast Machines originally I was just going to throw a review in a catch-all entry with other TV series back in September, but then I decided I might as well make it an entire entry no one will care about.  Hooray?

I don't remember when I read there had been an entire Voltron revival series in 2011 or so that I had never heard about before, but maybe it was a couple of years ago when I was doing some research for my Voltron-themed gender swap book.  I had watched the original series in the 80s and the CGI sequel in the 90s and most of the Netflix reboot from 2016-2018 but I had never seen this series or even really thought about it.  Then it showed up on Tubi as recommended after I watched Transformers Prime, so I thought, why not watch it?

At first I was a bit skeptical.  The animation is kind of off-putting because it uses two styles that both don't look great.  The people are all done in pretty cartoonish traditional animation that probably corresponded to other things on Nickelodeon at the time.  Voltron, the Robeasts, and some buildings were done in low-res CGI or cel-shading or something like that.  It reminded me of the corny Rifftrax movie Attack of the Supermonsters which was 4 episodes of an old Japanese series called Dinosaur War Izenborg that combined really old anime animation with that Power Rangers-type rubber suits and obvious miniatures for the monsters and good guy vehicles.

So my expectations were pretty low, especially after listening to the awful hip-hop theme song, but I think this is the type of show where if you can get a few episodes in, it starts to gel a bit.  Not that it ever rises to greatness, but at least to the level of "not bad" if you're a fan of the old series.

Like the 90s series I watched an episode of on YouTube--which seems the only place you can watch it these days because it doesn't seem like they even put out DVDs, just VHS tapes--it's not a full reboot, more of a soft reboot that like Superman Returns is a sequel where everything looks different.  Five years or so after the evil Lotor was defeated, the Voltron lions have been decommissioned and the pilots scattered.  A Galaxy Alliance cadet named Daniel and his new friend Vince meet Lance, an instructor at the academy, who then enlists their help to steal the Voltron keys from the evil Sky Marshal Wade while they're cleaning his bathroom as a punishment.

Meanwhile, Keith is on the run but is finally able to get to the black lion.  Eventually everyone meets up at the Castle of Lions on the planet Arus where Princess Allura can give them diplomatic immunity.  Their reunion is just in time as Lotor has been revived by a mad scientist with a new element called "Haggarium" after the witch Haggar.

And then of course there's a Robeast and they have to form Voltron to stop it.  Daniel and Vince remain with the team to slowly start learning its secrets.  A third cadet, Princess Allura's niece Larmina, also joins them, though she's more interested in fighting than piloting a lion.  My immediate question on this was:  when did Princess Allura have a brother or sister?  Did he/she die?  I mean if she has a sibling, why isn't he/she running the kingdom of Arus so Allura can focus on the Voltron Force? 

Anyway, not surprisingly the show introduces a few gimmicks into the mix.  First is that everyone has a "Voltcom," which is a bracelet that is a communicator, computer, and general Swiss Army knife that also can summon armor and has a weapon specialized for each wearer.  Keith has mini-Blazing Swords, Lance has pistols, Hunk has a hammer, Pidge has throwing stars, Allura has a bow, Daniel has lion claws that also give him speed, Larmina has a stick/num-chucks, and Vince has sort of tentacles that let him hack computers.  Vince also has some kind of magic that after a few episodes lets Voltron change the center lion from black to red, yellow, blue, or green.  (Which is really implausible because the black lion is bigger, but, you know, it's magic, so shut up nerds.)  Each change gives Voltron access to a new weapon:  magma pistols for red, maces for yellow, a trident for blue, and a Boomerang Shield for green.  Also, Daniel can plug into Voltron to give him super-speed like his Voltcom and Larmina can plug in to give Voltron kung-fu fighting and a katana.  While the Netflix reboot series didn't use these gimmicks, they did make it so the different lions could summon a different weapon, which was sort of similar.  In the last episode of the season, the castle is able to transform and take flight, something that the Netflix show also used.

Daniel's speed power can also be used to let Voltron "flash form" or form more quickly.  The episode introducing this was pretty funny as there's a new Robeast that keeps Voltron from forming.  Daniel says, "You can't expect the enemy to always wait for you to form Voltron, right?" And the original team just stares blankly.  I mean, yeah, why the hell do the Robeasts always just wait around for Voltron to form?

Something that was underused was an evil Voltron team the bad guys create.  There's a minotaur center with a snake, rhino, and a couple other things that make a "Predator Robeast" powered by Hagarium.  It kicks Voltron's ass until Lotor calls it back suddenly.  Then it's like 15 episodes before we see it again.

Unlike the original series, which was mostly episodic, there is more of a serial format, though not as much as the Netflix series.  But things carry over from one episode into others, like their feud with Wade, who at one point shoots Voltron with a special bullet that damages the "nexus" letting the lions combine.  The "nexus" thing becomes a recurring element as the team has to explore the origins of Voltron in order to repair it.

The last few episodes cleared the board of villains as Wade, Lotor, and Lotor's mad scientist are all finally dealt with.  And Allura retires to be the queen, Pidge retires to run the castle defenses, and Keith retires to be the king.  Which means he and Allura are getting married?  Um...it's not really said.  Larmina takes over the blue lion, Vince the green, and Daniel the black.  But in the last episode after Daniel's first real attempt at leading the Force is a disaster, Keith has to take over again.  Unfortunately the show ends on a cliffhanger as Daniel turns the black lion on the other lions.  Presumably then he would have been a villain in a second season, which did not happen.  If you ignore the last two minutes or so then it would have ended in a decent place.

While the characterization might not be as good as the Netflix series, it's better than the original.  There's some justice for Hunk in that he's not just the funny fat guy; he's not really fat but just sort of big and really smart at fixing machines and has his own "secret" junkyard on Arus called the "Hunkyard."  The episode introducing this has the cadets each making their own vehicle from the junk that they then somehow manage to form into a robot called Awesometron or something that's later destroyed.

Since this was ostensibly a sequel, Pidge is still a boy but he's also from a planet of science ninjas!  How cool would that be?  There's some justice for him in that he's not just an annoying dork with glasses but a badass hacker who has his own Deadmau5-type act with holographic bandmates.  

Lance is still a hothead who gets the least characterization of any of them.  That's a little disappointing because he was my favorite in the original series.  Keith is still the noble leader who usually has a stick up his ass, but in one episode he finds out the secret origin of his family, one that would let him become king.  There are often references that both are carrying a torch for Allura, who wears blue instead of pink until she retires and is a strong, wise advocate for peace who can still kick butt when needed.  Her father's ghost hangs around the basement of the castle to dispense advice as needed until he crosses over or whatever in one of the late episodes.

Larmina is a hothead who likes to fight, Vince is a tech nerd who becomes a magic man, and Daniel is the overeager kid who's not good at taking orders.  In one episode Daniel and Vince take Larmina to Earth to introduce her to things like pizza.  Then they run afoul of a Voltron collector who has replicas of the original Voltron and original costumes and stuff for some neat Easter eggs.

There's also an episode featuring Sven, the original blue lion pilot, who has an infant son now with someone not shown or really even mentioned.  At the end of that episode, his baby is given to the nanny who helped to raise Allura.

While none of the episodes are overly serious, most are not too silly, though there are a few like "Gary," which features a digital monster that looks like a Minion crossed with Pikachu that creates havoc like Tribbles and overall made me think of the awful "Kremzeek" episode of Transformers.  I think it wound up being the second-best Voltron series as while it's not as gritty as the Netflix reboot, it's not as silly as the 80s series and usually doesn't just follow that formula of some vamping-monster shows up-lions fight it-monster becomes giant Robeast-they form Voltron-use Blazing Sword to kill it.  And while the dual animation styles is kind of weird sometimes, it's not as creepy as the 90s series with the CGI people who seem like living mannequins.

If it's still on Tubi, you can check it out for free (with commercials).  Perhaps the best part is it has a "Skip Intro" button so you can usually skip over the awful theme song with the press of a button.

(Fun Fact:  Garry Chalk, who voiced Optimus Primal in Beast Wars/Machines and Optimus Prime in Armada/Energon/Cybertron voices the evil Sky Marshal Wade.  The added fun fact is that in the original Voltron, the original Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen, voiced the castle caretaker Coran.  That's just Prime.)