I have strayed from my Shadow Chronicles commentary to mention something that I have just learned…
The voice actor that gave Dana Sterling life has passed away. The voice actor was credited as Melissa Newman aka Lisa Michaelson. While listening to Space Station Liberty during the Reba West aka Rebecca Forstadt interview, other listeners and Rebecca confirmed that the voice actor was in fact a girlfriend of Greg Snegoff and died in a car accident many years ago. I did my own research and found that Lisa Michaelson died in 1991. Although her death isn’t recent, I felt it was something new to me.
Many have thought she didn't do any other voice work after Robotech. Yet, if you pull up Lisa Michaelson on IMDB she did a few other roles in the late 80s. Some include: My Neighbor Totoro, Robot Carnival and Zillion.
This is sad news as we have lost a true talent and unfortunately, Dana (if she appears in any future Robotech movies) will be voiced by a new actor.
I remember back in the 80's I read somewhere that Lisa aka Melissa Newman was a friend of another voice actor working on Robotech and when producers just couldn't find their Dana, she had accidentally spoken up in the studio to which they knew that was the voice. Thus, she really wasn't a voice actor by trade. I feel we have a few more pieces of the puzzle…
If anyone has more information on this I would be interested in reading about it.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Shadow Chronicles Review and Commentary Part III
This part of the commentary will be broken down a bit more. I may over analyze some of the anime and franchises I really love, especially if it is being redone or reborn after a long absence. As for TSC, this was a nice reboot to Robotech. I personally did like it and gave it a good overall review.
Yet, there were a few things that I didn’t like. First the little things:
Why not bring Melanie MacQueen back to reprise her role as Marlene II/Ariel? I was very happy to see she voiced Marlene Rushe but it was odd hearing another voice on Ariel. It lost some of the magic. I know that may be a nit picky thing, but I would have preferred Melanie as both characters.
Was it me or was “Doctor” Louie Nichols a bit immature? Yeah, that was his character type 15 years prior during the second Robotech war yet he didn’t mature any in the harsh years afterward? I thought he would be a bit more calculating and intense since he was like the new Dr. Lang. Usually, intelligent individuals are very eccentric and sometimes cold. Also, he just doesn’t look like a character who would be wearing a cape. His uniform was very elaborate and seemed to over power even higher ranking officers. Now I may have to research this and I could be wrong (not to mention a lot has been taken out of canon lately), but I thought Louie had taken a Protoculture boost similar to Lang and Zand. Thus, I thought he would have changed. Instead, we were left with lines like, “it’s all numbers, there’s no letters in it.” This is so forced and contrived. Louie from Southern Cross was better.
The recap of the final moments of Symphony of Light was also well done but a waste of screen time. We didn’t need it. I know Tommy Yune wanted to allow this movie to be a stand alone flick and that he felt he needed to give the audience a recap but I don’t see too many anime fans watching this without seeing the original source material. Everyone that bought this thing was already a Robotech fan. Even if one hadn’t seen Robotech before, then having a bit of confusion and intrigue would only get them to go out and buy the 80s version. Simply put, we lost 20 minutes of film time on something I have already seen and the strange disappearance of all of the other New Generation characters just irritated me. ( I have an alternate opening that would have worked better—I will discuss that one soon.)
How did Marcus know Ariel was an Invid? He sees her glowing like an angel and bam! she’s an Invid. Only Scott’s team and Sue Graham knew that the Invid had adapted to human form so thus Marcus would have no way of knowing her origins. As far as he was concerned Invids were green slugs and protoplasmic creatures.
Why doesn’t Vince Grant know who Janice is? Now, as I recall, he was at the Hunter wedding where Janice did sing and later in the Sentinels books he would have learned she was an android. Did I miss something? Or did canon change again? Thus, that brings me to the bigger things….
Next time, the changes to continuity and canon that I just didn’t like….
Yet, there were a few things that I didn’t like. First the little things:
Why not bring Melanie MacQueen back to reprise her role as Marlene II/Ariel? I was very happy to see she voiced Marlene Rushe but it was odd hearing another voice on Ariel. It lost some of the magic. I know that may be a nit picky thing, but I would have preferred Melanie as both characters.
Was it me or was “Doctor” Louie Nichols a bit immature? Yeah, that was his character type 15 years prior during the second Robotech war yet he didn’t mature any in the harsh years afterward? I thought he would be a bit more calculating and intense since he was like the new Dr. Lang. Usually, intelligent individuals are very eccentric and sometimes cold. Also, he just doesn’t look like a character who would be wearing a cape. His uniform was very elaborate and seemed to over power even higher ranking officers. Now I may have to research this and I could be wrong (not to mention a lot has been taken out of canon lately), but I thought Louie had taken a Protoculture boost similar to Lang and Zand. Thus, I thought he would have changed. Instead, we were left with lines like, “it’s all numbers, there’s no letters in it.” This is so forced and contrived. Louie from Southern Cross was better.
The recap of the final moments of Symphony of Light was also well done but a waste of screen time. We didn’t need it. I know Tommy Yune wanted to allow this movie to be a stand alone flick and that he felt he needed to give the audience a recap but I don’t see too many anime fans watching this without seeing the original source material. Everyone that bought this thing was already a Robotech fan. Even if one hadn’t seen Robotech before, then having a bit of confusion and intrigue would only get them to go out and buy the 80s version. Simply put, we lost 20 minutes of film time on something I have already seen and the strange disappearance of all of the other New Generation characters just irritated me. ( I have an alternate opening that would have worked better—I will discuss that one soon.)
How did Marcus know Ariel was an Invid? He sees her glowing like an angel and bam! she’s an Invid. Only Scott’s team and Sue Graham knew that the Invid had adapted to human form so thus Marcus would have no way of knowing her origins. As far as he was concerned Invids were green slugs and protoplasmic creatures.
Why doesn’t Vince Grant know who Janice is? Now, as I recall, he was at the Hunter wedding where Janice did sing and later in the Sentinels books he would have learned she was an android. Did I miss something? Or did canon change again? Thus, that brings me to the bigger things….
Next time, the changes to continuity and canon that I just didn’t like….
