One of the most annoying things about this movie
(possibly apart from the movie itself) is the amazing amount
of myths that seem to have grown around it. The great majority
of these have absolutely no basis in truth. One of the reasons
I created this site for was to kill off those myths. In this
section I have collected a lot of the stories and quotes I
have read about the about the film and debunked them. For the
full story on the production of film, please follow
this link. This
section is meant to be an overview of the site and kind of act
as a sort of FAQ on the movie. Please see other sections of
the site for expanded details on the film. If you have any
more misconceptions on the film or want to correct me, please
feel free to
email me.
The movie is called "The
Untold Story"
Only on the very cut down version the film that appears on
A&E Entertainment’s 2011 complete DVD box set of Robotech,
does the movie’s title card say this. The inclusion of the
subtitle “The Untold Story” can only be found on this release.
On every other release of the film prior to this one, nowhere,
not on any video release or the movie's title card does it say
"The Untold Story". The only place these words appear is as a
by-line on the US theatrical poster and some of the rarer
English language promotional material. Admittedly the US
theatrical poster does make it look as if the movie is called
"Robotech the movie: The Untold Story" (along with the fact it
wasn't distributed widely in English speaking territories), so
this is where the confusion probably originated from.
"Macross Do You Remember Love?" was the
basis of "Robotech the movie"
As the Macross TV series was the basis of the first third of
the Robotech TV series, people seem to assume that the Macross
movie was used as a basis for the Robotech movie. Adding to
the confusion is the fact the Macross movie was dubbed (very
poorly) into English and has been released in various
countries under the names "Clash of the Bionoids" and "Super
Dimensional Fortress Macross". This dubbed version is assumed
by some to be the Robotech movie. However it was "Megazone 23"
that used as the basis of "Robotech the movie" with some
footage of "Southern Cross" spliced in as well.
Mospeada formed the basis of the movie
I think people get mixed up here with the third arc of
"Robotech" which uses "Mospeada" and the second arc which uses
"Southern Cross". It’s definitely "Southern Cross" footage
inserted into the movie.
The designs and look of Megazone 23 clash
with those in Robotech
This may be a bit more of a subjective statement, but I still
think it’s rubbish to be honest. First and foremost everyone
knows that the "Robotech" TV series is made up of three
unrelated series, all with different character and mecha
designers. So doesn't all three arcs clash in terms of design?
Secondly "Megazone 23" has some very similar elements to
"Macross" (which made up the the first arc of "Robotech"); the
idol singer, transforming mecha and a city inside a spacecraft
in the middle of space being attacked by an alien enemy. We
also have transforming motorcycles, just like in "Mospeada"
(the TV series used as the third arc of "Robotech"). Third, a
great number of the crew who worked on "Macross", worked on
"Megazone 23", most in the same jobs; Noburo Ishiguro was
director on both, Haruhiko Mikamito who did the character
designs on "Macross" did the designs for Eve and Toshihiro
Hirano did the rest of the character designs. His work on this
OVA is sometimes noted as being "more Mikamito than Mikamito"
in terms of his designs. We also have Ichiro Itano who
reprised his "Macross" role as an animation director, giving
us the absurdly detailed mecha and action sequences that
"Macross" made him famous for. So in short, "Megazone 23"
looks and feels more "Macross" than any other part of the
Robotech franchise.
It was Carolco that released the film
theatrically
I can only assume that people are getting one "B Movie" studio
mixed up with another one. The movie's credits, poster, TV
advertisement and trailer and video releases all credit Cannon
Films as producer and distributor of the movie.
The movie was never released
The movie was released in 35 theatres in Dallas, Texas on 25
July 1986 for at least three weeks, shown publicly at an Los
Angeles animation film festival the following year, released
in cinemas in Argentina in 1987 and released on home video in
various countries in Europe as well as Argentina (see below
for details). There are theatrical posters, TV commercials,
press advertisements, newspaper reviews and even footage of
Carl Macek promoting the film on a local Dallas TV programme,
Point of View (which is available as an extra in ADV Films and
Madman's Robotech box sets). This provides more than enough
evidence to prove that the film was actually released.
The movie was universally was panned by
critics upon release
According to the film's entry in the book "The Animated Movie
Guide" by Jerry Beck, the movie received a 7 out of 10 score
in a review from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the only paper
in the region to review the film. In the September 1986 Lone
Star Comics newsletter, "The Lone Star Express", Derek
Wakefield wrote a very favourable review in his anime column
"Banzai!" and noted that the film "had several good reviews by
critics".
The movie was a box office failure
In a 2010 interview, Carl Macek stated that the film did quite
well against two other films touted as blockbusters which
opened around the same time; James' Cameron's "Aliens" and
Roman Polanski's "Pirates". Macek explained; "It did
exceptionally well at the box office [...] 'Robotech the
movie' beat the hell out of 'Pirates', and did respectable
against James Cameron's 'Aliens', which was amazing to me.
It did really well". The true reason the film was pulled
from distribution was that Cannon Film wanted to market the
film towards children and discovered that mostly adults were
watching the film. Cannon suffered financial difficulties
before the film could be retooled or the marketing changed. As
a result the film was shelved.
The movie was never released on video
Completely untrue. It was released on VHS tape by Rank Home
Video in the United Kingdom in 1987, Tauro Video in Argentina
in 1987, Vestron Video in Belgium in 1988
and Sandrews Video in Sweden in 1988. It was also
released on Laserdisc by Cascar Video in the Netherlands and
Belgium in 1991. I personally own an original VHS copy of the
UK Rank Home Video version. Please see the Video Releases in English
section for more details and Other Foreign Merchandise
section for foreign language video releases.
Only 500 copies of the UK Rank Home Video
version were released
Considering how many times that version of the video has
appeared on eBay over the years, I highly doubt this figure. I
would suspect at least a couple thousand copies were
manufactured in the UK for the rental market. But it has been
over 30 years since the video was released, so there can't be
that many copies left in existence today. Naturally original
copies of the film are much scarcer now.
The movie was released on video in
Australia
I have lived in Australia all of my life and have never seen a
copy of the film available in any video shop, and video rental
shops were one of my favourite haunts from the 1980's to early
1990's when I was a kid. I have never come across any evidence
that it was released here nor know of anyone who has an
Australian released copy. The film is not in the Office of
Film and Literature Classification database either.
The original negative of the film was
destroyed in a studio flood and therefore the film can
never be released again
While a lot of material relating to Robotech was destroyed or
damaged in a flood in the mid 1990's, and perhaps some
material relating to "Robotech the movie" was destroyed, we
know via the extras A&E Entertainment’s 2011 Robotech DVD
box set that a copy still exists of the film (from which they
edited their version for the box set). The extras on that box
set as well as the ADV Films Robotech DVD Box Sets proves that
most, if not all of the material relating to the movie has
survived. Add to that the comments made by Macek that anyone
could release the film (it's just that he doesn't want to be
the one to do it), and John Ledford of ADV Films said that
they considered releasing the film as an extra but in the end
didn't. They also considered the possibility of a releasing it
as a single disc but they apparently decided that it wasn't
financially viable (this was reiterated at a number of ADV
panels at US anime conventions in the mid 2000's). According
to one convention report, Ledford said he made a DVD-R copy of
the film off Harmony Gold's master for his own personal
collection. Editor of Anime News Network, Mike Toole, also
noted in 2012 that he has seen a recent photograph of the film
masters.
Carl Macek had no particular disdain for the
film
I saw this claim on a Robotech Wiki, and there seems to be no
truth to it whatsoever. The Wiki cites Carl Macek's 2010
interview on ANN Cast (at Anime News Network), for this claim,
however listening to the entire interview, not once does Macek
mention his like or dislike for the film. He just presents the
facts about the film and states he liked working on the audio
aspect of it. In the 1990 "Importing Robotechnology" article
by Bob Miller in Animato! Magazine, there are several choice
quotes which clearly show what Maceck really thought about the
film including; "[It was] the worst experience of my
professional career", "I was actually glad it never
got a broad release because to me it was an abomination"
and "I don't consider [the movie] to be a part of the
timeline of the 'Robotech' era whatsoever. Really, I'd like
everybody to forget about 'Robotech the movie' altogether
[...] I am not anywhere near impressed with it". I am
still unable to find any interviews or quotes from Macek
showing that he didn't have anything but utter contempt for
the finished film.
Carl Macek prevented a DVD release of the
film
Macek said in interviews on at least two occasions that he
personally did not want to re-release the film for the home
video market, however he also said he had no objections to
anyone else releasing the film. I doubt Macek had much control
over a re-release of the film. However it would seem that
Harmony Gold wishes to forget about the film altogether. Until
2011, the following section in the FAQ of the bibliography of
Robotech.com’s Infopedia stated the following;
"Q: What's the deal with the murky low-res cover art for
Robotech: The Movie [comic book series]?
A: The animated feature Robotech: The Untold Story was
rushed to market in 1986 through a limited release from the
now-defunct Cannon Films. Producer Carl Macek was
unsatisfied with the end result and fans had also noted its
inconsistency with the Robotech universe. Harmony Gold has
since elected not to continue the license behind the joint
venture that had created this movie."
With even the pilot film for "Robotech 3000" being released on
DVD (as an extra on the special edition of "Robotech: The
Shadow Chronicles"), one wonders why "Robotech the movie" has
never been released. Even though it may arguably be the worst
part of the franchise, surely it can't be that much of a
financial risk (or embarrassment) to release.
A DVD of the film has been released
No legitimate DVD copies of the full length film exist in any
language to the best of my knowledge. However around 2007, a
Malaysian bootleg began to appear on eBay and other places;

This is not a bootleg of "Robotech the movie".
Instead it is a bootleg of "Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles",
confusingly with a Macross Valkayre on the cover (which
doesn't appear in either film). Mudding the waters further is
the fact the synopsis on the back of the DVD package is taken
from the opening scrawl from "Robotech the movie"! Despite
this I can guarantee you that not one nanosecond of "Robotech
the movie" appears on this DVD. In short, any DVD you see
which purports to be a legit version of "Robotech the movie",
isn't. Most are poor DVD-Rs with video taken from multiple
generation copies of the UK VHS release that have been
converted from PAL format to NTSC. As you can imagine, they
don't look that great.