If you were a child of the 1970s, were a boy with a hyperactive imagination, read comics and had a mom that detested pop music, but somehow enjoyed singing along to disco songs…errr, you may have grown up with one of many Japanese animated series dubbed into English. Specifically, one called “Gaiking.”
Pretty much the antecedent proto-version template for shows like “Voltron” and “Robotech,” there were several shows like this now known as super robot mecha anime series and they included TV shows like “Grandizer,” “Mazinger” and to a lesser extent “G-Force” and other cartoons based on the “Shogun Warriors,” a series of toys licensed by Mattel in the late 1970s (“G-Force” is not part of the “Shogun” series, but as kid you kinda rarely made that distinction).*
Anywhoo, out of all of these, this writer’s favorite of these shows was “Gaiking,” which basically followed the formula of five disparate types — generally two handsome Alpha males jocking for position, a beefy big guy, a girl and a nerdy, goofy small type kid — piloting a semi-transformable carrier/super robot that fought off an invading race of aliens.
A movie of this animated mecha cartoon has been in the works for some time now — just as “Robotech,” “Go-Bots,” “Micronauts” and “Voltron” have been in the works for several years too — and now there’s further movement (HeatVision says the “Gaiking” film has only been in the works for a month and that may be true, but it feels like many of these properties have been gestating for a long time now).
And apparently, “Gaiking” was born out of conversations with David Fincher and Kevin Eastman who are working on an adaptation of the ’70s sci-fi/fantasy magazine and animated movie, “Heavy Metal” (if you listened to Floyd, sported a bushy moustache and boasted the equivalent of a Yes album on your van in the ’70s, chances are you read “Heavy Metal” and bullied us around in public school — “Dazed & Confused” sadly failed to capitalize on the comedic tie-in opportunities therein) and it will use the Fincher-approved Lightstage scanning technology, utilized for “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” to Academy Award-winning effect.
Here’s a teaser-trailer, but frankly, it feels like it has nothing to do with the original spirit of the cartoon which was light on its feet, contained a fun Saturday-morning-like cartoon feel, plus an emotionally textured center that most North American-made cartoons were sorely missing. It kind of just feels like the next installment of “Transformers 3” as envisioned by J.J. Abrams or something. All slick metal, incredible sound design and enigmatic enough to keep you guessing. We’re not going to hold our breath that is going to be something other than your standard franchise baiting fare, but we do hope the filmmakers try and push things a little.
As for when this might arrive, you’re gonna have to wait. Jules Urbach, who is spearheading the project, says “we’re in preproduction. The reason we released the teaser when we did is we’re done designing the robot. And even a lot of the costumes and the characters. We basically put as much as was ready to be shown in the teaser. And the next step is get a writer — we have a treatment for the movie — and get a full-blown script. That should be done in the next three months. And we’re looking at 2012 as a potential release date, but it’s not set. It could be 2013.”
*Someone is going to bitch here and say some of this is incorrect, or not exactly up to snuff, that’s fine. That’s just our remembered memory from the ’70s when we were wee tots.
