Battle of the Planets Vol. #2

    October 15, 2001
Release Date: October 15, 2001



What They Say
The Space Mummy
When mysterious plane crashes begin to occur on a regular basis, the G-Force is sent to investigate. What they discover is beyond their scope of comprehension, as a colossal Plutonium X-powered mummy wreaks havoc upon them and the people of Zarkadia.

The Space Serpent
Zoltar has commissioned a massive space serpent with an insatiable appetite for crude oil to attack Earth's oil refineries, causing major earthquakes and upheavals. Can G-Force hope to defeat a monster that can literally reassemble itself when attacked, and will they be forced to resort to their ultimate secret weapon?

The Review!
Before Dragonball Z, before Robotech, and even before the first Gundam series, there was the classic series from Japan. Some call it Battle of the Planets, some call it Gatchaman and some call it G-Force. Whatever you call it, it's one great show.

Audio: With the original 1978 TV series, you get 5.1 AND Mono. Sadly, the rest of the G features are just standard 2.0. No defection at all however.

Video: The video quality for BOTP is very grainy, but still watchable. The Gatchaman version has some small VHS defects, but it's better than a fansub. G-Force looks terrific on the other hand.

Packaging: Very nostalgic, but not very informative. The extras are listed in a tiny box. How can you minimize some of the most crucial reasons to buy the disc?

Menus: The menus don't take that much time to load and are easy to manuver. You even get Bios of the G-Team on the main menu! But they just lack a sense of greatness to it. Great setup though.

Extras: The extras are actually the feature. You get the two episodes of BOTP in the original Japanese version. This version is exactly the same kind of subtitling in fansub so you know it's good. The other extra is episode #102 of G-Force. Better dub and good Portugese and Spanish tracks.

Content: It's time for another time trip. Journey back to the time of Starblazers. With narrator annoucers and Star Wars esque openings. Your in for a wild ride.

The first episode involves a giant mummy-robot. While talk starts going around about an anti-plutonium virus for Plutonium X, things start going nuts. The mummy attacks an airport and causes damage. Very intricate episode. Theres a lot more in there than what I explained.

In the third episode, we deal with a giant centipede. After it takes the life of Mr. Sweet, her daughter seeks revenge. So the G-Team gives her the chance to fire upon it, but she refuses and lets centipede be disabled. Nice episode, but not that much interesting.

Overall, if your looking for a serious plot involving mecha, look some where else. If you want a superhero show with lots of giant monsters running around, can't go wrong iwth BOTP.

Note: The voice Mark is also the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo.

Features
English Language

Review Equipment
Oritron 2001 DVD100; RCA 19-inch television