Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Tommy Yune directs. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 188 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Released 20 years ago.
• 3Part of the "Robotech Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 4Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 5Richard Epcar and Eddie Frierson and Mark Hamill carry the top of the cast.
• 6IMDB entry: tt0443771 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 7Only 42 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Runtime

88 min · 1h 28m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG

IMDB

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006) ↗

Part of

Robotech Collection

• 
  Codename: Robotech

  1985
• 
  Robotech: The Movie

  1986
• 
  Robotech II: The Sentinels

  1988
• 
  Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

  2006 · this one
• 
  Robotech: Love Live Alive

  2013

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Community reviews

What people are saying

• 4c3T2022-07-12

  So, I watched this by accident, and although it's been several decades since I watched the TV show on which this and the collection of movies are based on, I had actually hoped for a more mature story telling than the show, from what little I can remember. This movie is a mess, and the writers and director clearly show that story telling is not their forte. It's confusing at times, and I probably should've re-watched the show and the other movies (I think it was one movie before this, not sure) first to understand the characters and their development, but from what I can deduce, these characters are others than the original show. I'll reserve that statement since I didn't actually look up any of the characters before writing this review. It does feel a bit rushed story-wise, and the CGI, although it's not a big Hollywood movie, feels kind of plastic at times. Fully watchable though. As for the story-bit. They didn't re-cap the characters other than some brief history. More like simple comments really, some back flashes here and there. Graphics-wise it's definitely a face-lift compared to the old cartooned show, that's for sure, but it does feel a bit Babylon 5 at times for the space scenes, and you can almost see the seams of objects, almost. Being just a couple of minutes shy of 1 and a half hour, it should have been at least half an hour more to pick up the story telling a bit more/better. For children, age 10-12 or so, this is probably nothing they'd think of, but as an adult, you question some things, like accuracy, tech-jargon, likelihood and probability of certain things. I don't even remember what proto-whatever they called it, was, and exactly what it is and used for (other than powering misc. devices/machines), but it's probably and most likely explained in the show and other movies. This, like many movies and shows are for aspiring kids that has not been blunted by decades of movies and shows, and one can't help to comparing it with previously seen ditto. So, if you disconnect your brain it's quite enjoyable, and you don't think much of backstories and what's happening overall, continuity and so on. My younger self would've loved this, but the adult in me says "Meh, average...". I'd give it 6 out of 10. Partially because of Mark Hamill and also for sentimentality's sake.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• HA

  Harmony Gold

  US

Key crew

• CastingRichard Epcar
• CastingSusan Blu

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• extraterrestrial technology
• alien
• transforming robot

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2006-08-25· New York Korean Film Festival
• Physical2007-02-06PG