Roughnecks - the Starship Troopers Chronicles.

[Scifi fan]

This is the animated follow up to the movie, "Starship Troopers", which is, of course, based on the Robert Heinlein novel of the same name. I've watched the first story arc, "The Pluto Campaign", and I've watched part of "The Hydora Campaign", and, so far, I'm not impressed.

This series seems to be a gung-ho, shoot-em up, with no characters development and no real plot line. The Bugs are mindless creatures who just want to terminate mankind - no reason given - and the humans are just, well, tough Marines.

I note that the Bugs never really used hand weapons, just spat out some sort of venom, and there were a lot of them. I also note that the humans used automatic rifles, spitting out either lasers or bullets, I'm not sure which - but, as a military historian, I think they should have artillery and air support. I mean, if humans had those in World War II, they would presumably have at least that during the space age.

So, all in all, nothing to excite me. Starblazers, however, was a different matter. At least you could care about the characters, because they had feelings. The villians were also shown plotting and scheming, so that was an added element to the story. None of these are present in Roughnecks.

 

[BookStop]

I thnk Roughnecks was meant to be simplified. As I recall, it was a Saturday morning cartoon (CGI) for children. No, it's not terribly clever or detailed, but my kids really liked it at the time. I found it dull after the thrill of a CGI show being on tv wore off. (this was back when it was still a new form of animation)

We enjoyed Reboot as far as CGI ofr kids went, but it never really gained the popularity Roughnecks did. Haven't seen Starblazers, but it sounds familiar, like maybe we have a comic from the 80's somewhere around the house.

 

[Scifi fan]

I started a thread on Starblazers in this section. If you google it, you'll see the references.

 

[Constantine Opal]

I have a Roughnecks video and it always seemed to me to be directed to a younger audience, hence not much in the way of plot or characters. I actually liked it, but then I thought that apart from the bugs and Michael Ironside, the film was utter carp!

 

[BAYLOR]

This is a terrific animated series, It keeps the look of Verhoeven film and some of the satire but it's far more serious in then the film.

 

[BAYLOR]

I have the whole series on dvd, I loved this show.

 

[Vince W]

I have it as well. I like it but I wish that they had used more of the book and had given them proper power armour.

 

[BAYLOR]

I have it as well. I like it but I wish that they had used more of the book and had given them proper power armour.

I agree , And the series was not quite finished, I wish thye had give it a proper ending.

 

[Joshua Jones]

Time to revive a thread...

I grew up on this, and to be fair, I haven't seen it in many years... but I have rather fond memories. As the story progresses, it gains some emotional depth. The episode which stuck with me was the first one with the robot soldiers, where a prototype was assigned to the Roughnecks, and there was some light exploration on if it should be considered alive or not. The first two campaigns were a little characterization light, but by the time they landed on Tophet, it was getting some actual depth on the scale of kid's shows.

 

[BAYLOR]

Time to revive a thread...

I grew up on this, and to be fair, I haven't seen it in many years... but I have rather fond memories. As the story progresses, it gains some emotional depth. The episode which stuck with me was the first one with the robot soldiers, where a prototype was assigned to the Roughnecks, and there was some light exploration on if it should be considered alive or not. The first two campaigns were a little characterization light, but by the time they landed on Tophet, it was getting some actual depth on the scale of kid's shows.

It was a terrific series and I wish they had gotten to complete it.

 

[jjcomet]

Reboot as well as Roughnecks are two CGI series that I will watch off and on. Anyone seen the follow-up to Roughnecks - Starship Troopers Invasion?

 

[Guttersnipe]

Wasn't there another sentient species that fought alongside humans? I recall seeing blue, aquatic-looking, bipedal aliens.

Edit: Nvmd, I confused it with Shadow Raiders.