| Alt Name: | Lion Force Voltron Vehicle Team Voltron |
| Genre: | Sci-fi, action/adventure, mecha, superhero |
| Runtime: | 25 minutes |
| Producer: | Ted Koplar Peter Keefe |
| Director: | Franklin Cofod |
| Based On: | |
| Story: | Jameson Brewer |
| Composer: | John Petersen |
| Company: | World Events Productions Toei Animation Tokyo Animation (GoLion animation) |
| Network: | First-run syndication |
| Country: | United States Japan (original) |
| List Episodes: | List of Voltron episodes |
Voltron is a 1984 American-Japanese animated television series produced by World Events Productions for a total of 124 episodes.[1] The series is an adaptation of the Japanese super robot anime series Beast King Go-Lion, which was dubbed into English and edited to create Voltron episodes.[2] Later episodes also use footage from the mecha anime Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.[3]
The first season is about five pilots who command five robot lions which combine to form Voltron.[4] These pilots use these machines to protect the planet Arus from the evil Warlord King Zarkon and witch Haggar who creates monsters called Robeasts to terrorize the planet ruled by Princess Allura.[5]
The second season of the show was called Vehicle Voltron, based on Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, which spawned also a television special called .[6] The premise of season two is the Galaxy Alliance's home worlds have become overcrowded and search for new planets to colonise. This puts the Alliance in conflict with the Drule empire.[7]
The protagonists are divided into teams. Each team is specialized in gathering data or fighting in their area of expertise.[8] Each squad combines their vehicles into a bigger machine, with each vehicle differing among the three teams. These fighters are:
See main article: List of Voltron characters.
Ted Koplar assembled a team in Los Angeles to transform Go-Lion into what would become Voltron.[9] Peter Keefe was brought aboard as Executive Producer, with Franklin Cofod as the Director. Since they had no means of translating the Japanese series into English, Keefe and Cofod surmised the plots, commissioned writer Jameson Brewer to write all-new dialogue, edited out the more violent scenes, and remixed the audio into stereo format. The series was an immediate hit in the United States, topping the syndication market for children's programs in the mid-1980s.
The Japanese series Future Robot Daltanious was originally planned to be adapted by World Events Productions as part of Voltron. When requesting master tapes from Toei Animation for translation purposes, the World Events Productions producers requested "[the] ones with the lion." Mistakenly, Toei then proceeded to ship World Events copies of Beast King Go-Lion, another "combining-robot" cartoon which featured lion-shaped fighting robot starships. Because the World Events producers greatly preferred Go-Lion to Daltanious, the Go-Lion episodes were adapted instead, going on to become the most popular portion of the original Voltron run.[9] A third version/series of Voltron based on yet another Japanese series, Lightspeed Electroid Albegas, was also in progress, but it was dropped when World Events Productions joined with Toei to make new Go-Lion-based shows, due to that show's popularity over the Dairugger run.[10] [11]
Though airing in syndication, which offered other anime shows such as Robotech greater freedom to deal with subject matter such as death that were off-limits in most US network children's programming, WEP's adaptation of Voltron was heavily edited to conform to the more conservative standards of children's television in the United States, as well as the standard name change of characters and concepts in Go-Lion and Dairugger.[12] [13]
See main article: List of Voltron episodes.
From 1984 to 1985, Sony released some episodes of Voltron on VHS and Betamax in several named but unnumbered volumes, including "Castle of Lions", "Planet Doom", "Planet Arus", "Zarkon's Revenge", "Merla, Queen of Darkness", "Journey to the Lost Planets", "Perils of Princess Allura", "Return of Sven", and "The Blue Robot's Revenge". The packaging for these volumes did not specify which episodes were on them; advertised runtimes varied from 20 to 86 minutes.
Lions Gate Home Entertainment released or re-released some episodes of the show on VHS in four numbered volumes in 2001. Volume 1 included the special "Fleet of Doom" and episode 71, "The Alliance Strikes Back". Volumes 2-4 included the first six episodes of the show in chronological order.
The show was released on DVD by the likes of Media Blasters and Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment,[18] [19] [20] [21] and was released on a Complete Series DVD set by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment with their distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation on September 10, 2019.
The show was ranked the 76th best animated series by IGN.[22]
See main article: Voltron: The Third Dimension. A CGI sequel series that takes place five years after the first series that deviated from the original design, the series centers around the Voltron Force reuniting to fight bionic Prince Lotor, while dealing with an artificial intelligence "Amalgamus", a sophisticated computer and a supposedly reformed King Zarkon. Ross, Ward, and Bell were the only cast members to return.
See main article: Voltron Force. Another sequel series that features the Voltron Force and their three cadets training to be the next Voltron pilots, while battling their old enemy Lotor and corrupt military head intent on destroying the Voltron and its pilots to stage a coup d'état and become president of Galaxy Garrison himself. The series aired on Nicktoons and ended after one season.
See main article: Voltron: Defender of the Universe (video game).
A video game based on the 1984 show was released in 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.[23] [24]
See main article: Voltron: Legendary Defender. On January 5, 2016, Netflix and DreamWorks Animation announced a new original animated Voltron series to debut in 2016 as a reboot of both franchise and the GoLion anime featured in an anime-influenced style with CGI Voltron action sequences, featuring a whole new cast with Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos, both known for their work on and its sequel The Legend of Korra, served as showrunners. The show debuted on Netflix and ran for 8 seasons with a total 78 episode.