Voltron: Hell Bent for Leather

Liner notes by Josh

Produced in 1992 by Seishun Shitemasu (a "Good Enough" production)

Voltron and Judas Priest -- what's not to love?

In 1991, USA network started airing a pre-Robotech favorite of mine -- Voltron. I immediately set upon taping episodes, waiting for that perfect one that could be dubbed. It was my creative baby from the beginning, and since nobody else had any good ideas, we threw it into production during the couple of weeks we had between Peter coming back from Japan and AnimExpo '92. I always had mymind set on "The fast red robeast" episode, but kept occasional other episodes on tape as well, just in case. Since USA didn't seem to be airing episodes in order,(I do not think they ever showed the episodes where Sven returned, or the series-ending arc where they finally decide to just go and "kill the fuckers.") it was a continuing saga of hoping for that elusive gift from the "Voltron fairy."

General Leonard played by Peter, and yet another voice for old reliable Debbie

Eventually, of course, the episode aired and we went ahead. My original concept was to do what Dynaman had done years before; goofy, irreverent giant robot stupidity. Max had wanted a heavy metal soundtrack (ask him about his dream dub of Iczer-1, sometime) and Peter insisted on mixing together more than one episode of Voltron. We settled on one I'd never seen before the USA airings; this is where the "General Leonard" subplot came from. It all spliced together fairly well: it's difficult for me to remember what either separate episode is like. Then again, this is Voltron I'm speaking of, hardly a show that rivals Evangelion for its plotting...

Max played Dread Lord , and I did great as Acroyear (Micronauts reference, anyone?)

A few more items...

If I was unable to obtain the Red Robeast episode, I was actually planning on using one with a robeast that looked suspiciously like a turtle as "Voltron vs Gamera," -- probably just as well for all of us that it didn't pan out.

Some of the dialogue is verbatim from the Voltron episode: Haggar's "My magic can easily change the color to red -- but I don't do windows," and Lothar's "I'm afraid he didn't make a very good landing…if he comes out of that, I don't think he'll be flying again for some time." We added the scream.

Let's fight the good fake fight

At least at one time, I felt I could do a not-shabby Worf voice ("Good tea. Nice house."), and I figured it'd make a good villain voice. The incessant Shakespeare quotations are a tribute to the highly cultured Klingons of the then-current Star Trek VI. For verisimilitude, Max sat in a corner grepping nice lines out of Signet's Three Great Shakespearean Tragedies. The only snag with this approach is Worf speaks very slowly and deliberately, and I had to drop some, nay, all, of the nuances of his mannerisms to sync with the mouth movements. Still, aside from an overly enunciated "and we'll (more like "wheel") not fail," I don't have many complaints with one of my larger voice roles…

Despite the cheery closing narration, we'd resurrect the Voltron Force characters later, in The Lost Episode…

Another "good enough" production is completed