"G-Force: Guardians of Space" (1987) TV series

Release Date:

27 July 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Animation | Sci-Fi

Plot:

A bird-themed superhero team battles the threat of Galactor and his minions, an international terrorist organization with advanced technology.

Plot Keywords:

Superhero | Terrorism | Anime

Cast

Bill Capizzi	...	Galactor
Cam Clarke	...	Dirk Daring / Red Impulse
Sam Fontana	...	Ace Goodhart
Barbara Goodson	...	Agatha June / Pee-Wee
Jan Rabson	...	Hooty / Professor Brighthead

Also Known As:

G-Force (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

22 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-Y7 | UK:U

Company:

Sparklin' Entertainment

Trivia:

In 1986, Turner Broadcasting acquired the rights to 85 episodes of Gatchaman (episodes 1-80, 82-85, and 87) and commissioned a brand-new English-language dub of the series under the name "G-Force." This run of episodes included fourteen episodes ("Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman" (1972) episodes 13, 19, 20, 28, 29, 34, 38, 50, 56, 64, 66, 78, and 85) that were not dubbed by Sandy Frank Productions as part of the series "Battle of the Planets" (1978).

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Robot Chicken: Squaw Bury Shortcake (#3.2)" (2007)

A mixed bag, and a pretty poor mix at that.

This was the second attempt at westernizing Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman, aka Gatchaman. The first was the fun, but toned down Battle of the Planets. This time, Ted Turner's people got Fred Wolf to do it, with some improvements, but even more detriments.

The series was more faithful to the original Gatchaman storylines; everything takes place on Earth, Galactor (Berg Katse/Zoltar) was androgynous, Dirk's (Joe/Jason) family were killed by Galctor's men, and Pee-Wee (Jinpei/Keeyop) was human. Most of the original action was shown, with only the most extreme violence edited. The Hoyt Curtain music was replaced with a repetitive and headache-inducing mix. The names were made even more childish: Ace Goodheart, Dirk Daring, Pee-Wee, Hooty; at least Agatha June was close to the original (Jun).

While the stories were better and the translation more faithful, the voice work was sub-standard. The compression needed to match the Japanese lip movements made everything seemed rushed and the voice artists brought little to the production.

Ultimately, the series was a failure, as it was removed after only airing 13 of 85 episodes. It later reappeared on the Cartoon Netwok, where it was run at least twice, with all 85 episodes broadcast. Most fans, including this one, generally deem it to be worse than Battle of the Planets. If the more faithful story could have been combined with the Battle of the Planets voice work and music, then Gatchaman would have made a much better transition to America. Either way, the ending was still missing.