Voltron Force (2011–2012) User Reviews (10)

Better than I expected *MILD SPOILERS*

[Hole_In_The_Bucket · 7/10 · 25 March 2012]

I've heard comments that both bash and praise this show and this prompted me to write my own review, with an eye towards comparison of the old and new show. First, I'll start of by saying that I am 38 years old and grew up with the original GoLion Force cartoons (as well as the less-popular vehicle force) and have very fond memories of the original show.

However, like many cartoons and television shows of my past, it's the nostalgia that tends to make them appear to be better than they actually are. As much as I love the originals, I don't feel that this current incarnation destroys or sullies the intent or memory that I still hold for them. It doesn't quite have that same anime quirkiness that made the GoLion Force so unique and is a bit over-Americanized, but it gets the job done.

Some people forget how cheesy the old Voltron was and try to compare it to the kid-oriented nature of this new version, as though the old one was more sophisticated. Quite honestly, the old version had a tried-and-true "Robeast Of The Week" formula that it hardly deviated from and 9-times-out-10 all situations were settled with the Blazing Sword. Made me wonder why they didn't just form Voltron as fast as possible and whip out the sword right away to get it over with. But let's talk about the new show.

I enjoy the fact that this show is employing an overall arc as opposed to just bringing out a Robeast every week for Voltron to slice and dice. While I am older and appreciate an evolving storyline of a more mature nature (which isn't necessarily evident in this show or the older incarnation), it's nice to see a children's cartoon actually asking you to pay a little attention to some details about plot-lines and character history.

Voltron's design is a bit sleeker, less boxy, and not quite so indicative of suggesting the 'man in a robot suit' that you find with such shows as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. However, like the recent Michael Bay Transformers movies, the more complicated you make something look, the harder it is to sometimes follow it. The original Voltron was still a great looking design because of its simplicity. It made it instantly recognizable. But the current version doesn't deviate so much from the original as to make it look unrecognizable. The only thing I find distracting from time to time is some of the motions are a bit too smooth and fast to feel like Voltron is this mammothly tall robot. The sense of scale tends to variate a bit too much.

I do like that they try to recreate some of the iconic animations from the original series, such as the arm cross, blazing sword formation, and Voltron rising with a quick focus on each lion face. Tweaks my nostalgia a bit.

I love the concept of the personal weapons that mold to each user's abilities. A bit 'deus ex machina' at times, but they do serve a purpose.

Some things I absolutely hate or find annoying:

The theme song needs to go. Horrible drek.

Andrew Francis as Lance is like nails on a chalkboard to me. Almost as bad as Neil Ross voicing Jeff from the Vehicle Force (which is amusing to me considering he voiced Keith for GoLion Force which I don't find annoying at all).

The animation style isn't horrible, but it's not great either. While they try to make the fights interesting, they sometimes have this stop and start quality to them that takes away from the overall pace. A bit too simplistic at times and again, missing that quirkiness that makes anime so distinct.

I'm enjoying this series, as much as a 38 year old man can. It's slowly growing into it's own and it's really just whetting my appetite for the long-awaited live-action version. The show's not perfect, but it has held my interest.

On a side note, having nothing to do with this review, I've read about some confusion concerning Larmina's relationship to Allura. Just for the record, she is Allura's niece. If this flies in the face of what you know about the old series, I recommend not being so slavishly tied to what people love to crow about as "canon". It's a cartoon.

Good outweighs the bad

[neoguardian · 9/10 · 12 June 2012]

I'm a 33 year old viewer who grew up on the original Voltron.

When I started watching this, I cringed at the horrible opening theme (which I still think needs to go), the new voice actors and the questionable animation style.

Then it grew on me -- a lot. The storyline is very faithful to the original, and you can tell the writers have a lot of love and respect for its roots. One of the great aspects of this sequel arc is how it answers all the geeky questions my generation had about Voltron when they were growing up. There was an episode based entirely on the fact that Voltron takes so flippin' long to form. Another one had a semi-psychotic Voltron geek who collected Voltron "toys", which included Sven's (!) original suit. Followed quickly by an episode where Sven himself returns, which has a nod to the original series when Hunk goes, "Who's flyin' blue lion?" If that's not enough, Voltron now has the ability to temporarily switch centers so any of the five lions can form the head (though to be fair, Pidge's green center looks a little ridiculous), complete with their own unique weapons. The eight-year-old in me totally came back to life here.

As for the cadets. They grated on me at first, and I'm still not happy about them gradually replacing the original pilots, but their personalities are pretty well developed (especially Daniel's), and there's an actual continuing story arc that leads to a rather...unexpected season 1 conclusion. Definitely darker and deeper than most kids' cartoons.

If you grew up watching the series AND you've got an open mind, give this a chance.

it's getting better?

[doris964 · 23 August 2011]

this show went off at a pretty bad start around the beginning first few episodes with it's tone varying based on how the characters act(and not to mention its overdose of cheesiness),I'm not a die-hard-fan(nor a hardcore fan in general) but getting to the point to start this review off note:considering this show is the remake of one of my beloved shows compare and contrast will be involved.

story: in this story starts with to cadets ones with a teenager named Daniel and his best Vince,now Daniel who is the man character has long idolized the 5 heroes who piloted 5 robot loins,which could combine to form voltron(a giant humanoid robot) and wishes to become just like of course,then we have his friend Daniel(who would rather be leveling up in a video game then on a battle field) is a technician's export who discovers that he may be the key towards unlocking voltrons new powers, and then raising the number to 3 we have larmina the niece of princess alura of planet arus who happens to be to pilot the blue lion that makes up the left leg of voltron who assures the rest of the voltron team that these 3 cadets were brought here to serve a higher destiny. and it appears that larmina has some sort of connection to voltron.OK now as Daniel narrates...

Evil is back. The Drule king Lotor has returned with a dark energy that can destroy the galaxy. Our only hope, the Voltron Force: A team of five heroic pilots that control five awesome robot lions. When Lotor's Robeasts attack, lions come together to form...Voltron, Defender of the Universe.

OK to really start things off the back story has changed completely to the point where the it has quit a few inconsistencies compared to the original considering princess alura doesn't have a sibling(larmina of course) although the characters are seven years older than in the original although I don't exactly recall there ages since it's been so long since I,ve seen the original, bringing lotor back in the game was cool though I admit. at first glance it looks as though just anything and every things been happening in fact I don't know even where to began and most of the time I got annoyed enough not to remembered how the show was at the beginnings at least it's better than iron man armored adventures.

the animation: the original cast now have different character designs and many of them are pretty good while others....could have been better,visually the characters who all sport a more cartooneish look than the original the environments have some fairly nice overall detail in the show and the animations pretty good however vehicles an robots appear in the 3d including the robot lions themselves are awesome especially when they combine and form voltron,some of parts of the environments are in 3d as well which is great. the action on this show can get pretty crazy wants there's a battle going on. ^_^ the characters: the character development in the show was a little rough around the edges especially with all this cheesy and stereotype behavior matching the character designs although I've seen worse but they got interesting after a while but geeze louise nick must have been either crazy or brave to do this. >_< voice acting: I heard worse and I heard better but otherwise it was okay the bottom line: this show could have been a little better but hey like I said I've seen worse and for this show it could have been worse. I certainly would recommend this show to everyone but I recommend this show to those who are willing to give it a try, this has it where it counts and it's quickly standing out as is own show and lastly it's not staring to far from the originals roots.

No season 2?

[cassjacob-40438 · 10/10 · 8 August 2018]

Why didn't the series start off with season 2 they left us at a big Clift hanger what are they going to the Hagarium inside of Daniel, the last episode left us at Daniel using pidge lastest modication to Black lion cog pit Vince can read Daniel mind and hears Daniel scream and then we see Daniel eyes turn purple and charge after the rest of the voltron force attacking them but it ends before anything else PLEASE GIVE US SEASON 2

Summery

[demona_3 · 5/10 · 10 May 2012]

Voltron Force is set in a time period five to seven years after the events of the original 1980s Voltron series. Lotor was killed by the Voltron Force as the result of Voltron destroying Doom Castle. Voltron is celebrated on Earth for the destruction of Lotor and his forces. However, due to the actions of Sky Marshall Wade, a corrupt official in the Galaxy Alliance, the Robot Lions are immediately outcast and separated with the Black Lion locked away in Galaxy Alliance HQ while the other lions are sealed on the planet Arus, the home of Princess Allura. Though officially disbanded, the Voltron Force secretly act to get back the Black Lion while gathering three Alliance cadets (Daniel, Vince and Allura's niece Larmina) to train them to become future Force members and Lion pilots. With the cadets, the reunited Voltron Force are needed once more to combat not only a resurrected Lotor and a new form of energy from another old enemy of theirs, but also expose Wade's criminal actions.

A Hidden Gem that has potential!

[Mon_T · 9/10 · 25 May 2022]

No complaints about the CGI, it was made in 2011-2012 with a average budget. Same goes for the 2d animation, though I can admit there were some oddities in some scenes, which I found more humorous than annoying.

Something I admire is the designs of the lions, each lion has a different personality and it shows, both in size, outside details like the weapons, etc... The design of the actual team was okay? Some has more details than others, but overall okay. That's the same with the villains, liked Lotors outfit but the colour palette of his fit would sometimes not look that pleasing to the eyes. Wades outfit was very bland and grey, but pretty sure that was purposeful for his character.

Story wise, it defiantly has it's perks. Having Lotors henchman create different monsters with episodes that'd consist of character developments for each character. It's entertaining enough where you keep watching and wanting for more, but some times scenes would be a bit "Oh boy another 3 minutes of monologues where I have no idea what they're talking about". However that happens on rare occasions.

There is something I still can't grasp whether I like it or not, and that's the introduction of the apprentices. I don't mind the apprentices themselves but I didn't know why it was necessary to add them, they'd taken over more screen time than the original paladins. I wasn't a big fan of that sudden change. Though I do like the dynamics between characters, and learning more about their powers & abilities.

I hate wade for all of my lifespan. Which is a good thing, the creators really did well in making you despise their villains. Wades an old'grump with terrible fashion sense. A-okay villain to me!

Overall, 9 stars, loved it, wish there was more and wish they'd done more with this show. There's some things we'd point out now as flaws, but of course back than the perception was different. One last thing, the intro music I personally found brilliant! It's how I remembered this show after not seeing it for a whole decade. I suppose the reviews on the music really vary on what type of music they like.

Voltron Force

[vibetitanic · 3/10 · 13 March 2013]

I can't say for sure why I don't like this new Voltron series. I will say this: I am a fan of the original Voltron and that series was actually VERY interesting and has a lot of nostalgia appeal to fans alike. The fact that this series debuted on Nicktoons Network seems strange, because they placed it's time slot in between two of my favorite shows: Iron Man: Armored Adventures and Wolverine & The X-Men. The plot is something I can't really wrap my mind around. Action? Yeah, Voltron Force certainly got that going for it, but the plot, not really. VF is just the typical "A evil king tries to take over the world" scenario and, while this has been done to death, it's not that dangerously bad in this case. Now for Voltron, the episodes and the theme song. Okay, I'm going to say this now: I am not a big fan of the Lions; I liked the Vehicles better. Episodes: Okay, this is where I get critical. The episodes are... bad. Half of the time, it doesn't even seem like they were trying. Some of the episodes have beginning training with Voltron and that's sheer boring. Get to the episode and plot, already. Okay, the theme. This is where I give VF it's horrible rating at. The theme is extremely basic and extremely lame. You can find better songs in Dr. Seuss' books... and they don't even have songs in them.

In conclusion, VF is not as bad if I make it out to be. Certainly better than a recent show that debuted on there.

Revive this series

[frenchie-67510 · 9/10 · 13 September 2020]

This show had so much potential and i wish you guys could continue this, i mean it does take place after the original show. Ive seen youtube videos reupload the seasons maybe they are giving this another shot who knows anything can happen.

basic review

[stopstephie · 2 October 2011]

while this show does not exactly follow the complete storyline from what was displayed in the prior cartoon series, it does pick up enough of it to give it credence for a good beginning - i thought this show was great! one of the better cartoons i have seen in a while, action packed with a good solid story line!! i only hope they bring it back! i am excited to see more!! while i did not care for the thundercats remake that was released at the same time, this cartoon has staying power due to its orginality and the fact that it fills in a lot of the blanks to questions that arose due from the original series, such as voltron taking so long to form..............great watch-CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MORE-ONLY HOPE I CAN!!

You can try to watch this as a guilty pleasure

[vibespidersstudios · 4/10 · 27 March 2017]

1. Summary Voltron Force is sort of like a reboot and continuation to the original 80's Voltron but starts off after the lions were decommissioned and it's up to a boy named, Daniel to live out his dream to pilot the Black Lion by entering in the Garrison.

2. Story In my opinion the beginning is terrible until the near end where it is a bit better. However where was this in the beginning to make this series strong throughout the series. After the lions were decommissioned, the paladins went on with their lives and Keith is fugitive but we don't know the reason why he is. It would've been better if they could explain things better like to explain the build up of Daniel's backstory on how he wanted to be a paladin of Voltron and the build up how his character can be stronger in the show so the story could be stronger and memorable as it is today. However, people can just watch the show as a guilty pleasure because they can watch this show for the fights but not the story or characters.

3. Characters The character in the show are stale as bread. All the characters we have to explain to ourselves of their past in one scene and that's it and that's what we got because we have to assume about every characters' backstory and how did they got to the point in the show. I felt nothing for these characters because the original paladins of Voltron as well because the show doesn't go in depth of every character, it assumes that you watched the previous adaptations of Voltron. That's is not good when the main character is pretty much the same as any main character and makes it worst is that I felt nothing for all the characters but only the friendship between each other. That is pretty much that we got throughout the show.

Villains - Pretty simple and good villains of the show to show how they are up against with the lead characters.

4. Animation & Sound The animation is not to the standards of other series that blended CGI and animation. The CGI is very noticeable and didn't felt real to the character interacting them and the CGI by itself what is in its own different world. Sometimes when Voltron is formed it is not as bulky as previous adaptations of Voltron but it wasn't that great with the scale at times to the backgrounds but at least the CGI moments matches whenever there is a ro-beasts around.

-The voice acting is fine and tolerable because the dialogue is for children and I've seen worst voice acting for this

Action Scenes: The weapons while using are very good and I can watch this show just for the action because Voltron and Ro-beasts work fine together because it's CGI against CGI instead of animation used. Also I really do like the weapons that Voltron from every lion's unique ability and I would like if they could come back as later adaptations.

Results - I give this result because this show does has the potential but it lack the story and characters to even care about this show. You can just watch this show out of guilty pleasure because of the fights and looking up from your computer and laugh how terrible it is. There is nothing that is given back if it you want to watch this show for the characters, but my opinion those characters can be stale as a loaf of bread and that's basically what you get for this entire series. You can get something good out of that bread but there is nothing to add with.