Gatchaman, the superhero movie that almost was

So originally I was gonna talk about the new Power Rangers movie and the trailer that came out, but after procrastinating and being so busy I feel the hype of the trailer has died down and figured I will instead talk about something just as good, Gatchaman and it's movie that was never made

What is Gatchamam?

In case you don't know, Gatchaman was basically Power Rangers before Power Rangers. It was an anime made in the 1970s about five teenagers(consist of their leader Ken, Joe, Jun, Ryo, and Jin) who dressed in bird themed spandex to fight an evil terrorist organization named Galactar, lead by the evil Berg Katse and mysterious alien Leader X. The anime lasted for 105 episodes and led to two more sequel series Gatchaman 2 and Gatchaman F. The series was adapted in 1976 by Sandy Frank renamed Battle of the Planets and again as G-force: Guardians of Space. Long story short, both adaptations were known for toning down the violence and giving it a more sci-fi feel. Even though this series didn't gain the same popularity as the most early anime in the US such as Speed Racer and Voltron, the series still gained a small cult following in the US which led to a comic book series by Top Cow, along with the series re-released and uncut for the fist time in 2006.

It was around this time that Imagi studios(the studio behind the films TMNT and Astro Boy) also announced that they were in the process of making an animated feature based on the property. This was proudly promoted by the studio with early posters, promotional events, and teaser trailers. Despite the promotion though, behind the scenes the movie suffered from major symptoms of development hell. From the start of the announcement, the film suffered rewrites and director changes up until the studio shutdown in 2009, before the Gatchaman movie being released. Fortunately though their have been several concept art and animatic that made it's way online that helped give fans a good grasp of what the movie entailed.

The Trailers

Let's first start with two of the teaser trailers released online during the development of the movie. Similar to Pixar trailers, these teasers didn't give tell too much about the actual movie, but were more like shorts that gave us a good idea about the movie. The first one is features the team thwarting what looks like a robbery attempt by Galactor, While the second shows the team stopping a giant robot from terrorizing the city.

The second batch of trailers are a little more interesting since it features scenes taken from what little they finished off the movie and offered an idea of what the plot may have been like. The first one I actually got to see at Anime Expo in 2009. One of the things worth taking from these trailers is that it hints that the character Joe is meant to be the surrogate audience for the film. A few other snippets if an African American Dr.Nambu and a car chase involving Joe.

The Animatics

After Imagi Studios shut down and the movie was cancelled, several animatics and concept art surfaced online that offered us a bigger scope of what the movie was about. There was an animatic reel on Vimeo that feature a huge chunk of the film. It showed a flashback of Joe's parents being assassinated by Galactor, followed by his discovering the team while on a rooftop for some reason, the introduction to a more menacing Berg Katse, discovering the the team's airship the God Phoenix. Unfortunately, I have been trouble finding this video again so until then you will have to use your imagination. But the clips do further confirm Joe character was meant to be the surrogate audience as a lot of the clips implies he is the last to be recruited and a lot of the animatics seem to focus on him.

Fortunately though. on YouTube there is one more animatic that appears to be the climax of the film. In the clip, the team activate the God Phoenix Fiery mode to destroy a mecha that was crash landing towards the city.

Lets Put It Together

So with the information we have, how about we try to put together a full summary of movie might of been

• I'm guessing the first scene of the movie will be the flashback of Joe and his parents assassination by Galactor. Followed by his discovery of the team on the rooftop
• The next scene is possibly the team individually trying to recruit Joe to the team
• Joe then gets arrested, I'm guessing it has to do with the car chase scene involving Joe and the weapons dealers. Instead of going to jail, Joe is taken to the Gatchaman base where he meets Dr.Nambu and most likely told who exactly this team is and where he fits into all of it.
• The base is attacked by Galactor where Dr.Nambu is kidnapped but believed to be dead by the team.
• The team eventually come across the God Pheonix. Is is also around this time that Joe officialy joins the team.
• The team use the God Pheonix to destroy Galactors mech and the live happily ever after

Conclusion
It was a shame this movie never saw the light of day. Besides a parody done in a Sonic the Hedgehog comic, this was one the things that Gatchaman. But with it being a pretty niche property, see why trying to get it off the ground was such a hard thing for the studio. Gatchaman eventually did get a live action feature film in japan along with a anime reboot around 2013 and the animation studio Nelvana also annouce last year plans to make an new series based of the Battle of the Planets dub but not much has surfaced since the announcement.

But every now and then, I can't help but wonder what it would be like if this Imagi film actually got released. Would the film just come and go with a modest box office result like the last two Imagi films, or would have been the thing that could revitalize the franchise here in the west.