Title: Battle of the Planets
Air Dates: September 1, 1978 - 1982
Number of Episodes: 85
Released By: Sandy Frank Entertainment, Inc.
Current Commercial Availability: NTSC versions released by Rhino Video; PAL versions to be released by Universal RePlay. Online versions available at DivX.com

Five Fearless Young Orphans:
Dedicated... Inseparable... Invincible!

The G-Force Team
Left to right: Jason, Mark, Keyop, Princess and Tiny
In 1978, countless viewers all over the world got their first look at Gatchaman as Battle of the Planets. Fans followed the adventures of G-Force, five young orphans augmented with cerebonic implants: the heroic leader Mark, hot-headed Jason, beautiful Princess, stuttering kid-clone Keyop and Space Burger-scarfing Tiny. Assisted by their "robot guardian," 7-Zark-7, G-Force flew their warship, the Phoenix, to faraway planets and battled evil armies from Planet Spectra with superpowered tricks like the "Whirlwind Pyramid" and the "Fiery Phoenix." The 70's-era fashions and phrases ("Big ten." "Hang loose.") make the show a retro favorite today.

Of all the versions, Battle of the Planets, with its big-budget production and enthusiastic staff, hooked the most international fans. The only drawback to the show was that even the youngest viewers were able to see through certain kidvid cop-outs: All the battles on "other worlds" looked like they took place on Earth (where they actually did in Gatchaman). There were obvious differences between the original animation and the segments added in America (the "ready room" scene, shots of the Phoenix flying through space, etc.). And all those "robot planes" had suspiciously human-looking pilots.

Transmute!
"Traans-MUTE!"
This coverup wasn't all bad: the suspicion that there was more to Battle of the Planets made the show even more interesting. Why didn't we get to see Jason fight very much? Were there some special scenes we were missing? Why did Keyop make those funny noises? Some of us kids saw past the explanation that Keyop was a test tube experiment and guessed that the original character just had a lot to say, maybe some of it even naughty. (We were right!)

The Best:The professional voice cast and superb new music score made the show fun to watch and set the ultimate standard for dubbed Japanese animation. Sandy Frank put over $5 million into production of this series, and it shows.

The Worst: In order to reduce the amount of violence in the show, some episodes were dissected and substituted with poor-quality animation and lame excuses ("Don't worry, kids. All the injured and dying bystanders you see here are only robots." And what truly happened to Mark's father, anyway?). As much as ten minutes of the program was taken up by the prattling of 7-Zark-7 and his friends.

Zark, Rover, Mark and Princess
Zark and 1-Rover-1 receive some flat-looking visitors.
Diinzumo's Comments: Battle of the Planets was the show that started it all; the show that introduced most Western fans to Gatchaman and to Japanese animation in general. (Tezuka's Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion ran in the mid-60s and early 70s, but it was BotP that started the anime ball rolling.) It's only too easy to villify Sandy Frank for all the cuts that were made to this show, but to be perfectly honest, Sandy Frank was only responsible for seeing potential in Gatchaman, hiring a staff to do the conversion and marketing the result. The producer Frank hired, Jameson Brewer, worked an extremely tight schedule (one episode a week) with few to no resources (no scripts, just the Japanese episodes "as is"), under heavy limitations. If you think about it, the censors are truly to blame--anyone who had to butt heads with Action for Children's Television in the mid seventies will know just how exasperating it is to put out any kind of animated entertainment. On the other hand, we have a lot to thank Sandy and his staff for. They invested a great deal of money and effort in the production of BotP; hired professional actors (some who truly enjoyed working on the show), writers and composers, and sold this show "like the second coming." Few other animated productions (including the subsequent dubs of Gatchaman: G-Force and Eagle Riders) have been able to match the quality due to tighter budgets and...I don't know, lack of "the right stuff." Personally, this is my favorite dubbed version, and has accounted for many happy childhood hours in front of the TV.



Production Notes

Zoltar and the Great SpiritMarketed By: Sandy Frank Syndication
Producer: Jameson Brewer
Voice Director: Alan Dinehart
Music: Hoyt Curtin
Voice Cast:

  • Mark: Casey Kasem
  • Jason: Ronnie Schell
  • Princess: Janet Waldo
  • Keyop: Alan Young
  • Tiny: Alan Dinehart
  • Chief Anderson: Alan Dinehart
  • Colonel Cronus: Keye Luke
  • President Kane: Alan Dinehart
  • 7-Zark-7: Alan Young
  • Susan (from planet Pluto): Janet Waldo
  • Zoltar/Great Spirit: Keye Luke
  • Orion, the Wonder Dog: ??


More Battle of the Planets Pages

Sandy Frank Entertainment, Inc.
The BotP News section of this site points you to where you can buy the soundtrack, videos and other goodies.
Julieann's Battle of the Planets Page
BBC Cult TV Battle of the Planets Page
Carolyn Kaufman's take on BotP
IMDB: Battle of the Planets
101 Uses for a Dead Zark
Trudi Barth's page on BotP in Holland



Contact Sandy Frank Entertainment

SANDY FRANK ENTERTAINMENT INC.
954 Lexington Avenue, Suite 255
New York, NY 10021
Tel: 212-772-1889
Fax: 212-772-2297
Email: filmsfe@aol.com



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