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Starship Troopers Chronicles was an animated television show from CGI's earlier days, so if you are looking for a special effects movie, this ain't it. But sci-fi has to be about the story or it falls on its face, and STC has story--the story of a unit of Mobile Infantry hopping from planet to planet to battle an alien menace, known as the "Bugs" for their strong resemblance to Earth insect life. A project of Paul Verhoeven's, STC is somewhere between Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 classic novel Starship Troopers and the funny-atrocious film of the same name. For fans of both, here's a quick rundown: Dizzy is still a girl, Karl is still psychic but he is now a grunt, and Rasczak's name is now "Razak" (maybe they couldn't fit all those letters on his helmet) and he is a major character throughout most of the series. Brain bugs are still behemoths rather than the portabugs Heinlein envisioned. And there's a lot more action (the movie) than introspection (the book). On the other hand, Carmen can actually fight now, there are a lot more different kind of bugs, and the Skinnies are part of the story. The memorable quotes from famous military men at the beginning of each chapter of the book have degenerated into Lt. Razak growling, "Roughnecks, live forever!" at the beginning of each mission, but nobody in my family but I cared about that. The series is divided into "campaigns," each taking place in a different locale - an ice asteroid, a water planet, a desert planet and finally on Mother Earth. The Roughnecks learn about their enemy as the viewer does, finding new iterations of bug life with each situation and facing each in battle. The viewer sees the story through the camera lens of a young reporter deployed as part of the unit. He is not a skilled fighter, but for the sake of survival, he must learn to shoot bugs as well as manage his bulky camera. This series was from when the idea of compositing a live actor's face in animation was in its infancy, so it's remarkable how well the animators did with facial expressions. Not great, but still amazingly well considering where the technology was at the time. I think I can tell when the animation was handed off to a lesser skilled animator, as some of the human-motion animation is excellent and some of it is pretty awful. Whether the computer-game-like soundtrack is a plus or a minus I have not yet decided. I am leaning toward "minus," as it sounds as though nobody was paying attention to the action on the screen when they added the music. The bug sound effects sound good at first but quickly become monotonous, and the Roughnecks very very rarely miss a shot, but still, the story is enjoyable as the Navy does the flyin' while the Mobile Infantry does the dyin'. Hey, it's a Saturday morning kids' show, and when seen in that light, it has a lot to offer. Lots of battles, cool uniforms complete with codpieces, camaraderie between soldiers, zippy watercraft and lots of high-speed chases with monsters. It captured the attention of the three geeks in our family - Dad, Mom and 12-year-old son - quite satisfactorily. I bought STC on recommendation while pining through Battlestar Galactica's summer hiatus, figuring if we hated it we could always resell it. But we are keeping our copy. And I can recommend it to you.Read full review
Contains some spoilers. The Starship Troopers franchise has been plagued with movies that are either not bad on their own or are just plain horrible. However very few of them have actually captured the essence of the novel that they are based upon. This is predominantly due to Verhoeven never even reading the book. Roughnecks actually tries its best to be a good interpretation of the novel. In addition the ridiculously over-the-top politics and propaganda of the live-action films is gone. There is still some propaganda shown when it comes to the fednet broadcast talking about the progress of the war but this is mostly done to maintain morale back home because the war is not going well. The characters are far more interesting than their live-action counterparts and we do not see Johnny Rico become a hero just because he's lucky. There are characters you love and characters that are assholes. Even the episode where they introduced the cybernetic Trooper CHAS the character was well written & showed development. I still get chills whenever I watch him turn to the squad and yell "Roughnecks ho!" before his death. You experience the changes in the different characters as they grow throughout the series. You get to know them. Even the brief story about how Lieutenant Razak lost his hand is poignant. Definitely buy this if you are a fan of the franchise as it's meant to be. It will speak to you much more then those movies with that dbag Casper Van Dien. Although there's no Dizzy boobs. So if you want that it's not here heh. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Complete Campaigns (2005, DVD) Rating ***** Excellent Roughnecks - is a series based upon both the original novel, Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein and of the movie by the same name that was directed by Paul Verhoeven. This DVD set is one of the most spectacular computer animation series we have seen to date. Starship Troopers Chronicles was an animated television show from CGI's earlier days. It's a story of a Mobile Infantry Unit (Roughnecks) going from planet to planet to battle an alien bug race, known as the "Bugs!" The series is divided into "campaigns," each taking place in a different location - an Ice Asteroid, a Water Planet, a Desert Planet and finally on Earth. The Roughnecks learn about their enemy, finding new iterations of bug life with each situation and facing each in battle. You see the story through the camera lens of a reporter deployed as part of the unit. He is not a gifted / skilled fighter thats for sure, but for the sake of survival, he must learn to shoot bugs as well as manage his bulky camera. The only draw back we could find was that the series was discontinued so Dizzy, Karl, Carmen, Johnny Rico, and Lt.Rasczak might just be the "Roughnecks, that live forever!" If your a starship trooper fan, extra features not seen on the TV series, makes this DVD set a must have for any Serious Roughneck or Sci-Fi fan.Read full review
If your an old school cartoon buff, such as myself than you'll probably like these dvd's of the Roughnecks. It came out around 1999 and ended around 2001. It's set around 2070 and its a not to far in the future approach to the way life could be if other life was found on the planets. What makes this so interesting to watch is that even though these soilders are fighting against these massive bugs, in a somewhat hard to believe atmosphere, they are not much different then our own soilders who are fighting in Iraq. Most of these characters are right out of basic training and think that they know it all; they come to find out that they are not as invincible as they thought they were. The rookies soon realize that the military can put you through the most dangerous simulations but they will never come anywhere close to the actual battle that they endure once the rookies are set out into the real battle zones. There's alot of comic relief and funny sarcastic remarks throughout the episodes. There's not many shows out there now that I would actually watch but even though Roughnecks is made to be viewed by kids, its definitly one that you want to look into.Read full review
It's retro, and a new experience for me, despite how dated it is, it gives me a more open universe on one of my favorite movies. Worth the money to finally watch.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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