Coming in out of left field from director Alex Albrecht, this short film based around Voltron goes straight to a dark place: the death of the Voltron Force, and the victory of King Zarkon. Lance, the pilot of the Red Lion, is the only one of the Force to survive the ‘accident’ that we see only the aftermath of.
He’s not in a much better spot though, as he is injured and running out of life support. Watch it below:
There used to be an embeded media player here, but it doesn't work anymore. We blame the Tumbeasts.
As someone who grew up watching the original series, there’s something disturbingly final about the sign-off, “Red Lion out.” It goes beyond the short itself, reaching back and taking hold of something from my childhood. It’s a disappointed sense of nostalgia, like finding out your greatest hero was, indeed, only human; you still like them, in a sense, but it feels like there’s a little less magic in the world for the knowing.
That those feelings could be elicited from me over the course of a three minute short says something about what Albrecht managed to put together, and what actor Timothy Omundson (of Psych) was able to project in his performance. It also goes to show that you can treat something that was, more or less, a ridiculous Saturday morning children’s cartoon with a serious touch and have it pay dividends. If there is still even a chance of a Voltron movie being made, I know who I want involved.
