Rating: 
Summary: Buggalicious!!! (But A Tad Misleading)
Review: BE WARNED: The advertising information contained here at Amazon and elsewhere boasts that the DVD release of ROUGHNECKS: STARSHIP TROOPERS CHRONICLES: THE PLUTO CAMPAIGN contains an audio commentary ... there is none. The advertising jacket makes no mention of one, nor is there one included anywhere on the DVD ... so, if you're a conniseur (sp?) of extras, there is very little here.However, if you're addicted to action, ROUGHNECKS delivers astoundingly well. It's hard to believe that this high quality of CGI was produced for television play, as the level of sophistication easily rivals that of Disney's TOY STORY, A BUG'S LIFE, and MONSTERS, INC. Five episodes of the CGI animated show are seemlessly edited together into one dynamic movie detailing the almost non-stop adventures of the Roughnecks as they attempt to rid Pluto of a bug infestation ... however, like good science fiction always does, the writers save the best for last, leaving the door wide open for follow-up installments as the television series did. I kid you not: this is fascinating viewing ESPECIALLY if you were thrilled by Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS motion picture. Everything about this adventure is that and more. Also, for fans of Fox TV's long-lamented but critically acclaimed SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND, ROUGHNECKS admirably fills the void.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow hard SCIFI was never like this
Review: Being a Robetert Heinline fan from Childhood I had read Starship Troopers as a kid. Actually reread it many times as a kid and had all kinds of fantasys about the battle sequences and the hardware and equipment involved.
BUT with Verhoevens vision coming to CGI and this story being his target, My fantasys have come very close to life. Having seen the entire set of six DVD's I must admit this first episode Pluto was a bit slow compared to the following DVD stories. I wont recap it because that has been done before.
BUt I will say that if your a hard SciFi Fan and love to see alien species come to life and the combat scenarios that would go with that experience then this first movie is for you.
Less gory than the movie Starship Troopers, little blood and few severed limbs, but heck the action is non-stop, the bullets and weaponry rattle endlessly and you will be out of breath by halfway through the first half hour.
The only thumb down would be the sense of repetition that occurs about 3/4 of the way into the DVD. All that action can't possibly be sustained for that long without some kind of R&R for these poor troopers. But it does happen and it all seems to happen in the short space of a few days on Pluto. It does wear on a guys nerves a bit, just gimme a break and say something more than "Hey Rico", "Watch your back" or "Bugs!"
It is long and that has some disadvantages to guys like me. As I tend to stay glued to the screen when I sit down to watch something like this. I can get myopia after a while and can't see anything around me for a few moments after the show ends.
YES this gets 4 big tentacles up for GREAT CGI Animation, story line, character building (though it was a bit slow), staying so close to the novels original hardware vision, and the characters and one wiggly tentacle down for repetitive scenarios.
Rating:
Summary: BRING THIS BACK TO TV
Review: The Starship Trooper Chronicles are one of the greatest series ever made and should be put back on T.V. immediatley. Never before have i been so attached to an animated series like have this one. It brings the developed storyline of an anime and the American styled shootem up action film in one. Not only is their great character development but a great entertainment; that is why i feel Roughnecks should be put back on T.V. immediatley.
Rating:
Summary: An underappreciated treasure
Review: "Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles" is probably the best science fiction program you have never seen. Due to an improbable series of marketing and scheduling problems, this outstanding show had only a brief run at early morning hours on a few stations. You may not have seen it, but believe me you want to! "Roughnecks" retells and expands Robert Heinlein's story of a group of young recruits facing life in the Mobile Infantry and combat against terrifying alien creatures called the "bugs". Though it borrows from the Paul Verhoven film, this computer animated series is far superior. The computer graphics are exceptional. The ships, bugs, characters, movement and facial expressions are very realistic. The animated series includes the spectacular suborbital drops that are the centerpiece of Heinlein's book. But surprisingly, I was most impressed with the stories and characters. While appropriate for children, the Roughnecks stories are complex and realistic enough to satisfy adults as well. If you love science fiction, computer animation, military stories, or all of the above, this DVD is a must for your collection.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing CGI entertainment!
Review: When Roughnecks was on television, I was completely hooked. BKN showed the episodes out of order, at 7:30 in the morning, and preempted them every Friday, but I still watched! Following Rico, Diz and Lt. Razak (changed from "Ratjack" -- who knows why?) as they defended themselves against armies of giant bugs was completely addicting! I remain amazed at the quality of the computer generated images in these stories. One scene that always sticks in my mind is that of a reflection of fire on one troopers faceplate. It was a secondary detail, but added completely to the overall effect of the scene. The details of the animated "Roughnecks" story lines more closely follow the original Heinlein book than the live action movie did -- something Heinlein fans will appreciate. Another plus: the fact that the story is told episodically allows the creators more time to "flesh out" the lead characters -- something that couldn't be done in a 2 hour movie. All in all, a terrific series that deserves to be on DVD, and a great buy. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The Best SCI-FI that was ever on TV!
Review: Roughnecks- The Starship Troopers Chronicles is the best Sci-Fi that has ever graced television. A much better adaptation of the Robert A. Heinlein novel than it's live action film predecessor in every way. (Although, purists have and will always complain.) Engaging storylines, wonderful characterization and computer animation- this is a series that will hold it's own for a long time to come. From Pluto to Hydora to a desolate asteroid and back to Earth and few stops on worlds in-between, the series a varied and fast paced. Written more for adults than children, you can expect a higher degree of violence and character introspection than what is normal for an animated series or an any episode of Star Trek. All in all, if you are even just a minor fan the live action movie or just a fan of great television- this series is very much worth your time and money! (It is worth noting that the series was never completed, perhaps it's release on DVD will remedy this.)
Rating:
Summary: A better retelling of the story than the movie
Review: I enjoyed this series far more than I expected to. I missed it when it was first shown on TV and only recently (March 2004) watched the DVDs and I enjoyed them a lot. The CGI animation was pretty good for the time (especially for television) and the stories were often clever. My primary complaint was the dialogue, which often resorted to overused cliches. The animated series manages to explain something that the movie explained very poorly, and the book explained somewhat weakly: why have Mobile Infantry battling millions of bugs on the ground when you could just nuke them from orbit? The movie's dumb explanation was to throw a knife at some guy's hand and say "The enemy cannot press the button if he cannot reach it." That made no sense and did not explain why tens of thousands of troopers were thrown into a fight with no artillery and only limited air support to fight an enemy that could have been killed with some helicopters spraying Raid. The book's explanation was more nuanced, discussing the idea of responding appropriately to the threat and not wiping out an enemy that could eventually become an ally. This works as long as the enemy is not going to wipe out earth. But if humanity's very survival is at stake, there is no reason not to use nukes. But the animated version has a bigger hurdle to jump, because it eventually becomes clear that the bugs intend to invade and completely conquer earth. So why don't the humans simply nuke every bug infestation that they find? The explanation is shown, rather than told. First, the humans do not really understand what kind of enemy they are dealing with and how extensive it is. That is evident in this first episode which takes place after the bugs have shown up on Pluto, destroyed numerous science stations, and been defeated in initial battles. At first the humans think that the bugs might be indigenous to Pluto, but soon they discover that they came from elsewhere. So the humans cannot simply nuke all the bugs because they do not know where the bugs are or where they are coming from. Second, the humans need to gather information about the bugs more than they need to kill bugs. So over the next several campaigns they start to learn how the bugs travel from planet to planet, how they reproduce, how they control their armies, how they adapt, etc. In fact, by the later campaigns it is much more common for the humans to simply nuke the bugs rather than engage in ground combat. Third, it is clear that simply firing large weapons doesn't kill all the bugs. Some are deeply buried and it requires troopers to track them down and kill them. All of this makes a heck of a lot more sense than the movie's simplicity. Overall, I enjoyed the stories and the DVDs, but there were some annoying things about them. For starters, there is no commentary track on this first DVD. However, when you get to the commentary track on the second DVD (The Hydora Campaign) the filmmakers talk as if they _had_ produced a commentary track for the first DVD, which seemed rather strange to me. I suspect that the distributor for the first DVD did not have much faith in it and kept the extras to a minimum, but then started adding them to the later DVDs once they realized that sales were good. Another annoyance is that the DVD boxes are not numbered, so it is not easy to figure out which one to watch first, second, third and so on. Most of the characters are fleshed out fairly well. However, Higgins, the young reporter with the group, became a bit of a running joke late in the series. He was always getting knocked out or missing the action. This was deliberate by the writers, but it really became rather silly. Officially, the series was aimed at kids and so they followed some rules that are not quite sensible. For instance, the troopers could only kill bugs, not humans, and even then they could not ambush the bugs but had to be engaging in defensive battles. The narrator often tells us how badly the war is going, but that seems rather silly as we never see anybody get killed. In addition, the guns could not seem gun-like because the filmmakers were concerned that some kid might pick up a gun and shoot somebody after watching their cartoon. However, although ostensibly aimed at kids, it is clear that the series was actually intended for adults. There is a sophisticated story arc that most kids would have trouble following, and bad things happen to a number of major characters--one appears to go insane, another is paralyzed, a third turns into a bug, and a fourth is killed. This is not Spongebob Squarepants. I thought that the storytelling was weakest for The Hydora Campaign but got stronger by the middle and later episodes. In addition, the troopers' tactics also made a lot more sense. They started using diversions and feints and some really clever solutions to fighting the bugs. And their weapons were also more sophisticated than what we saw at first. They were still missing some obvious weapons, like radar-guided gatling guns, but the combat eventually started to make sense. All in all, I enjoyed this series much more than I did the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Military Cartoon.
Review: ROUGHNECKS reminded me of the GI JOE cartoons I used to watch in the 1980s when I was a kid. Except instead of soldiers fighting a group of evil troops wanting to take over the world, in ROUGHNECKS a group of soldiers is fighting an army of giant alien bugs bent on destroying humankind. For a made-for-tv cartoon series, the animation is surprisingly well done. The plot of the episodes is solid and they run together smoothly, without much jarring commercial break-type interludes. This episode of the series tends to follow the movie, rather than the original novel, but if you can put that aside and view with an open mind, you might actually enjoy watching. Great video for middle school adolescents who like sci-fi.
Rating:
Summary: put it back on tv
Review: The firtst time I saw starship troopers, I could not believe my eyes. The artistry of animation is truly impressive. A dream come true for any animation artist, to see the future of cartoons become reality. The story exceptional. The caracters realistic. And the bugs; the bugs are vicious and every horror lover's dream. How sad it is not on television anymore. Truly a big mistake.
Rating:
Summary: this is the best ever
Review: this rocks!! I have loved this show from the moment i saw the show. i have shown it to all my freinds and they love it to. this movie is about a squad called the roughnecks ( duh ) i like it much better than the film because of the caricters, plot and the fact that i'm a little squimish. there is not much blood or mass sloghter, but the story gripes you anyway. pluto is vary slow, but they get faster. so if you like this movie go online and join the fight to get the seres finished and on dvd! please forgive my spelling
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