Broken Promises and Corporate-Speak

Sorry I haven't managed to get the light notes on Prelude #3 up ... I've been quite busy making secret plans and dark pacts with a friend of mine, as well as managing eBay auctions and packing up and sending off said eBay auctions to keep food on the table -- or more accurately, to keep pointless junk like Transformers and comic books on the table. Not a whole lotta fun, let me tell you. We'll shoot for later tonight to get this business closed.

Speaking of business nearing completion, Kevin McKeever gave the following bit of buzz to AnimeOnDVD.com:

"Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is currently in the final stages of post-production and will be ready for release soon in 2006. Harmony Gold is committed to bringing our fans an entertaining film with the highest production values possible. To that end we have increased the length and scope of the production to include the latest sound and distribution formats such as High Definition video.

For the past year Harmony Gold has been weighing various offers from highly respected distributors for Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. As part of these negotiations, Harmony Gold has mandated certain marketing and distribution goals (based on fan and market research) to be met for any such agreement. Once a distribution agreement is signed and a release date set we will immediately let our fans know."

Now if that isn't carefully-worded, totally uninformative corporate-speak, I don't know what is. But it's better than dead silence, which is what we've been getting from the folks at HGUSA as of late. Oh, and it does tell us we're getting the movie "soon in 2006," which is less specific than the original solicitation for Prelude #5 ("January's Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles DVD release," it said), but it is the first confirmation outside of that retracted blurb (remember, it was rewritten, sans release date and reference to the "hideously mutated General Edwards," on the Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles website) that we're looking to '06 to see the finished film. So, um, I guess that's something.

I guess for you high-end video and surround sound folks this is good news, but personally I couldn't care less about any of that stuff -- I just want my damn DVD, and if all this "punching up" of the material is between me and my DVD ... well, I guess I'll just squint angrily at you all, I dunno.

More later, I hope -- fingers crossed, all.

Also ... just read Darkwater's recap of news spilled at the L.A. Comic Book & Sci-Fi Convention, and all I've got to say about it is, having been to three Shadow Chronicles panels myself, it certainly sounds like a fairly typical Shadow Chronicles panel, in terms of people being vaguely evasive and oh-so-careful with their words. Mind you, there actually were some new tidbits -- they're recording pick-ups now (last-minute rewrites, improvs, etc.) and they've got Alexandra Kensworthy back to redub the Regess's dialogue, which is a big *whew* ... that's one less recast to deal with.

Oh, and apparently the finished animation, with music & SFX is awesome. Lousy stupid stinking living out in the midwest with work and bills and stuff ... *grumble, grumble*