Posted Tuesday, October 6, 2009    

To whomever is reading this,

I don't know who you are and for that I apologize because you're about to hear the pathetic ramblings of a thirty year old male suffering a mid-life crisis. I first heard the rumors that a live-action Voltron movie was in pre-production a couple of weeks ago. I've been thinking about the possibilities for days now, and all it's doing is making me upset, I'm not going to lie. After what Michael Bay did to Transformers, the idea that another of my most beloved childhood cartoons being made for the big screen was anathema to me. Surely, I thought, they could never find a production team that would have the respect for the characters and the series, and look to Bay's treatment of Transformers as a standard to make a quick buck.

There was a reason why Voltron and Transformers, GI JOE and Thundercats are so beloved, even to this day. These shows were part of a pantheon of 80's television worshipped by guys of my generation. They represented television for the young male at its apex,  devoid of the mindless Japanese banality you see in tv today. In a decade ripped apart by greed and selfishness, these cartoons spoke of a better world, one of honor, virtue, courage and friendship. Those lessons could never be more relevant and necessary as they are now, and NONE of these values made it into Bay's Transformers. Instead we fanboys get what we always get, action without substance.

Well I can't stand idly by anymore and let that happen. This letter will be my first in a campaign to get involved in the production of this movie. All I want to do is help deliver the message of Voltron to the next generation, to experience Voltron as we did as kids, to meet a team of space explorers bound by friendship fighting for a better world.

I don't want a dime. I don't want anything really, other then preserving a legacy and avoid the pratfalls that so many adaptations from cartoon and video games fall victim to.

We have the technology now. All we need is the passion and the humanity to make these people come to life and MEAN something.

Please, pass this on to anyone who can help. I'm not a kook, I'm not a weirdo, and I have no alterior motives.

I'm just a guy who loves a cartoon and wishes so much, for once, that it's done right.

Thank you for your time,

Jeffrey A Shain