Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Complete Campaigns (1999)

The Complete Campaigns is a four-disc compilation of the Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles series that was originally released on eight DVDs: The Pluto Campaign, The Hydora Campaign, The Tophet Campaign, The Tesca Campaign, The Zephyr Campaign, The Klendathu Campaign, Trackers (including the four bonus episodes), and The Homefront Campaign. While Paul Verhoeven's dark, satirical adaptation of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers seriously strayed from the novel, this Verhoeven-produced TV series--part sequel, part remake, all CGI animated--hews closer to the spirit of the novel, a space-age twist on a World War II battle adventure. Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles is a series of military skirmishes and assignments on a variety of fronts, such as Bug City, water-dominated Hydora, the desert planet Tophet, the jungle planet Tesca, fiery Klendathu, and good old Earth.

The episodic nature works perfectly within this framework, and the mix of Marine grit ("No retreat, no surrender!"), military jargon, and understated melodrama give a feel somewhere between the steely seriousness of an old-fashioned war comic book and the spectacle and romance of a Japanese anime space opera. The CGI animation is less ambitious than in such feature films as Toy Story, but it's one of the most impressive examples of the animation made for TV. The detailed designs, rich textures, 3-D modeling, and awesome sense of scale (not to mention the pumped-up action and whiplash speed of the bug army) give it the look of an impossibly sophisticated video game, with the rat-a-tat editing and soaring camerawork of a Hollywood movie. The budgetary shortcuts are evident in moments of blurring and jerking, but overall it's startlingly effective. The PG-level violence may not be appropriate for younger viewers, but it's aimed at an older crowd and has won a loyal adult following.

The packaging is very convenient (a shelf-space-friendly four discs in Thinpaks), but unfortunately, serious Roughnecks fans will want to hold onto their old discs. Cramming the eight discs of content plus bonus episodes (granted, Trackers was a short disc) onto four single-sided discs apparently left no room for the producer/technical commentary tracks that accompanied most of the previous discs. The only bonus features are photo galleries and a fold-out illustration. --Sean Axmaker, David Horiuchi

Beyond Roughnecks at Amazon.com

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More Films from Paul Verhoeven

The Book

Stills from Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles (click for larger image)

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 Roughnecks a bit closer to the book
The movie Starship Troopers upon which Roughnecks is based was not even close to the book and that was a great disappointment. However, even if I forgive the plot and character changes the movie fell flat because it did not show the "jump suits". The animated version, Roughnecks, reviewed here takes a much better stab at the spirit of the book while building on the disaster that was the movie. The special effects and settings are significantly more interesting along with the hardware. So, I discovered that I like the animated version of Starship Troopers (aka Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Complete Campaigns ) better albeit not by much given the slightly better story line. To be fair, the Roughneck show was built with commercials in mind and separate episodes in each "campaign" (season) advancing the story line. The Complete Campaigns does a good job of welding it all together without the annoyance of commercial intrusion. Each of the Campaigns is a really long movie. You can't watch it in a single sitting. March 26, 2008

 Starship Grupies
Out dated CGI, childish story telling, but one of the best interpretations of the original 60's book. March 1, 2008

 Good sci-fi show lacks budget, onlookers totally unsurprised.
I enjoyed this show, but didn't love it. The animation falls short by my standards and occasionally distracts from the show. Storylines are good, characterization is good, but the lack of profanity and low levels of violence were unusual for soldiers at war. It's much closer to the book (which I loved!) than the movie and adds some interesting new story arcs. The lack of closure didn't bother me at all. February 26, 2008

 Awesome and underrated series.
This series is a favorite of mine. I loved watching it when I came home from school. I was very sad after they took it off the air. That's why this complete collection on DVD is so cool. I can watch all the episodes again. The CG effects were ahead of their time, and it was a series that actually tried its best to show what war was really like. Far better than the movies, and with a very good storyline, it is a great series that I would recommend to anybody. February 16, 2008

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