Amazon.com reviews for
"Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles" (1999)

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Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Hydora Campaign (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: After chasing the bugs out of the solar system in "The Pluto Campaign," S.I.C.O.N. tracks the enemy's retreat in hopes of finding the invaders' homeworld. Razak's Roughnecks are in the first wave of humans to hit water-dominated Hydora, a refueling planet infested with deadly new armies of alien insects. This second campaign in Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles is packed with whiplash action scenes, but it also ups the ante in a startling manner. Psychic soldier Jenkins gets a shock to the system after a meeting of minds with the Brain Bug: the bugs' final solution is the complete extermination of the human race. As hatched by the show's animators, the fierce dart-spewing ripplers and amphibious water tigers are marvelously sinister-looking things, more "realistic" than the humans. That's a fair tradeoff. The stylized 3-D computer animation makes this look unlike any other high-tech sci-fi TV adventure. --Sean Axmaker

Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Tophet Campaign (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: The Roughnecks take a breather from combat (or so they think) to scout the desert planet Tophet for a possible base, and meet a race of tall, lizardlike, apparently friendly aliens they dub "skinnies." But nothing is as it seems in this intergalactic war, not even the double-crossing skinnies, who have laid a deadly trap for the humans. The truth behind their collaboration hides an even more disturbing twist in the bug infestation of the universe. Dry, desolate, and full of wide-open spaces, "The Tophet Campaign" is a sci-fi take on a World War II platoon drama in the African desert. It lacks the visual spectacle of other adventures but makes up for it with heavy artillery (including an experimental cyborg soldier loaded with firepower) and more complicated character dynamics. The eerie mental breakdown of telepath Jenkins gives the Roughnecks their first casualty of the war. --Sean Axmaker

Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Pluto Campaign (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: 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--The Pluto Campaign is a mini-platoon epic comprised of the initial five episodes of the series, essentially a series of skirmishes and assignments leading up to the climactic confrontation at Bug City. 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 excellent voice cast includes the inimitable E.G. Daly (who also contributes to Rugrats and Powerpuff Girls) as the gung-ho Private "Dizzy" Flores.

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 (no humans are killed, only demonic-looking bugs) may not be appropriate for younger viewers, but it's aimed at an older crowd and has won a loyal adult following. --Sean Axmaker

Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Tesca Campaign (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Razak's Roughnecks, the toughest marines to spatter a space bug across the interstellar landscape, return in the second feature-length collection from the cult TV series, a completely computer-animated space-age epic based on Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. On the jungle planet Tesca, the Roughnecks confront a whole new array of bug soldiers, including web-spewing spiders and sea-based water tigers, as well as their own prejudices. Their newest squadmate is an alien and a former enemy, and a marine is not quick to forgive. Played out as a single movie, The Tesca Campaign has the feeling of a World War II platoon drama crossed with a Japanese space opera. The stylized CGI animation forgoes realism for dynamic direction, energetic action, and stylized designs, making for an impressive world of mechanical creations and insectoid creatures. The PG-level violence (there's a big bug body count) isn't appropriate for young children. --Sean Axmaker