Wing Commander Academy

Im a huge Wing-nut (Wing Commander fan) and was utterly shocked to discover there was an animated show based on it. There was ZERO advertising around this series in the 90s, and instead of reinventing the wheel like the feature film tried to do in 1999, this show FULLY embraced the concept from the games. Art is spot-on, even utilizing designs from the game. Music is excellently handled. Even the voice actors from the full-motion video game sequels brought their talents to the show. I am only docking one star because of the lack of subtitles, and the utter failure of a proper sound mix. The music overpowers any dialog, thankfully there are fan-made captions for those willing to find them.

A bit of nostalgia for me, as I was into Wing Commander as a child. The only drawback, the in-episode music and sound effects often drown out character dialog.

Reading other reviews I'm a little confused. Are we supposed to review how we received the product or the quality and entertainment value of the show itself? Well, I'll star how I received the products like you do normally for other products. It came undamaged and in perfect condition in a timely manner. All 13 episodes are on the disc. 5 stars for product condition. Now on to what people are down rating for: First off, yes, the audio is wonky in some episodes where the music is louder than the dialog and is annoying. However, it is NOT the product that is damaged but in fact is how the episode was badly mixed back when it was originally made. I recall it being exactly like that when I watched it on TV as a kid. Keeping in mind that it is not so uncommon for kids cartoons of that time to have a few badly sound mixed episodes. The 80s and 90s were dangerous times, guys. lol Only a episode or two are like though so it's not like the whole series is funky. This series was made in 1996 and supposedly a kids series. Keeping that in mind it plays out similarly as other "serious" cartoons of its time. I personally bought it for nostalgic reasons as it was a favorite series of mine as a kid and started watching it because one of my favorite all time Super Nintendo game was Wing Commander. As a "serious" cartoon it touches on some philosophical things relating to war though very dumbed down and mashed up to fit into a limited time frame which is to be expected of a kids cartoon. While the Kilrathi (alien cat people the humans are at war with) are most often depicted as the "bad guys" the series touches on the fact that war is more complicated than that. Which I find that sadly, while I recognized that as a child back in the 90s, grown adults watching the series today still can't seem to grasp the concept and what the cartoon was trying to say. Yes, this series is sloppy and lacking in many ways yet in others it touches where other cartoons dared not go which made it more interesting for kids who like picking out meaning and reason behind the stories. With all that said this series would be enjoyable to those buying for nostalgic reasons and those who can appreciate old cartoons that try taking a bit more serious spin on things. This would not be enjoyable to people who compare old cartoons and movies to todays standards, which people who down rate it because of the show and not how the product arrived to them tend to be those types.

Wing Commander, Xenosaga, Paragon Lost and Halo Legends are all based on computer games. Wing Commander is not a copy of the other three. It’s unique in its execution. It is also animated American science fiction, not Japanese Anime science fiction. Its plot is familiar: aliens are pestering the humans. The aliens are always pestering the humans. This time the aliens look like bipedal lions. Having the aliens look like something familiar to us worked very well because that made it possible for the aliens to have distinct personalities. Each episode of Wing Commander is a self-contained ministory. The plot of each ministory is different enough so that I never felt that I was watching the same story over and over again. That was very good. The downside is that Wing Commander doesn’t have a firm conclusion. If you don’t like a story that doesn’t have a firm conclusion, that’s going to be a problem for you. The characters aren’t deep. That is normal for this type of story. There is a low grade conflict between practical Commodore Tolwyn and more idealistic Cadet Maverick. Some of the aliens were more interesting characters than the humans were. There were two female human pilots, but they were more passive characters than the male pilots. Near the end of Wing Commander, a female alien appeared. She was a person of authority and gave the orders and the other aliens obeyed. I thought that it was unusual for the story to have a strong female alien character, but not a strong female human character. None of the scenes are enhanced by using CGI. That makes the animation look somewhat dated, but the animation is still very satisfactory. You won’t be overawed by the animation, but you won’t be disappointed by it. Of the four DVD’s that I listed at the beginning of my review, I would rate Wing Commander second. I would rate Xenosaga first because of Shion and Kirsch. Those two characters made the story. I would put Halo Legends last because it was a mishmash, leaving Paragon Lost in third place by default. I purchased my copy of Wing Commander from Amazon. Amazon’s description of the DVD states that it has subtitles, but my copy didn’t. Although the audio is unusually clear, if you have a hearing impairment, you might not be able to follow the dialogue. Using the Product Update button, I tried twice to get Amazon to change their description to "no subtitles", but it was never changed.

Good!

This is a region 1 dvd, which is not in the description! Luckily, I have a region free player (dvd only), so that didn't bother me as much as region A blu-ray of Short Circuit the other day. It's cool to have the three main characters from WC3 and 4 reprising their roles as Blair, Marshall and Tolwyn. It's a fun little series, but it has its issues. The animation seems sloppier than other series of similar design and age, but it's the sound mixing that causes the main problem. The music plays louder than the voice acyibg, making the conversants nearly unintelligible. I personally find the music beat extremely annoying, because it's overly there, but I think here, the audio mixing is also to blame. The plots of the episodes are what you can expect from these type of animated series. Simple, and I think overall mediocre, none really stand out, But it's a fun watch.

Good delivery service, and a good product plus a fair price.

If you're a fan of the Wing Commander Franchise, you'll love this series. Very nostalgic from the early 90s, and the DVD is excellent.

Für Liebhaber der Serie empfehlenswert. Gute Bild und Ton Qualität. Leider nur in Regionalcode 1 (USA) und als DVD statt BluRay.

Great for Kids of all ages. This was the first time that I had seen this and I thought that is was a good show.