| Ultraman: Towards the Future | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Ultraman Great |
| Genre | Kaiju science fiction, superhero |
| Format | Television miniseries |
| Written by | Shô Aikawa Hidenori Miyazawa Chiaki Konaka Akinori Endo Satoshi Suzuki Terry Larsen |
| Directed by | Andrew Prowse |
| Starring | Dore Kraus Ralph Cotterill Gia Carides Rick Adams Lloyd Morris Grace Parr Robert Simper Steve Apps |
| Voices of | Akiji Kobayashi Yoshiko Sakakibara Kōichi Yamadera Shingo Yanagisawa Fumi Hirano Masaki Kyōmoto Matthew O'Sullivan |
| Theme music composer | Shinsuke Kazato |
| Composer(s) | Patrick Thomas |
| Country of origin | Australia Japan |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Noboru Tsuburaya |
| Producer(s) | Kiyoshi Suzuki Sue Wild |
| Editor(s) | Richard Hindley Nicholas Holmes |
| Location(s) | Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Cinematography | Paul Dallwitz |
| Running time | 30 mins |
| Production company(s) | South Australian Film Corporation Tsuburaya Productions |
| Distributor | New World International Sachs Family Entertainment Bandai Visual |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | first-run syndication Tokyo Broadcasting System |
| First shown in | United States: 4 January - 28 March 1992 Japan: 8 July - 30 September 1995 |
Ultraman: Towards the Future (known also as Ultraman Great (ウルトラマンＧ（グレート） Urutoraman Gurēto)) is a tokusatsu SF/kaiju/superhero TV series produced in 1990 in Australia by the South Australian Film Corporation and Japan's Tsuburaya Productions (the creators of the Ultraman character). There were 13 episodes filmed (the first 6 episodes were the "Goudes Threat" story arc).
Titled Ultraman Great for its Japanese release, the 13-episode show was originally featured on home video and LaserDisc there on 25 September 1990, and was later broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System from 8 July to 30 September 1995. This was the 10th Ultra Series and the first produced in the Heisei era.
Distributed in the United States by Sachs Family Entertainment, the show was broadcast in weekly syndication from 4 January to 28 March 1992.
Although simply called "Ultraman" in the original Australian version, he is called "Ultraman Great" in Japan to differentiate him from the established original Ultraman.
At the time, eco-awareness was at a high, and many episodes included environmental themes. Ultraman's three minute time limit is also attributed to "Earth's polluted atmosphere" in this version.
Contents |
Jack Shindo and Stanely Haggard are members of the first manned expedition to Mars, and on the red planet find a giant slug-like monster, Goudes/Gudis. Suddenly the giant warrior, Ultraman, arrives and fights Goudes, but is knocked down for a period. Shindo is pinned by a rockslide and Haggard tries to escape in their ship but is blown up by Gudis. It is then that Ultraman gets up, and when he is on the verge of victory Goudes changes into a virus and travels to Earth, where it mutates other creatures into monsters and awakens existing ones. Needing a human host to survive on Earth, Ultraman joins with Jack, allowing him to become the mighty alien when all seems lost. He joins the Universal Multipurpose Agency, or UMA, in order to help them battle the monsters.
Halfway through the series a new Goudes, more powerful than the first, appears. It imprisons Ultraman, but Jack ultimately shows it the futility of its mission. Even if it does manage to corrupt all life, eventually there will be nothing else to corrupt, and Goudes is destroyed once and for all. For the rest of the series the environmental themes are stronger and the monsters usually arise from human pollution.
In the series finale, a doomsday scenario begins with the appearance of three powerful monsters: Kilazee, Kodalar, and the Earth itself, which tries to wipe out the human race for abusing it. Ultraman is defeated by Kodalar, but Jack survives. Ultimately the humans use an ancient disc to destroy Kodalar by reflecting its own power at it and Ultraman defeats Kilazee and carries it into space, separating Jack from him and restoring him on Earth as a normal human. The victory is seen as another chance for the human race.
Pronounced "Yuma" (or sometimes just "Uma", as in actress Uma Thurman), the Universal Multipurpose Agency is a high-tech defense force with a huge base situated on an island off the coast of Australia.
There are two main vehicles, which are mass-produced.
All the Ultra-Monsters in Ultraman (Great): Towards The Future were operated by Australian stuntmen Mike Read and Johnny Halliday. They were:
Ultraman Great is the only Ultraman whose costume is made of spandex (such as the suits used for Super Sentai/Power Rangers) as opposed to traditional rubber-based suits of all other Ultraman series.
The music was composed by Sinsuke Kazato and released by Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd (COCC-9745) in 1992. The soundtrack is very rare, it went quickly out of print and can now only be found used. The music was performed by The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
The series also received an equally short-lived toyline from DreamWorks toys. The figures were 10" tall and included Ultraman, who came with a mini Jack Shindo, as well as his enemies Bogun, Barrangas, Majaba, Gerukadon and Kilazee. Also released was a toy of the Hummer vehicle which included a mini figure of Charlie Morgan. A toy of the Saltop was advertised on the back of all boxes, though it was never released or produced according to a Bandai representative. Despite their unique size, the toys were not without their problems. Jack, Charlie and the Hummer were well out of scale with the other toys, while the Ultraman figure lacked articulation. Also, despite being the main villain for the first story arc, neither version of Gudis was released as a toy in the DreamWorks line (although one did appear in Bandai's Japanese vinyl Ultraman line).
A video game based on the series was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is thought to have awkward controls and an unfairly high level of difficulty by many. It was based around the same engine as a Japanese Ultraman game based on the original series. In the game Ultraman fights Gudis, Bogun, Degola, Barrangas, Gudis II, Zebokon, Majaba, Kodolar, and Kilazee.
A comic book sequel to the series was printed in the United States. Howeverk, the comic treats Ultraman Great as the same Ultraman from the original 1966 series. The comic has also been known to confuse "Ultraman: Towards the Future" with the subsequent American-made series, "Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero," which was released as Ultraman Powered in Japan.
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