Kinda dismayed to see that I'm the first person to be reviewing this series in over ten years but whatever! So, a beautiful spiritual successor of sorts to the terrific Reboot, this cgi animated science fiction series took place in an alien star system in which the planets must quickly learn to put aside generations of war and pillaging and coexist with and help each other to fight and survive, or else they will all fall prey to an utterly evil and merciless foe that has the most terrible of intentions for them all... With an original mythology and strongly incorporated themes of nature and the importance of unity, not to mention a stellar voice cast that brought each of their characters to life beautifully, War Planets or Shadow Raiders as I knew it when I watched it in England, often felt like a deeper and more adult animated series than Reboot, with heroes that underwent great development that you could really feel and who's sacrifices you felt the terrible weight of, and the dreadful menace that was constantly drawing ever nearer. It was a show that was so much more than either of its titles would lead you to believe, and even though it was originally based on a simple toy line, it wasn't just some half-baked effort designed to help to sell toys, but was an ongoing saga that was gripping and emotional and that had an exceptionally well realised world, and I loved it very much and I still find it sad that it's as largely forgotten as it is, because in my opinion it was easily the equal to Reboot and was exactly as great, just in a different way and involving a whole different kind of story, it deserved much more than it got, I wonder what would have happened next had it been popular enough at the time to take its story as far as it could possibly get, I think eventually they would have found a way to invade the ominous crimson dome of the world devouring Beast Planet and with someone's self-sacrifice, probably Graveheart's, they would have destroyed it from within! This series truly is an unsung classic and a hidden gem that's a brilliant and thrilling adventure to watch to this day, so please do check out this series online sometime and show Shadow Raiders some much deserved love! X
Review of Shadow Raiders
