I thought the whole thing was great. Okay, sure, sue me I'm an anime fan, but not so much I would be a fan of a bad anime.
It's too bad that Topps said no to allowing this to move forward through kickstarter. What people tend not to understand is that intellectual property is a pretty sticky wicket. Once lawyers are involved things get pretty complicated. From what I have read there are some complex agreements regarding some of the mechs other companies objected to. If you went forward with this in any fashion I would recommend steering clear of those and sticking to stuff that is more clear of such issues.
I'm wondering whether they made any specific objections to the movie or just flat said no to the whole idea. Unfortunately even a nonprofit, fan-made movie can still be challenged on any number of grounds and I'm sure that's not a road OP wants to travel down.
If there was a way to fund more work I would probably do it. It's probably true that sticking to a fan-made nonprofit flick funded through patreon would have less chance for objection than something kickstarter funded that led to a profitable commercial venture, so maybe this is possible.
In any event I think this tells the story in a way that the original cartoon couldn't, mainly due to its format. When I finally watched it, it seemed to me they were going for an animation and story style more similar to the 80s cartoons like GI Joe and Transformers, which is fine, but obviously something more like this cartoon would be preferable to a lot of fans. EPIC. There isn't a thing I would change about it except of course anything that gives lawyer critters an excuse to howl.
I would say, too, that if you are able to make stuff like this, you have a talent that should lift you from that minimum wage job you love to hate. Some of the most popular cartoons these days started as flash animation, and game and animation companies are always looking for talent like this. If anything, I think you should be able to get something going, if not Battletech, something else, that you could get people to donate through something like Patreon. To all the haters out there: If you really have a better idea we would love to see it. No one should object to any attempt to portray this universe in our current situation where there is such a paucity of material.
Edited by Anachronda, 09 August 2015 - 10:05 AM.