40 FILMS IN ROBOTECH: THE COMPLETE LIST

2025 marks the 40th Anniversary of the groundbreaking anime series, Robotech (1985). This past year, Digging Star Wars explored movies that were featured or mentioned in Robotech. To be more precise, I explored films that are directly mentioned in Robotech television episodes, novelizations, and comic books. Of course, a film "in Robotech" needs to have been released prior to Robotech's debut in America on March 4, 1985.

For a film to be on the list, it had to be mentioned by title or directly quoted/referenced. While many Robotech scenes, characters and locales seem inspired by many different films, I wanted to be very literal in the films that are “in” Robotech. And, yes, in some cases, I took some liberties in a title that is awfully close or subtly referenced but not exactly referenced verbatim.  There's also one bonus film: NOT ALONE (2025) - which was written and directed by my daughter Lily Mich and premiered at The Grace Film Festival. Lily's film doesn't have a Robotech reference - but I'm a proud papa and there you go. And so...

Here is the complete list of the 40 Films in Robotech we covered for the 40th Anniversary of Robotech in 2025:  

• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
• The Mark of Zorro (1920)
• Battleship Potemkin (1925)
• The Jungle Book (1967)
• The Last War (1961)
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
• A Road In India (1938)
• The Lost World (1925)
• Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
• King Kong (1933)
• Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
• Shane (1953)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
• Dracula (1933)
• Creature with the Blue Hand (1967)
• Alien (1979)
• Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars (1981)
• Network (1976)
• Destry Rides Again (1939)
• The Shape of Things To Come (1979)
• THX 1138 (1971)
• Superman (1978)
• A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
• Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
• All About Eve (1950) / (Not) Alone (2025) 
• The Wizard of Oz (1982)
• Julius Caesar (1953)
• Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
• Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid (1957)
• The Blue Angel (1930)
• Hello-Goodbye (1970)
• One Touch of Venus (1940)
• Cinderella (1950)
• The Devil-Doll (1936)
• Sabu and Ichi's Detective Stories (1981)
• Cabaret (1972)
• Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1979)
• New in 2025! 40 Films In Robotech

You can also view this list on LETTERBOXD and see reviews of these films.