Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad: Team Samurai - The Legend Begins (partially found cancelled direct-to-video movie; 1995)

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Team Samurai Logo.png

The logo of the Direct-to-video movie

Status: Partially Found

Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad: Team Samurai - The Legend Begins (or Team Samurai - The Legend Begins) is a cancelled 1995 direct-to-video movie, based on the series Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.

Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad was an American TV series that aired in syndication from 1994 to 1995, and also on the ABC network, for a single season of 53 episodes. The series was an adaptation of the Japanese tokusatsu series Denkou Choujin Gridman (translated to Electronic Warrior Gridman) which was produced by Tsuburaya Productions. The American series was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, Ultracom, and D.I.C. Entertainment, with distribution done by All American Television.

Plot

The series was about a group of four high school kids who wield cyberspace-based powers and vehicles, and face viruses (in the form of monsters) that attack the inside of electronic systems, to cause chaos and havoc, that unknown to the protagonists are created by a classmate and brought to life by an evil cyberspace dwelling entity named Kilokahn (voiced by Tim Curry). The main hero Sam (played by Matthew Lawrence of Boy Meets World fame), becomes an armor welding warrior named Servo (similar to Ultraman) in cyberspace. The other three who are Syd, Tanker, and Amp (who left partway through and was replaced by Lucky) pilot weapons that also can combine with Servo to make him stronger and wield more powerful weapons to defeat the threats and return cyberspace (which they refer to often as The Grid) back to normal. This was usually connected to or ran alongside a real-world issue the teens had at home or at school.

Availability

The series was released on three VHS tapes, each containing a pair of episodes around 1994-1995. They were named after 3 episodes of the show, despite each tape containing 2 episodes. They were To Servo & Protect, The Glitch That Stole Christmas & A Skorn In Their Side.

Also, the series was released in 2 volumes in region 1 (US & Canada) onto DVD. Volume 1 was released on February 19th, 2013 & and Volume 2 was released October 1st of that same year. The DVDs make no mention of the cancelled film, of any sort, nor is there any bonus material on the discs, with any clues.

The only evidence of this film that exists is a short teaser, that was on the beginning of the 3 VHS tapes of the episodes that were released, as well as some other released home video media of the time, like Gargoyles The Movie in 1995.

It more than likely was cancelled due to the ratings for the series, and toy sales of their related toy line, not doing as well as expected by the producers, especially in the wake of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, hence the series and the movie were cancelled. No other information about this movie is available, as of this posting.

Gallery

Opening to Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad: To Servo & Protect 1994 VHS (Teaser starts at 0:29 second mark).