Fans of science fiction, especially the kind that involves large space creatures tearing soldiers into bloody pieces, have often cited the 1959 Robert Heinlein novel Starship Troopers as one of the early precursors for that brand of the horror/sci-fi sub-genre.

It makes sense, since the original novel was hugely influential on James Cameron’s Aliens, and in 1997, Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven took on Heinlein’s concepts with a big budget action movie that helped launch the careers of Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer and Denise Richards to a new level among genre fans.

In the 15 years since then, a number of people have managed to produce a couple straight-to-DVD sequels of varying qualities and a cartoon series which brings us to Starship Troopers: Invasion, a computer-animated action movie that continues the story using a style that’s somewhat inspired by Japanese anime. That last bit may be attributed to its director, Shinji Aramaki, the man behind classic animes Appleseed, and Appleseed Ex-Machina as well as Halo Legends.

"Invasion" once again stars Johnny Rico, Carmen Ibanez and Carl Jenkins, but this time they’re joined by a whole new team of starship troopers taking on the "Bugs" as they try to rescue survivors at a Federation outpost under attack.

A few weeks back at Comic-Con International in San Diego, ShockTillYouDrop.com had a chance to speak with the main creative team behind the animated sequel: director Shinji Aramaki and executive producers Edward Neumeier--screenwriter of the original Starship Troopers screenplay who has remained involved as a producer on the additional films--and Casper Van Dien, Johnny Rico himself. (Van Dien didn’t provide the voice of Rico in the animated movie for some reason.)

You can watch that video interview over on ShockTIllYouDrop.com.

Starship Troopers: Invasion hits DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes on Tuesday, August 28.