GI Joe Resolute

[SilverDragon]

If GI Joe Resolute becomes successful, all the arguments of Transformers being a kid's toyline, while true, would become moot because G.I. Joe is also a kid's toyline aimed at the same demographic market!

However, this cartoon is not, in fact, aimed at the same demographic market.

Also, I fail to understand the maturity of this cartoon, which from the comments here appears to stem mainly from buttloads of people dying and Cobra Commander being scary.

Of course, maybe I should actually watch it.

[Lord_Zed]

However, this cartoon is not, in fact, aimed at the same demographic market.

Also, I fail to understand the maturity of this cartoon, which from the comments here appears to stem mainly from buttloads of people dying and Cobra Commander being scary.

Of course, maybe I should actually watch it.

Yes watching it would probably help.

You are correct that the show is aimed at an older market being part of Adult Swim's lineup.

The show was rated TV-14V in the US because of its somewhat graphic depiction of violence. It's different from the cartoons of old where everyone used laserguns and the badguys just got stunned. Snake Eyes delivering killing blows and setting a trap using a dead/unconscious Cobra trooper is not the sort of thing you see in most kids cartoons.

Wether or not the story line is more mature remains to be seen, but If you want to get into a general debate about maturity and how it pertains to the world of film and television that's a whole different can of worms.

[GoktimusPrime]

However, this cartoon is not, in fact, aimed at the same demographic market.

Umm... yeah, that's the point. (-_-)

This cartoon demonstrates that Hasbro is willing to allow a cartoon to be made for adults based on one of their toylines which they are marketing at children. Transformers is also a Hasbro toyline which they market at children, hence I'd like to see a Transformers cartoon that is marketed at adult fans just as G.I. Joe Resolute is clearly marketed at adult Joe fans, and not primarily at the children who buy the toys.

Ever since the end of Beast Wars and Beast Machines, we've received nothing but kid-oriented cartoon series for Transformers - and the justification has long been the fact that Transformers is a brand/franchise that is primarily for children. Although Animated has recently improved, I was put off by Season 1 and parts of Season 2 due to the juvenile nature of the writing - and again, the rationale given was, "it's for kids." But G.I. Joe Resolute has now established a whole new precedent which I'm really hoping that Hasbro will follow up with Transformers.

We know that Season 3 will be the final season of Animated and that, for better or worse, Hasbro is wrapping that series up. So I'm personally hoping that Hasbro will follow up with the next TF series being more adult-focused like Resolute.

If not, I will happily settle for a half-adult focused series like Beast Wars (and like Clone Wars, although I reckon that's more of a creative decision from Lucasfilm not Hasbro). Of course, the last time Hasbro gave us a more adult-centric Transformers TV series we got Beast Machines, which ultimately failed for various reasons... but I think that following in the footsteps of G.I. Joe Resolute ought to do better than Beast Machines because it's starting a whole new fresh continuity, yet keeping true to the core nature of what makes G.I. Joe successful. Beast Machines' problem was that it was too ambitious and took Transformers to an entirely new level that wasn't popular with a lot of fans. It also suffered from some character-continuity issues (e.g. Rhinox suddenly becoming evil and Megatron suddenly being "good" for absolutely no apparent reason). But so long as Hasbro avoids those mistakes and learns from the strengths of G.I. Joe Resolute and applies it to Transformers, I don't see why it shouldn't be successful.

The show was rated TV-14V in the US because of its somewhat graphic depiction of violence. It's different from the cartoons of old where everyone used laserguns and the badguys just got stunned. Snake Eyes delivering killing blows and setting a trap using a dead/unconscious Cobra trooper is not the sort of thing you see in most kids cartoons.

It'd still pass for prime-time in Japan. Imagine if they did G.I. Joe or Transformers in a similar style as seen in the adult animé time slot (usually shown close to or after midnight) that they have there and produce stuff with the level of violence of Hellsing. (Advisory: Link points to video clip rated MA15+ by OFLC)

[Lord_Zed]

Prime time Anime is the same though, made for an older audience than kids.

If they made GI Joe as violent as Hellsing they'd run out of characters.

Mind you both the old Transformers comic and the GI Joe comic could be quite violent for what they were at times. How many times did Megatron or Galvatron rip an enemy's head of? And then there was things like Saw Viper puting a burst of his heavy machine gun through Docs face in GI Joe.

Not sure who's animating Resolute but unfortunately in the past when the Japanese produce Transformers and GI Joe we get the Armada Triloligy and Sigma Six.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYJNY...eature=related

[MV75]

Cool!

Gi-Joe x-over 24.

C'mon, I seriously arn't the first to see that right?

[SilverDragon]

I watched the first episode. I'm sorry, but I cannot take any of it seriously, least of all Cobra Commander. Even though he wields frightening power, he still looks like a member of Team Rocket.

Umm... yeah, that's the point. (-_-)

This cartoon demonstrates that Hasbro is willing to allow a cartoon to be made for adults based on one of their toylines which they are marketing at children. Transformers is also a Hasbro toyline which they market at children, hence I'd like to see a Transformers cartoon that is marketed at adult fans just as G.I. Joe Resolute is clearly marketed at adult Joe fans, and not primarily at the children who buy the toys.

Yeah...one problem there: Kids don't care about GI Joe.

I think I'll let Chris McFeely take over at this point, because he has an interesting point to make regarding a Resolute-style TF show:

It's pretty unlikely we'll see anything like Resolute for Transformers, and the reason why is pretty simple: at this point in time, as has been the case for a few years now, kids don't really give a shit about G.I. Joe. After the basic failure of it's attempt to emulate Armada's success with an Anime-style reboot, it undid every change that Sigma Six wrought upon the franchise and immediately reverted to a 25th anniversary line that is, for all intents and purpose, almost entirely targeted at adult collectors. "Resolute" is playing to the only audience G.I.Joe HAS - the adult one - because they don't need to WORRY about how it's percieved by children.

Transformers, on the other hand, is still a HUGE thing with kids, and targeted at them above all else. They'd NEVER get away with making an adult-targeted cartoon for a property that is supposed to be for children, because kids will want to WATCH it, and that'll cause ALL kindsa backlash from parents. Hasbro never takes that kind of risk - it's because children matter above else that things like convention toys and stuff that will never logically be AVAILABLE to children still have to pass safety tests and all of that. Kids come first.

Even then, frankly, I don't really think I'd want to watch such a thing. While Resolute is lovely to look at and enjoyable enough, it's also terribly fanficcy, like some twentysomething reinvented G.I. Joe with OOOH VIOLENCE because it's ADULT and GRITTY. Joe, at least, is about human, military men and women fighting terrorists. Transformers is about shape-changing alien robots from space. It doesn't pull it off as well (just as, conversely, the G1 cartoon carried off silly sci-fi plots a HELL of a lot better than the Joe cartoon ever did).

(source)

[GoktimusPrime]

While I respect McFeely as a very knowledgeable fan, I think his appraisal is somewhat of a hyperbole. G.I. Joe, as a toy franchise, is still being marketed at kids. The toys are still being sold in toy stores and department stores, not collector stores unlike other toys marketed directly at adult collectors like DC Direct, Transformers Sport & Music Label etc. I think there is possibly some truth in that G.I. Joe may have a larger adult fan base, but so would Star Wars. I don't know enough about G.I. Joe or have ever seen any statistics to tell what the child:adult fandom ratio would be - but I would be surprised if the G.I. Joe fandom was completely comprised of adults.

Having said that, Feely does have a point in saying that Transformers does still have a massive child fanbase. And historically Transformers didn't do so well when it became too adult (re: Beast Machines). Hence why I said that the ideal solution would be some kind of balance like we had with Beast Wars - and that we've seen in a lot of other franchises like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Batman: The Brave and the Bold etc. It is possible to have Transformers simultaneously appeal to both children and adults if they try.

[FFN]

While I respect McFeely as a very knowledgeable fan, I think his appraisal is somewhat of a hyperbole. G.I. Joe, as a toy franchise, is still being marketed at kids. The toys are still being sold in toy stores and department stores, not collector stores unlike other toys marketed directly at adult collectors like DC Direct, Transformers Sport & Music Label etc. I think there is possibly some truth in that G.I. Joe may have a larger adult fan base, but so would Star Wars. I don't know enough about G.I. Joe or have ever seen any statistics to tell what the child:adult fandom ratio would be - but I would be surprised if the G.I. Joe fandom was completely comprised of adults.

Having said that, Feely does have a point in saying that Transformers does still have a massive child fanbase. And historically Transformers didn't do so well when it became too adult (re: Beast Machines). Hence why I said that the ideal solution would be some kind of balance like we had with Beast Wars - and that we've seen in a lot of other franchises like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Batman: The Brave and the Bold etc. It is possible to have Transformers simultaneously appeal to both children and adults if they try.

Hasbro isn't a small collector toy company, so they barely sell directly to collectors or through collector chains regardless of the item, because they prefer to deal in large volumes to major retailers. They sell to retailers, then they let the retailers worry about how to flog them. The only time they bother doing "direct to collector" nonsense is when it's a convention or HTS exclusive or they can't find a brick & mortar retailer willing to carry the product (for example, the entire GI Joe DTC line). Last I saw, they don't market the 25th Anniversary line to kids. In fact, the movie line will be the first kid-marketing GI Joe line since Sigma 6.

GI Joe is much more dependent on their adult collectors than Transformers, largely why much of GI Joe fiction is comic books rather than kids cartoons.

And last I checked Animated was pretty damn well received among kids and adults.

[kup]

Hasbro isn't a small collector toy company, so they barely sell directly to collectors or through collector chains regardless of the item, because they prefer to deal in large volumes to major retailers. They sell to retailers, then they let the retailers worry about how to flog them. The only time they bother doing "direct to collector" nonsense is when it's a convention or HTS exclusive or they can't find a brick & mortar retailer willing to carry the product (for example, the entire GI Joe DTC line). Last I saw, they don't market the 25th Anniversary line to kids. In fact, the movie line will be the first kid-marketing GI Joe line since Sigma 6.

GI Joe is much more dependent on their adult collectors than Transformers, largely why much of GI Joe fiction is comic books rather than kids cartoons.

And last I checked Animated was pretty damn well received among kids and adults.

[Lint]

^lawl, cracks me up everytime