TF Animated General Discussion

[STL]

STL: I find it amusing that you're far more forgiving toward Animated compared to your far less forgiving appraisal of Furman's work at IDW.

I hope I'm not going OT. If I am, feel free to move it mods.

The reason I'm less forgiving of the Animated concept is because I can understand the audience it's generated at and hence the limitations that I expect to impair it. It's like when you walk into McDonalds you don't expect the same service as you'd be when dining on Collins Street. I'm a harsh critic of today's cartoons for kids but when I measure TF Animated by those standards, I can accept the corny elements with Halloween, birthday parties etc b/c there's another audience they're evidently catering too. I'm not thrilled but I know that coming in. If I had it my way, the brat would be gone. Megatron would've exterminated her and her daddy. We'd be in the middle of an all out war between the Autobots and Decepticons with the hordes of both alliances converging on Earth. There wouldn't be thanksgiving or halloween or a birthday party. It'd be war. But of course, that's not animated. It's probably closer to IDW's G1.

Furman's IDW work on the other hand is directed to mature, devoted fans of G1. He is supposed to be a master of his craft. I think he's underperforming and hasn't adopted well to the serialised format. To him its still one ongoing series between his minis and his spotlights. However the retail reality isn't the same. They are minis. They need to be written like they are. I, hence, expect better.

That said, I've constantly said I'm a big fan of the IDW universe. It's the execution that has frustrated me. And there have been issues that I've liked and been glowing about like the Stormbringer mini, Escalation, Optimus/Blaster/Magnus/Nightbeat/Shockwave spotlights.

Anyway, if you saw Furman's run incorporating half of the Halloween, birthday, dumb professor, righteous brat (wait, didn't he do that with Verity) stuff, then if you think I'm harsh now, you'd be in for one heck of a surprise.

[GoktimusPrime]

The thing that continues to irk me with Animated is how it fails to adequately engage me as an adult audience member. While I appreciate that the show's target demographic audience is children, I don't see why it cannot be written at multiple levels where it can also simultaneously appeal to adults like Beast Wars.

[i_amtrunks]

The thing that continues to irk me with Animated is how it fails to adequately engage me as an adult audience member. While I appreciate that the show's target demographic audience is children, I don't see why it cannot be written at multiple levels where it can also simultaneously appeal to adults like Beast Wars.

That would require more effort though.

I seriously believe that the writers believe themselves to be doing enough for the older viewers with all the G1 nods and Easter eggs...

[kup]

G1 nods are not enough I reckon. To me having random nods like that with no purpose to the world and story feel forced and annoy me more than it pleases me, specially when its done as often as in animated.

Beast Machines tried throwing in random but pointless G1 tributes in places but it didn't do them any good because they were useless when it came to the context of the story and felt rather forced and random, particularly when the overall story was trying very hard to 'revolutionize' transformers into something radically different.
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Bmw N54 History

[GoktimusPrime]

I disagree - Beast Machines did try to blend itself into G1 and enhance G1 just as Beast Wars did. Arguably it wasn't executed as well, but they did make a similar attempt. For example:

+ Sparks, the AllSpark Matrix - again, continues on from canon established in Beast Wars which itself harks back to G1/G2. In Beast Machines we see Sparks making a journey back to the Matrix, which we also saw in G1 when Transformers ventured into the Matrix. Beast Machines establishes that all Sparks are destined to return to the Matrix, which harks back to Optimus Prime's famous words, "Till All Are One."
+ Technorganism: In the G1 episode "Dweller in the Depths" Cybertron is shown as having a technorganic core and the ancient inhabitants of Cybertron (creations of the Quintessons) being technorganic in nature. The G1 comics also showed an ancient race of "technorganic" looking creatures who also dwelled in the depths of Cybertron who surfaced when Cybertron was being "reborn" - they killed Battletrap and Runabout and got trounced by the Dinobots (the fight was Grimlock's first as a true Action Master).
+ The Oracle - who was later revealed to be a remanifestation of Vector Sigma - who in turn has been retconned as an "embodiment of Primus."

[kup]

I disagree - Beast Machines did try to blend itself into G1 and enhance G1 just as Beast Wars did. Arguably it wasn't executed as well, but they did make a similar attempt. For example:

+ Sparks, the AllSpark Matrix - again, continues on from canon established in Beast Wars which itself harks back to G1/G2. In Beast Machines we see Sparks making a journey back to the Matrix, which we also saw in G1 when Transformers ventured into the Matrix. Beast Machines establishes that all Sparks are destined to return to the Matrix, which harks back to Optimus Prime's famous words, "Till All Are One."
+ Technorganism: In the G1 episode "Dweller in the Depths" Cybertron is shown as having a technorganic core and the ancient inhabitants of Cybertron (creations of the Quintessons) being technorganic in nature. The G1 comics also showed an ancient race of "technorganic" looking creatures who also dwelled in the depths of Cybertron who surfaced when Cybertron was being "reborn" - they killed Battletrap and Runabout and got trounced by the Dinobots (the fight was Grimlock's first as a true Action Master).
+ The Oracle - who was later revealed to be a remanifestation of Vector Sigma - who in turn has been retconned as an "embodiment of Primus."

I understand what you are saying but I disagree. These 'tributes' were indeed present in Beast Machines as part of the plot but they were so freaking different in concept and execution (with the exception of the Allpark) that they may as well have called them anything they wanted and no one would have been able to tell the difference.

However when I made my comment before, what I had primarily in mind were the seemingly random tributes such as the numerous sparkless bodies of what looked like Soundwave, the Optimus Prime statues inexplicably holding the Golden discs and so on.
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Hot Box Vape

[GoktimusPrime]

...that was kinda Hasbro's fault. Mainframe were instructed to make a "fresh start" with Beast Machines and not make it a 'direct' continuation from any pre-existing TF canon, which I think was a really stupid decision, and given that I think Mainframe did admirably to try and heavily link it with G1, G2 and BW anyway. Then after that they we had over half a decade of badly dubbed TF shows from Japan with the entirely rebooted continuities which seemed to be more in line with what Hasbro wanted.

...I just don't get that. Part of the winning formula with Beast Wars was its strong ties with pre-existing TF canon and at the same time bringing something fresh and new to Transformers. Why drop it?? When the G1 cartoon, comics and toy line were cancelled, although I wasn't happy, I wasn't surprised either because I could see that the franchise was beginning to falter and popularity dwindling... but with Beast Wars, to me it looked like Hasbro pulled the plug on it during its prime - for why!?

...just another reason why I'd like to kick Archer in the janglies.

[kup]

...just another reason why I'd like to kick Archer in the janglies.

I am not sure if this is coincidental but things begun to change for the worse almost inmediately after Archer took over with strange things such as more organic monsters than robots in TM2 designs with notably inferior engineering even when compared to the first year of BW (Cheetor, Dinobot II). After that things only became worse with Beast Machines and their over simplified toy designs and reliance on sound and light gimmick on larger toys rather than engineering. Of course, the real killer were the confirmation that these creatures were no longer robots but morphing "technorganic" creatures which Archer as said many times that he is very proud of, so this sort of thing is more to his preference than Transforming robots.

Fortunately the Movie Autobots were an exception to this (even if some Decepticons did fall prey to mediocrity such as Voyager Starscream) same with the Classics but these toys were either designed by Takara or were under strict supervision from third party sponsors.

Animated is the latest toy line which is 100% Hasbro. I may have issues with the stylized designs but that can't be helped because its the style of the show. However I will keep an eye out on how well these toys are designed and engineering when it comes to playability and transformations.

If the Animated toys end up being substandard with over reliance on simplified engineering and gimmicks then it will really say a lot about the Archer regime when it comes to Transformers.
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Toyota Park (Bridgeview)

[TheDirtyDigger]

Be nice if they did a serious cartoon with a decent level of animation for older fans while keeping the excrement that is Animated for the two years and younger audience it is so obviously designed for.
I bring my own children up with a healthy diet of mentally nutritious animation but even they blanch at having to swallow this tripe.

Not a fan.

Gok you can kick A.Archer in the janglies all you like....
Me.....I'm aiming for the face.

[GoktimusPrime]

I would never recommend kicking anyone to the head if you value your own janglies...