TF Animated General Discussion

[Hereticpoo]

Its not as bad as I thought it would be. Remember its aimed at 10 yr olds, and its a toy commercial. I like how all the characters contribute to the story with their own 'personalities'. Unlike G1, where it was all 'What now prime' and "What is your command Megatron'. I love G1 and at the time it was great, but for a whole bunch of kids this is the transformers that in 20 years will spawn Masterpiece Animated Bumblebee and KO Animated Primes and repaints, repaints and repaints. I think its good for todays kids, but I'm still happy with G1, primes disappearing trailer and all!

[1orion2many]

The thought of this cartoon spawning a Masterpiece really scares me. I am stupid enough to buy the toys from this line but mainly because they are Transformers and not because I think they are anything brilliant. I may change my mind about the toys once I get my hands on them but as for the cartoon, I have a white porcelain thing I sit on which is where it should be flushed.

[kup]

Its not as bad as I thought it would be. Remember its aimed at 10 yr olds, and its a toy commercial. I like how all the characters contribute to the story with their own 'personalities'. Unlike G1, where it was all 'What now prime' and "What is your command Megatron'. I love G1 and at the time it was great, but for a whole bunch of kids this is the transformers that in 20 years will spawn Masterpiece Animated Bumblebee and KO Animated Primes and repaints, repaints and repaints. I think its good for todays kids, but I'm still happy with G1, primes disappearing trailer and all!

At this point in time, I seriously doubt that this cartoon will have any more impact than Armada, Energon or Cybertron in 20 years time.

Its pointless to say that something is good because it is better than a 20 year old cartoon. The point here is to move forwards not backwards. The Animation of this show is atrocious to say the least and although it has good story aspects to it, it is yet to balance out with the bad aspects in my opinion.

It is still considerably inferior to previous much older cartoons and that is a disappointment to me. Just because it seems better than the post 2001 TF cartoons doesn't immediately mean that its good.

That's how I see it.
________
Amc amx

[liegeprime]

saw it on you tube... im waiting for the toys.. especially the Jay Leno Starscream - hope the toys have the gimmicks of their weapons like in bulkheads case that wrecker ball. Wonder what scale will the toys be? - Bumblebee - scout no doubt. One thing Ive noticed though Hasbro seemed to be enjoying using the Gorilla model lately for its characters -e.g. Cyb. Crumplezone - well it works anyway no argument from me there, I like it. Hope they make a decent Arcee - if there will be one. Anyways Im buying the toys hehehe. Sigh I'll need another set of shelves elae id be cropping the TFs again on the existing ones hmmmmm

[GoktimusPrime]

especially the Jay Leno Starscream

Wahahahahaha!

[Borgeman]

just looked at screamers face again - his expression is similar to those of the units in Team Fortress 2

George

[Hereticpoo]

At this point in time, I seriously doubt that this cartoon will have any more impact than Armada, Energon or Cybertron in 20 years time.

Its pointless to say that something is good because it is better than a 20 year old cartoon. The point here is to move forwards not backwards. The Animation of this show is atrocious to say the least and although it has good story aspects to it, it is yet to balance out with the bad aspects in my opinion.

It is still considerably inferior to previous much older cartoons and that is a disappointment to me. Just because it seems better than the post 2001 TF cartoons doesn't immediately mean that its good.

That's how I see it.

Pointless? I think waiting for Hasbro to move G1 forward is pointless. What cartoons are you thinking of? Robotech/Macross, The Incredible Hulk? I like that Megatron, the most powerfull weapon in the Universe, doesn't shrink into a pea shooter. I like the lack of anime 'magic'. In the 1986 TF movie Devastator is standing full height in the back of Astrotrain. In the G1 cartoons Omega Supreme's arm flies to Cybertron in Rocket mode, and his body is magically waiting for him. In the 86 movie Megatron rides in to kill Starscream sitting in Cyclonus, then in bot mode they are the same size.

I agree with Marty Isenberg, the current story editor;

"So let the old timers wail, drape themselves in ash and sackcloth. This Transformers, as Isenberg noted, is not for them. And I get the feeling it will do quite well with its own generation of fans. "

(Article link: http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=140125 )

[Robzy]

"So let the old timers wail, drape themselves in ash and sackcloth. This Transformers, as Isenberg noted, is not for them. And I get the feeling it will do quite well with its own generation of fans. "

What I find particularly funny is how similar Transformers Animated is to the "Challenge of the GoBots" series!

For example, the show is essentially about a small core unit of friendly "guardians" protecting earth (with humans fully aware of that) from danger/evil. They have very cartoonish faces (including eyeballs of sorts) and cartoony designs. They also 'emote' in their vehicular modes like the GoBots did - Bumblebee's arms for example.

Also, they all transform in to vehicles (like GoBots) with nary an objectformer (or "Real Gear" ) in sight!

Leader-1 was a young leader who had big aspirations. He felt he had more to offer, and made rash (and not always good) decisions. Animated Optimus seems very similar... he doesn't have the "authority" of G1 Prime! Bumblebee is the cute human sidekick (Scooter), Bulkhead is the big loveable oaf (Turbo), and Ratchet and Prowl remind me of several characters... Zeemon and Heatseeker/Royal-T respectively. Also, Prime is not in charge (neither was Leader-1) - they both answer to superiors!

And the baddies are similar too... Starscream displayed characteristics of a blend of Cy-Kill and Fitor... lots of grandstanding and treachery, but then Starscream has always been like that, so I guess it's okay! Blackarchnia was sassy like Crasher (sans the laughing), and Lugnut was the big dumb brute (Cop-Tur). At least Blitzwing and Megatron were unique!

For many years a lot of Transformers fans absolutely panned GoBots - and now, particularly in the US, they are lapping up a similar concept! And worse... they're calling it "new"!

[dirge]

Maybe no impact to you, but this has the makings of g1 for this generation, and I think you seriously have forgotten that.

There's no way this is the "G1 for this generation". It's just another Transformers cartoon. The G1 of today - if anything - is the live action movie. Animated does not highlight the whole "robots in disguise" that defines Transformers - and ultimately, is reason why the concept has thrived. The live action film - and G1 - gave us alternate modes which allowed the Transformers to hide on Earth. Yes, G1 did that within the boundaries of cartoons at the time, which wasn't perfect, but there were numerous examples of the Transformers fooling humans with their alt modes - and examples of Transformers mistaking cars for Autobots.

Animation atrocious? Give me a break. Your precious beast wars had worse cgi than the last starfighter, and looked like candy land.

Keep in mind that - for the time - Beast Wars used state of the art cartoon animation techniques, and Reboot was the only previous cartoon which had tried full CGI. Beast Wars was pushing boundaries in animation for 1996. Of course, CGI animation has improved with computing power. Is Animated using cutting edge animation techniques? That's the comparison you should be making.

I like the lack of anime 'magic'.

But then, this is a cartoon which doesn't even try to ground itself in reality. Everything is stylised. The alternate modes are expressive. What you're referring to is the concept of cartoon physics, which has been a common theme of almost every Transformers series from G1 through to Armada (and that teleport thing the Autobots would use), although Beast Wars & Beast Machines made an effort to avoid it. The emotive alternate modes take this cartoon away from the concept of Robots In Disguise far more than mass shifting in G1 or the teleporting which was so prevalent in Armada.

The thing that really strikes me about Animated is how drastic a change of direction this represents, from Classics, Cybertron and _especially_ the live action movie. The Movie has done tremendously well, and the toys have flown off the shelves. Hasbro has basically taken this success and thrown it away by following up with a Transformers concept that is entirely different and is _not_ incorporating the strengths of the film - and associated toyline - at all. Whether or not it's a good cartoon (or good toys), it's not a the ideal followup to the film.

[GoktimusPrime]

I agree. I was really hoping that the follow-up cartoon would take cues from the movie, much like the Batman and Spiderman animated series which came after those respective movies.

Hereticpoo: Hasbro doesn't particularly care about advancing the G1 story line or not - they just want the toys to sell. It's up to the writers as to whether or not they want to advance the story. That's kinda what happened with Beast Wars - Hasbro initially just released those toys with a lame background story about how the Transformers became animals. Mainframe were like, "yeah okay, let's try something new" and the rest is history. The problem with Beast Machines is that it boxed itself into a corner with its ending It is possible to continue from Beast Machines, but it sure wouldn't be easy.

Another possibility would be to insert the new series into some other existing time era... like post-G2/pre-BW. I would love for a new series to detail the final stages of the Great Autobot-Decepticon War, leading to the decisive defeat of the Decepticons - and you could even have a second season detailing the early years after Pax Cybertronia... the whole cultural shift and clean up ... the rise of the Maximals and Predacons, with the Maximals establishing political dominance on Cybertron leaving the Predacons feeling politically under-represented and somewhat 'oppressed'... and uncomfortable era of 'peace' like the former Soviet Union with feelings of dissent that would one day lead to the Beast Wars.

A story reboot isn't necessarily bad, but it needs to be done right. Armada rebooted continuity and I didn't think it was done that well. Animated is another reboot and I thought the first ep was okay... but still early days. :/