Transformers Prime cartoon reviews/comments (spoilers)

[SkyWarp91]

Saw some of the first episode with my incredibly slow capped internet.

Cool series.

Gonna have to go to a web cafe to watch the rest Also to play some CS:S!

[liegeprime]

Have you blocked out "Go with the Flow" from your memory?

Those were cro magnons pre humans, and well kinda necessary, kinda - coz these same pre humans made a Hero out of Dinobot. With the humans in every other line - Armada, Energon, Cyb, now this - the humans have yet to prove they are "necessary" or just decorative excuses. Besides its not like in BW they took the pre humans to live/hang out with em in their base all the time.

@Gok: yes Bumblebee is the new Mega minicon and will be sold in new sizeclass version - Minicon Deluxe

[GoktimusPrime]

True, but the kid doesn't have to know how to write binary or decipher electronic sounds. Why can't they be a normal kid for once? For once show us a standard dumb kid who just goes along for the ride without repairing something for the TF's (Sari anyone?).

Kids don't have to be dumb (we already had one incredibly stupid human companion with Daniel Witwicky) - but I agree that they don't all have to be Peter Parker-esque freakish geniuses either. Gets boring after a while. But hey, at least Rafael doesn't have superhuman strength as well (e.g. like when Chip Chase tore a floppy disk apart with his bare hands -- I' not sure if even Arnold Schwarzenegger could do that! )

But to be fair, there have been plenty of fairly average (i.e. not demonstrating 'super' intellectual or physical abilities) human companions of the Transformers. e.g.
+ Buster Witwicky
+ Sam Witwicky (a bit too average perhaps )
+ Spike Witwicky
+ Sparkplug Witwicky (comics only, cartoon Sparkplug was freakishly smart - being able to repair Cybertronians on par with Wheeljack and Ratchet. He even BUILT an Autobot shell once! How does someone this smart end up as an oil rig worker? Or a mechanic... or whatever the hell his job's meant to be)
+ Jesse
+ Minerva, Go Shuta, Cab, Cancer, Bullhorn and Wilder (aside from the powers given to them by their bracelets, they're ordinary humans - and of course they lost those powers after their Transtectors gained sentience)
+ Jan/Jean
+ Akira (ambiguous gender issues aside )
+ Onishi Yuuki (aka Koji)
+ Bradley "Rad" White, Carlos Lopez, Alexis Thi Dang, Billy and Fred.
+ Sally Jones, Misha
...etc etc.

Those were cro magnons pre humans, and well kinda necessary, kinda - coz these same pre humans made a Hero out of Dinobot. With the humans in every other line - Armada, Energon, Cyb, now this - the humans have yet to prove they are "necessary" or just decorative excuses. Besides its not like in BW they took the pre humans to live/hang out with em in their base all the time.

Tru dat. There were humans in Beast Wars, but I don't think they were as "token" as in other Transformer series.

[G1Optimal]

3 words...

I Like It.

[Sky Shadow]

Let me rephrase: Prime Bulkhead has made a much better first impression on me than Animated Bulkhead.


The faces don't bug me that much. Maybe cos the comic book got me acclimatised. I do find Optimus Prime's face to be the least appealing though. None of them have noses, but I think Prime's helmet central-ridge thingamajig doesn't descend far enough to act as a pseudo-nose (hence why it stands out more).

What do you guys think about them all having eyebrows though? I suspect this was done to help them facially emote. Interestingly enough, Megatron's massive 'brows coupled with his buckethead makes him look like Beast Wars Second Galvatron. Not sure if this was done as an intentional homage or if it's just a happy accident.


I can suspend disbelief in Rafael being a computer whizz-kid... fine... but understanding Bumblebee's buzzes?! That's a tad forced. :/ Especially considering that Rafael is too young to have used a dial-up modem, he probably has only ever used broadband his whole life. Unless he's a serious geek who had a dial-up modem just because he liked listening to it, and he can somehow decipher Bumblebee's buzzing from that... that... umm... a wizard did it!!

At least he isn't a pretend cripple like Chip Chase.


Erm, isn't Rafael the first tech geek kid we've seen since 1985? Unless you wanna count Una as a tech kid geek. (hey, she managed to sabotage the Predacons' Disruptor Cannon - not bad for a little nekkid ape )


I don't mind having humans in the show. One thing I like is seeing how humans react to the Transformers. Fowler's an interesting character though... reminds me of G1's Walter Barnett, only starting off with a MUCH friendlier relationship. And he's not a complete bumwipe like Galloway (as Optimus Prime pointed out, he's only acting with best interests at heart). It did strike me as strange that the kids could hang out at Autobot HQ up till 10PM without the kids thinking that their parents might worry!


They weren't walking... they were dawdling. Heh... that part did seem a bit silly to me. "I'm gonna _slowly_ amble up to you now and -- HEY -- they ran away!" d:


For extra cheese, they could have Dark Energon infused Megatron upgraded as: SHADOW COMMAND MEGATRON! oooOooOoOOOooOoOooHHhhH! Anyway, it's a relatively new concept for anyone who hasn't played War For Cybertron... the idea of corrupted and "evil" Energon - well, unless you include the Personality Destabiliser Device But Dark Energon is a way cooler concept! It made a zombie! Linking it with Transformers spiritual beliefs and Unicron was a nice touch IMO.


Yet they have eyebrows. Heheh, nah I agree... but still weird to see those "Pai Mei" eyebrows (Tarantino'd!).


Lol! That Mini-Con analogy is great! I almost forgot that the Mini-Cons didn't talk in the Armada cartoon (I always preferred the comics where they did talk).


Cos the kids were told to remain at base - which is the SENSIBLE thing to do! Unlike say, Daniel Witwicky, whose negligent parents let him gallivant all across the galaxy without adult supervision (Wheelie definitely does not equate to anything remotely akin to adult supervision ). Especially that episode of The Headmasters where there was some dangerous asteroid that the Autobots couldn't touch, so a human had to go in - Spike was injured so the choices where either another adult (Carly) or a child (Daniel). So naturally they elected for Daniel to carry out the mission.





I'm still not a great believer in creating Transformers as cartoon models first then engineering the toys based on those models. It really limits what toy designers can do because they're wrestling between making at toy look like its animation model alongside other real life toy factors (e.g. real life laws of physics, budget limits etc.). (-_-) Then you occasionally have recurring characters that are made for the show which NEVER have toys made (e.g. Animated Omega Supreme, Constructicons etc.) I much prefer HasTak design the toys first, then let the animators make models based on those toys.

i.e.: I'm looking forward to the toys too!



True, but as a kid I always loved seeing how humans reacted to the Transformers. I often used my Lego men as stand-in humans and have them react (i.e. totally freak out) to the Transformers as they transform, fight etc.


I like the orchestral music. <shrug>


Naw, compared to Beast Machines this series is really bright and uplifting! While this series is kinda dark in some places, I don't find it particularly brooding or emo... Beast Machines was very brooding and emo, but I don't really feel that with Prime. At least the Autobots fight back instead of hiding and running away from drones for an entire season!!! Although those drilling vehicles he Decepticon drones used was very reminiscent of the Vehicon drill-drones in Beast Machines.


I actually prefer it over G1. JMO

So... how's spending less "time TALKING about Transformers" going for you, Goki?

[Sharky]

was it just me or did it seem like every time prime spoke it was a "big speech" this might be the last time i have anything to say speach or they may take our homes but they will never take our freedom speech......

[mknell]

I only just watched the first EP & I quite enjoyed it

"Robot Fight Club"

This was my fave bit lol

[5FDP]

So... how's spending less "time TALKING about Transformers" going for you, Goki?

I was just going to ask the same thing

was it just me or did it seem like every time prime spoke it was a "big speech" this might be the last time i have anything to say speach or they may take our homes but they will never take our freedom speech......

You're not alone in this observation. I also found the music to be quite obtrusive. There would be this big heroic score playing when nothing much was really going on.

[i_amtrunks]

so..... that was different.

The ani9amtion was very good, fluid and the lip synch was better than I had hoped. The angular lines and general darkness of the overall style is very reminiscent of Beast Machines, and the backgrounds and towns while unpopulated (I can understand it from not only a design perspective, but also from a technical perspective) are more detailed than the teaser trailers indicated.

The character models are very unique, and I'll be very interested to see if the toys reflect their show counterparts as well as the Animated series. The designs are nice movie/animated amalgamations, although probably still a bit too movie for my personal tastes.
Starscream is a little "igor" for my likes, and the voice will take some getting used too. Welker's Megatron voice was superb, but Cullen's Prime was a little... too much. Everything he said seemed grave and important. Ratchet again looks to be the standout favourite character for me.

As for the content of the episodes themselves... the fight scenes were great, and I am as surprised as Griffin at the treatment Cliffjumper got, I don't think it was overly graphic or brutal, just surprising that we got a death (unless he survived the blast as well) so early from what looked to be a character that would have been pretty good to have around. I guess it showed the decepticon clones are tough in packs and in one on one situations they can be dangerous.

Certainly not a bad start for a new show, but I can see where it could be confusing for people to get Prime and the movie universe mixed up!

[GoktimusPrime]

So... how's spending less "time TALKING about Transformers" going for you, Goki?

My average posts per day is dropping (I think I was on about 18/day last week, now I'm down to about 14). I actually spent most of my computer time on the weekend playing WFC Multiplayer for the first time (as gekisou can atest ).

Back on topic...

and the backgrounds and towns while unpopulated (I can understand it from not only a design perspective, but also from a technical perspective) are more detailed than the teaser trailers indicated.

I have a friend whose family originally immigrated to Sydney from Nebraska and the town pretty much looks like how they've described Nebraska to me - one big, flat boring state.

The character models are very unique, and I'll be very interested to see if the toys reflect their show counterparts as well as the Animated series. The designs are nice movie/animated amalgamations, although probably still a bit too movie for my personal tastes.

I'm assuming that Hasbro's definitely going ahead with a toyline for Prime then. swoop mentioned on another thread that there wasn't going to be a toyline, which sounds ridiculous to me. Why bother investing in making a TF cartoon if there isn't going to be a toyline for it? (cos Transformers is first and foremost a toy franchise and Hasbro's core business is selling toys)

I'm not saying it would be impossible... but it would be mighty silly and I'd be quite miffed if there no toys for TF Prime. The cinematography is also quite movielike too (e.g. lots of steep high and low angle shots to give a sense of scale and portraying the Transformers as Giant Effing Robots(TM)) - the cinematography for when Optimus explains the Autobots to the humans is almost identical to the equivalent scene in the first Transformers movie.