Transformers Prime cartoon reviews/comments (spoilers)

[liegeprime]

Okay I kinda like it, so far.....kinda - except for it having token humans ... again, sigh. I hate token human allies.....they take valuable screen time off the bots... I know, I know it's a kiddie aimed show..... I say if it's a "realism" thingie they were aiming for, Im just saying.....fine... it's a kids show

The Negatives so far.

1. Token human allies - why is it all kids? Isnt there like any adult for once in the mix..... jeez, dont they know they set a bad example again ( like in Cybertron) that these "children" are out gallivanting to who knows where, and what parents keep track of em with just celphone calls, that's it? Oh and you know no humans will ever get hurt - not even a single scratch. cmoooon - fighting hard metal here, human casualty, even off screen cmooooon.

2. How stupid are those cons in the first episode to go after the kids BY WALKING TO THEM TO CAPTURE THEM instead of just shoot em where they stand and be DONE with it? like laser fire can't be slower than kids legs running - cmooooonthey got short legs people, they cant run fast enough to dodge laser fire - evn if they dont use sensors to shoot at em a ten feet laser sweep is certain to hit em or at least take a couple of limbs off or jeez just transform in car mode and run over the little bastards!

3. Dark energon - hmmm just like hasbro - recolor something in black and its either "dark", "Nega", "stealth" this and that, sigh.

3. No nosebots - this i can understand - THEY DONT BREATH!! so no need for it, finally they get it!! Get used to it guys.

4. Non talking bumblebee - its a very large MINICON! and that Raf kid can understand him perfectly - wow talk about.... geeez. Which planet is that kid from? coz he's certainly not HUMAN! - I dont think even Stephen Hawking can understand - "dot di dot. poot, dot ting ting " yet somehow this Raf kid can, really now?

5. Autobots can't even save one of their own (Cliff) and yet these kids( and every other token human ally) never gets killed cmoooooonn -

Some positives.....some

Soundwave is so ominously mysterious and Starscream's not so bad too - even if he has spindly limbs. The voices I can live with.
Megatron - hmmm, take cue from the various Megsys - erm like a friend of mine has said - looks like a robotic little shop of horrors' monster plant with massive teeth eheheh - now that's a villain.

I can't wait for the toy line. Very interested how they will translate the look into real live toys. I was really amazed how they did it in Animated so it's a wait and see for this if its going to be pass or fail

Jeez, well its early on in the show so we'll see. Overall, its ok, it might get interesting later on much like how beast wars story got interesting later on. Oh but wait, there's no annoying token "human characters" in BW which prolly explains why its the best TF storyline so far, ever with TF Animated being second in my book. Hopefully the storyline will be good for this one to compensate for it having token humans ( who'll never get squished -seriously, even in an all out blast fight war?, cmooooon) in the show

[SilverDragon]

I wrote up a more detailed analysis of what I thought about the show here, but in a nutshell, I found it to be mediocre with a very nice presentation.

Yeah, this Bulkhead is a big improvement over the one we saw in Animated.

He hardly did anything aside from say one-liners and shoot things. How is that an improvement?

[SMHFConvoy]

When you think about it the main human characters are an even representation of Transformers consumers: kids, teens and adults be they male and female.

Re: Soundwave I don't know if I'd even apply gender to this iteration of Soundwave, it makes him just a bit more creepy. If he can speak (and not just mimic or play back voices) I figure it would be Frank Welker...

[Paulbot]

Oh but wait, there's no annoying token "human characters" in BW ...

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

[kaiden]

Seriously why does every TF show need a 10 year-old tech-geek?

because kids like kids more. cause then they can pretend to be the kids on the show.

[Sky Shadow]

because kids like kids more. cause then they can pretend to be the kids on the show.

That's unnecessary. Kids cut out the middle 'man' and pretend to be Transformers. They still have imaginations (unlike your average TV executives.)

(I know as a kid I wanted to be Blitzwing or Grimlock. I never wanted to be Spike or Daniel.)

[VERT]

That's unnecessary. Kids cut out the middle 'man' and pretend to be Transformers. They still have imaginations (unlike your average TV executives.)

(I know as a kid I wanted to be Blitzwing or Grimlock. I never wanted to be Spike or Daniel.)

So true I was the same and so were all my friends.

[Lint]

I'm not really impressed yet. But like the original beast wars if given enough time it could develop into something good.

A 'few' things that irk me:
-Overuse of dramatic cinematic music. I found this comical in Orci and Kurtzman's Star Trek remake but its just plain annoying here. I hope they tone this right down in future episodes.
-The whole atmosphere seems very broody and emo. The lack of hope or optimism is kind of stifling.
-Star Trekky sound effects whenever anyone shoots stuff.
-Welker's interpretation of the modern cold-and-calculating Megatron. It's almost painful hearing this voice subdued when you're used to the maniacal screams and laughter

They're really going for the dark and gritty mood in this new series and for now its really overbearing. It's like watching an episode of CSI:NY (or so i've been told)

On the upside, the character models aren't annoying me as much as I thought they would. I reckon Starscream is the best of all the fresh characterisations in this series.

[GoktimusPrime]

How exactly? Bulkhead barely did anything in these two episodes and yet somehow you think it's a "big improvement"? I'd rather watch clumsy good-natured Animated Bulkhead anyday. So far the Prime characters don't look like they will have any fun. Not surprising when the five of them are apparently the only Autobots left.

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

2 things annoy me though: the transformers mouths/faces (why can't they be robotic like the rest of their body, they just look wrong),

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.

and the little know-it-all kid who can translate Bumblebee's voice and fix computers.

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.

Seriously why does every TF show need a 10 year-old tech-geek?

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 )

1. Token human allies - why is it all kids? Isnt there like any adult for once in the mix..... jeez, dont they know they set a bad example again ( like in Cybertron) that these "children" are out gallivanting to who knows where, and what parents keep track of em with just celphone calls, that's it? Oh and you know no humans will ever get hurt - not even a single scratch. cmoooon - fighting hard metal here, human casualty, even off screen cmooooon.

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!

2. How stupid are those cons in the first episode to go after the kids BY WALKING TO THEM TO CAPTURE THEM instead of just shoot em where they stand and be DONE with it? like laser fire can't be slower than kids legs running - cmooooonthey got short legs people, they cant run fast enough to dodge laser fire - evn if they dont use sensors to shoot at em a ten feet laser sweep is certain to hit em or at least take a couple of limbs off or jeez just transform in car mode and run over the little bastards!

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:

3. Dark energon - hmmm just like hasbro - recolor something in black and its either "dark", "Nega", "stealth" this and that, sigh.

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.

3. No nosebots - this i can understand - THEY DONT BREATH!! so no need for it, finally they get it!! Get used to it guys.

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

4. Non talking bumblebee - its a very large MINICON! and that Raf kid can understand him perfectly - wow talk about.... geeez. Which planet is that kid from? coz he's certainly not HUMAN! - I dont think even Stephen Hawking can understand - "dot di dot. poot, dot ting ting " yet somehow this Raf kid can, really now?

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).

5. Autobots can't even save one of their own (Cliff) and yet these kids( and every other token human ally) never gets killed cmoooooonn -

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 can't wait for the toy line. Very interested how they will translate the look into real live toys. I was really amazed how they did it in Animated so it's a wait and see for this if its going to be pass or fail

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!

That's unnecessary. Kids cut out the middle 'man' and pretend to be Transformers. They still have imaginations (unlike your average TV executives.)

(I know as a kid I wanted to be Blitzwing or Grimlock. I never wanted to be Spike or Daniel.)

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.

-Overuse of dramatic cinematic music. I found this comical in Orci and Kurtzman's Star Trek remake but its just plain annoying here. I hope they tone this right down in future episodes.

I like the orchestral music. <shrug>

-The whole atmosphere seems very broody and emo. The lack of hope or optimism is kind of stifling.

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.

-Welker's interpretation of the modern cold-and-calculating Megatron. It's almost painful hearing this voice subdued when you're used to the maniacal screams and laughter

I actually prefer it over G1. JMO

[shokwave2]

because kids like kids more. cause then they can pretend to be the kids on the show.

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?).

The "no noses" robots don't bother me, it's just that they look like something organic dressed up. A whiteish blob mouth with a helmet on just doesn't look right to me.