RID Cartoon screenshots & episode details (season 1)

[griffin]

Just following up on the previous post, the first 13 episodes are indeed available for viewing in China online, but only preview clips are available to non-Chinese viewers.

Links can be found here if you wanted to try them out.

Also included are the episode synopsis of those first 13 episodes, so spoilers there, and here...


Episode 1
An image of Optimus Prime instructs Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Strongarm to head to earth. Fixit's Prisonship has crashed landed on earth and inmates scattered all over the planet. Denny and Russell are father and son living in Crown City whose hobby is collecting old vehicles and running a scrapyard.

Episode 2
Bumblebee and his team befriends an escaped Decepticon prisoner; Dinobot Grimlock. Underbite and Tusk terrorize Crown City and Denny and Russell uses an old aluminum car as a bait to lure them away into a trap. At a critical moment Optimus Prime appears. Optimus and Bumblebee now leads the team into battle.

Episode 3
A hammerhead shark has attacked a Crown City Oil Tanker. Paranoia grips the entire planet. The shark turns out to be Decepticon Hammerstrike. Bumblebee and Grimlock teams up to defeat him. However, Strongarm doesn't trust Grimlock entirely and Grimlock leaves.

Episode 4
A Decepticon prisoner named Butcher steals appliances to build a spacecraft to leave earth. Bumblebee and his team heads to arrest him with the help from Fix-it.

Episode 5
Decepticon Prisoner Pod was discovered in Crown City Natural History Museum. Denny and Russell disguise themselves as archeologists to investigate. A bison-shaped Deception attacks pedestrians and Bumblebee and his team must stop him.

Episode 6
Thunderhoof is disguised as a mythological deer monster and commands humans to collect materials to build a Spacebridge to go back to Cybertron. An accident traps Bumblebee and Sideswipe in the portal. Thunderhoof is transported to somewhere else and meets Grimlock

Episode 7
Pickpocket; a bird-shaped Decepticon is stealing from pedestrians. It’s up to Bumblebee and his team to capture him. Strongarm realizes that her partners are more important than rules and regulations.

Episode 8
One of Steeljaw's minions; a lice-shaped Decepticon attaches himself to Grimloack and gains control of his mind. Bumblebee and Spideswipe must find a way to detach him from Grimlock. Steeljaw and Tusk escapes.

Episode 9
Strongarm is on patrol alone for the first time trying to track a frog-shaped Decepticon who still thinks that he’s in Cybertron trying to find The Lost City. Bumblebee is secretly following Strongarm to help her if needed.

Episode 10
Autobot Jazz arrives to investigate an earthworm-like Decepticon burrowing tunnels on earth to collect Energon. Bumblebee and his team use Energon crystals as bait to capture the Decepticon.

Episode 11
Bumblebee is poisoned during a fight and acts like a child. A herd of Elephants in the Zoo is released by the Decepticon. Bumblebee and Grimlock rides the elephants to bring them back to the Zoo.

Episode 12
Two Cybertronian spacecrafts landed on the west side of the Crown forest. Autobots are hunting Fracture. Drift saves Bumblebee and his team and Bumblebee thanks him after the battle. However, Fracture manages to escape.

Episode 13
A crab-like Decepticon named Clampdown appears in Crown City's flood control channel and is rallying other Decepticons to hunt for hidden treasure. Steeljaw requests Clampdown to join with him.

[lancalot]

i really like the new style .... can't wait for it to be released ....

[CBratron]

I'm okay with what I've seen so far but I still think Prime had enough unexplored themes to last another season or two.

[GoktimusPrime]

RUMOUR
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John DiMaggio will be playing Jazz, and Daran Norris will reprise his role as Knock Out.

[griffin]

CAST AND VOICE ACTORS

Someone has posted up screenshots of the closing credits cast listing from the first 13 episodes available in China... but be aware of spoilers, because it will give away which characters that aren't the main cast (like Decepticons), will show up in certain episodes.
(which would actually be a spoiler, as it would spoil the surprise of who shows up as the villain in each episode)

As such, I've removed the episode numbers next to each name below...

Autobots

Bumblebee - Will Friedle
Strongarm - Constance Zimmer
Sideswipe - Darren Criss
Fixit - Mitchell Whitfield
Grimlock - Khary Payton
Optimus Prime - Peter Cullen
Jazz - Arif S. Kinchen
Drift - Eric Bauza
Jetstorm - Roger Craig Smith (One of Drift's Mini-cons)
Slipstream - Roger Craig Smith (One of Drift's Mini-cons)

Recurring Human Allies

Denny Clay - Ted McGinley
Russell Clay - Stuart Allan

Decepticons

Underbite - Liam O'Brien
Steeljaw - Troy Baker
Hammerstrike - David Kaye
Bisk - Khary Payton
Chop Shop - David Hunt
Terrashock - Kevin Michael Richardson
Thunderhoof - Frank Stallone
Filch - Constance Zimmer
Springload - John Steven Rocha
Ped - Eddie Deezen
Quillfire - Andy Milder
Fracture - Kevin Pollak
Airazor - Roger Craig Smith
Divebomb - Khary Payton
Clampdown - Jim Cummings

[griffin]

A couple of promo clips as well.

[GoktimusPrime]

Heh, interesting to see that Hasbro have decided to use the name of a previously obscure Japanese Autobot. And the caretaker from Hogwarts is now a Decepticon! </cheek>

[griffin]

Some preview clips on the Hasbro Transformers site.

[griffin]

Episode 14 plot details.

(spoilers, obviously... but this is the topic for cartoon plot spoilers)

Optimus trains under the Minicon member of the Thirteen in order to better capture the Decepticons. The skunk-like Decepticon Stench, with the ability to spray an incapacitating toxin, appears, leading a gang of four. Grimlock, Sideswipe and Strongarm succumb to the toxin but Bumblebee is able to save the day. After the battle, Bumblebee reminds his team members of the value of focus and unity in their mission.

[griffin]

I kinda wanted this as a new topic because it reveals so much about the characters (and possibly future toys), but there are way too many spoilers in this deconstruction of the RID cartoon... and since this topic is already for plot and character (potential) spoilers, I figured it was probably safest to just keep all the spoilers together in this one topic.


What is below, has been taken from this site, and reworked to make a little more sense, as a lot of it was written so that they could work in links to other pages on their site like a wiki.


CHARACTERS (most of the ones from the first few episodes)

DECEPTICONS - most have Animal Motifs, in both name and visual attributes.
Bisk, a Decepticon with a distinctly crustacean look, including eye stalks and snapping claws.
Chop Shop, a combiner(!) composed of five giant spiders that merge into a humanoid robot. He can split apart into five robot spiders, and each of them seem to have a mind of their own. One of them even manages to make their escape despite the rest of the combiner body being frozen and later imprisoned inside of a stasis pod.
Clampdown, similar to Underbite in that he lacks a humanoid shape, so looks like a straight-up robot crab.
Filch, a giant mechanical bird Decepticon that is strong enough to lift an RV and two Autobots, and likes to collect shiny objects. The only female Decepticon at this stage.
Fracture - the odd Bot out of the Decepticons, as he appears to not have a beast element to his physical appearance.
Hammerstrike, a shark-like Decepticon who resembles a hammerhead.
Nitan, a tiny louse-like Decepticon who is employed by Steeljaw to control Grimlock's behavior.
Ped, an earthworm-like Decepticon.
Quillfire, a Decepticon with porcupine characteristics.
Springload, a Decepticon with frog-like features.
Steeljaw, who has a wolf-like appearance.
Stench, a Decepticon who has the ability to produce debilitating toxins.
Thunderhoof, whose otherwise humanoid look features some impressive antlers and cloven hooves on his feet. His appearance allowed him to masquerade as a mythical Wendigo (a beast spirit in a semi-humanoid form), allowing him to form a cult out of some gullible humans who believe him to be a supernatural creature and trick them into helping him build a space bridge back to Cybertron.
Terrashock, a Decepticon with bull-like features, and is usually on all fours when standing or moving about in bot mode.
Underbite resembles some manner of hyper-stylized mecha-bulldog. He gets stronger by eating inorganic matter, so is quick to start chowing down at any opportunity.

(Decepticons were in Stasis Pods when the prison ship crashes, with the Pods ending up scattered around the world, like Beast Wars... as each Decepticon awakens from their Pod, they are first confused at where they are.)


AUTOBOTS - a team that is newly created by circumstance, who have to somehow work together and get along with each other.
Bumblebee - The Leader... doubts being as good as Optimus (like Cheetor, Rodimus & HotShot), but is not the leader of all Autobots (like Animated Optimus & Beast Wars Optimus). Is equipped with a multi-form weapon that takes several episodes to figure out how to properly use.
Grimlock - The Muscle/big guy... he starts out as a Decepticon in this series, which is odd because he's an Autobot in every single other appearance he's had in the Aligned universe, including the Beast Hunters comics, which directly tied the events of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Transformers Prime together— presumably, something is up that will hopefully be addressed in the series later.
Fixit - The Smart guy... a Minicon guard from the Prison Ship.
Strongarm - The Girl... A Cadet from the Police Academy who strictly enforces the laws by constantly citing and projecting a holographic rule-book from her arm.
Sideswipe - The Soldier who's a bit rebellious like Gen1 HotRod... a polar opposite and constant irritant of Strongarm. One is all about the Rules, while the other is all about bending/breaking them.
Optimus Prime - The Spirit, or spiritual advisor, who even has a statue built of him on Cybertron in his honour.


ART STYLE - The series uses a mixture of cel shaded CGI with hand-painted backgrounds, as opposed to the full CGI of Prime. Whilst recognisable traits from the previous series are present, it also looks to be incorporating a little of the cartoony expression of Transformers Animated as well as bearing some similarity to Transformers Rescue Bots. The series has been purposefully made to be tonally more "fun" than its predecessor.
Being part of the Aligned Universe, the planet Cybertron bears the exact same design as originated in Transformers: War for Cybertron. "Tron Lines" (lighting) were a notable design feature of the Cybertronian forms of the characters in the games, and this series makes a return to using them more prominently.


EASTER EGGS?
In the first episode, Optimus's spirit helps Bumblebee get to Earth by showing him the planet engraved on a circular golden disk. Golden disks are a common plot device in Transformers media, going all the way back to ''Beast Wars'.
The Wilhelm Scream is apparently used by a Decepticon being crushed by Grimlock in an Episode.