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When I first saw preview commercials of this series my first reaction was WTF? While the voice acting is superb there are tons of things wrong with this series. I’m not a fan of the animation style that was chosen. While I have enjoyed all the Generation 1 callbacks that the producers have used this show has been poorly marketed. First off when they released DVD’s for it they released Transformers Animated: Transform & Roll Out the three part movie introducing us to the show, then they released the rest of Season 1 on a separate DVD set. Uh… What? After that came Season 2 on DVD, and this Saturday March 14, 2009 will be the premiere of season 3. The voice acting as I said is great for the series… each actor really grasps the character that they are playing. Although it’s very weird hearing David Kaye as Optimus Prime, I like it as supposedly this series’ Prime is supposed to be younger and basically greener then say Peter Cullen’s heroic Optimus from G1. Which is fine with me I understand they were going for a different feel to the character, I’d have been vehemently against Kaye playing Optimus if it was a direct G1 transfer. However I get where they were going with it. Having the autobots in this as cleanup bots kinda reminds me of the G1 episode “War Dawn” where Orion Pax and his friends were energy collectors. However now they must be called to action to save the all spark from the Decepticons. They come across a Decepticon Flagship and a battle ensues. Hmmmm…. Much like the G1 premiere three parter “More Than Meets The Eye” There are a shitload of G1 references through TF: Animated, however the human “villains” that they use are just fucking outrageously stupid. The Angry Archer, Nino Sexton/Nanosec, Prometheus Black/Meltdown, Professor Princess, and Henry Masterson/Headmaster. These villains as they called them really pissed me off. Yes I know G1 wasn’t without it’s human villains, but these are just well damn ignorant. I’ve actually had to rewatch the Season 1 & 2 episodes on YouTube to remind myself how bad this show is ugh! The other major flaw with the entire Transformers: Animated line is the fact that Hasbro didn’t or Cartoon Network didn’t run the toy commercials during the airing of the show. I’ve seen at least 20 TFA toy commercials in the last 10 months since the season 2 finale. And I never saw more than 2 commercials during the shows run on air. Talk about bad marketing.
Below I’m gonna review several episodes of TF: Animated briefly, before getting into the Season 3 Premiere episode Transwarped.
Season 1:
Episodes 1-3: Transform & Roll Out:
This was the premiere movie introducing us to TF: Animated, there are tons of G1 references. Like Sparkplug Sari’s robot dog, and the beginning of the picture they reference the G1 cartoon with talking about the great war and the fact that it has been centuries since it has ended. With the decepticons defeated, not destroyed. They even call back to TFTM when Prime crashes to the earth after releasing the all spark energy on Starscream, he dies and turns gray, that was before sari uses her “key” on him. I really was against this cartoon, but I tried to give it a chance. At least I gave it more of a chance then Armada, Energon, or Cybertron. As I said before I can’t stand the animation style of this cartoon. As well as I think that after the release of the live action film the Hasbro team wanted to rush a cartoon out. There is absolutely no planning or thought into this series whatsoever. This three part movie, was a good start, but it goes downhill after this. There are several good episodes throughout the first two seasons but, generally I thought and felt that it was just horrid!
Episodes 15-16: Megatron Rising:
This two parter was the big reveal of Megatron still being online. First off I must commend and marvel at the superior voice acting of Corey Burton, his Megatron in this series is almost equal to Frank Welker’s in G1! The animation in this two parter is very crisp and solid…… and Megatron finally becoming the true Decepticon leader and rising to power is fucking awesome. Even though I rag on this series as much as I do this Season 1 ending story is fucking great! I can’t say anything bad against this episode. It left a yearning for more great stories from these writers . I hate the fact that they haven’t introduced Astrotrain yet, however Blitzwing is crazy as hell in the series. The Dinobots in this series are dumber then fucking rocks though, they’re even worse than the ones in G1! That isn’t saying something bad about this story, just the Dinobots themselves. The design on Megatron in his earth mode is superbly done, and looks fucking awesome. They even got the sound effect right for a Fusion Cannon G1 reference. There is one point in the second part where Sumdacc says he must tell Sari something, but I’ll come back to that. The episodes with Megatron and Prime dispersing the All Spark and supposedly destroying Megatron, but not really.
Season 2:
Episodes 12-13: A Bridge Too Close
This was the season 2 finale two parter. Back in the Autobot Camp episode we learn of an autobot traitor within the ranks. In this episode he comes to a front as Longarm/Shockwave, and to my shocking delight as I just looked it up Corey Burton voiced both the G1 Shockwave and the TF Animated Shockwave. HELLL YEAH!!!!!! I never knew the G1 Shockwave was Corey Burton! Anyways in this episode and this series the autobots are the ones to have the space bridge technology, which is a complete turnaround from G1, because in that series as everyone knows the Decepticons had the space bridges. Megatron still has Dr. Sumdacc under his control and demands that he get the space bridge operational. However they must find the most qualified Cybertronian to work on the space bridge which so happens to be Bulkhead. John Moschitta Jr. reprises his role as Blurr, which surprised me at first when I found this out. However I wasn’t unhappy with the choice as he’s the only one who can talk that fast that well. The autobots find the hidden base of the decepticons and a battle for the space bridge ensues. Megatron overloads the Space bridge and Omega Supreme must absorb the transwarp energy. The episode ends with Sari being damaged and we find out that she’s a robot.
Season 3:
Episode 1: Transwarped
Even though TF: Animated has only had a select few fucking AWESOME episodes throughout the 2 seasons, this by far blows them out of the water. This was the best animation, the best voice acting, and the most shocking episode I’ve seen in the series so far. While yes I’ll be the first one to admit I trash this cartoon endlessly, this episode might just turn me around. I know it made my head spin when I saw all the awesomeness! Rodimus and his team get demolished by Strika and her team, as well as Rodimus getting consumed by a vial of cosmic rust. Ummm.... wait doesn’t cosmic rust transfer to everyone? Blurr finding out that Longarm Prime is the traitor and even though he can’t catch Blurr he can trap him. So Blurr gets trapped and he dies!, then we see that the Space Bridge network has been shut down due to the autobots learning of the decepticons are trying to get to Cybertron. We find out that Sari is a Cybertronian protoform, and during a battle she wants to help out and she uses her All Spark key on herself which ages her from a little girl to a teenager. She can’t handle the upgrades and goes berserk, Ratchet must use his EMP generator on her. They get the key out of her and this slows her down a bit, however she has absorbed all the key’s energy it’s dead. Megatron, Starscream, and Prowl fight for mental control over Omega Supreme. The Elite Guard on Cybertron must try and contact Optimus Prime on Earth. At the end Bumblebee and Bulkhead figure out a way to keep Starscream from getting to Cybertron.
In Conclusion:
Transformers: Animated while not the best TF cartoon, it certainly isn’t the worst. I have to say after seeing the season 3 premiere I almost wish that season 3 wasn’t going to be the end of the show. I think the main thing that brought me down before was the fact that they have the lamest human villains ever! While a big upside to TF: Animated is all the G1/Beast Wars callbacks, like Bulkhead calling Optimus boss bot.
So inclosing should a true Transformers fan watch this show? Yes, even though it has its most horrible points at times there is a light at the end of the tunnel. No it’s not a fusion blast from Megatron’s cannon.
TF: Animated Rating on a whole 4/10
TF: Animated Season 3: Transwarped Rating 10/10
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