Transformers Animated Episodes 1-3 Official Discussion

[Robimus]

Oh, yeah. My five year old daughter loved it too!

Did everybody see that family buying icecream/hotdogs/whatever on the sidewalk? Looked a lot like Spike, Daniel and a mom/wife. Very cute addition.

[Incepticon]

I'm still 50/50 on the series. While I definitely appreciate (most of) the voice acting, animation quality, reprisal of the G1 transformation sound and subtle geek nods to the original G1 era, I still don't like the overly cartoonish animation style, pre-school design aesthetic, certain character choices & reinventions, or the overwhelming kiddie "Transformers For Tots" look to everything. I especially hate that everyone (TF's, that is) has teeth and even tongues. Ratchet in particular just looks like an old man dressed up in a metal suit.

I won't pass a final judgement yet and will wait to see more episodes as well as the figures before doing so, but being the new main line or not, I won't convince myself that it's great if it isn't. I *want* to like it, but thus far it's really doing nothing for me. And it's not that I want G1 again - I just want TF that actually look like TF in the traditional sense of being robots in realistic disguises. Even during the G1 days, I fell out of the fandom due to everything taking on futuristic/alien looks & colors once the original movie came out. And I think that's exactly what has kept me away from every series since G1.

We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I couldn't be happier that Classics are coming back, simply since they follow the aesthetic that I vastly prefer - not overly "realistic' bot modes like the Movie, not overly childish colors or design styles like Animated (or pretty much every series since G1), no gimmicks like A/E/C, and no melding of machine & organic like Beast Wars - just straightforward good old fashioned robots in disguise.

[Pascal]

Somehow, Animated Ratchet reminds me a lot of Movie Ratchet (in Nurse Ratchet colors).

[Team Jetfire]

Originally Posted by Incepticon

We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I couldn't be happier that Classics are coming back, simply since they follow the aesthetic that I vastly prefer - not overly "realistic' bot modes like the Movie, not overly childish colors or design styles like Animated (or pretty much every series since G1), no gimmicks like A/E/C, and no melding of machine & organic like Beast Wars - just straightforward good old fashioned robots in disguise.

Not to knock your post and your opinion, but what do you like?

With the exception of the Moive, alternators, RID and the pre-moive era of gen 1, according to you they have all been bad. That is a lot of Transformers to not like and still consider yourself a big fan of transformers.

Again, not to flame, I am just wondering...

[Scrapper6]

I loved the premier, the whole series looks to be a step up from the past and I haven't been this excited about a Transformers Series since the Beast Machines/Robots in Disguise days. I loved Armada/Energon/Cybertron and still want the trilogy in box sets, but Animated is just so much better then the long windedness that the battles in the Unicron Trilogy had.

It's great hearing the original Transformation sound again and I love that they even had Meg's Fusion Cannon the same, correct me if I'm wrong, but it does sound like the classic sound effect used in Generation One.

The characters were all top notch, and despite my designs in never buying a single Animated toy I find myself growing a little weak in that department to such an extent that I might pick up a few deluxe Decepticons and Prowl.

I can't wait to see what happens next, and I can't wait to see more characters brought in. I want to see more of Blitzwing, Black Arachnia and Lugnutz not to mention the return of Megatron and Starscream... I wonder if he got his Mutant Indestructible Spark because of the Allspark blast? Oh yeah one last thing, I really love the fact that these Transformers have individual specialties like the old days, like Ratchet's magnetic lifters. I suspect Ratchet might actually be First Aid from the original series, it'd be kind of neat.

[Wodicus]

At first I was unimpressed with the preimier, though that might have been the fact I was both distracted by guests at the house and that I was still recovering from New Years. Now that I've slept on it I've been growing to like it more and more. I enjoyed the classic sound effect, but I also liked the characters. I was expecting the Decepticons to be very weak on the villain side, but I was more then happy to see that Starscream was very much what I was hoping to see. I have high hopes for this series and I have not looked forward to a new TF series since RiD.

[bluefrenzy]

This series is the best since Beast Wars. I'd go far enough to say that the humans are alright and even enjoyable (ie the police chief, Sari). I'm glad they got away from the semi-CG animation. The action sequences were pretty cool and much better than the Rock'Em Sock'Em robot sequences in the previous 3 series. Thumbs up.

[theLostSeeker]

I found it quite pleasant. I watched it and felt like I was watching an actual TF show. Of course there was kiddy stuff and all that crap, but it is a kid's show. It was enjoyable and I will probably watch it regularly, or until they ruin it, lol.

[Nyghtwynd]

Right off the bat i loved how they used G1 clips for the "Great War". Seeing small G1 references (the Witwicky family circa Season 3, the robot dog named Sparkplug, certain sound effects from transforming and shooting) made me giggle. Overall, i look forward to future episodes.
And Spongebob does a great impression of Chris Latta's Starscream

[Paradigm-Shift Prime]

Originally Posted by Team Jetfire

Not to knock your post and your opinion, but what do you like?

With the exception of the Moive, alternators, RID and the pre-moive era of gen 1, according to you they have all been bad. That is a lot of Transformers to not like and still consider yourself a big fan of transformers.

Again, not to flame, I am just wondering...

He likes square fists with holes in them.

I know what you mean, but I think not liking beasts, ultra-'realistic', ultra-kiddy, and gimmicks is fair enough too. I assume a line like Cybertron would fit into the 'good old bots' category if it weren't for the gimmick thing. My favourite kind of TFs is right along Incepticon's line (classic feeling, which could be post-movie G1 too, funny that they named Classics Classics), but I don't hate the rest, they are just under the classic-type tfs on my like list.

Someone joked about the 'just give me a fist with a hole in it please' over at tfw2005, expressing a similar set of interest/disinterest as Incepticon, so he's not totally alone.