Amph The Transformers. More than meets the eye!

So, Transformers Animated's new season started this weekend, and though I've only caught the first half or third so far, some thoughts:

-Blur literally runs along the rings of a ringed planet- likely an homage to G1 Season 3 intro with him driving over it.
-Cool to see Rodimus Prime
-The Megatron/Starscream's head scenes are quite amusing ("THIS.IS.ALL.YOUR.FAULT!!")- and strike me as a potential partial homage to the IDW Comcis where Megatron speaks with the disembodied head of Shockwave.
-Sari as a hybrid bot is an interesting development- it certainly makes her presence in events more logical from this point on.
-It's an absolute pleasure to have Burton voicing Shockwave again. Just freaking awesome.

 

Ok, finished the premiere, other thoughts:

-Not sure I dig Sari uprading herself- it reminds me too much of Autobot Spike and Pretenders. However, Sari being a teenager I like, as she's no longer the little girl who can be cute about everything.

-Poor Blur, geez...

-Metroplex! (sorta)

-I like how the mindmeld between Omega and Hound is similar to Prime's G1 Matrix exploits, as well as the TROn-esque computer outline effect used in G1 opening titles and in the movie when Megatron is turned into Galvatron.

-Some good stuff here between Omega and Ratchet.

-Earlier, the first animated appearance of Blackout- though he's made out, intiially, to be less intelligent than his film portrayal (we're dealing Twilight zone stuff here, I know ) much like a counterpart to Bulkhead.

 

I think so- the episodes that focus on the non-Decepticon Teen Titan-villains feel a little out of place but occasionally amount to a good story, but overall, this is the best TF series since G1, IMO. It does a good job with most of the characters- either remaining true to their G1 cores or pursuing a good angle if it's a new take on them (Ratchet is more like Kup, Prowl is made more unique in a ninja sort of way, Optimus ,while one of many Primes, isn't top-dog, etc), though perhaps the drunk constructicons were a bit much. Also plenty of G1 homages.

They do some very good stuff with Megatron, with the voice being reminiscent of John Hurt and Malcolm McDowel but with the more ruthless military outlook and manipulation of the classic Megatron (the Beast Wars Megatron voice was ok, but far too, I dunno, "proper"?- oddly enough that voice actor actually plays Optimus in this series [Megs is vocied by Original Shockwave Corey Burton]).

It's still a kid show, and the stylized design I find offputting a bit, but it's still pretty good if you're a TF fan- it's much more enjoyable than Armada was, even off the bat, and light years beyond Beast Wars' horrendous first season. The comicbook villian badguys are still a step up from some of the silliness even G1 had on occasion (though that Headmaster guy talking l337speak gets really annoying), but it certainly does very well when the Decepticons are involved (though the downside is that there is a buildup to them really being heavy in the story due to an admittedly cool running plotline with Megatron that isn't resolved till mid-season).

If you jump back about 6 pages earlier in the thread to around 1/6/08 you can catch some posts with comments by myself and otehrs on the Season 1 episodes as they aired.

 

They're visible, but a little hard to see. I think this is the link to the specific post: http://boards.theforce.net/science_fiction_and_fantasy_films_and_television/b10748/22809771/r27939216/

EDIT- Grimby was kind enough to tweak the stylesheet.

 

Defiance #3 is out today, some spoilers:


-Megatron returns from the battle and bows before his master via the artifact- we see the other side of the conversation taking place in a fiery realm, with a closeup over the shoulder of The Fallen speaking to Megatron, urging him to take control the planet. "Cybertron is yours. Everything else is mine."

-Optimus breaks into Megatron's quarters earlier to inspect the artifact, noting that it looks newer than it did when it was uncovered. Later analysis of broken pieces of other artifacts (it's later said that they were all deliberately smashed) determine that they all share the same symbol- the same symbol found on Optimus's head, which they take as proof of "the Dynasty of Primes", and there's some kind of connection between them and the artifact and Optimus- Optimus may be a Prime (gee, guess how that turns out? ).

-Megatron has an ambush set up for Prime under the pretense of him and his crew being arrested for treason, though they survive it, Prime distracts the attackers while the others get away.

-In Trypticon, Megatron delcares that their way sof civility are at an end, and delcares all his followers Decepticons- unveiling the Decepticon logo to cheers of "Hail Lord Megatron"- though some question their conscience, including Ironhide.

 

Blizzard had a fantastic bit for April Fools this year which is Transformers-related:

Videos of the Terratron

I think the one comment posted by ocalot sums it up best:

"As much as I like the first video because I like to see the way things are put together, the second vid makes me happy in a way that only a giant robot killing things to rock music can."

<img src="http://www.denimfilms.com/boardpics/rockdevil.gif">

 

Just watched the Predacon Rising episode of TF Animated- really good stuff. Everything with Wasp to Waspinator and the Optimus/Sentinel/Arachnia plotline were excllent- not to mention doing the rarity of giving Sentinel some character growth.

Only thing I disagree with is the Jetstorm/Jetfire twins topping the Dinobots.

 

Yeah, having Megs bow before The Fallen's artifact presence in the prequel comic was odd- though I could sorta justify it by thinking the pre-war Megs in the movieverse wasn't quite the "I belong to nobody!"/"Nobody summons Megatron!" Megatron yet, but a post-wardawn Megatron should not submit to any being shy of a God like Unicron. And since the movieverse Fallen doesn't seem to be a Herald of Unicron like the comics version, you can't even make that excuse. Heck, even when he was reprogrammed to be controlled by humans in the G1 comic, Megatron would not obey orders to kneel.

 

Welker! HUZZAH!

As for the score- reading that link, it seems very similar to what they did for the animated movie, with Stan Bush's "Dare" being integrated into DiCola's score once or twice as the theme for Hot Rod. Only now we have Linkin Park's song being integrated by Zimmer and Jablonsky.

Given how memorable and effective LP's song at the end of the first movie was, I'm actually not surprised they didn't want to continue using them.

 

Vehicle forms is how Transformers started, and that's how they'll stay, for the most part. No one wants to see Optimus Prime turn into a monkey. They do have my permission to use Waspinator and Inferno, though. "For the colony!"

One of the things Transformers Animated has done an incredible job at is integrating the weirder aspects of Transformers like Beast Wars, Headmasters, etc into the more mainstream G1-based story and setting. That last shot in "Predacons Rising" with Black Arachnia stranded in the jungle with a cheetah, ape, rhino and rat staring at her was quite amusing.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong- I appreciate Beast Wars (despite the terrible first season) for what it did to revive the TF brand and evolve the G1 mythos- but they could never justify organic animal alt-modes in a way that made any sense, though the transmetal alt modes at least looked kinda cool sometimes (fleshy animals=silly alt mode, mechanical animals=cool alt mode).