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==Dehumanizing==
=CGI=
'''Computer-generated imagery''' in Transformers cartoons has gone through four phases thus far.
 
==Generation 2==
The [[Generation 2 (cartoon)|Generation 2 "cartoon"]] was simply the [[Generation 1 (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]] with a new CGI opening, and new scene-transitions using the nefarious [[Cybernet Space Cube]].  These added nothing but glitz to the cartoon, and are best forgotten.
 
==The Beast Era==
Both ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' were fully CGI, created by [[Mainframe Entertainment]] of Canada.  ''Beast Wars'' was a bit primitive, even in its day.  (It is notorious for lacking shadows except when vital.)  ''Beast Machines,'' by contrast, holds up reasonably well even by modern standards.
 
==''Energon'' and ''Cybertron''==
The last two-thirds of the [[Unicron Trilogy]], ''[[Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]'' and ''[[Cybertron (cartoon)|Cybertron]]'', both used shaded CGI for the Transformer characters, and traditional cel animation for almost everything else (humans, backgrounds, etc.).  Some episodes (e.g., "[[City]]") used CGI for doing complex environments, particularly when the camera needed to be able to move through the city quickly.
 
In comparison to the Beast Era, the character animation in ''Energon'' and ''Cybertron'' is ''very'' unimpressive.  For an extensive discussion of its flaws, see ''[[Energon (cartoon)#Production flaws|Energon, Production flaws]]''.
 
==''Transformers'' (2007)==
The [[Transformers (2007)|live action ''Transformers'' movie franchise]], obviously, uses CGI extensively, most spectacularly for almost all appearances of the Transformer characters in robot mode.
 
==Trivia==
* If one counts the Generation 2 cartoon, then of the nine Transformers TV shows that have aired in the U.S., more than half have used CGI, and nearly half have used it extensively.
 
=Dehumanizing=
The opposite of [[humanizing]], '''dehumanizing''' occurs when the writers of Transformers fiction deliberately remove "human" elements from the characters, replacing it with robot-specific elements.  Examples:
The opposite of [[humanizing]], '''dehumanizing''' occurs when the writers of Transformers fiction deliberately remove "human" elements from the characters, replacing it with robot-specific elements.  Examples:


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"You can lead a Cybertronian robo-horse to an oil slick, but you can't make it lubricate."
"You can lead a Cybertronian robo-horse to an oil slick, but you can't make it lubricate."


==Toyetic==
=Toyetic=
'''"Toyetic"''' can refer to one of two things:
'''"Toyetic"''' can refer to one of two things:
* A toy which can easily be marketed in a piece of fiction.  (Like Transformers, but unlike a hula hoop, for example.)
* A toy which can easily be marketed in a piece of fiction.  (Like Transformers, but unlike a hula hoop, for example.)
* An element from a piece of fiction (a character, a prop, a location) which can easily be made into a toy.
* An element from a piece of fiction (a character, a prop, a location) which can easily be made into a toy.


The relevance to Transformers is obvious.  Uniquely, Hasbro's impetus to create the Transformers brand began with neither a work of fiction they wished to adapt, nor specific toys they wanted to market, but rather simply a nebulous desire to create a new toy/cartoon/comic book property akin to [[G.I. Joe]].
The relevance to Transformers is obvious.  Uniquely, Hasbro's impetus to create the Transformers brand began with neither a work of fiction they wished to adapt, nor specific toys they wanted to market, but rather simply a nebulous desire to create a new toy/cartoon/comic book property akin to [[G.I. Joe]].<div id="wikia-credits"><br /><br /><small>From [http://transformers.wikia.com Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki], a [http://www.wikia.com Wikia] wiki.</small></div>
 
=The Many Deaths of Optimus Prime=
Across all continuities, '''Optimus Prime dies a lot.'''  This happens for various reasons:
* It allows for him to be replaced by [[Hot Rod|a new character]] (and thus [[To sell toys|a new toy]]).
* It allows for him to come back from the dead in a new body (again, a new toy).
* It's dramatic.
* It makes him into something of a Christ-figure.
 
Some examples:
 
==''The Transformers: The Movie''==
[[Image: DeadPrime.gif|left|thumb|200px|[[Wikipedia:Oscar_wilde#Release_and_death|"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."]]]]
* The best-known example is from ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'' (1986), in which [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] dies of wounds from his battle with [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]].  Famously, his body turns gray as he dies.  ([[Misconceptions and urban legends about Transformers|Urban legend]] says his body also ''crumbles,'' but no such footage is known to exist.)
[[Image:Optimusg1zombie.jpg|right|thumb|200px|"Mind if I smoke?"]]
* He returns from the dead twice in the following season of the cartoon, first as a zombie in "[[Dark Awakening]]" and then (for reals, yo) in "[[The Return of Optimus Prime]]".
{{-}}
==Generation 1 Marvel Comics==
[[Image:Pmoptimusprimedeath.jpg|right|thumb|200px|"I swear, I was wearing my faceplate when I left the house this morning."]]
In the Marvel US continuity, dying and coming back was practically a ''hobby'' for Prime.
*In "[[Afterdeath!]]", Prime, after failing to live up to his moral principles while playing a video game, volunteers to be killed.  The [[Autobots]] launch his funeral bier into space.
*Fortunately, the creator of the video game, [[Ethan Zachary]], saves a backup copy of Prime's mind on a floppy.  We first meet this virtual Prime sixteen issues later in "[[Pretender to the Throne!]]".  He gets his new [[Powermaster]] body two issues thereafter, in "[[People Power!]]".
*About thirty issues later, Prime sacrifices himself to defeat [[Unicron]], in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]".
*However, his Powermaster partner, [[Hi-Q]], survives, and almost immediately begins babbling about how he's ''really'' Optimus Prime.  This turns out to be true, and [[The Last Autobot]] metamorphoses Hi-Q into Prime (with a new [[Actionmaster]] body) in [[End of the Road! (Marvel US comic)|the last issue of the original Marvel US series]].
{{-}}
==Generation 2 Marvel Comics==
[[Image:Swarmoptimus.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Unleashing the light of the Matrix upon a great evil.  ''Again.'']]
*This Prime wasn't done dying yet.  His adventures continued in the G2 comics, and he died defeating the [[Swarm]] in the final issue of that series, "[[A Rage in Heaven!]]".
*But the Swarm reconstituted him three pages later (in a body based on his then-current [[Combat Hero]] toy).
{{-}}
 
==The Beast Era==
In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]],'' you could mark the end of a season by the near-death experience of one [[Optimus Primal|Optimus]] or [[Optimus Prime (G1)|another]] . . .
*At [[Other Voices, Part 2|the end of the first season]] of ''Beast Wars,'' [[Optimus Primal]] piloted a bomb-equipped stasis pod in an attempt to destroy the [[Planet Buster]].  Unfortunately, [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] had sealed the pod's hatch, and Optimus blew up with it.
*[[Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)|Early in second season]] (a few hours later as far as the characters were concerned), [[Rhinox]] managed to unite Optimus's drifting [[spark]] with a blank [[protoform]], thus bringing him back to life (and in a new [[transmetal]] body, too).
*At [[The Agenda (Part III)|the end of second season]], the ''Beast Wars'' Megatron comes very close to killing the original Optimus Prime.  But, [[Optimal Situation|Prime doesn't ''quite'' die]], so we really shouldn't count it.
*At [[End of the Line|the end of the first season]] of ''Beast Machines,'' Optimus and Megatron had a cataclysmic battle, using the energies of [[Vector Sigma]] and the [[Plasma Energy Chamber]].  This would have destroyed [[Cybertron]], but Optimus took the warring energies into himself, and disintegrated.
*However, his spark was trapped within the [[Oracle]], and the other [[Maximals]] convinced him to return to the real world, at [[Fallout|the start of second season]].  The Oracle kindly gave him a new body.  (Which, believe it or not, was ''not'' a new toy.)
*And, [[Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future |at the end of the series]], Optimus gave his life to defeat Megatron once and for all, pushing him into the [[technorganic]] core of the planet.
*In assorted ancillary media (convention comics, text stories), he comes back to life, yet again.
(Strangely, the end of the third season of ''Beast Wars'' had no Optimus deaths whatsoever!  A half-dozen ''other'' characters died, but not Op.  Bizzah.)
 
==The Unicron Trilogy==
[[Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Now Optimus, don't go all to pieces.  You say you have to split?  Well, you're a chip off the ol' block.]]
* In the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' episode "[[Crisis]]", [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] used his body to block the blast of [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s [[Hydra Cannon]], protecting the Earth.  When the cannon's energy is spent, we see Optimus turn grayish-white, then ''actually'' crumble to bits.
* A bunch of [[Mini-Cons]] use the [[Matrix]] to resurrect him [[Miracle|three episodes later]].
{{-}}
==Worlds Collide==
[[Image:Wc_prime.jpg|left|thumb|200px|[[Wikipedia:Lincoln_memorial#Interior|<center>IN THIS TEMPLE<br>
AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE<br>
FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION<br>
THE MEMORY OF OPTIMUS PRIME<br>
IS ENSHRINED FOREVER</center>]]]]
* The corpse of an [[Optimus Prime (Worlds Collide)|Optimus Prime]] from an alternate universe (killed by Unicron) appeared in the ''[[Armada (comic)|Armada]]'' comic issue titled "[[Worlds Collide, Part 1]]".  Yep, practically all we know about this Optimus is that he died.
{{-}}
==''Transformers Animated''==
* In part three of the pilot movie "[[Transform and Roll Out!]]", this universe's [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] dies after his battle with [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]].  Like the G1 Prime before him, he turns gray upon dying.  Seventy-five seconds later, [[Sari Sumdac]] uses her mysteeerious All Spark key to revive him.<div id="wikia-credits"><br /><br /><small>From [http://transformers.wikia.com Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki], a [http://www.wikia.com Wikia] wiki.</small></div>

Revision as of 17:07, 26 February 2008

CGI

Computer-generated imagery in Transformers cartoons has gone through four phases thus far.

Generation 2

The Generation 2 "cartoon" was simply the Generation 1 cartoon with a new CGI opening, and new scene-transitions using the nefarious Cybernet Space Cube. These added nothing but glitz to the cartoon, and are best forgotten.

The Beast Era

Both Beast Wars and Beast Machines were fully CGI, created by Mainframe Entertainment of Canada. Beast Wars was a bit primitive, even in its day. (It is notorious for lacking shadows except when vital.) Beast Machines, by contrast, holds up reasonably well even by modern standards.

Energon and Cybertron

The last two-thirds of the Unicron Trilogy, Energon and Cybertron, both used shaded CGI for the Transformer characters, and traditional cel animation for almost everything else (humans, backgrounds, etc.). Some episodes (e.g., "City") used CGI for doing complex environments, particularly when the camera needed to be able to move through the city quickly.

In comparison to the Beast Era, the character animation in Energon and Cybertron is very unimpressive. For an extensive discussion of its flaws, see Energon, Production flaws.

Transformers (2007)

The live action Transformers movie franchise, obviously, uses CGI extensively, most spectacularly for almost all appearances of the Transformer characters in robot mode.

Trivia

  • If one counts the Generation 2 cartoon, then of the nine Transformers TV shows that have aired in the U.S., more than half have used CGI, and nearly half have used it extensively.

Dehumanizing

The opposite of humanizing, dehumanizing occurs when the writers of Transformers fiction deliberately remove "human" elements from the characters, replacing it with robot-specific elements. Examples:

"I got something in my optics." (Not "eyes".)

"I used to chase turbo-foxes back home." (Not "foxes".)

"I've got a bad feeling in my carburetor." (Not "gut".)

Sometimes this can get kinda silly.

"You can lead a Cybertronian robo-horse to an oil slick, but you can't make it lubricate."

Toyetic

"Toyetic" can refer to one of two things:

  • A toy which can easily be marketed in a piece of fiction. (Like Transformers, but unlike a hula hoop, for example.)
  • An element from a piece of fiction (a character, a prop, a location) which can easily be made into a toy.

The relevance to Transformers is obvious. Uniquely, Hasbro's impetus to create the Transformers brand began with neither a work of fiction they wished to adapt, nor specific toys they wanted to market, but rather simply a nebulous desire to create a new toy/cartoon/comic book property akin to G.I. Joe.