Sari Sumdac (Animated)

Sari Sumdac is a technorganic humanoid from the Transformers Animated franchise.

Daddies, don't let your babies grow up to be Kiss Players.

Sari Sumdac, the technorganic daughter of robotics genius Isaac Sumdac, didn't used get out much. She spent all her time within her father's laboratories, receiving her education from robots. Despite this, she doesn't seem like a shut-in. She's curious, excitable, adventurous, and knows that crying can sometimes get her what she wants. She's just never known what it's like to be around other kids. Fortunately, she has Bumblebee and Bulkhead to help with that, and she claims that 'Bee is the best friend she's ever had. In fact, she's become very possessive of all her robotic friends.

It was believed that Sari was a normal human, until it was revealed that she was made from a protoform and her father's DNA. Hence, the AllSpark viewed her with great regard, bestowing upon her a key with miraculous powers (though her guardian, the robotic dog Sparkplug, thought it was just another chew toy).

Since discovering her true origin, she has absorbed the power of the Key to gain incredible Cybertronian abilities such as increased strength, speed, and the ability to create destructive spheres of energy with her hands, as well as the ability to transform into an armored form with technological weaponry (most of which Ratchet was forced to seal away after she proved unable to control it). She also owns a scooter which can transform into a jet pack.

Fiction

Animated cartoon

This section covers fiction that is ongoing. It will be added to as the story progresses. If it isn't current, you can help by updating it.

Voice actor: Tara Strong (English), Tanja Schmitz (German), Agnieszka Wajs (Polish)

Megatron was also a cute little protoform like this once. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Sari's origins are currently shrouded in mystery. She came into existence when, through unknown means, a Cybertronian protoform appeared in Isaac Sumdac's laboratory. The baffled scientist reached out to touch the small, liquid metal creature, and received an electric shock that knocked him unconscious. When he awoke, the protoform had scanned his DNA and reconfigured into a techno-organic creature that appeared to be a human baby. Sumdac "adopted" the robot child and named it "Sari", and raised it as his own daughter over the next eight years. Understandably, Sumdac was reluctant to let Sari out into the world, and instead kept her mostly confined to Sumdac Tower, educating her with robot tutors and creating robotic companions like her pet Sparkplug to keep her company. TransWarped

Yūki Ōshima is drooling as we speak.

One day, when Sparkplug stole her security key card, Sari chased it outside and was confronted by the Autobots Bumblebee and Bulkhead, who hadn't quite yet fathomed what humans were, and spoke to her as if she were Sparkplug's pet. Naturally, she freaked out, but quickly befriended Bumblebee once he saved her from a giant bug that had grown from her father's nanite experiment gone awry. Stowing away on Bumblebee and coming aboard the Autobots' ship, she came across the AllSpark, which infused part of its power into her security key. This allowed her to heal Transformers, such as the injured Prowl, earning her brownie points with the 'Bots. She also managed to talk the police down from shooting the Autobots, saying they were friendly (except Ratchet, who was grumpy, but not evil). Sari later helped teach the Autobots about Earth and humans, explaining their method of reproduction to a very startled Optimus Prime.

Prime was never the same after this.

During the unveiling of her father's new transit system, Starscream arrived and attacked. Bumblebee took a shot meant for Sari, allowing Starscream to capture him, Professor Sumdac, the Mayor, and Captain Fanzone. Sari came up with the idea to distract Starscream while she and Prowl rescued the others (even faking some tears to make it happen). The Key later saved Optimus Prime's life when she used it, in concert with the AllSpark itself, to revive his Spark. Transform and Roll Out!

Sari would go on to be Bumblebee's usual partner in crime, encouraging him to engage in such questionable activities as high-profile wrestling matches Total Meltdown and installing rocket boosters to make him go faster. Nanosec Sari likely hangs out with Bumblebee because she knows she can scare the holy bePrimus out of him. Along Came a Spider

Trivia: Transformers used to look like this.

On Sari's eighth birthday, the only other kids who turned up were the children of her dad's employees. None of them really wanted to be there and soon focused their attention on the Autobots. Sari was left alone and shunned along with Bulkhead, both morose that the kids didn't like them. Her father's present, a music robot called Soundwave, cheered her up, and she soon began neglecting her friendship with Bulkhead in favour of her new toy. Repeated uses of the Key turned Soundwave into a malevolent, sentient being who tried to enslave Humanity, and she learnt she'd been wrong to ignore her friend. Sound and Fury

When the Decepticons Blitzwing and Lugnut arrived on Earth, the two Decepticons manhandled the Autobots. Although they survived, it made apparent the fact that more would come looking for the AllSpark, so the Autobots decided to repair their ship and leave Earth. Sari's reaction to this was displeasure (in the form of a high pitch shout of NO!). However, they needed the Key to assist Ratchet in repairing the ship. Sari was unwilling to help them leave, nor was she pleased to work with a grouch like Ratchet (who was not that keen on working with a Protoform), but they managed to get her to the ship. While alone with the AllSpark, Sari decided to try and sabotage the ship, thereby keeping the Autobots on Earth (and dooming her species to enslavement and/or extinction) but the Key repaired the damage. After that, the AllSpark showed her an image of a giant Transformer. In her panic, Sari opened the air lock, nearly drowning, but Ratchet saved her. Ratchet then explained that they were leaving because they couldn't risk anything happening to Earth or her. Swayed by his compassion, Sari used the Key to reactivate the Autobot ship's decommissioned weapons, reducing Blitzwing and Lugnut to pieces. Lost and Found

Eventually, Optimus Prime decided that the Key was no longer safe in Sari's hands, and he ordered Ratchet to take it from her. Distraught, Sari ran off crying, only to be captured later by Blackarachnia, who was looking for the Key herself. Sari basically told her "too little, too late," and the two seemed to have a heart-to-heart about their gripes with the Autobots. Megatron Rising - Part 1

Isaac isn't the world's best dad, but he does know a good dentist.

While Sari was actually misleading Blackarachnia in circles around the frozen Lake Erie, she was grabbed by Ratchet as he brought the Autobots' ship out of the lake. She was ticked that Ratchet had lost the Key and that her dad had helped rebuild Megatron, but the blame game ceased after the ship crashed on Dinobot Island. Prime told the Sumdacs to stay with the ship while they went to fight off Megatron. Fearing that they might die, Isaac Sumdac said that there was something that he needed to tell Sari, but she was more interested in finding something else the AllSpark could charge. The AllSpark refused to respond, other than cryptically displaying an image of a DNA strand. Suddenly, Megatron and Prime burst through the hull of the ship, and during their fight, the Key once again fell into her hands. Sari tossed it to Optimus Prime, who used the Key destroy the AllSpark and disperse its energy. Acknowledging that he had been wrong in taking from her, Optimus Prime gave the Key back to Sari, saying that as the most powerful Cybertronian artifact on Earth, it was too important to be left in the hands of an Autobot.

Unfortunately, all was not well, for Sari could not find her dad...as he was now a prisoner of Megatron. Megatron Rising - Part 2

The tide has turned!

After her father's disappearance, Sari took over running Sumdac Systems. Board chairman Porter C. Powell opposed her, saying that she was too young and wasting company resources searching for her father. When the Cybertron Elite Guard arrived, Sari was cut off from the Autobots and her only source of emotional support. She soon needed them, as police drones coming out of a Sumdac assembly line began to malfunction, and Powell was unwilling to do anything about it. Sneaking aboard the Elite Guard ship, Sari put the fear of god into Jazz before Bulkhead explained that Sari was okay (and Bumblebee explained that Sentinel Prime was a jerk). With Optimus, Prowl, and Jazz's help, Sari managed to get into the plant's assembly line and shut down the systems. When she returned home, she found that she had been locked out of her office, as Powell was now CEO and Chairman of Sumdac Systems. Insisting that it was still her company, Sari was shocked when Powell revealed that she had no birth certificate, no adoption papers, and no social security number. Powell's smug revelation made Sari realize that not only was there no proof that she was Sumdac's daughter, there was no legal proof she even existed. The Elite Guard

After that, Powell kicked Sari out of Sumdac Tower, took Tutor Bot and Sparkplug, and gave her room to Henry Masterson as an office. With nowhere else to go, she went to Autobot HQ. Bumblebee and Bulkhead tried their best to cheer her up, employing such methods as loud music, inedible food, and unedifying teaching lesson. All they did was make things worse. Eventually, Prowl put the two bots in their place and told them to listen to her. Sari opened up about all her frustrations, such as her missing father, being kicked out of her home, her fear of Powell ruining her father's company, and the fact that there was no record of her existence. Bumblebee promised that they were there for her, no matter what, and Sari finally started to feel a little better. The Return of the Headmaster

Peekaboo!

And then Ultra Magnus decided that the Autobots couldn't be there for her, as the Decepticons had begun attacking the fringes of Autobot space, so Prime's crew were needed elsewhere. The Autobots decided that Captain Fanzone was the best human with whom to leave her. (Granted, their list of known humans was rather short and included Prometheus Black and Nanosec.) Before anything close to adoption could occur, they managed to convince Magnus that there were Decepticons on Earth (mostly because Starscream fell out of the sky and landed about ten feet in front of them), allowing them to stay on planet. Mission Accomplished

Sari amused herself after settling in with the Autobots by hooking up illegal satellite TV, which she used to watch pay-per-view races. (The races were also illegal, as the Autobots found out from Fanzone.) When Bumblebee wanted to join the races to compete against a mysterious blue car, Sari came along with him. Sari discovered that man in charge of the races, Master Disaster, had a remote control containing an AllSpark fragment, which he used to control the blue car. Blitzwing showed up to take the fragment, so and Bumblebee had to run for their lives. Eventually, she used the remote to get rid of Blitzwing, allowing the Autobots to get the AllSpark fragment. After that, Bumblebee severed her satellite connection, saying that he had to set a better example for her. Sari advised him not to try too hard, or she wouldn't recognize him. Velocity

Don't mess the 'do.

Sari was awakened from her night's rest by the loud cavorting of the Constructobots. A game of flattened-oil-barrel frisbee severed her trademark pigtails, which left her none too pleased. Rise of the Constructicons Subsequently she proved that she was still more mature than Bumblebee in a number of ways, warning him off of taking on villains solo just to prove a point. Sadly he wouldn't realize this until the Decepticon behind the villains' success, Swindle was revealed. By then it was too late, and she had to team up with those same villains to take his immobilized chassis to Sumdac Tower. Alarmed that the receptionist robot was now declaring it to be Powell Tower, she utilized the Key to rectify that little situation before heading off and successfully disabling Swindle's technology jamming device. SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy

A while after, Prowl and Sari were honing their agility using the factory's old assembly line. Sari claimed she could complete the exercise at full speed, like Prowl, but it was set to a quarter-speed, which proved to be too much for her at that and got a massive whack upside the head for her pains. After the Autobots discovered the return of the Constructicons, Sari was left at the base at the command of Optimus, who told reminded her that they had almost decapitated her the last time they met. Also, he doubted she would be able to take on a pair of two-story robots. At first Sari sulked at her situation, before realizing that she was completely alone in the base and did what any eight-year-old kid would do in an abandoned factory: raid the vending machines, use cranes as miniature G-force slings and try to take on Prowl's obstacle course at full speed (which went as well as last time).

They're here to kick aft and drink oil. And they're all out of oil.

While listening to her music, Sari failed to notice the alarms going off, which heralded the invasion of the Constructicons who were looking for a drink. After the two louts accidentally crushed her cell phone and left her with the option of sneaking to the communications room to call the Autobots for help, Sari decided—after a council of war with her teddy bear—to take on the two bots using her trusty hockey stick (which shatters soon after she strikes them with it). She escaped and made it to the communication room, contacting Bumblebee who told her to hide and wait until they finish fighting off the recently appeared Blitzwing, who was also looking for the Constucticons. Sari concluded that it would be too long and set up a trap for the two invaders, using three barrels of oil to trip them up and the plant's assembly line to knock them around for a while, forcing Mixmaster and Scrapper to flee. The Autobots returned to find the place in ruins, but Sari showed them that she was all right. Optimus both apologized for his previous comments and lauded her for her bravery, and all was well for Sari—if she could just explain away the mountain of candy wrappers Optimus discovered... Sari, No One's Home

Sari later posed for a Picasso-style picture done by Bulkhead. The results were...interesting, to say the least. After criticism by the Autobots, a depressed Bulkhead walked out, and Sari and Bumblebee went to cheer him up. During a walk in the park, Megatron attacked them, carrying an imprisoned Isaac Sumdac with him, and Sari realized that Megatron had kidnapped him all those months ago. (Apparently, that hadn't occurred to anyone else.) While she looked on helplessly, Megatron managed to kidnap Bulkhead. When she returned to the plant, she heard the Autobot Blurr reveal that Professor Sumdac was helping the Decepticons build a space bridge to conquer Cybertron. Sari refused to believe that her father was willingly helping the Decepticons and got a promise out of Optimus Prime to bring him home alive. Heading to Dinobot Island, Ratchet and Sari worked to bring the Autobots' ship back online. Ratchet realized that they would need riskier repairs to bring achieve their goal. A Bridge Too Close, Part I

It's a strange thing when the human companion's story arc is more interesting than the robots.

As Ratchet worked, he explained that the ship was an Autobot who had sacrificed his spark two million years ago. Sari was doubtful that it would come back online...until it spoke to her. She proceeded to use the Key on several of the ship's systems, under Ratchet's direction, until it was able to take off. Taking it to the mine where the Decepticons were based, Sari managed to give the ship enough power to transform into its robot mode, Omega Supreme. The massive Autobot turned the tide of the battle, but sacrificed himself to save the others from being sucked into the space bridge. The Autobots managed to escape, with both Sari and Isaac in tow, and Isaac revealed that he had been forced to work with the Decepticons. Overjoyed that her father was safe and still a good guy, Sari dubbed Isaac Sumdac the most honest and trust-worthy guy that anyone could hope to find. It was at that point that everyone assembled noticed that the skin on Sari's elbow had torn away, revealing robotic circuity underneath. A Bridge Too Close, Part II

Although Sari was at first scared by this strange discovery, her fear quickly gave way to anger at her father for having kept the secret that she was a robot from her for years. As they returned to Detroit, Sumdac explained how he had found Sari in his lab years before, but the girl remained incredulous, and things only got worse when the pair confronted Porter C. Powell and Henry Masterson back in Sumdac Tower. When the two men refused to vacate the building, Sari's strained patience snapped, and her hands suddenly transformed into energy projectors, which created a shock wave that knocked the pair of do-badders into the elevator. Struggling to comprehend her true nature, Sari went with the Autobots to their headquarters, unable even to be in the same building as the man she could no longer even think of as her father. Optimus Prime did his best to patch up the damaged family relationship by tricking Sari into meeting with Sumdac at Burger Bot, but it wasn't until Masterson returned with his Headmaster unit attached to Starscream's body that the bonds between father and daughter were repaired, as Sari and Sumdac defended each other from the villain.

Okay Sari, focus. Let go of old thinking, focus on the transformation within. The key is finding the balance in yourself. Then, and only then, can you truly say...

Sari quickly began to get a handle on her new Cybertronian powers, learning to project spheres of energy from her hands, but the Autobots still refused to allow her to accompany them into battle against a rock-like alien creature that had just transwarped into the middle of Detroit. Seeking a means to increase her powers, Sari turned her Key upon herself and underwent a surprising metamorphosis: Her body was "aged" so that she appeared to be a teenager, and she sprouted powerful battle armor equipped with jet-skates, arm-blades and an energy-hammer.

..."I am transformed!"

Although Sari's new powers amazed the Autobots when she made short work of the rock-alien, things soon started to go wrong, as the Key's energy began overloading Sari's circuitry, causing her to run out of control. Unable to control her own body and causing objects around her to explode with her merest touch, Sari nearly killed Bumblebee by stabbing him with one of her blades before the Autobots were able to remove the key from her system. Even with the Key extracted, Sari's energies were still running wild, and she was in danger of exploding and destroying the entire city before Ratchet knocked her out with his EMP generator. Once they returned to the Autobot base, he bypassed the circuitry responsible for her overload.

You've been hit by/ You've been struck by/ A smooth criminal

As Sari convalesced, her father at her side, Megatron returned to Earth in control of Omega Supreme. Optimus Prime was forced to contemplate undoing the repairs done to Sari and using her to stop the rampaging superweapon as a last-ditch desperation play. When Starscream took control of Omega away from Megatron and locked down all the entrance hatches to prevent the Autobots from infiltrating the robot (again), he came to the point of ordering Ratchet to do so. Fortunately for Sari's (and Detroit's) continued existence, Ratchet refused, and the Autobots ultimately transwarped the threat off Earth. Soon after, Sari awoke and apologized to her friends for her foolishness, while her father apologized to her for holding back the truth for so long. TransWarped

After convalescing, she was next seen on Christmas Eve, making some oil-nog for the Autobots and warning them to stay off Santa's naughty list. When they went to bed early, thanks to a Sound Wave toy spiking the 'nog, she called them a bunch of party-poopers, but wished them a Merry Christmas and went home.

The next morning, she wasn't happy to receive another Sound Wave toy from her father, given what had happened with the last one, and was further disappointed when she was given a motor scooter rather than a car...until she found out that it transformed into a jet pack. Overjoyed, she transformed to her robot mode and flew off to show Bumblebee. When she arrived at the Autobots' base, she found it apparently deserted, and was further puzzled when the base's scanners showed their energy signatures in the factory itself. The appearance of a creepy robot bird, leading a number of Sound Wave toys from an elevator in the floor (which she'd not known about before), didn't help matters, so she used her palm blasters on them and took the lift down.

In the basement, she found the Autobots wired into a VR machine by a fully rebuilt Soundwave. With most of her weaponry offline, she was no match for him and his instruments when she tried to stop him. She was forced to retreat, promising to come back for her friends... Human Error, Part I

While she was flying back to Sumdac Tower, Soundwave decided to take over the whole city of Detroit, using the small Sound Waves to carry his hypnotic tunes, since reprogramming the Autobots was taking too long. As such, she arrived back to find a Sound Wave toy blaring hypnotic music at her...and kicked it out of the way. Soundwave deduced that her techno-organic nature made her immune to the music, and he shifted focus to trying to force everyone else to kill her, starting with her father!

After reluctantly dropping a shelving unit on her dad to make her escape, she flew to Dinobot Island for help. Her initial foray met with little success, since Grimlock and Swoop refused to help, tried to kill her, then left her alone when she blasted at them. Grimlock's mention that the third member of his group had been kicked out for becoming someone's "pet" raised her curiosity, though, and she soon found Scrapper, separated from the other two Constructicons by a big explosion, on the island's shore playing with "Snarl", and she managed to conscript the two into rescuing the other Autobots.

On their way back to the mainland on a makeshift raft, Wreck-Gar abruptly popped up from the lake's bottom and immediately became the fourth member of the troupe of Substitute Autobots. Once they were ashore, Sari's chaotic attempt to get them to transform and roll out nearly had them leave her behind, but it became moot before too long when Soundwave flew out of the ground, followed by the brainwashed Autobots. Initial attempts by her group at fighting them went badly, as the Substitute Autobots proved incapable of working at a team, while the zombie-Autobots acted as a single, elegant machine under Soundwave, and Soundwave could even control her own jet pack. Sari then changed tack, abandoning efforts to co-ordinate her group and ordering them to attack as individuals. Soundwave's single, elegant machine had trouble multitasking, apparently leading to Prowl saving Sari from death at Bumblebee's stingers in an attempt to deliver his own blow.

This lasted until, with four Autobots down, only Optimus Prime remained...whereupon Soundwave could concentrate on controlling just one Autobot properly. As a result, Sari was almost killed by the enslaved Optimus—but was saved again by Prowl, who openly revealed that he'd broken Soundwave's control in knocking Ratbat away from him. Shortly after, Soundwave was again shattered into many pieces, and Sari could once again concentrate on celebrating Christmas with her adopted family and her father. Human Error, Part II

(Insert Ghost in the Shell joke here)

When Bulkhead and her father belatedly completed the space bridge they'd been working on (after the purpose they'd been making it for had been accomplished), Sari objected that they would have gotten it working sooner if they'd let her help. They scoffed and went back to bickering about the final tweaks...so Sari took it upon herself to head over to the console, where her eyes glowed, her hands separated into wires, and she finished the setup in seconds. When Optimus asked just how she'd managed that, she replied that she didn't know how, she just...had. Further, when Sentinel Prime sent an encoded message to Optimus that things had gone horribly wrong on the Elite Guard's ship, Sari managed to lock onto the transwarp signature of Swindle's personal storage dimension to get Optimus aboard, after Bulkhead wasn't sure it was even possible.

"I'm Sari Sumdac. I know stuff."

Later, after Swindle had departed the ship and Bulkhead wasn't sure he could retrieve Optimus, she claimed she could fix it and that she'd figured out why, guessing she must have upgraded her "processor... or brain or whatever" as part of her wider upgrade. However, putting it to the test wasn't necessary, as the ship dropped off Optimus at Sumdac Tower, safe and sound. Decepticon Air

When Optimus Prime abruptly decided he needed a jetpack of his own, Sari - along with Ratchet and her dad - was called into service to make it happen, which included Sari diagnosing a problem just by touching it. Later, when three Decepticon clones of Omega Supreme headed for Detroit, she joined the Autobots in going out to meet them. Endgame, Part I

Titan Magazines

When Starscream and his clones seized the Autobot base, Sari immediately fled to Dinobot Island to get help. She found out the Dinobots were being made grouchy by the constant rain, so she promised they could stay in the Autobot base until it stopped if they drove out the Decepticons. That made Sari Grimlock's friend and left the Autobots crying when they saw the weather forecast. Dino-MIGHT!

Being present for Quake-Maker's first attack on Detroit, she got to see the arrival of shiny new hero Afterburn. She was smitten at first sight. Burnout She even got to hang with him on a mission to Dinobot Island! As well as be stunned by his ace moves, she used her Key to heal a wounded Grimlock and suffered emotional abuse when Ratchet faked his death to test Afterburn. Ratchet & Grimlock Are DEAD?

Later, while watching a basketball game, Sari had to help stop an attack on the city by the villainous Crossroads. She'd met the supervillain when he'd worked at Sumdac Systems but his awesome disguise of a blue strip of cloth on his head threw her for a few minutes. Once she'd worked it out, she was able to inform the Autobots he was heading for Sumdac Tower and helped see to his defeat. Crossroads!

Notes

NOT show accurate.

I d-d-don't think th-this is s-such a g-g-good idea, Scott!

• A promotional image of Sari from the Cartoon Network Transformers Animated press kit showed her with different shoes, a different Key design, and a slightly darker skin tone.

• In a preliminary version of the opening credits, Sari appeared riding on a tricycle which she used the Key to transform into a jet pack. The footage was dropped from the finished credits, but was screened at conventions and was later included on the DVD packaged with the Optimus Prime and Megatron "The Battle Begins" action figure two-pack. The concept was later recycled as a Christmas present from her father in "Human Error, Part I"; instead of a tricycle, she has an orange scooter which transforms into a jet pack compatible with her robotic body. She may have been gone for four episodes, but now she can fly!

• Sari's pigtails do not grow back overnight...or do they?

• Sari has a transformation noise shared only with her scooter/jetpack, likely because of her rather unique origin.

• Sari did not appear for four episodes in S3—between "Three's a Crowd" and "Predacons Rising"—after her almost-disastrous upgrade, the longest time she has been absent in the series so far. Well, considering the shift in focus...not to mention Sentinel Prime's presence on Earth for three of those episodes, perhaps it's just as well. He'd probably have totally freaked out as soon as he saw her.

• Ever since her TransWarped upgrade, she has what appear to be articulation lines on her sleeves and stockings/socks.

• Sari's hands can transform into several different modes, two of which pay homage to the anime Ghost in the Shell and Iron Man.

• From TransWarped onward, her eyes are now an inverted version of Autobot eyes, with the lighter shade of cyan as the "whites" and the darker shade as the "iris".

• Despite the controversial Key no longer being a part of the series, it can be argued that Sari is slowly turning into a deus ex machina just like it in her own right, merely by virtue of "just knowing things" crucial to the storyline (often without a proper explanation), as well as being able to diagnose mechanical problems merely by touching a given machine. Makes you wonder how this will all come into play in the final episode, doesn't it?