Transformers: Energon (cartoon)

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Unicron Trilogy continuity family

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Energon

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The Energon cartoon series, aired from 2003 to 2004, was a direct sequel to Armada and forms the second part of the "Unicron Trilogy".

The show takes place ten years after the finale of Armada, opening in an age of peace on Cybertron and Earth which is destined not to last long. Energon pits the Autobots against an array of villains: the reborn Megatron, the barely functional Unicron, and the mysterious Alpha-Q and his Terrorcon minions.

Energon, like Armada, was written and animated in Japan and dubbed for US consumption. The series employed the popular technique of combining cel-shaded computer animation with 2D cel-animation, creating a fusion between the CGI of Beast Wars/Machines and traditionally animated series such as Robots in Disguise.

Criticisms

The Unicron Trilogy was a franchise that got off to a poor start, fictionally speaking, with Armada suffering from a beginning that, in the eyes of many, condemned the entire show from the outset. Although it improved as it went along, with the "Unicron Battles" arc generally being regarded fairly well in comparison to the rest of the series, the sub-par start to the series left it laboring under a bad reputation that it was never truly able to escape.

It was perhaps quite the proverbial brick to the testicles, then, that Armada's sequel series, Energon, turned out to be just the opposite—a series with a strong beginning, which slowly but surely degenerated into what is regarded as one of the worst Transformers cartoons broadcast on American television. In retrospect, even the strong reception the beginning of the series received was perhaps, in part, due simply to the fact that it "wasn't Armada."

Conceptual and storytelling flaws

It is generally held that the primary flaw of the Energon series is, put simply, that it does not have enough plot to sustain its 52-episode run. The first half of the series moves along at a respectable pace, and at the halfway point, the villains' objective—the restoration of Unicron—is achieved. However, for no reason other than the fact that there are another 26 episodes to fill, Unicron is promptly deactivated, and the basic storyline of the first half of the series is repeated until Unicron is reactivated again and then destroyed in episode 39. But even the destruction of the driving aspect of the plot could not bring the series to a close, as there were a further 13 episodes to go. These remaining episodes were filled with a virtually completely pointless storyline full of repaints and combiners which add nothing to what had already taken place.

The series takes a very dismissive attitude towards its characters and their development. With the exception of Ironhide, who is allowed to survive the series through to its conclusion and to have his long-running feud with Scorponok brought to a close, the series writers seemed unable to carry characters' personal sub-plots and conflicts through to any conclusion. Instead, the plots would either be quietly dropped forever, or—much more gallingly—the characters would be killed and/or have their minds wiped so the stories would not have to be resolved. Demolishor's uncertainty in the Decepticon cause? "Resolved" by having him killed, then resurrected with no memories. Inferno's struggle against Megatron's Decepticon programming? Brought to an end by having him kill himself, then be resurrected, only to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the series. Wing Saber's dedication to capturing Shockblast? Well, he captures him...but then Shockblast escapes again, and Wing Saber doesn't say a word. Rodimus and Optimus Prime's ideological feud over whether or not Unicron should be destroyed? Rodimus puts himself under Optimus's command for the mission to defeat Galvatron, and the argument never comes up again. Kicker's hatred of Transformers? Vanishes with no explanation after roughly two episodes (though he did continue his constant kicking of Ironhide). It just goes on like this...

In choosing to set most of its action in the void of space, Energon rather foolishly robbed the Transformers of any real reason to transform. They can all happily fly in robot mode (in space, on planets, anywhere), begging the question of why transformation is even necessary, but because this show is about Transformers, they would regularly transform anyway...and fly through space anyway. Cue an innumerable number of scenes of cars, snowmobiles and dump trucks driving through space, able to control their direction and movement with no problem, effectively completely invalidating the need for any variety in alternate mode at all.

Whereas the English version of the series takes its name from the central plot element—the collection of Energon for various purposes—the Japanese version, Super Link, takes its name from the main thematic concept: the powerlinxing of the Autobots together. Although the Japanese version of the show contained a lot of waffling about the symbolic nature of this ("Even when one heart is weak, together, we are strong!"), the fact remains that, almost without fail, these much-vaunted combinations are used in straight firefights, where combining two soldiers into one means fewer guns to fire back at the enemy. The resulting combined soldier rarely if ever shows any sign of enhanced firepower. Further failing to advertise the combining gimmick are the "Maximus" combiner teams. For about 99% of their screen time, the three giants are seen in only their combined super robot modes, almost never splitting into individual vehicles, and never ever being seen as individual robots. The show doesn't even acknowledge that the limbs could conceivably be individuals.

Production flaws

The above images feature: A horrified Ironhide witnessing Demolishor's death; a surprised Ironhide asking a question; a determined Ironhide charging into battle; and a fighting-mad Ironhide striking a decisive blow. Can YOU figure out which is which?

Energon introduced a new concept to Transformers cartoons: the blending of CGI with traditional cel animation. The Transformers were rendered in cel-shaded CGI, while the humans and other aspects of the show were animated through traditional means. On the plus side, this led to a consistently high level of cel animation quality (especially enjoyable after the often truly wretched artwork seen in Armada), but on the other hand... the CGI animation was positively primitive. Characters possessed no sense of weight and could not move in anything outside of the most basic ways—even simply walking was a challenge for characters with bulky models, like Ironhide, who would often be reduced simply to swinging his arms and legs back and forth and having his model slide along a predetermined path. Additionally, "emotion" was a nonexistent concept; the blank-faced CGI models could not easily display any facial expressions beyond "mouth open" and "mouth closed." Although in very sparing instances, some original expressions would be pasted onto the faces when the situation absolutely demanded it, for the most part, when a character was require to perform a fast, dynamic maneuver in a visually impressive manner (acrobatic transformations, for example), or when it was necessary for them to emote visibly in the extreme (Megatron's pronounced yawning, Inferno's tortured screams), the CGI would actually be replaced with cel animation. The very notion that CGI had to be replaced with cel in order to look more impressive said volumes in itself, but mainly fans were left to wonder why this show compared so poorly to Beast Wars and Beast Machines, which years before had given the viewers complex facial expressions and fluid, constant body language, often capable of carrying a scene without dialogue?

On the dubbing side of things, Energon seemed to be even more rushed than its predecessor, Armada, which was already well known for being so rushed that it had had to use beta animation, got character names wrong, and had occasional moments of dialogue that didn't jibe with the action onscreen. Energon generally got completed animation, and while it did not feature as many straight-up technical errors as Armada (generally getting characters' names right, with some exceptions), its scripts featured virtually no re-writing to adapt them for Western sensibilities, or even checking to see if they made any logical sense. As a result, the show is stilted, perfunctory, and has moments of genuine nonsense, with arbitrary new dialogue (that seems to exist purely due to carelessness/stupidity on the part of the writers) which does not match what is occurring onscreen, or often bizarre non-sequiturs. Outside of things that occur by accident, there are also some very strange deliberate changes, chief among them the inexplicable tendency for Primus to be intermittently ignored. In one episode, Primus could be dubbed accurately, talking and interacting with other characters with no problems, while in the next, he could be totally overlooked, his lines given to other characters or erased entirely, with references to him replaced with dialogue referring only to "the core".

The voice acting, even when coming from respected talent like Gary Chalk and David Kaye, is frequently flat and uninspired. Although this can be a common result of the antiseptic ADR (automated dialog replacement) environment, where actors perform solo with no one to play off of, Energon is bad even by those standards, with the actors clearly having no idea what their lines mean in the greater scheme of things, nor even any idea of what they're really talking about. And there's a pronounced amount of "filling dead air," with characters talking from offscreen simply to make noise where there was none originally.

Put an episode in and take a shot every time someone someone goes "Uhh?" simply to break the silence.

You'll be hammered by the first commercial break.