Transformers: Cybertron (cartoon)
| The name or term "Cybertron" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Cybertron (disambiguation). |
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The Cybertron cartoon series ran in the United States in the years 2005-2006. US continuity has connected this series to the Armada-Energon continuity. The series premiered in the United States in July 2005.
The story centers on a giant black hole that threatens to devour Cybertron and other worlds. Only the power of the Omega Lock can stop it; Optimus Prime and a small team of Autobots travel to various worlds in search of the lock and the four Planet Keys needed to activate it. Megatron, even more obsessed with power and godhood, attempts to seize the lock and the keys to boost his own personal power.
The series' Japanese counterpart Galaxy Force was presented as a continuity reboot... but was then retconned into a continuation of Super Link by later materials.
To save them and the galaxy we must find the four Cyber Planet Keys before the Decepticons can use them for evil.
It is our mission.
Hot Shot! Jetfire! Vector Prime! Landmine! Scattorshot! Optimus Prime!
Transform and roll out!Optimus Prime, Cybertron opening credits
Episodes
- Fallen
- Haven
- Hidden
- Landmine
- Space
- Rush
- Speed
- Collapse
- Time
- Search
- Deep
- Ship
- Hero
- Race
- Detour
- Savage
- Sand
- Champion
- Ice
- Honor
- Primal
- Trust
- Trap
- Invasion
- Retreat
- Revelations
- Critical
- Assault
- Starscream
- United
- Cybertron
- Balance
- Darkness
- Memory
- Escape
- Family
- Titans
- Warp
- Giant
- Fury
- City
- Ambush
- Challenge
- Scourge
- Optimus
- Showdown
- Guardian
- Homecoming
- End
- Unfinished
- Beginning
- Inferno ("Lost" episode)
Criticism
Like Energon before it, Cybertron was animated using shaded CGI for the Transformers characters, and cel animation for most everything else. Though more advanced than that of Energon, the CGI still suffers from most of the problems of its predecessor: Few facial expressions beyond "mouth open" and "mouth closed"[1], restricted range of motion, a tendency for the Transformers to stand around like statues, et cetera. The shading techniques used on the Transformer characters also means they look very strange alongside their traditionally-animated human cohorts.
While the basic plot of Cybertron is far more focused and coherent than that of Energon, it still drags at times, stretching and milking plot points for all they're worth, and heavily padding episodes with stock transformation sequences.
Praise
On the plus side, the three kids who serve as central human characters generally aren't considered quite as annoying as many of their predecessors. (We're looking at you, Kicker.)
The dub is much more polished than that of Energon or Armada, giving characters distinct voices and accents (which totally never happened before, really), and throwing a lot of pop-culture and Transformers references into the mix. It also makes the excessive stock footage — which seems to make up 50% of some episodes — mildly entertaining to listen to by having the characters talk during them. As time went on, the stock-footage banter got a little self-referential and fourth-wall-pokey, showing that the writers were well aware of what they were working with.
Since the scripts had comprehensible context and some actual work put into them, the voice actors were likewise able to turn in stronger performances.
Continuity
As noted above, the Japanese version (Galaxy Force) originally treated the story as a stand-alone, unconnected to any previous story. The American version draws connections to the Armada and Energon cartoons, but various incongruities still exist:
- The Autobots act as though they've never been to Earth before and have no familiarity with its culture, despite having spent ten years there in places like Ocean City.
- Nobody really seems to remember their adventures of the past ten years.
- Jetfire and Landmine both have distinctively different voices than in the previous cartoons. Red Alert has essentially the same voice, but with a newly added accent.
- Formerly prominent characters like Rodimus, Ironhide and Kicker have vanished without a word; new characters Overhaul and Scattorshot appear out of nowhere; and Red Alert returns after being absent for all of Energon.
- Returning characters are all in brand-new bodies with no explanation.
- When he first combines with Leobreaker, Optimus Prime declares that he's never heard of two Autobots combining into one before. This is a rather odd statement, considering that such combinations were commonplace during Energon, and Optimus himself had been combining with other Autobots since Armada.
Within the show, most of these problems were never directly addressed; the cartoon simply went about telling its story without much regard to previous events (indeed, vanishing characters and new bodies had previously occurred in the changeover between Armada and Energon with equally little attention.)
However, external material has addressed some of them. The Cybertron comic storyline Balancing Act, for example, Vector Prime claims that the Autobots are suffering memory problems, caused by temporal disturbances from the Unicron Singularity. Jetfire's new accent was explained on the Hasbro web site as a result of time spent on the planet Nebulon.
Energon comic
Some fans believe that the cartoon follows the unfinished Energon comic book series from Dreamwave. Unsubstantiated rumors to this effect have swirled since the cartoon's debut, though the only "evidence" comes from media outside the cartoon:
- The Cybertron comic storyline Balancing Act, written by Hasbro copywriter Forest Lee, is set the same universe as the Cybertron cartoon series. But the story references events from the Energon comic, such as the Mini-Con Over-Run hooking himself into the Planetary Database -- an event which didn't even occur in the Energon comic, but would have, if it hadn't been canceled.
- The bio of Cybertron toy Dark Scorponok references his death at the hands of Megatron, as happened in the Energon comic but not the cartoon. However, this was overwritten when "Balancing Act" depicted Dark Scorponok as being pulled into the cartoon timeline from another universe.
The idea doesn't solve any problems; most of the contradictions between the Energon and Cybertron cartoons also exist between the Energon comic and the Cybertron cartoon. The cartoon contains no references to any events of the Energon comic.
The entire notion of a network television cartoon following up on a comparatively obscure, unfinished comic book seems counter-intuitive; furthermore, Hasbro material has presented many explanations for contradictions between the two cartoons. Why bother explaining why Cybertron Jetfire sounds different if he's not the same guy seen in Energon? Why have Vector Prime explain the differences between the two cartoons if they're not in the same continuity?
Footnotes
- ↑ Though you do see an occasional smirk or smile, to their credit.
