Shout! Studios

If there's some weird sound / on your DVD / who you gonna call?

Shout! Factory is the latest company to hold the U.S. distribution rights to the original Transformers cartoon. They also have released DVD versions of many other nostalgic cartoons, like C.O.P.S., Captain N: The Game Master, and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. Oh, and that one show that always gets mixed up with the Transformers.

Releases

For their Generation 1 DVDs, Shout! Factory have notably cleaned up the extra sound effects and animation errors introduced by Kid Rhino and Magno Sound & Video that have previously been present in many different companies' releases worldwide.

• The Transformers — The Complete First Season: 25th Anniversary Edition (June 16, 2009)

Contains the entire first season in original production order across two discs, plus a third disc of bonus material including a featurette on "the origins of the Transformers", commercials, PSAs, and the script for "Transport to Oblivion".

• The Transformers — More than Meets the Eye (September 1, 2009)

Contains the episodes "More than Meets the Eye" parts 1-3, "Transport to Oblivion" and "Roll for It".

• The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition (September 15, 2009)

Contains 28 episodes of the second season in their original airdate order across four discs.

• The Transformers — 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Collection (October 20, 2009)

Sixteen-disc set compiling the four individual "25th Anniversary Edition" season releases, plus a 60-page book and exclusive Autobot- and Decepticon-themed magnets.

• The Transformers — Season Two, Volume Two: 25th Anniversary Edition (January 12, 2010)

Contains the remaining 21 episodes of the second season mostly in their original airdate order across three discs, plus a fourth disc of bonus material including two featurettes, a concept art gallery, excerpts from the show's production bible, commercials, PSAs, and episode scripts.

• The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 25th Anniversary Edition (April 20, 2010)

Contains the third season in their original airdate across four discs, plus a fifth disc of bonus material including "The Autobots, The Decepticons & the Fans" featurette, an interview with Bob Budiansky, a concept art gallery, production bible excerpts, commercials, PSAs, and episode scripts.

Notes

• The episode order as used by Shout! Factory for season one (in production order), and season two (mostly in airdate order), actually stems from utilizing the episode order as suggested in the Prime Targets unofficial guidebook, which lists season one in production order, but arranges season two generally into airdate order and has a fairly randomized order for season three.
  • When Shout! publicized the episode order for their second season DVD, they somewhat bizarrely initially claimed that Hasbro considered the Prime Targets episode order the official one. Shortly afterwards however, Shout! were instructed by someone to put season three into strict airdate order, regardless of continuity between some of the episodes. This instruction came too late to change the order of the season three episodes on the DVD covers and in the accompanying booklet, which still reflect the Prime Targets order, leading to much confusion about various season three episodes being on the 'wrong' discs.

• On the Triple Changer retrospective documentary and separate interview with Bob Budiansky, there is a deliberate obfuscation of Marvel Comics' involvement in fashioning much of the Transformers' early backstory and no direct mention that they were the publisher behind the 1980s comics. Clips from the very first Transformers commercial for #1 of the Marvel Comic are shown, but are cut off before Victor Caroli's narration can mention it will be coming "from Marvel Comics", with even the brief image of #1 in the commercial also having Marvel's logo blurred out. The tiptoeing around Marvel's name is particularly noticeable in Budiansky's solo interview as he only ever refers to working for "the comicbook company", even when mentioning receiving a fan letter from someone named Stan Lee, who was apparently well-known for being associated with "the comicbook company".

• The Secret Files of Teletraan II no longer appear after their respective season three episodes, but are instead all included separately as isolated extras.

• Following the precedent of Sony's The Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD, all the commercials on the Shout! discs have the kids' faces blurred out due to clearance issues.

• Shout! looked into obtaining the U.S. home video rights to include "Scramble City" for the Matrix of Leadership Collection, but were unsuccessful, simply stating that "Toei has no interest in licensing to third parties".

Restoration

• Shout! Factory conducted a painstaking editing process to correct the animation errors and sound effect additions made by Kid Rhino and Magno Sound & Video.
  • From the DVD insert: "Transformers DVDs released prior to our 25th Anniversary Edition were missing animation seen in the original broadcast. We did extensive research, found the discrepancies between the original broadcast masters and the restored masters used for the last DVD release, reinserted the correct animation, and color corrected it as best we could to match the shots before and after. But because a one-inch master tape simply can't hold up to the quality of the restored masters, you may notice occasional shots—or even scenes—in some episodes that seem slightly softer than others. Just take comfort in knowing that laser blasts have been reinserted, backgrounds have been corrected and Starscream is Starscream once again."
  • Some of the fixed scenes are indeed "softer" than the surrounding animation—though since the last time the correct versions were released for North American purchase was on VHS tapes over 10 years ago, by this point the Shout! versions probably look as good as or better than them. Though not absolutely every Kid Rhino coloring error was fixed, the vast majority were, and certainly all of the sequences of mistaken animation that confused the plot were fixed. Shout! even repaired some audio errors that had been present on several prior releases of "Fire on the Mountain," and also included the totally better original, non-narrated closing sequence for "Dark Awakening" where Kid Rhino had used the later version.

• A version of the theme song including all of the extra sound effects introduced by Magno is used on the DVD title menu, but not in the actual episodes.

External link

• Shout! Factory's homepage