Transformers Animated (cartoon)
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Transformers Animated is a cartoon series which debuted on December 26, 2007, in support of the franchise of the same name.
The cartoon is produced by Cartoon Network, scripted in the United States, with character and background designs by the crews behind shows like Teen Titans and Ben 10, while animation is being provided by Japanese studios Mook, The Answer Studio, Studio 4°C and Barnum Studio.
Animated sees several Generation 1 voice actors reprise their old roles (Susan Blu, Corey Burton, John Moschitta, etc.), and is the first Transformers series featuring David Kaye in which he isn't voicing Megatron.
Overview
- For further information, see: Transformers Animated timeline
Animated follows the adventures of a small crew of Autobots who come into possession of the all-powerful AllSpark artifact. Stranded on Earth and living among the population of Detroit, they face off against a series of human villains and their mighty Decepticon foes, who seek to possess the AllSpark. Though they were originally a lowly space bridge repair crew, these five Autobots must rise to their circumstances to deal with threats large and small.
The series eschews the ever-continuing space opera storylines of the Unicron Trilogy cartoons to return to the episodic approach of Beast Wars; most episodes are standalone stories, but with larger story arcs that stretch through the whole series. The focus is on characterization, dynamic action, and humor.
The episodes center not only on the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, but also on the Autobots' interactions with many of Detroit's human supervillain denizens, including a maladjusted marksman, a speedy racer, and a guy who looks good in a pimp suit. The idea is to present the Decepticons as more of an ongoing background threat instead of having them be repeatedly defeated each episode and look like bumbling fools. The arrival of a Decepticon in battle is a big deal, requiring multiple Autobots working together to stop even a single one. The human villains give the Autobots "everyday" threats, and some of their schemes are the result of Decepticon treachery. Note well: Human adversaries are not new in Transformers continuity.
While the series is not a sequel to the live-action movie, they have many thematic elements in common, most notably the central role of the AllSpark and the revelation that all modern technology has been reverse-engineered from the dormant body of Megatron. Hasbro also carried over some design elements from the live-action movie into Animated designs, including not just the aforementioned cube but also Ratchet's medical readout striped deco, Bumblebee's black racing stripe, and Megatron's helmet. These are meant to be "connection points," helping kids who had seen the theatrical film but had no prior Transformers experience ease into understanding the new series.
The series also includes many elements and homages to prior Transformers series. Most conspicuously, it has many parallels to Generation 1 character designs, personalities, and major characteristics; Shockwave and Blurr are even voiced by the same voice actors as their G1 analogues. Beast Wars gets nods in the form of the inclusion of new versions/homages of Blackarachnia and Waspinator, plus the overall plot structure: The main war is over, the good guys won, but now a small team of heroes never meant for combat roles must go up against an upstart cell of villains led by a charismatic rogue.
At BotCon 2009, Cartoon Network representatives confirmed longstanding fan rumors that the end of season 3 marked the series finale--meaning it had in fact already ended with no prior acknowledgment or explanation.
Cast
Episodes
- For further information, see: List of Transformers Animated episodes
| Feature-Length Premiere: 2007 Transform and Roll Out | |||||
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Creative staff
There are some talented people working on this show. Among the more prominent-
- Sam Register - Executive Producer
- Marty Isenberg - Story Editor, Writer
- Irineo Maramba - Director, Character Designer
- Derrick J. Wyatt - Art Director
- Jeff Shiffman - Co-Sound Supervisor
Home video releases
- United States
- Transformers Animated — Transform and Roll Out (2008)
- Transformers Animated — Season One (2008)
- Transformers Animated — Season Two (2009)
- United Kingdom and Australia
- Transformers Animated — Transform and Roll Out (2008)
- Transformers Animated — Volume One: Blast from the Past (2008)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Two: Lost and Found (2009)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Three: Megatron Rising (2009)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Four: Mission Accomplished (2009)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Five: Fistful of Energon (2009)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Six: Black Friday (2009)
- Germany
- Transformers Animated — Transformieren und Abfart (2008)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Eins: Drachenkämpfer (2008)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Zwei: Die Alten Waffen (2009)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Drei: Megatrons Auferstehung (2009)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Vier: Mission Erfüllt (2009)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Fünf: Der Doppelte Starscream (2009)
- Transformers Animated — Volume Sechs: Schwarzer Freitag (2009)
- Japan
- Transformers Animated — Vol. 1 (2010)
Comic adaptations
A comic adaptation of the series was published by IDW Publishing starting in January 2008. The book used cartoon screen captures arranged in comic book style panels.
Reception
Transformers Animated debuted January 5, 2008, at 10:30am EST as the number one television show among boys 6-11 in both cable and network television. In addition, the strength of the showing helped lift the ratings of all its neighboring shows in Cartoon Network's "Dynamite Action" scheduling block. [1]
The immediate response to the earliest promotional materials from the online fandom was the painfully traditional one, with an added dash of overblown paranoia that the franchise would be far too "kid-oriented" for longtime fans to enjoy, based on nothing more than its artistic style. Attitudes took an eyebrow-raisingly sharp turn with the premiere of the first footage from the show at San Diego Comic-Con 2007 and Hasbro's presentation at BotCon 2007, and after the debut of the show, it was essentially only the most ardent "already-made-up-their-mind-to-hate-it" viewers who were speaking ill. In particular, many fears were alleviated with the airing of "The Thrill of the Hunt", which involved Ratchet savagely beating Lockdown for revenge, Ratchet coping with the loss of Arcee's memories, and a look at the horrors of war. This unusual level of maturity let many fans warm up to the new series.
The aforementioned ability of the series to carry on story arcs for multiple episodes and, in many cases, for an entire season also lends itself to enjoyment by older viewers. Multiple plot lines run simultaneously and are not resolved within a single episode, allowing a deeper, more intricate story than previous Transformers series. The return of Megatron took up most of season one, and the construction of the space bridge and the revelation of the identity of the Decepticon traitor among the Autobots unfolded throughout the second season, while the mystery of Sari's origin has been hinted at throughout the entire series.
Animated also lends itself less eagerly to the common practices used in Transformers cartoons to sell toys, with substantial plot points being given to characters that do not have toys and the same core cast of characters being kept constant throughout the three-season run.
While the first two seasons had several moments of surprising maturity, season 3 can be noted for an overall darker tone. It featured a number of character deaths (including two of the core cast), vicious assault and several storylines which dealt with more mature themes. The most obvious example would be the character of Sentinel Prime, who went from being a bungling egomaniac with a chip on his shoulder to being a bungling egomaniac with a chip on his shoulder who tried to kill one of his oldest friends and manipulated the Cybertronian political system so he could blow stuff up but good.
Japanese release
Transformers Animated (トランスフォーマー アニメイテッド) began airing on the TV Tokyo affiliate, TV Aichi, at 8am on April 3, 2010, with a regular Saturday morning timeslot. This also happens to be the same exact timeslot that the last Transformers cartoon to air in Japan, Galaxy Force, had. The series is broadcast in widescreen, but unfortunately, rather than use the full widescreen image originally animated (see Notes, below), the Japanese broadcast consists of the fullscreen image with illustrated borders to fill out the empty space.
According to a preview article in Figure Ō issue 143, one in the TV Magazine April 2010 issue, Animated was to be heavily edited to streamline it with the live-action movie franchise with an effort to make it take place within that continuity. TakaraTomy marketing director Masahiko Yamazaki has stated that due to Optimus Prime not being a Supreme Commander in Animated, the show must take place chronologically before the events of the 2007 Transformers feature film in an interview with Noriaki Maeda in Figure Ō issue 144. So far, there has been little to no evidence of any of this actually happening in the broadcast episodes; the Japanese dubs are pretty close to the original scripts.
Though most character names have not been altered from their Western version ("Optimus Prime" not being renamed "Convoy", for example), "Bulkhead" has been changed to "Ironhide" in order to add more recognizable names from the movie series. This necessitated the character known as Ironhide in the English version being renamed "Armorhide". Yamazaki was quoted as saying that Bulkhead would become movie Ironhide and "share his world view" (a psychotic gun nut rather than an artful gentle giant). This statement is contradicted by the actual dub of the show, where Bulkhead remains a big lovable lug.
Episode order has also been heavily altered so that characters with toys can appear sooner in the series. For instance, "Sound and Fury" was broadcast as the fourth episode rather than the seventh. How this will affect the ongoing story arcs and internal continuity of the series is undetermined as of yet.
Up to three minutes of content has been edited out from every episode. Much like the Generation 1 cartoon's Japanese version, these edits were made to accommodate longer opening and ending sequences. Unlike the Generation 1 cartoon's Japanese version, these edits were also made to accommodate new bookending live-action segments featuring the Otoboto family; a sitcom-style family who tell the audience all sorts of fun facts about the Transformers.
On the bright side, the series received a newly animated title sequence that is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous, if full of spoilers and not an entirely accurate reflection of the content of the show. Still, it's pretty.
The direction for the Japanese version is headed up by Iwanami Yoshikazu, who had previously headed up the Japanese versions of Beast Wars, Beast Wars Metals and Beast Wars Returns (all known for being radically altered, obnoxiously comical self-parodies). This approach is seen in the "upcoming epsiode" bumpers that air at the very end of each episode, with the characters dropping Japanese pop-culture references left and right.
There are Blu-ray and DVD releases of the series tentatively scheduled for Fall of 2010. The first DVD volume is scheduled to be released on August 6, 2010, by Paramount Japan, containing the episodes "Transform and Roll Out" and "Sound and Fury".[2] From the specs regarding the DVD, the track will be in Japanese with 2.0ch Dolby Sound and it's supposed to be presented in 16:9.[3]
The opening theme, "TRANSFORMERS EVO.", is performed by JAM Project (single available on April 21, 2010), while the ending theme, "Axel Transformers", is performed by Rey (single available on May 12, 2010).
Notes
- Despite being animated in a widescreen format, the series is delivered to Cartoon Network in a cropped-down, fullscreen format, and is subsequently broadcast this way. Alas, the series has been released on DVD in this format, too. Fans could glimpse various widescreen images in a promo reel screened at various conventions before the launch of the series, which was later included on the DVD packaged with action figure two-pack, "The Battle Begins". The Japanese dub is also broadcast in the cropped format, although they use an Autobot-symbol wallpaper to fill in the sides.
- The series is the first in over a decade to re-establish the classic Generation 1 convention of blue eyes for Autobots and red eyes for Decepticons... though there are the occasional exceptions.
- As well as the aforementioned Generation 1 voice actors, Townsend Coleman returns to a Transformers series. He voiced Rewind in the original Generation 1 cartoon.
- Interestingly, at least one cast member from every North American series sans Robots in Disguise has played a character in Animated.
- Derrick Wyatt singles out Mighty Orbots and the British comic 2000 AD's ABC Warriors strip as the biggest influences on the character designs, with Gainax animation studio as a constant source of influence.[4]
- In May 2008, when North American broadcasts of the series were only four episodes into season two, all the remaining episodes of the season aired in Dubai. While almost nobody in the fandom had personally seen these episodes (and no one had seen them in English as they were intended), gossip based on viewer reviews and screencaps resulted in many plot developments and potential surprises being spoiled. Hooray.
- The lack of Supervillains and human characters in general in season 3 is due to Hasbro requesting their removal.[5]
References
- ↑ Transformers Animated Premieres #1 on All Television Among Boys and Boosts Kids 6-11 and 2-11 Delivery by Powerful Double-Digits
- ↑ Animated DVD main page
- ↑ Paramount Japan's detailed listing
- ↑ Comment section of "Back from Botcon" entry in Derrick Wyatt's blog
- ↑ http://www.allspark.com/content/view/4966/20/ From Derrick Wyatt's panel at TFCon2009
