Unknown Generation 1 animation studios

File:Map-phils-gold.gif

They're in there...somewhere...

For the production of the second season of the original Transformers animated series, Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions utilized multiple overseas animation studios. Among them was an as-yet-unknown Filipino animation studio.

Little is known about the studio, including their name, thanks to the show's credits not identifying any specific animation studios. While studios like AKOM had unique styles that are immediately identifiable, the work of the Filipino studio is far more difficult to identify.

It has been confirmed that for season 2 of The Transformers, Japanese studio Toei animated a total of 39 episodes, leaving the remaining 10 to be divvied up between AKOM and the Filipino studio. At least 3 episodes from that season are immediately identifiable as AKOM productions, leaving a remaining 7 to be the work of the Filipino studio.

They would not appear to have animated any of season 3. Toei has been confirmed as having animated 13 episodes from that season, leaving 17 episodes to be animated by other studios. AKOM clearly animated 16 of those episodes, while it has been long believed that Tokyo Movie Shinsha animated "Call of the Primitives".

...But seriously, if you know who these guys are, do us a solid, okay?

Disputed Existence

The lack of any real information about the studio or even evidence supporting the suggestion that a Filipino studio was utilised (beyond Paul Davids' interview) suggests that the whole notion may be incorrect. The only animation studios open in the Philippines at the time Transformers season 2 was animated were Optifex, who worked exclusively for Hanna-Barbera, and Burbank Animation. While Burbank did work on Sunbow/Marvel shows made around the same time, like Jem, My Little Pony and Defenders of the Earth, they didn't animate any of The Transformers. This suggests Davids may have been mistaken in his recollection.

Notes

• Although Toei has a Filipino branch, they were not established until 1986, which would have to be well after production of season 2 of The Transformers had already been completed.

External links

• Interview with production coordinator Paul Davids at the Cybertron Chronicle, confirming the use of a studio from the Philippines: "Three to four weeks 'in-house' to prepare character designs, backgrounds, color models, record voices and edit soundtrack, complete the storyboard, and ship the show to Korea or Japan (and a few times we used an animation facility in the Philippines)."