Transformers: Prime (cartoon)

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Transformers: Prime is a multiple Daytime Emmy Award-winning computer-animated television series that premiered on The Hub on November 26, 2010 with a five-part mini-series, which was followed by a season of another 21 episodes beginning on February 11, 2011. Season 2 began screening February 18, 2012, and a third season has been outlined by the screenwriters.[1]

The Canadian broadcast of the series has been undertaken by Corus Entertainment, and the show is currently airing on Teletoon.[2]

The series premiered in the UK from September 5 on Cartoon Network's "Action Heroes" block. It will air in Japan starting April 2012[3]

Story

Team Prime lives on Earth as a pre-emptive measure against the return of the Decepticons. Autobot Central Command is located in a converted missile silo in Nevada which was provided by the United States government, with whom the Autobots have formed an alliance. However, the presence of Transformers on Earth is not generally known among the civilian population. The Autobots have taken three human teens under their protection after their association with the Autobots put them in danger from the Decepticons.

Megatron returns having discovered Dark Energon, which grants him rule of life itself, but is injured, with Starscream taking command in his absence. In addition to the Decepticons, the Autobots also contend with the human terrorist organization, MECH.

Cast

Autobots Decepticons Humans Others
Main Cast
Others
Main Cast
Others
Main Cast
Others

James Remar[5] and David Kaye[6] will be voicing characters.

Episodes

For further information, see: List of Prime episodes

Season 1

  1. Darkness Rising, Part 1
  2. Darkness Rising, Part 2
  3. Darkness Rising, Part 3
  4. Darkness Rising, Part 4
  5. Darkness Rising, Part 5
  6. Masters & Students
  7. Scrapheap
  8. Con Job
  9. Convoy
  10. Deus ex Machina
  11. Speed Metal
  12. Predatory
  13. Sick Mind
  14. Out of His Head
  15. Shadowzone
  16. Operation: Breakdown
  17. Crisscross
  18. Metal Attraction
  19. Rock Bottom
  20. Partners
  21. T.M.I.
  22. Stronger, Faster
  23. One Shall Fall
  24. One Shall Rise, Part 1
  25. One Shall Rise, Part 2
  26. One Shall Rise, Part 3

Season 2

  1. Orion Pax, Part 1
  2. Orion Pax, Part 2
  3. Orion Pax, Part 3
  4. Operation Bumblebee, Part 1
  5. Operation Bumblebee, Part 2
  6. Loose Cannons

Production

After the live-action film series, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman signed to become show runners with Jeff Kline and Duane Capizzi of The Hub's Transformers cartoon, explaining the TV show would not have the constraints of a two-hour film in delving into the mythology.[7] (Orci's employees Steven Puri and Mandy Safavi were also credited as producers.)[8] The show runners were given the "Binder of Revelation", a near 400-page production bible that Hasbro had been working on since the movies, that combined elements of the most popular continuities.[9] The show's title was based on the desire to create a master continuity and a literal Prime continuity.[7] Whereas the movies were about a boy and his car, the dynamic between the kids and the robots on the show was meant to be more like The Iron Giant.[10]

The writing staff was headed by Capizzi and consists of Nicole Dubuc, Marsha Griffin, Joseph Kuhr and Steven Melching. Kline said they wanted the show to be very cinematic, with tension, suspense and danger (as marked by Cliffjumper's death in the pilot) as children are more media savvy than they were in the past. Regardless, they had to be considerate as the show still had a broad audience.[11] As part of the aligned continuity family with War for Cybertron and Exodus, the producers strove to maintain many of the common elements (eg. Optimus and Megatron's past friendship, Dark Energon's origins as Unicron's spawn, Bumblebee sharing his film counterpart's backstory), but were allowed contradictions if it served the storytelling. By using the mammoth story bible, the writers could plan events years in advance. The large number of episodes per season meant they could pace and establish characters during season 1 slowly, while saving the more momentous, less stand alone episodes that delved into the backstory for season 2. Some of the plot ideas (namely the zombie robots) were based on stories they came up with when playing with the toys as kids.[7] Bob Skir has written some episodes.[12]

Designers include Christophe Vacher (colors), Vince Toyama and Jevon Bue (backgrounds) and Jose Lopez (lead character designer). Vacher wanted to do something different from traditional animation and saw something edgy about Prime.[7] According to Ken Christiansen, the show's characters were formed by Hasbro Studios hiring freelance conceptual artists like himself. The submitted artwork was given Lopez's staff to be examined, and they incorporated the ideas they liked best.[13] Other concept artists include Augusto Barranco and Walter Gatus.

Supervising director Dave Hartman headed a team including Todd Waterman, Shaunt Nigoghossian, Vinton Heuck and Kirk Van Wormer. Polygon Pictures provided the CG animation, for which Digitalscape performed a recruitment drive for before the show began production.[14] Lopez said the animation would be a "groundbreaking mix of 2D animation and CGI".[15] Each character has three CG models: the robot mode, their alternate mode, and one for the transformation.[16] Lopez said the designs were personality driven, and that the 3D animation allowed them to go "crazy" with the transformation schemes. In contrast, the characters were given realistic textures,[17] and are subject to battle damage during episodes.[18] A show on the level of Prime would take two years to produce, but the animators only had ten months. Five episodes are animated at a time (hence the monthly gaps during a season).[7]

Susan Blu was the casting director, but was replaced as voice director by Jamie Simone following a death in her family.[19] Brian Tyler composed the show's theme song and background music. Matthew Margeson served as music arranger.

Awards

2011 Daytime Emmy Awards

Japanese release

Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Prime (超ロボット生命体 トランスフォーマー プライム Chō Robot Seimeitai Transformers Prime) will begin airing in Japan on TV Aichi, beginning April 7, 2012, with an 8am Saturday morning timeslot (the same channel and timeslot as the previous two Transformers cartoons to air in Japan).

Home video releases

Main article: Transformers: Prime (cartoon)/home video
United States
  • Transformers: Prime - Darkness Rising (2011)[20]
  • Transformers: Prime - Includes 3 episodes (2011)[21]
  • Transformers: Prime - Season One (2012)[22]
Germany
  • Transformers: Prime - Die dunkle Macht erhebt sich (2012)
  • Transformers: Prime - Meister und Schüler (2012)

Soundtrack

Main article: Transformers Prime: Music from the Animated Series

Notes

  • Unlike most Transformers shows, episodes do not have an episode title card. Episode titles are from The Hub website.
  • The series has also been advertised as Transformers: Prime - The Animated Series.
  • The show was said to be "rightfully huge" at the BotCon 2010 panel.[1] Later, at the Hasbro designers' panel, the Thirteen original Transformers were described as being "rightfully huge".[23]
  • Executive Producer Jeff Kline confirmed they have talked about producing a theatrical Prime film.[24]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 TFormers BotCon 2010 Hasbro Studios Panel Coverage
  2. ↑ Hasbro Studios and Corus Entertainment’s Kids Networks Reach Broad Animation and Live-Action Programming Agreement
  3. ↑ http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/japan-to-broadcast-transformers-prime-in-april-2012/23452/
  4. ↑ James Horan's Facebook photo of Todd and Orci.
  5. ↑ THE HUB TAPS POPULAR TALENT FOR UPCOMING ORIGINAL SERIES, August 6, 2010
  6. ↑ Auto Assembly 2011 Update - David Kaye In Transformers: Prime
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 TFW coverage of Hasbro Studios panel at BotCon 2011
  8. ↑ TFormers cast and crew announcement including Dwayne Johnson exclusive.
  9. ↑ Collider transcript
  10. ↑ Roundtable interview with Prime staff at BotCon 2011
  11. ↑ PGP January 2011 Q&A
  12. ↑ Allspark.com coverage of Shout and Hasbro's "Evolution of Transformers Animation" panel at 2011's Comic-Con.
  13. ↑ August 2010 blog post by Ken Christiansen
  14. ↑ Announcement on Digitalscape, also asking for job applicants.
  15. ↑ Jose Lopez speaks about Prime's animation style
  16. ↑ Cybertron.ca January 2011 Q&A
  17. ↑ ASM Geekly Rewind January 2011 Q&A
  18. ↑ Botcon 2010 Transformers Prime Panel Coverage
  19. ↑ Tformers.com's coverage of the SDCC Transformers Prime panel, July 22, 2010.
  20. ↑ Press release: Transformers Prime - 'Darkness Rising', the Newest Program's Original 5-Part Mini-Series, Announced!
  21. ↑ Transformers Prime DVD released at Walmart
  22. ↑ [1]
  23. ↑ BotCon 2010 Hasbro designers' panel.
  24. ↑ TFormers BotCon 2011 interview with Kline
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