Transformers: Energon (cartoon)

Energon

The Energon cartoon series, aired from 2003 to 2004, was a direct sequel to Armada, and forms the second part of the "Unicron Trilogy".

The show takes place ten years after the finale of Armada, opening in an age of peace on Cybertron and Earth which is destined not to last long. Energon pits the Autobots against an array of villains: the reborn Megatron, the barely functional Unicron, and the mysterious Alpha-Q and his Terrorcon minions.

Energon, like Armada, was written and animated in Japan and dubbed for US consumption. The series employed the popular technique of combining cel-shaded computer animation with 2D cel-animation, creating a fusion between the CGI of Beast Wars/Machines and traditionally animated series such as Robots in Disguise.

Criticisms

Production

Even moreso than Armada, Energon suffered from rushed production; many fans regard it as an extreme low point in Transformers fiction. Among the major gripes:

Scripts for the US dub often sound like first-draft transliterations, with no re-writing to adapt them for Western sensibilities, or even checking to see if they make any sense at all.
As often happens in dubbing, many intended moments of silence are filled with dialog, usually babbling gibberish or characters going "Uh?!"
The voice acting, even when coming from respected talent like Gary Chalk and David Kaye, is often flat and uninspired—a common result of the antiseptic ADR (automated dialog replacement) environment.
Seemingly arbitrary changes to the dialog further hampered the show's clarity.
The show has a generally sluggish and erratic pace, which was more in tune with Japanese sensibilities than those of the West (though maybe not by much.)

The final result is a show that at times makes little or no sense and is prone to bizarre non sequiturs.

Conceptual flaws

Many of the show's tropes seem to take little advantage of the Energon franchise's basic premises. For example:

Every Transformer -- Autobot or Decepticon, regardless of alternate mode -- can fly while in robot mode. They can fly on planets, in space, and between stars. This begs the question of why they even need to transform in the first place.
On more than one occasion, the characters will transform into their ground-based vehicle modes, and then drive off INTO THE SKY.
The vaunted Powerlinx combinations between Autobots were originally touted as allowing the smaller Autobots to overcome larger, more powerful Decepticon foes. Yet in the show, almost without fail, Powerlinx forms are used in straight firefights, where combining two soldiers in to one means fewer guns to fire back at the enemy. The resulting combined soldier rarely if ever shows any sign of enhanced firepower.