[Animated] Premiere Episode Thoughts (SPOILERS AHOY CAPTAIN!)

[secretcode]

The premier ended just minutes ago. What's everyone's opinion of it? Here's mine.

GOOD------
- G1 Intro
- Transformation Sounds
- Sleek Animation and Action
- Prime is intriging...
- Lugnutz = Suckup
- Blackarachnia = Blackarachnia
- Megatron is calm AND ruthless
- Tom Kenny is perfect.
- Starscream is a traitor right off the bat, and so therefore, he screwed himself over as well..
- BB= Cheetor
- Giant bug was a decent threat.
- SKYSPY!!!
- Sari and Bumblebee= Good team, I guess
- Bulkhead in the city = Hilarious
- Ratchet's countless tickets...
- Sari teaches Prime the birds and the bees....
- Starscream is an amazing threat... NULL RAYS! INSANITY!
- These battles are much larger scale than the high end stuff we've seen in the last decade (sans BM final battle). If this is only how a series starts up, just imagine what the REAL big battles would be like.
- Prime's death made him turn grey, and it had the G1 chest cavity... Nice touch.
- So Megatron was the cause of the huge spike of Technology in around 50 years? Sounds Familiar...

BAD---------
- BB's Voice was a little annoying.
- Constantly mishapen Emblems.
- 1/3 of Blitzwing's personality.
- KIDS. LOOK. HORRIBLE!
- Sari's Key of Healing... I thought Ratchet was the medic?
- Prowl got crapped on...
- Bumblebee gets blown up/kidnapped... Yet again.
- Prime "dies" in the first (well... third) episode. Well, I thinks we may have a new record.

Overall it's a great start. This alone makes up for Cybertron.

[mLink]

I'm sorry if this isn't allowed to be asked. I looked through the rules and didn't see anything. Does anyone know where to download by torrent, direct download, or view the episode online? I'm living in china and have no way to really see it. Send me a PM if you know of a place to get it.

[Denyer]

Just don't post links in public... I think you'll probably have to wait a few days before it migrates to torrent sites or video hosting places, though.

[Tramp]

I loved it. The scene of Sari telling Prime where baboies cam from and the look on his face as she whispered in his ear was priceless. I loved the G1 homages throughout the episode. I can't wait for the sergular series to begin.

[Springer007]

http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/vi ... 23&t=33613

Alas, I didn't get to see much, but from what I saw it was pretty damned good!

[Dragon Warrior Steve]

Lt. Fanzone is probably my favorite human character in all of Transformers. Not only is he voiced by the guy who played every cop on Power Puff Girls and Dexter's Lab, but he's hilarious too.

I loved that little tribute to G1 in the beginning. Made it seem like it was some sort of old instruction video.

I really love the characters in this. I like the fact that Prime's a young leader and he still has much to learn. I was afraid that Prowl was going to be an annoying robot clone of Raven from Teen Titans, but he seems more mature. I loved the fact that Megs has his original cannon sound. This show pretty much shows that the creators were all Generation 1 fans, and they want to make this nostalgic.

Also, Starscream was the best character in the whole damn thing. His personality is perfect: a total traitor and a total idiot. I like his design too. Giving him purple instead of blue makes him look more evil. Tom Kenny did an awesome job portraying him as well.

This show is quite the breath of fresh air compared to all the repetitive, boring, hardly developed enough Japanese shows.

[fantomdranzerx]

I thought the premiere was good. Using traditional animation on the Transformers instead of CGI was a good choice. Starscream was really powerful, even on his own! The Decepticons are really going to be a problem when they arrive! My only complaint is Sentinel Prime's appearance, it's not really what I expected. But everything else was pretty good. Can't wait for the rest of the series!

[Brimstone]

Originally posted by Tramp
The scene of Sari telling Prime where baboies cam from and the look on his face as she whispered in his ear was priceless.

It was really funny, but how does a little 8 year old know where babies come from? (at least in enough detail to make a 'bot blush?)

In all though, I agree with what's been said here. Good stuff. Very enjoyable. Good riddance to the last three series, I say. This will actually be entertaining to watch beyond ("hey, I have that toy!").

Ratchet is going to be a great character, I think. And Prime is shaping up to be, as well. He certainly has his skelletons, I believe. Sentinel Prime being a dick hole was an interesting twist, too.

Oh...and Ultra Magnus supreme leader of the Autobot forces (or whatever they called him)...I'm stoked! (the voice was cool too, not quite Robert Stack, but they were definately trying to imitate his voice from the movie).

Blackarachnia has potential and Starscream was awesome! And Megatron...could be the best one so far (even better than Beast Machines Megs).

The biggest surprise was the special effect and sounds. The original transformation sound was great to hear! And just in general, the sounds were awesome. Starscream's nullray and his jet engine sound were my favorites (though the latter sounded a lot like Sebulba's pod racer from The Phantom Menace).

Can't wait for January 5th!

[Aardvark]

Cool character designs, excellent voice-acting but above all else -- the writing was superb. Distinctive characters combined with great dialogue. Awesome!

My favourite bit:

"I'm Bumblebee"
"I'm Sari"
"Oh don't be -- I like my name"

Ratchet, Prowl and Bumblebee kicked so much ass, the 'Cons are a force to be reckoned with and the humans were good fun too! Yayvark!

[Tramp]

Originally posted by Aardvark
Cool character designs, excellent voice-acting but above all else -- the writing was superb. Distinctive characters combined with great dialogue. Awesome!

My favourite bit:

"I'm Bumblebee"
"I'm Sari"
"Oh don't be -- I like my name"

Ratchet, Prowl and Bumblebee kicked so much ass, the 'Cons are a force to be reckoned with and the humans were good fun too! Yayvark!

That exchange between Bumblebee and Sari was hilarious. I was watching it with my cousin yesterday, and he actually thought her name was "Sorry" until I corrected him on it.

[Skidmark]

DAMN IT!I missed the premier.

[Brimstone]

Originally posted by Tramp
That exchange between Bumblebee and Sari was hilarious.

It's strange. Sari is easily the youngest (it appears) of any Autobot human companion from the mythos...and yet she is also (so far) easily the least annoying.

They done good.

(oh, and Sumdac not being the evil genius that I was expecting, but a well meaning scientist now faced with an ethical dilema was a wonderful spin off from what I was expecting!)

[Transfannabeel]

Sari was a real nice suprise. She wasn't annoying at all, and added a lot of humor to the show.

I know a lot of people are probably going to dislike the new Blitzwing, but I really liked him. I was also pretty impressed by all the other Decepticons. The premiere really made me wish the toys were out now.

The only thing I didn't really like was Prowl. I just found him a little annoying. Hopefully he'll grow on me.

Oh yeah, and the G1 opening was pretty nice easter egg.

Btw, anyone know where I can get screen caps for the episode?

[Jaynz]

Well, I very much enjoyed the episode.. it was a lot less Transformers meets Teen Titans and a lot more Transformers meets TMNT (previous series)... that's a good thing, overall. Excellent writing, particularly in the dialog.

The character models remain a bit iffy. Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Starscream worked well. Bulkhead was iffy.. but, oddly, Prime seemed to be the weakest design in both .. erm, all four.. modes. (It didn't help that some of his art was off model in some points)

Very solid premiere, really. Not quite enough to sell me on the toys, but my girls have already asked for Bumblebee.

[another tf fan]

Animated was GREAT!

Heavily G1 Influenced, yet all new.

I saw some Cybertron and Beast Wars Influence too.

[Jaynz]

I didn't see much Cybertron influence, but the 'reconfiguration chamber' was RIGHT out of the Beast Wars premiere.

The inclusion and homaged used of Sky Spy was nice for G1, as was the opening bit - though it's use begs a question... "Megatron WAS G1 Megatron at some point?!"

[Denyer]

BTW, merged the news forum thread with a link to another board's reaction thread into this one...

[transnewbie]

In my opinion, it looks like they took the 2007 movie, tweaked with the main storyline, mixed in a bit of items from all the past Transformers stories, added new characters--both human and Cybertronian--threw them into new animation, and served it up to us fans expecting us to enjoy this new entree of theirs. Well, let's see how this "judge" rates this "Iron Chef's" recipe, cause isn't that what us fans are?

The storyline was good and very well put together. I admit, it was different. The first scene I noticed was old G1 footage. I recognised Bumblebee and Wheeljack being chased by Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker, all in their alt-modes, from "More Than Meets the Eye". It wasn't until the second time I watched it, due to my DVR, that I noticed Megatron was in one of the flashback scenes for a brief moment in the lower right-hand corner. it was funny and kinda cute that they used the old episodes that we grew up on as historical footage for this new series. I kinda consider the old cartoon and comics as parents to the rest.

A war between the two factions rages on and the Autobots send out the Allspark to the far-reaches of space so the Decepticons don't get their hands on it and after, I daresay--the magical number for Transformers, four million years, it's found by none other than Optimus Prime himself (who's gonna have a whole paragraph on him later). And as a side note, Cybertron is also in an energy crisis in this series.

When they were on Earth, Teletran 1, just like in the comics, mistook the automobiles for the planets native sentient life. I did like the idea of a girl being the main human character. It was a fresh change from the usual boys that attach themselves to Bumblebee. I did laugh when I heard Sari's dog-bot's name: Sparkplug. That was cute, naming it after Sparkplug Witwicky.

I also noticed that Megatron looks like he did, both in bipedal form and alt mode, as he did in the movie. Again he crashes to Earth, and again he is used as inspiration and study for furthering Earth's technology. His voice seemed like a mix between Frank Welker's (G1 Megatron) and Hugo Weaving's (Movie Megatron). I thought this Megatron was voiced very well. I was also glad that they kept the mistrust and rivalry between him and Starscream. Transformers just isn't the same without Megatron's power-struggle with both Optimus Prime and Starscream. I am glad, though, that they gave Starscream more of a back-bone in this one. His G1 predecessor never would've gone through with sticking a bomb directly on Megatron's back. I think this change will do the overall character some good. And Starscream isn't Starscream without the voice (as my sister said, imitating his voice as she was dissing him about being annoying, "I have a cold and need a Lossegen!") I've never seen Beast Wars, which I'm gonna do as soon as I'm done watching G1: in the proccess of season 3. So, I can't really rate Blackarachnia, and the others are new characters.

As for the Autobots, is Prowl really Prowl or Sunstreaker? He seems like Prowl, logical and strategising and lack of emotion, and the voice is also similar to G1's Prowl, but he also has Sunstreaker's inability to listen to commands, always jumping in head-first, and loner--I don't need help from anyone--attitude. He also has a new paint-job and a new alt-form. Bumblebee doesn't seem like Bumblebee. If I had to compare him to anyone, it'd have to be Beast Boy from Teen Titans, which I'm not complaining, I do like that character. Lugnut is a new character, though the name sounds like it was recycled. I can't think of from where. And Ratchet's still Ratchet.

However it threw me through a loop that Optimus Prime was made the way he was. First off, he's not the leader, Ultra Magnus is. Optimus is not even a soldier, just a lowly worker who fixes broken Space Bridges. He didn't fight in the old wars, and as far as I know, he's not the "Bearer of the Matrix". I mean, I heard he was gonna be young, but I didn't know he was gonna be THAT young. When he found the Allspark, my first thought was that he found the Matrix, until the story revealed that it was indeed the Allspark. At the end, well, let's just say that I thought only the Matrix could do that stuff. When they were on Earth, Optimus became a fire-truck again. It was a mistake in RiD, and it's a mistake here. They should've kept him a semi. And what's with the death of Optimus Prime? I mean, how many times are they gonna kill Optimus Prime before he either stays dead or the writers realise there's nothing they can do to kill him and keep him dead, so they just give up.

That style of animation is great, on other cartoons like The Batman, or Legion of Superheros. I don't think it fits at all with the Transformers. I did like the fact that Optimus has a retractable mask and you can see his face, except for one scene where he was screaming and they fiercely overexagerrated his mouth.

All in all, despite everything I had a complaint about, I thought the show was good. It's well worth checking out the series. I'm also curious about what else is different and what else is the same, but I'll just have to watch and see. Oh and I really feel this Optimus Prime needs to earn the pedastal the previous Optimus's have created.

[Terome]

This was really, really good. The only complaint I have is that things dragged a bit during the giant cockroach bit. I was surprised at just how many design and story cues they took from other incarnations of the franchise. I got a kick out of Jeff Bennet's voice for Prowl and Tom Kenny is a superb Starscream. Very impressive. So we have to wait until June for the season to continue? Or is that just for the toys?

[Tramp]

That's just for the toys. The series starts up on 5 Jan 2008 at 10:30 AM