TFA From Hate To Love

Jazz here, and I'm jiving to this episode of

Transformation Animation featuring Mike Blanchard,

Stephen C. Phillips, and Michael Wilson. TFG1

Mike here from the Geekcast Radio Network, and

this June we are launching our next Transformers

Review podcast. This time it's going to be all

about animated. That's right. We started with

G1, we moved on to Beast Wars and Beast Machines,

and now comes the Transformation Animation Podcast.

What I have for you guys today is something that

I wrote back in 2009. I wrote it the weekend

that Season 3 of Animated premiered, when the

Transwarped episode first aired on Cartoon Network.

I wrote it, like, the next day after I saw that

episode. I'm not proud of this moment because,

as you'll find out, I wasn't always a fan of

Transformers Animated like I am now. Yes, I know.

I was ignorant. I was dumb. Stop throwing rocks,

people. Or I should say, stop throwing rock lords

at me. But yeah, I absolutely love Animated Now.

And once Transformation Animation Podcast starts,

we will be talking about every single episode.

We'll be talking about the toys. We'll be talking

about the almanacs, the comics, all that good

stuff. But unfortunately, two years ago... I

wasn't always a fan of Transformers Animated.

Thank you for that nitro streak. And now, Transformers

Animated. The rantings of a G1 fan. When I first

saw preview commercials of this series, my first

reaction was, what the fuck? While the voice

acting is superb, there are tons of things wrong

with Transformers Animated. I am not a fan of

the animation style that was chosen. While I

have enjoyed all the Generation 1 callbacks that

the producers have used, this show has been poorly

marketed. First off, when they released DVDs

for it, they released Transformers Animated Transform

and Rollout, the three -part movie that introduced

us to the series. Then they released the rest

of season one in a separate DVD case. Uh, what?

After came season two on DVD, and this Saturday,

March 14th, 2009 will be the premiere of season

three, which we have yet to get on DVD. The voice

acting, as I said, is great for the series. Each

actor and actress really grasps the character

that they are playing, although it is very weird

hearing David Kaye as Optimus Prime. I like it.

as supposedly this series prime is supposed to

be younger and basically greener than, say, Peter

Cullen's heroic Optimus from G1, which is fine

with me. I understand that they were going for

a different feel to the character. I'd have been

vehemently against Kay playing Optimus if it

was a direct G1. Transfer. However, I get where

they were going with it. Having the Autobots

in this as cleanup bots kind of reminds me of

the G1 episode War Dawn, where Orion Pax and

his friends were energy collectors. However,

now they must be called to action to save the

AllSpark from the Decepticons. They come across

a Decepticon flagship, and battle ensues. Hmm.

Much like G1 Premiere 3 -parter more than meets

the eye. There are a shitload of G1 references

through... TF animated, however, human villains

that they use are just fucking outrageously stupid.

The Angry Archer. Nino Sexton slash Nanosek.

Prometheus Black slash Meltdown. Professor Princess.

and Henry Masterson slash Headmaster. These villains,

as they called them, really pissed me off. Yes,

I know G1 wasn't without its human villains,

but these are just well damn ignorant. I've actually

had to re -watch the season 1 and 2 episodes

on YouTube to remind myself how bad this show

is. Ugh. The other major flaw with the entire

Transformers animated line is the fact that Hasbro

didn't, or Cartoon Network didn't run the toy

commercials during the airing of the show. I've

seen at least 20 TFA commercials in the last

10 months since the season 2 finale. Now, yes,

I understand fully that if Transformers animated

is airing an episode, they can't show an animated

toy commercial during that show. I get that.

So, no one... You know, comment on this video

or this audio saying, you know, you're wrong,

blah, blah, blah. I understand. If Transformers

Animated is airing, you have to air, like, G

.I. Joe toy commercials or mask toy commercials.

Not that there's a mask line nowadays, unfortunately.

But I get that. So no one, you know, don't throw

any rock lords at me for, you know, doing that,

for saying that. And I never saw more than two

commercials during the show's run on air. Talk

about bad marketing. I'm going to review several

episodes of Transformers Animated briefly before

getting into the Season 3 premiere episode, Transwarped.

Season 1, Episodes 1 -3, Transform and Rollout.

This was the premiere movie introducing us to

Transformers Animated. There are tons of G1 references,

like Sparkplug, Sari's robot dog. In the beginning

of the picture, they reference the G1 cartoon

with talking about the Great War and the fact

that it has been centuries since it has ended,

with the Decepticons defeated, not destroyed.

They even call back to Transformers the movie

when Prime crashes to the Earth after releasing

the Allspark energy on Starscream. He dies and

turns gray. That was before Sarah used her quote

-unquote key on him. I really was against this

cartoon, but I tried to give it a chance. At

least I gave it more of a chance than Armada

Energon or Cybertron. As I said before, I can't

stand the animation style of this cartoon, as

well as I think that after the release of the

live -action film, Hasbro team just wanted to

rush a cartoon out. There is absolutely no planning

or thought into this series whatsoever. This

three -part movie was a good start, but it goes

downhill after this. Thus, there are several...

good episodes throughout the first two seasons,

but generally I thought and felt that it was

just horrid. Now let me also say, one of the

reasons why I didn't really like this series

back when it first started airing is because,

number one, it was on at 10 .30 on a Saturday

morning, and I never remembered to watch it.

And that's why I said earlier that I had to go

back, when I wrote this article, I had to go

back and re -watch the series on YouTube. Episodes

15 and 16, Megatron Rising. This two -parter

was the big reveal of Megatron still being online.

First off, I must commend and marvel at the superior

voice acting of Corey Burton. His Megatron in

this series is almost equal to Frank Welker's

in G1 or David Kaye's Beast Wars Megatron. The

animation in this two -parter is very crisp and

solid, and Megatron finally becoming the true

Decepticon leader and rising to power is fucking

awesome. Even though I rag on this series as

much as I do, the season one ending story is

fucking great. I can't say anything bad against

these two episodes. It left a yearning for more

great stories from these writers. I hate the

fact that they haven't introduced Astrotrain

yet. However, Blitzwing is crazy as all hell

in the series, and that is just hilarious. The

Dinobots in this series are dumber than fucking

rocks, though. They are even worse than the ones

in G1. And I love me some G1 Dinobots. I always

have. That isn't saying something bad about this

story, though. Just the Dinobots themselves.

The design on Megatron and his Earth mode is

superbly done and looks fucking awesome. Yes,

I know, I keep saying fucking awesome in the

written part here. They even got the sound effect

right for the Fusion Cannon G1 reference. Yay!

There's one point in the second part where Sumdak

says he must tell Suri something, but I'll come

back to that. The episode ends with Megatron

and Prime dispersing the AllSpark and supposedly

destroying Megatron. But not really. Season 2.

Episodes 12 and 13, A Bridge Too Close. This

was the season 2 finale two -parter back in the

auto boot camp episode we learn of an Autobot

traitor within the ranks. In this episode, he

comes to a front as Longarm Prime slash Shockwave.

And to my shocking delight, as I just looked

it up, Corey Burton voiced both G1 Shockwave

and Transformers Animated Shockwave. Hell yeah!

I never knew the G1 Shockwave was Corey Burton.

Anyways, in this episode, in the series, the

Autobots are the ones to have the space bridge

technology, which is a complete turnaround from

G1 because, as we all know, the Decepticons had

the space bridges back then. Megatron still has

Dr. Sumdack. under his control, and demands that

he get the space bridge operational. However,

they must find the most qualified Cybertronian

to work on the space bridge, which just so happens

to be Bulkhead. Ugh, Bulkhead, don't get me started.

John Machida Jr. reprises his role as Blur, which

surprised me at first when I found this out.

However, I wasn't unhappy with the choice, as

he is the only one who can talk that fast that

well. The Autobots find the hidden base of the

Decepticons, and a battle for the Space Bridge

ensues. Megatron overloads the Space Bridge,

and Omega Supreme must absorb the Transwarp energy.

The episode ends with Sari being damaged, and

we find out that she is a robot! Season 3, Episode

1, Transwarp. And yes, I know Transwarp is a

three -parter, and technically it was... Episodes

1, 2, and 3 of Season 3. However, when Cartoon

Network first aired it, they aired it like...

Transform and Rollout, which it was basically

one long episode. Even though Transformers Animated

has only had select few fucking awesome episodes

throughout the two seasons, this by far blows

them out of the water. This was the best animation,

the best voice acting, and the most shocking

episode I've seen in the series so far. Well,

yes, I'll be the first one to admit I trashed

this cartoon endlessly. This episode might just

turn me around. I know it made my head spin when

I saw all the awesomeness. Rodimus and his team

get demolished by Stryka and her team, as well

as Rodimus getting consumed by a vial of cosmic

rust. Um, wait, doesn't cosmic rust transfer

to everyone? Fucking oil slick. Blur finding

out that Longarm Prime is the traitor, and even

though he can't catch Blur, he can trap him.

So Blur gets trapped, and he dies! No! Then we

see that the space bridge network has been shut

down due to the Autobots learning the Decepticons

are trying to get to Cybertron. We find out that

Saria is a Cybertronian protoform, and during

a battle she wants to help out, and she uses

her AllSpark key on herself. which ages her from

a little girl to a teenager. Situation sounds

so wrong. She can't handle the upgrades and goes

berserk. Ratchet must use his EMP generator on

her. They get the key out of her, and this slows

her down a bit. However, she still has absorbed

all of the key's energy. It's dead. Megatron,

Starscream, and Prowl fight for mental control

over Omega Supreme. The elite guard on Cybertron

must try and contact Optimus Prime on Earth.

At the end, Bumblebee and Bulkhead figure out

a way to keep Starscream from getting to Cybertron.

In conclusion, Transformers animated, while not

the best Transformers cartoon, it certainly isn't

the worst. I have to say, after seeing the Season

3 premiere, I almost wish that Season 3 wasn't

going to be the end of the show. I think the

main thing that brought me down... On it before

was the fact that they have the lamest human

villains ever. On the big upside, the TF animated

is all the G1 slash Beast Wars callbacks like

Bulkhead calling Optimus Boss Bot. So in closing,

should a true Transformers fan watch this show,

yes, even though it has its most horrible points

at times, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

No, it's not a fusion blast from Megatron's cannon.

Transformers Animated rating on a whole, 4 out

of 10. Transformers Animated Season 3 Transwarp

rating, 10 out of 10. Thank you once again, NitroStrake.

Yes, I know. I was a dirt back then. After I

wrote that blog post that I just read there,

I continued watching Transformers Animated Season

3 and continued to fucking love it. I have since,

for fun, gone back and watched all of my TFA

DVDs and just amazing, amazing cartoon. I've

had a complete 180 turnaround from completely

hating it to completely loving it. Just amazing

with what they did. Even the human villains.

compared, you know, inclusion with the story,

I don't really mind them anymore as much as I

used to. Because at first, I was an outsider

trying to look in, trying to get into the series,

and I just couldn't. And again, partially because

of the time slot. In Season 3, they switched

the time slot from 10 .30am to 8am. So that mean

I could wake up early on Saturday morning and

watch cartoons again. Hooray! But yeah, Transformers

Animated, I absolutely love it. I hope everybody

tunes into Transformation Animation Podcast.

coming this June from the Geekcast Radio Network.

I am TFJuan Mike, and who better to close this

than Optimus Prime himself. Transform!