Transformers War for Cybertron: Kingdom Non-Spoiler Review

stand up ah yes hello and welcome to the latest

episode of all things transformers I'm Steve

Megatron and joining me is TF2 and Mike that's

right I'm here and optimus solo yeah buddy So

today we are going to give you a non -spoiler

thoughts and review on Transformers War for Cybertron

Kingdom here on all things Transformers. That

is such a mouthful. Transformers War for Cybertron

Kingdom. It is. Yes. Just imagine when I have

to actually talk about the soundtrack. It is

called the Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy

Kingdom anime soundtrack. That's ridiculous.

Anyways. Anyway, yeah. So. What was your guys

initial thoughts of the anticipation waiting

for Kingdom after seeing Siege and Earthrise?

Mike. Once again, like we mentioned on July,

as we mentioned yesterday with the non -spoiler

talk over on Powers of Grayskull, I get it, Hasbro

needs to get product out first, but some of these

toys, man. I look at these sparkless Seekers

and I'm like, that's not in the show. Well. We

can neither confirm nor deny that at this point,

but oh Yeah, joking, but yeah, but yeah, I mean

Are they prominent main characters? No There's

a lot of things with the toy line that differ

from the series and we'll get into that in our

spoilery episode. Yep But yeah, I mean When I

when I first saw the the hinting of Kingdom way

back, you know When they I think they didn't

they kind of hint at it before siege came out

I want to say I think they had a teaser poster

with some of the Cybertronian text and then they

people translated it and it said Kingdom Yeah

Yeah, that's what I thought and then once earth

rise actually, I think if I'm remembering this

correctly at both the end of Siege and the end

of Earthrise, we had teasers for the next thing.

So the last episode of Siege had a teaser for

Earthrise and the last episode of Earthrise had

a slight teaser for, for Kingdom. And then obviously

we got the trailers and everything else for all

of the stuff. Yeah. I mean, I was anticipating

it just because With what we saw in the other

two parts, obviously we had all the Beast Wars

-esque hints. So I was anticipating it just to

see what they're going to do. How are they going

to mix? How are they going to interact? What

are they going to take from Beast Wars from G1?

How are they going to do those types of things?

What kind of pairings are we going to see of

characters? So I was intrigued. I didn't know

exactly what direction they were going to go,

but I was intrigued at the possibilities and

just seeing which way will they go. So I was

anticipating this almost more than the other

two parts. Yeah, I mean when I when I first heard

this and I'll let Mike have his thoughts after

When I first heard about Kingdom, I mean granted

when I heard it was the same creative team as

siege and And earth rise well, I mean that not

just that but the machinima series there's a

lot of the same carryovers for writing and production

side I Wasn't very enthused because to be honest

those were like the biggest mess as far as I

was concerned, but they did have good voice talent.

And then when we moved over to Siege in Earthrise

and then through Kingdom, we ended up with more

so in Siege in Earthrise. We had the slow, slow

talking robot. Characters, you know and it just

it dragged on and I a lot of us had to put it

at 1 .25 or 1 .5 just to watch it Which made

the animation extremely fast, but the vocals

were at least where they should be, you know,

so I I don't know when I when I heard Kingdom

was coming though I I was having these hopes

that you know, I knew they weren't gonna get

union actors. I knew that that wasn't coming

but When they had done Siege and Earthrise, I

wasn't loving Siege at all. Earthrise, I wasn't

loving either until towards the end where it

started to kind of lead somewhere. I liked the

homages and the nods and some of the things they

did with it and how they explained the journey

instead of just, oh, they took off and then they

were almost to Earth and got in a battle and

crash landed. So, I mean, they bridged the gap

and that was kind of nice, too. But getting into

into Kingdom itself, you know, I was I had higher

hopes that I and I guess my expectations were

low, too, that I had high hopes that they would

at least improve upon the previous two based

on the feedback that had been flying around.

What are your thoughts on that? The problem with

doing episodes of a podcast like this is that

like when we did our earth rise and siege episodes.

By the time we did earth rise, even if we had

gotten screeners for earth rise, they were probably

already working on kingdom. Like if you look

at, at generation one, they were working on G

one. All of nineteen end of nineteen eighty two

begin all of nineteen eighty three kind of thing

same thing here like. And are people going to

always listen to us the fans no no they're not

and there's nothing we can do with the voice

acting the fact that it's not union and whatever

that's that's rooster teeth and netflix yeah

i dig. Don't want to say he's the bit like he's

the one that could replace if if anything ever

happens heaven forbid it never does I dig Jake

as Optimus When he is not getting emotional when

he is just talking like his normal optimist voice

He's not yelling. He's not trying to go down

here like this. I Love it. I think he's a cool

optimist voice. I Love Mar Notia as Megatron

Yeah, I was a fan too mine Martin Oka I think

is how he actually pronounces excessive video

with him recently about it anyway But like I

dig those two as Optimus and Megatron in this

trilogy. I think that's that's very well done

I'm wondering how Netflix if they're just gonna

keep it the way they keep it. So basically this

this trilogy has six episodes per season and

Siege is one season Earthrise is one season and

Kingdom is one season I hope they eventually

put it all under one banner so it's eighteen

episodes in one netflix listing i don't think

they'll do that but. They won't wish they would

it makes it confusing after a while. Really when

it comes to though like what Steve was talking

about with like improvement or not on the first

two One of the problems that we had and we talked

about this in the other episode that we did on

on this series is Or one of the other episodes

was that you know, obviously like Steve said

the slow talking they had to speed it up Etc,

etc for the most part I felt like that was much

improved in this series with the exception for

me of bumblebee For some reason Bumblebee is

still talking slow, even though most of the rest

have gone to a regular cadence. But it's blatant

in a few of, especially I think either episode

five or episode six when he's talking that it's

like he is doing the William Shatner thing. And

I'm like, why are you still doing that? Everybody

else got the direction apparently now, but yeah,

I mean, we can talk a little bit more probably

about. Individual voices and stuff like that

but as far as improving or not improving on the

other ones I thought the direction for the voices

was improved in this one. A little bit and I

could definitely see that I that was one of my

one of my positives that I noted it was that

I could actually watch it and understand them

and enjoy it because they were actually talking

in a normal manner they weren't. Taking their

time to think between words Right. It just yeah,

it was just so much faster paced and it just

kind of more normalized. It wasn't great I still

think the voice direction is terrible for this

series bar wasn't very high, but that low bar

Yeah, and and I can see why like a lot of the

you know I can see why they've gone down Union

one. It's cheaper and two they can Do whatever

and they just are like this is the bar. We're

not moving it higher Which is unfortunate because

you can see netflix and the other company dumped

money into masters of the universe Revelation

and you look at this and you're like, why couldn't

they have done that here? Even if they didn't

get Many of the original cast back Right. There

was still the opportunity that they could have

Right and and made it sound decent because everybody

on the other show is union And then you go here

and then it's completely non -union. No, I'm

not knocking the actors because I loved the portrayals

of like Elita one. I loved Manocha as Megatron

Tadaro as Josh Green our scream and you know,

there were a couple others in there too, but

The majority of them I wasn't a huge fan of now

me. I don't particularly care for the prime because

Honestly, he's trying to do a Peter Cullen impression

and then he when he gets Anything with emotion

in it. He flies right out of the role Yeah, and

to me that's partially the voice direction and

personally partially because they're probably

having him do a prime impression Also though

with Optimus Prime and Megatron the the g1 versions

of these characters in this series I feel like

they're made to sound ten times better than they

probably do because they're playing off of Beast

Wars Megatron and Optimus Primal, who are awful.

Well, I didn't have as much of a problem. And

I guess before we kind of get really into our

overall thoughts on the six episode season and

without really spoiling anything that happened

as far as the storyline. What were some of your

not so favorite voice characters? I'll save my

review for the end. No, I think we should have

you go first. Because you're going to be crying

through this whole thing. So when I saw Beast

Megatron come into focus, now granted we had

the Maximals show up. We can always get into

howl later and all of that, but I didn't have

a problem with any of the maximal voices until

Tigatron opened his mouth. And I was like, his

characterization is tonally different than his

character in Beast Wars. Like in Beast Wars,

he's kind of a pacifist that will fight if he

needs to. And, and then he had that kind of iconic

voice of Blue Man Kuma. And then you get to the

guy that's doing it here. And it was just so,

so jarring when you're kind of expecting somewhat

in the ballpark, uh, because, you know, even

Rhinox was somewhere in the ballpark. Cheater

was somewhere in the ballpark. Eraser was somewhere

in the ballpark. Primal was kind of in the ballpark,

but not, um, but it was passable. And then Tiger

Tron opens his mouth and then he's like, Basically

like wharf and Star Trek the next generation.

Can we shoot them, you know? Shoot first ask

questions later, you know, and it's like this

is not Tigatron, right? And so like that bothered

me first and then we get over to the Decepticon

side and they're like there's intruders and you

know You you see the thing that's teased in the

trailer of a razor and laser beat going back

and forth and then And then they're they're like

there's somebody out there and then you you get

to the the stomping on the ground And I'm like,

okay a Jurassic Park reference And then you get

to dinos coming out of nowhere and it's Megatron

and Dinobot and Megatron starts opens his mouth

and I'm just like holding my head bracing for

this this like bad impression of David Kay and

boy was I not disappointed. It wasn't even an

impression. It wasn't even an impression of that.

He was trying to do his own voice, but do the,

uh, do the, um, I, the, the inflections of David

K. And it was just so horrible. I showed it to

my kids for reference and they were like, Like

that's not Megatron because like right in Beast

Wars Megatron and I can do it so they hear it

all the time You know just when he goes yes,

you know, I just I was like, oh my goodness I

Must have blocked it out that he even said that

because I have the traditional yes in there anywhere.

Yeah. Well, he says Something and then he goes

Yes, like just like that and I just I had to

stop for a while because I was just beating my

head on a wall So when my kids watched it, I

muted it anytime the guy talked and I had subtitles

So I was reading it in proper form. I don't know

that that was one of my like big pet peeves As

far as voice direct like voicing any of the characters

like Dinobot was passable Like Dinobot, yeah

Yeah, Dinobot wasn't bad like overall I've you

know in in Tadaro doing rat trap was even good

and um in in the black arachnia was good and

and so Yeah, when Megatron opened his mouth,

I was just I was so disappointed and then when

the original Megatron's like telling him about

You know his name and yeah, you should change

that I was like, yes He should because he's a

he's a disgrace to the name beast Megatron like

it's just right Yeah, the problem is is With

me like you can have a good voice bad voice,

whatever like for example a razor I wasn't a

huge fan of areas his voice performances But

it was fine. It was fine for what it was. It

didn't take me out of the show It didn't take

me out of the experience, etc. Etc. Not only

does the Beast Wars Megatron I guess he's credited

as Predacon Megatron, but not only does that

voice just not only is it terrible Which is fine.

If it was just terrible that'd be fine But it's

so off From what it should be and I'm not saying

it has to sound like what the Beast Wars Megatron

sounded like it could be different but it's done

in a way that makes him sound like a joke and

it makes him sound like a Lesser than of the

original Megatron see what they do even though

I don't like optimus primal's voice a hundred

percent They do a good job of making optimus

prime and optimus primal equals Like they're

butting heads in a way. They're both leaders,

etc, etc Beast Wars Megatron and I know it's

also part of the writing that that he's worshipping

Megatron, etc but they make him come off as like

this like Fanboy of Megatron. He's a groveling

idiot is what he is. But then he can't be the

leader of the Predacons. Like, it doesn't work

both ways. You can't have characters as strong

as Dinobot and Blackarachnia and Scorponok and

stuff like that, especially Dinobot and Blackarachnia,

following a character that is acting in the way

that they have Vsauce Megatron acting. Like,

if you had put in Inferno, Beast Wars Inferno

and Pterosaur and some of those other, like,

sniveling, you know, whatever, then maybe it

works, but when you're putting Dinobot and Black

Arachne as your main two bad Beast Wars characters,

they wouldn't be following this pathetic excuse

for a leader. Like, his voice not only is bad,

but it changes his character and... I was so

thrown off by the fact that this is just like

a fanboy of Megatron and he sounds like a teenage

fanboy that I was like, God bless it. Like I

didn't need a recreation. I just needed somebody

that sounds like a competent leader. Yeah, that

was that was my big like gripe like and I loved

some of the things I loved were the animation

style. Like I did not mind. Yeah, I love the

visuals that they gave the original G1 characters.

I love the computerized stuff I loved the the

beast cast and how they were portrayed and In

a lot of ways some of them look just like their

toys and in other ways they do not Which is fine

for some which is which is fine for some I loved

how you know in in certain aspects with Rhinox

team with the computer stuff you you get him

helping wheeljack and Something's not working

and he just goes which he did a lot in Beast

Wars if something went wrong He'd hit the cut

console or you know Shoot the controls is the

last resort just because he got frustrated with

it not working and then it would start working

and then So that that happened here too. And

it was it was kind of humorous how that transpired

But yeah, I mean a lot of the characters a lot

of the things that happened to them which I can't

wait till the next episode because we can talk

about it and But there were less Beast Wars characters

on the Predacon side than what I expected too.

There was a few missing that were shocking. Yeah.

One of them I've seen floating about which...

In promotional shots, I believe I've seen them

on a couple of different transformer sites of

the the Scorponok Character being more of a relegated

Army builder We shall say Because there were

a couple different colors of them. So they were

like, oh that's sandstorm and that's that's Scorponok

and that's you know What were some characters

that stood out for you? For me, I think Dinobot

stands out because of how well they continue

the way that that character was depicted in Beast

Wars. In Beast Wars, they did a good job of really

showing him as a conflicted character. He's his

own individual character. He can see both sides.

He sympathizes with both sides in a way. So I

thought they did a fantastic job of continuing

that with him. Like, I felt like it was the same

Dinobot. Like, we're getting the same character.

Whereas, like you were talking about with Tigatron,

I'm like, that's not Tigatron. Like, that's somebody

else. I don't know who that is, but that's not

Tigatron. Whereas Dinobot, it's like, yeah, I'm

watching the same Dinobot that I watched in Beast

Wars. Like, I thought that was perfect. And I

liked what they did with Rat Trap's characterization

in episode four, especially. But I thought they

did some cool things with his layering and kind

of making him similar to Beast Wars as well.

And then obviously I'm a huge fan of Blackarachnia

so I thought that they did a good job with her.

Those were the three on the Beast Wars side that

stood out to me as being very well done. I was

disappointed that we didn't get more from Cheetor.

Thought that he was like why was he even in this

like I'm not 100 % sure Because he gets literally

less time than a razor and Tigatron To me. I

mean I could go back and time it and count lines

or something I wonder if it's partially because

people are sick of the the archetype of using

bumblebee over and over Yeah, but then they gave

us like two cheetoir toys Make up your mind.

Do you want us to like be into this? They're

repainted They couldn't get the paint job right

on the first one and the second one had to come

out to fix it, right? So Mike, what did you think

of which character stood out to you? characters

rat trap obviously Surprisingly, even though

he's not in it too much But I was surprised like

I actually almost forgot but it once I went back

and watched it again It's like oh Astro trains

here. That's nice I thought that was kind of

cool and I liked seeing his his design there

and the voice was okay that she or didn't get

too much and. I don't know it like yeah you're

right Dinobot has the the characterization of

code of hero and the honor and all of that I

just feel that. Personally Eric Burnham is writing

him better in the comic than what they wrote

him in this but that's just me. These were like

like I said before Beast Wars Megatron. He's

a groveling imposter full like I Probably won't

ever watch this this six episodes again. It's

that bad He's that bad, but I think the episodes

overall aren't but no Yeah, but that's what I'm

saying like his like I would need a commentary

track from home I I think yeah, I think that

overall like this this part of the trilogy this

this closure for it I think that It was much

stronger than the other two parts and had this

all been released all in like one once you know

shot instead of broken up into three little individual

series I think it would have been much more digestible

uh getting the payoff coming as you go instead

of being kind of um relegated to oh you get to

watch this chunk now and this chunk now and this

chunk now and then finally you can put it all

together I definitely think that it's better

as like an ongoing like a full season of all

18 episodes rather than um Especially for the

way that they're building the story. It's kind

of jarring especially when they take place like

right after each other, right? The other thing

too that I thought they did well Especially from

a good since we're talking about characters that

I didn't mention before I like the fact that

they paid enough attention to detail that When

we're on earth at least for the Autobots a little

bit less for the Decepticons, but at least for

the Autobots The group of characters that is

assembled is accurate to G1, who would have been

there at the beginning. For the most part, you

get Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ratchet,

Mirage, Hound, Wheeljack, Sideswipe. Like, yeah,

there's a couple missing, but like they did a

good job of making sure that it was the right

characters that were there on Earth. Yeah, there

was one that was there that wasn't. I took a

screenshot of two characters that appear in one

scene That literally are not in the they're really

not in the series at all, but they show up in

one screen sheet and I'm like Are those headmasters?

What is going on in this screenshot? I'll send

it to you guys but like Yeah, but outside of

the weird screenshot that it was like it was

like they're paying homage to G1 animation air

by like having this in there but overall I like

that we got like the main original G1 characters

that were on earth at the beginning with the

volcano etc. Over overall I like what they did

with this and it definitely has the payoff that

you know you were kind of expecting and hoping

for on a whole. I think really it's only weak

points, I honestly think, are the voice direction

on some of them, some of the casting. But I think

on a whole, I think this is the strongest part

of the trilogy that we've gotten and I don't

mind it. And I'm kind of with you, Mike, in that

I have to voice track it when I watch it. So

eventually hearing it in my own head and I'm

eventually going to record my own track, you

know and redub it Eventually folks like Steve

was saying this is meant this to us personally

is meant to be watched as Binge all 18 episodes

and at some point because we couldn't get him

on for this these episodes that we're recording

We will have michael wilson and myself on so

i will have to watch this again because i do

want to do another episode like at christmas

time or something where we do talk about. All

three seasons all at once and yes your commentary

or your your your voice track will most definitely

be needed then. The only thing i wanna bring

up it's not a spoiler because we've seen it we

saw it in earth rise when galvatron showed up

how we saw it in earth rise and go charge it

up of how he showed up. Unicron. I was worried

about Unicron. You should be. He destroys people

and changes their forms. Okay, yes, I understand.

He eats planets, but I was worried about Unicron's

voice because we've only... the planet Unicron,

not any other whatever Armada did or whatever.

Well, he still sounds the same as he did at the

end of... Wasn't it? Yeah, he was in Earthrise.

Yeah, for like half of a second because he called

Galvatron back. It's the same voice actor, but

my point is we hear more of it here and outside

of Orson Welles, who obviously did it 35 years

ago. I have summoned you here for a purpose.

The only other voice of Unicron I hear in my

head is John Noble from Prime. What is this I

sense? Taint of Primus? Yeah, I don't actually

hear him. I still hear Orson Welles, but this

one was a pretty close second. Yeah, no, yeah,

absolutely. This is what I'm saying. Orson Welles,

obviously number one. Then it pleases me to be

the first. Voice for Unicron. John Noble. I'll

have to send this to you somehow, but what is

that I sense? The taint of pride? Just the way

he said that. I just absolutely love that. Yeah,

and this person that did the voice free, I really

dug it. I thought it was great and I can't wait

to see where they go from here with whatever

they do next. We've kind of stated our characters

that we didn't like and the ones that we did.

Is there anything else that you'd like to bring

up? on this spoiler -free episode that people

should be looking forward to as they enter it

when they're able to watch it? Yeah, I think

the thing that I would tell people that they

have to look forward to is obviously we know

this is G1 characters and Beast Wars characters

and I just think that there are some cool ways

that they let The G1 and the Beast Wars characters

play against each other, like pairing them off

on kind of side quests or just having them have

scenes together. Like it's like, oh. We finally

get this person and this person to have a scene

together like I think that's worth it regardless

of what else you think about the series what

else you think about the voice work like it's

cool to see certain characters interacting with

other characters that we've never been able to

see before so that is something I would look

forward to if I were you guys. And then the other

thing that I look forward to with it is because

I remember an interview a while back that Bob

forward or Larry to tell you somebody said that

they. have they gotten a four season of Beast

Wars they intended to wake up some of the G1

characters and have them fight side by side so

you kind of get that in this trilogy that that

nod and that payoff that you were hoping for

way back when but didn't get. Absolutely so with

that. Thank you for joining us here on All Things

Transformers. And if you'd like to get in contact

with us or leave feedback for the show, you can

do that on geekcastradio .com. You can of course

find it on all of your favorite podcatchers.

Be sure to follow us here on the Geekcast Radio

Network. You can follow me on Twitter at scp21.

And what are your Twitters? At TF2 and Mike.

And mine is at Optima Solo. Join us next time

when we'll be giving you the full spoilers on

War for Cybertron Kingdom. For now, I'm Steve

Megatron with... TFG -1 White. And Optima Solo.

They transform and transcend on all things Transformers.