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Transformers Animated: Season 1
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (25th August 2008). |
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The Show
 Into each generation, a Transformers series is born. The original animated “Transformers” ran through the 80’s, the 1990’s had the computer generated “Beast Wars,” and the 2000’s have seen a few iterations on the old series including the 2007 live action blockbuster “Transformers.” The latest iteration doesn’t bother with complicated fancy subtitles and gets straight to the point as “Transformers: Animated” (2008). This two disc set includes the entire first season of the show where Optimus Prime (David Kaye) and the other soon to be Autobots discover the All-spark and Decepticons wanting to turn it into a weapon. Soon the All-spark sends the Autobots back through time to protect itself. The Autobots wind up in 22nd century Detroit where they vow to protect life, including humans, after taking the form of what they consider the local sentient life: cars and trucks. Once on Earth the Autobots become friends with Sari Sumdac (Tara Strong), the 8 year old daughter of super-genius scientist Prof. Isaac Sumdac (Tom Kenny). But of course, such friendships can’t go without a Decepticon attack as Starscream (Tom Kenny) managed to follow the Autobots back in time and attacks to gain control of the All-spark. “Transformers: Animated” isn’t anything particularly original in the story department, but that’s not entirely necessary for a Transformers series. I really like the fact that there’s a nationally broadcast cartoon about cars and robots starring an Indian American girl as the protagonist. Even though she isn’t voiced by an Indian American woman, Strong’s voice acting doesn’t wander into stereotype territory with a ridiculous accent or anything disingenuous. Other great aspects… actually that’s all I really liked. The series directors don’t do anything special and the animation reflects that. The animation style seems flat and cheap, produced just to get another “Transformers” series to capitalize on the audience generated by the latest movie. I understand that they’re using an anime style and I understand that style is very popular and used in a lot of current cartoons in the United States. It just doesn’t feel right for Transformers: the Autobots don’t seem to act like robots and the animators loose the proportions on the Transformers to humans and the city during some of the fights, making Optimus taller than a building at points, but yet fire-truck sized a few seconds later. The writing doesn’t make up for the animation; it’s fairly flat and routine as well and doesn’t really interest me. The voice actors are a veteran team and it makes me glad that they went with actual voice actors rather than celebrities, but it’s hard to shine when the animation and writing are so ignorable. Of course, much of this can be attributed to the fact that I’m not the target child to young adult demographic. But, one of the great features of the Transformers franchise is the lasting power in the original series, even “Beast Wars” I think holds up really well at least in terms of story, even though the computer graphics look far worse now than they originally did. “Transformers: Animated” seems like it was rushed to cash in on the resurgence of Transformers following the film, however the style and the look of the series is just so disgruntling for me it’s tough to watch. Here’s a list of the episodes included in the 2 disc set which covers the first season: – "Home is Where the Spark Is" - "Total Meltdown" - "Blast From The Past" - "Thrill Of The Hunt" - "Nanosec" - "Along Came A Spider" - "Sound And Fury" - "Lost And Found" - "Survival Of The Fittest" - "Headmaster" - "Nature Calls" - "Megatron Rising Part One" - "Megatron Rising Part Two"
Video
“Transformers: Animated” keeps to its original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio from TV, and the transfer looks good and clean. It looks exactly as it would when it aired, but as I said earlier the animation isn’t anything too impressive. Even if it were available in HD, most of the colors and backgrounds are composed of flat, basic colors and there’s not much to be done about that.
Audio
Again, presented in the original TV English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, as well as Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, and it probably sounds as it originally aired, but there are a few problems. They use a lot of similar sound effects and cues from the original "Transformers" series, which is good, but the music within the show is fairly ignorable and the opening theme doesn’t quite work as a cover of the original Transformers theme as its barely different and just sounds like there’s something wrong with the audio of the original theme. There are no subtitles available for this release.
Extras
The Entire first season is only two discs long and is nearly bare of special features, there's only a photo gallery and a bonus trailer, see below for more information: DISC ONE: The only special feature on the disc is the Season 2 photo gallery sneak peak which consists of 23 individual frames that are animated stills which I guess will be used in season 2 even though most of the characters as they are seen in season one look the exact same. There’s also a startup bonus trailer for “Transformers: Animated: The Game” for the Nintendo DS which runs for 57 seconds. DISC TWO: There are no special features on this disc.
Overall
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