Purely Joyful Movie!

Admirable film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Transformers(1984) is still the jewel of the Transformers franchise, but Transformers: Animated is not a bad show at all and one of the better recent incarnations, better than the Unicron Trilogy at any rate. Of the recent incarnations, Transformers: Prime may be the better animated and written show, has more depth and also has the advantage of having Peter Cullen and Frank Welker as Optimus and Megatron. But what Transformers: Animated does better is that none of the main characters are annoying(Prime had Miko), Bumblebee is much closer in characterisation to the original show, in Prime he was bland, and it is one of the better recent incarnations in terms of recreating the spirit of the original show. Transformers: Animated is not without its problems. The character designs do take some getting used to, in the action sequences they could have done with much more finesse and being less hurried-looking. The human villains could have been better developed and verge on bizarre sometimes. And some of the dialogue- mostly it's fine though- is a little stretched and slap-sticky sometimes, the humans' dialogue at times is not that much of an improvement on that of Prime. The colours and backgrounds though are very nice and detailed, the style is also the closest any of the recent series in the franchise have gotten to the original show too. The music is energetic with some haunting moments, enhancing the action sequences and any of the scenes that require any depth. The dialogue mostly is smart and thoughtful with some funny moments(getting even better once the show found its feet), while the stories are fun and engrossing, taking care also in fleshing out the characters and their back stories. Those for Waspinator and Blackarachnia are particularly well done. The action sequences are thrilling and fun to watch. Optimus and Megatron are still memorable characters, Starscream is a hoot and Sari is thankfully not another Miko, she's interesting and is far from useless. The voice acting is great, you do miss the original voices but these voice actors still do worthy jobs, actually sounding committed and involved in the drama. Standing out are David Kaye, Corey Burton(though these two did have big shoes to fill) and Tom Kenny. Overall, not mind blowing but highly entertaining still, while some of the complaints are somewhat valid Transformers: Animated is not really that deserving of the hate it's gotten. 7/10 Bethany Cox

When I first heard or rather saw that Transformers the TV series was going to be remade, I like many other fans ran to our TV guides and marked the date of release.Unfortunately to many and my own dismay, this was nothing like the old shows.In fact I felt that this was a whole other show on its on, because it didn't feel like a remake or a continuation.My problems with the series begins with the voice actors.It feels as if they brought a heavily underpaid group of VA's to fill in some very huge shoes.I didn't expect A+ voice acting, but what was given isn't even worth of a C grade.They fail mostly on Optimus Prime's voice.While he is very articulate he sounds more like an angst teenager than a grown autobot.One could blame the poor writing but the voice itself just doesn't match the drawn character.Another problem I noticed was the transforming itself.I'm a huge fan of the transformers, mainly due to the unique transformations of every Autobot and decepticon.Now I know the old shows didn't lay out every part switching panel to panel, but some sort of transformation was shown.In this series it's only masked by a flash of light and some well sped action line.Ultimately leaving anyone wanting more out of a simple transformation that took Michael Bay all of five minutes to show.In conclusion this series needs a major overhaul and even some new artists.The show feels like it was rushed just to match the date of the movie.The action is very lackluster and most episodes consist of slapstick humor the easily becomes very old and very boring.If your a fan, you'll hate it, and if your into Animated Series you'll watch a few episodes here and there but will ultimately find something better to watch.

Well then, a pop-culture phenomenon enters the stage again, with a blockbuster movie and a lackluster cartoon. I am not quite sure where things go wrong these days, as the TF cartoons after Beast Machines and Beast Wars have been so bad as to make watching them a physically painful event. Armada was decently animated, but the humans combined with mecha-Pokémon's annoyed more than they helped the show. Energon was pretty much abyssal with it's human hero being a typical Japanese animation "brash hero" type. Cybertron was the kind of thing you play at Guantanamo to get a confession out of people.Then comes Transformers: Animated. I've gotten the notion that people love this show, which only confirms what seems to be a cultural handicap amongst some western viewers: That if it is from japan, or at least mostly influenced(red: Ripoffed) from Japanese animation it is inherently superior in some mystic way. because you know, it's totally cool with preteens saving the universe with superpowers while they also attend to college. Back on track then.*coughs* TF:A is a show heavily influenced by Teen Titans, a show that at least was watchable as it depicted superheroes and super-villains. Transformers is pretty much the same show, only with big mecha Pokémon's along and a preteen girl running around wielding the "All-Spark"...Which of course s in the shape of a car-key...Of course.*brain implosion*The quality of the cartoon is probably good, if you can stand the style, which I by the way, cannot. It's lackluster and childish. The mood of the show is so confused it should get professional help..is it a show about superheroes and super-villains? Or a show about aliens battling it out? is it a serious show with brutal action, betrayal and such? or is it a show that should replace Barney the dinosaur? The greatest consistency is to make the Autobots look like advanced toys and let those toys battle it out with the kind of super-villain you think would be cute in a movie or show making a parody of DC COmics. Highlights like Meltdown (cuz..he melts stuff..both himself and others...), Headmaster(cuz'...He dresses as a Galactus reject and builds a head that is supposed to sit on robot bodies...) and Angry Archer. (guess what he does...) Seriously, this show takes such a huge step backwards Im ashamed. People whine and b*tch about how the humans in the movie got too much place. Then same people come here and praise this train-crash of a show? That's hypocrisy people.I would give it a lower rating, but at times it shows promise...or just good character ideas. So maybe, in twenty years more..We can get a decent Transformers show not for the culturally challenged.

I'll start off by saying I've been an active Transformers fan for years, not someone who watched G1 as a kid and then forgot about TFs until the recent live-action movie came out (In fact, I actually hated the movie, as both a Transformers fan and a fan of movies in general). I'm 22 years old, so I was just a couple of years too late to catch G1 when it first aired (although I now own every episode), and although I had seen a couple of episodes of G1 when it reran as G2, I really became a fan of the franchise with Beast Wars. Since then, I've watched at least some of every TF show, Japanese ones included. Beast Wars (especially the second and third seasons) is my favorite show to date, not because it was the first one I watched, but because the story lines, character development, and voice acting achieved a level of depth, emotion and overall quality which has been unmatched in TF cartoons before or since.With that being said, I was a bit skeptical going into this show. The last few shows left a lot to be desired, and the odd designs for this one were a bit of a departure from traditional Transformers. Still, I did my best to approach this show with an open mind (after all, many people initially dismissed my favorite TF series because of the changes it made to the franchise), and I was pleasantly surprised. The designs, while a bit jarring at first, are something you'll get used to surprisingly fast. The pacing is nice and the voice acting is the best it's been in years (due largely to this being made for American audiences rather than dubbed over from Japanese), especially Starscream. Since Chris Latta's death, nobody has really been able to fill the role well (though considering his excellent work as Cobra Commander in the '90s I've long said that Scott McNeil would do a fine job), until now. Tom Kenney totally nails the Starscream voice, and it's really a shame that the character hasn't been seen since the pilot (though I have little doubt he'll show up again eventually). The script quality varies a bit from episode to episode, but even at its worst it's better than anything we've seen since the Beast era.As good as the show is, it's not without its flaws. The biggest flaw at the moment (keep in mind, it's still fairly early in the show's run) is the villains. Transformers has always been about two warring factions, Autobot vs. Decepticon (or, in the Beast-era, Maximal vs. Predacon/Vehicon). In this show, the Autobots have yet to face more than one 'con at a time (even when the Decepticon ship came in the pilot, Megatron was the only one they actually fought face to face), and half the time their enemy is human. Granted, Megatron is often pulling the strings of whatever enemy they may be facing, but so far the Transformer presence on the villains' side has been severely lacking, which is a shame since the episodes where they fight a Cybertronian enemy (be it a Decepticon or the Dinobots) are clearly the strongest of the bunch. No matter what powers a human enemy may possess, it's sort of hard to make him seem like a significant threat to five giant robots. Hopefully once the Decepticons arrive in force (preferably sooner rather than later), this issue will be remedied. The other major issue with the show is the tone, which skews a bit too much toward the kiddy side. Granted, this is a show intended for kids, and it's certainly no kiddier than the last few shows, but honestly, it's still a valid complaint. The people making this show are clearly aware that adult fans watch the show as well (as evidenced by all the G1 references), and could easily make it a bit more mature without alienating the kids (ie Beast Wars).In conclusion, I encourage you to give this show a chance if you are at all interested, and keep an open mind; you may be pleasantly surprised. Granted, it's not be the best Transformers show ever, but it's far from the worst.