Transformers: Prime

[Bartmanhomer]

I watched Season 1 of Transformers: Prime on Netflix and I'm going to tell my thoughts on the cartoon.

Spoiler: My Thoughts On Transformers: Prime

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I saw Season 1 of Transformers: Prime and if everybody knows about the show, it's about two robotic teams wage war on Earth. The exalted Autobots versus the vile Decepticons. It's a good show even though they only have Season 1. The show ended with a cliffhanger leading when Optimus Prime and Megatron join forces against Unicron. The show isn't as great compared to other Transformers cartoons but it still a good cartoon overall. I'll give this show 4 out of 5 stars.

[Devonix]

I watched Season 1 of Transformers: Prime on Netflix and I'm going to tell my thoughts on the cartoon.

Spoiler: My Thoughts On Transformers: Prime

Show

I saw Season 1 of Transformers: Prime and if everybody knows about the show, it's about two robotic teams wage war on Earth. The exalted Autobots versus the vile Decepticons. It's a good show even though they only have Season 1. The show ended with a cliffhanger leading when Optimus Prime and Megatron join forces against Unicron. The show isn't as great compared to other Transformers cartoons but it still a good cartoon overall. I'll give this show 4 out of 5 stars.

Interesting that you'd say it isn't great compared to other transformers series. Most people in the fandom I know place it in the top 3.

[Bartmanhomer]

Interesting that you'd say it isn't great compared to other transformers series. Most people in the fandom I know place it in the top 3.

Not all Transformers cartoon are perfect and great. The reason why it good because it has a few flaws.

Spoiler: The Flaws

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Such as the repetitive Megatron and Starscream dramatic leadership conflict.

[Devonix]

Not all Transformers cartoon are perfect and great. The reason why it good because it has a few flaws.

Spoiler: The Flaws

Show

Such as the repetitive Megatron and Starscream dramatic leadership conflict.

What I mean is which series do you place above it? Since Prime is usually part of the holy trinity of Prime, Beast Wars, G1.

[Bartmanhomer]

What I mean is which series do you place above it? Since Prime is usually part of the holy trinity of Prime, Beast Wars, G1.

1. Transformers G1
2. Beast Wars
3. Armada

[JadedDM]

I thought it was neat they were able to bring back both Optimus Prime's and Megatron's original voice actors.

I didn't like what they did with Bumblebee, though. He was less a character, and more like a mascot.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Not all Transformers cartoon are perfect and great. The reason why it good because it has a few flaws.

Spoiler: The Flaws

Show

Such as the repetitive Megatron and Starscream dramatic leadership conflict.

That's pretty much a requirement for being a Transformers series. If it doesn't appear its because one of the two is dead... and even if that IS the case that one of them is dead it doesn't follow the conflict is resolved.

I didn't like what they did with Bumblebee, though. He was less a character, and more like a mascot.

Well that's the fault of the Michael Bay Transformer films, his bumblebee had a damaged voice box so the animated one had to have the same issue. Which makes conveying his character rather difficult.

[LibraryOgre]

I thought it was neat they were able to bring back both Optimus Prime's and Megatron's original voice actors.

I didn't like what they did with Bumblebee, though. He was less a character, and more like a mascot.

Though, it did contribute to a feeling of it being a war story.

"Here is a major character. He is disabled due to injuries sustained in the conflict."

[Aotrs Commander]

Muting Bumblebee was only very marginally better than muting Deadpool.

[JadedDM]

So what was their reasoning for muting* Soundwave, the Decepticon with the most iconic voice in the entire franchise? That really bothered me, too.

(*Technically he does speak at least once, I think, but the vast majority of the series he doesn't say anything at all.)

[DataNinja]

So what was their reasoning for muting* Soundwave, the Decepticon with the most iconic voice in the entire franchise? That really bothered me, too.

(*Technically he does speak at least once, I think, but the vast majority of the series he doesn't say anything at all.)

Vow of silence, in-universe. Out of universe? Who knows. I personally think that it really worked. As much as I live the traditional Soundwave voice, man, I love what I've seen of Prime Soundwave. He's ominous, effective, and there's just that sense of wrongness that voicelessness gives. He's implacable. You can't reason with him. You can't understand him. All you can do is try to slow him down.


I get why people wouldn't like it, but, man, the Prime incarnations of Soundwave and Shockwave are my favorite portrayals of them. (And Wheeljack gives his G1 counterpart a run for his money.)

[JadedDM]

Oh, man, don't even get me started on Wheeljack. In G1, he was one of my favorite characters. A brilliant engineer and scientist, always making wacky inventions that never quite worked as well as he wanted. But he was a bit mad, too. Like that time he made the Dinobots, just because he could, then realized he couldn't control them. Good times.

Prime Wheeljack is just another grizzled, one-liner spouting action hero. He was so...boring. I don't even know why they chose Wheeljack to fill that role. Seems like there are plenty of other options available they could have used instead. Wheeljack should be more Donatello than Raphael.

I realize I'm starting to sound like I hate this show, but I don't. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I just grew up watching G1 as a kid, so I have opinions. I'll try and list some positive things, though, to balance that out.

I absolutely loved Ratchet in this series. Casting Jeffrey Combs was a touch of genius. Although I might be biased, as I love everything Combs does.

Bringing back Peter Cullen for Optimus was also a smart move. Okay, to be fair, Optimus is a really boring character. He's perfect. He has no flaws and is basically built from the ground up out of ideals and principals. But hearing Cullen's voice talk about freedom being the right of all sentient beings makes me tear up, so I can't help but give him a huge pass (Prime's death in the 80's animated film messed me up as a kid. Now I openly expect him to die, sometimes multiple times.)

Bringing back Frank Welker for Megatron was great, too. He does sound different, but it's clear he's going for more of a menacing character. Really, that sums up the whole show. Prime really comes off as if it's trying to reboot G1 but way darker and grimmer. I mean, it's still a kid's show, so it can only go so far. But the series does open with Cliffjumper getting stabbed to death and bleeding energon all over the place, so...like, dang. But anyway, Megatron is actually kind of scary in this one. I wonder how many kids he gave nightmares to?

Nolan North as Smokescreen is great. But also weird. Mostly because I could only hear Nathan Drake whenever he talked. But also that they made Smokescreen the eager rookie who wants to prove himself, because that's Bumblebee's role. But Bumblebee is not a character in this series, just a mascot, so I guess they had to make a new Bumblebee. Ah, darn it, I went negative again.

Actually, this show had some amazing voice actors in it. Gina Torres, Kevin Michael Richardson, Daran Norris, Tony Todd, Peter Mensah, Michael Ironside, George--friggin--Takei. Honestly, I found myself surprised how many voices I recognized. Hell, they even got The Rock to play Cliffjumper. I mean, they immediately killed him off, probably because they couldn't afford him for the whole series, but still.

[DataNinja]

I will be honest in that I've not seen the whole thing (just bits and pieces of it here and there), so I probably do not have the full picture. But I didn't mind a Wheeljack who's more willing to get up close and personal, and he seemed to have his own personal combat vehicle - that's something I rather liked. Field testing his own stuff. It's a shame if they took out all of the science bits, though. If that's the case, then, yeah, missed opportunity.

Yeah, in general, Optimus does tend to be rather boring, as a character. But he's important in the way of how he causes everyone else to act, to interact with him. You need someone willing to be that beacon, and he does it so well.

[GloatingSwine]

Bringing back Peter Cullen for Optimus was also a smart move. Okay, to be fair, Optimus is a really boring character. He's perfect. He has no flaws and is basically built from the ground up out of ideals and principals. But hearing Cullen's voice talk about freedom being the right of all sentient beings makes me tear up, so I can't help but give him a huge pass (Prime's death in the 80's animated film messed me up as a kid. Now I openly expect him to die, sometimes multiple times.).

This is why Animated is the best one, because Optimus is largely that because he's still young, idealistic, and missed all the nasty stuff that happened in the war.

Though, it did contribute to a feeling of it being a war story.

"Here is a major character. He is disabled due to injuries sustained in the conflict."

Animated still did it better, with their version of Ratchet having PTSD.

[LibraryOgre]

This is why Animated is the best one, because Optimus is largely that because he's still young, idealistic, and missed all the nasty stuff that happened in the war.



Animated still did it better, with their version of Ratchet having PTSD.

I don't think I saw Animated, which would be an issue. Any idea where it might be streaming?

[GloatingSwine]

It’s on Amazon but not Prime ironically.

Animated deviates quite a lot from the standard Transformers setup. The war was millennia ago and the Autobots won, the main characters are a low level engineering crew working on civilian infrastructure when they encounter the Decepticons in hiding and they crash on Earth, and as the series goes on it becomes more obvious that some principles might have been compromised to win that war.

[JadedDM]

I tried to watch Animated, but I couldn't get very far. I think I made it, maybe 5-6 episodes in. It was just too kiddy. (And I don't mean that as a criticism; it's a kid's show, after all. I just couldn't enjoy it personally.) Plus, Optimus Prime has lips. It really creeped me out. I don't even know why.

[GloatingSwine]

Yes it’s a kids show, but it respects it’s audience.

The concepts underlying what happens become more complex as the series progresses.

[Bartmanhomer]

I actually like Transformers Animated and it's great.

[JadedDM]

Yes it’s a kids show, but it respects it’s audience.

The concepts underlying what happens become more complex as the series progresses.

That's what I heard, which is why I stuck with it as long as I could. I'm not sure when the complex stuff starts up, but I didn't make it that far.

Maybe some day I'll give it another chance.

[GloatingSwine]

You probably have to make it into season two at least but what US TV show isn’t that true of?

[LibraryOgre]

I'm on the third episode (it's on Tubi, so ad-supported but free). It's not bad. It's not fantastic, but it is definitely a kids show... aiming at the 8-12 demographic, more than the 13-15

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

You probably have to make it into season two at least but what US TV show isn’t that true of?

Seems to be how it works, anymore. Season 1 is the pitch to the studio and some low-risk low ball adventures to make studio mandated focus groups happy. Season 2 they get given confidence to drift a bit, Season 3 Things Might Get Wierd.

Transformers Animated starts hitting it stride once the Allspark fragments and other Transformers become more frequent.