Come on, that is some kind of bitterness talking. Leaving aside the writing of the shows, the Sunbow cartoons had a more serious art style with realistic proportions (talking more about the humans here), and Animated had designs clearly targeting a younger audience. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

Except it didn't?

Animated had the designs it did because that's how Derrick J. Wyatt draws. It's not targeting a younger audience. That's just the look of the show. They're meant to be dynamic, expressive designs. They're cartoony, for sure. but kiddie? no. There's a huge difference between those two terms.

 

Except not even close. The G1 cartoon had simple styles and generic faces with bright colours and soft, rounded proportions. Animated was stylised and dynamic, not targetted to a younger audience. It was more "serious" than G1's designs were.

 

Except, what happened when the look of the show was revealed in the first pre-production art? Do you remember all the comments and the whole shitstorm surrounding it at that first moment? All the older viewers felt alienated. Why? The designs and the art style.

Animated had to win older viewers over, one by one, through its strong storytelling. I don't know what this weird denial is, that you have to pretend the simplified, cartoony designs weren't meant to appeal to a new, younger generation.

 

ALL the older viewers felt alienated? Really? All of them? Even me? No. The only early shots I had a negative reaction to were the early shots where all we got to see were the shapes of the faces, and it was only because we couldn't really see anything.

Not everyone reacted negatively when we got the first real art for the show, and that alone kills your argument.

I'm 30 years old. My reaction to TFA's art was when I first saw it was the same as it was when I saw Teen Titans, or even Batman The Animated Series back when I was a kid, which was basically: "oooh, that's different".

There's no pretending or denial going on here. I, and many others, have the amazing ability to appreciate different forms of art in animation without thinking of them as "kiddy".

There's lots of art that's "simplified" and cartoony, but not meant for little kids. Ever see Bruce Timm's pinup art? The more adult Ren & Stimpy cartoons? Are those meant to appeal to kids as well?

 

More realistically proportioned Sunbow human character:


Human characters with no attempt at realistic proportions or anatomy:



More realistically proportioned Sunbow human character:


More cartoonily-styled human characters:


Sunbow attempted a more realistic style and proportions than we get in Hasbro shows today. It's not debatable.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

I hate to be negative about your facts, but maybe something other than shirtless Spike would have been a better choice of an example.

 

No one is saying that TFA didn't have cartoony art. We're just saying that less realistic does not equal kiddy.



NOW the lesson is over.

 

I'll remember it as a show that could have been good but then somewhere along the way some idiot decided it would be better to have more fights with human villains as opposed to I don't know THE DECEPTICONS.

The best episodes imo where when the Autobots and Decepticons actually fought each other.

I didn't like the look of the art at first but it grew on me, the toys were amazing but the STUPID writing of all those human characters just killed it for me.

Professor Princess?
Angry Archer?
Meltdown?
Nanosec?
Slo-mo?
Headmaster?

Those are some of the DUMBEST characters ever created imo to fight the Autobots when they could have been fighting the Decepticons and each one of them rivals any of the Kiddie stuff that G1 did for sure.

When the 2 sides did fight it was on time though and that is what I will remember about it. Too bad 50% of that other crap screwed it up imo.

 

I can understand and respect that complaint, but I myself enjoyed most of the human villains (I hated Slo-mo), as not having the Decepticons be the enemy in every episode also let them not be beaten every episode, and that allowed them to stay a serious threat through the entire series.

 

If you can't see the difference between what Timm does and what TFA was, I do not know what to tell you.


The only thing I can think is that there is some kind of self-consciousness going on, with people trying to convince themselves that this:

...wasn't meant for kids. Why can't you accept the idea that we are enjoying a show that is created for kids? Is the idea really that insulting to you?

 

I know it was meant for kids. Just like G1 was. That doesn't make TFA's art "kiddy", any more than it makes G1's art "kiddy". I know I'm enjoying a show that's created for kids. That's the case with every transformers series.

I'm just saying there's nothing "kiddy" about it. That is literally all I'm saying. It's just the art style for the series. It's the way Derrick J. Wyatt draws everything.

if you can't see the similarities between what TFA and BTAS did as far as how characters are constructed, the shapes that are used, the selective detailing, importance of unique, characterful silhouettes, and the personality injected in each design, then, well, I don't know what to tell you either. The styles are different, but a lot of the thought behind the two styles is the same.

 

Nothing? Not even Huffer? Or Pipes?

 

Honestly I still dig the cartoony look. To me it looks wonderful and DJW has some great ideas to revamp the franchise.

I wish he was brought in more to help with some of the ideas of Prime aside from just Bulkhead.

 

True. Tack every Transformers everything ever on to that list. It's a generational thing. There's the G1 generation, the Beast generation, the Anime stuff generation, the Movie/Animated split generation, and so on and on. Sometimes the newer generations learn to appreciate what comes before them and vice-versa, but many don't, which gives us the fine opportunity to complain about others who don't like what we like.  

 

In MY day our robots turned into giant animals and we liked it! Computer graphics was something only dreamed about! You took what you got loved them for it!

Now git off mah lawn 'fore I get mah hose!

 

The fact that you believe this is the hilarious part. What he is saying is that the G1 art style was heavily anime influenced, and carried an almost comic-esque realism to the art. Animated did not. Animated was overstylized, which is the way shows were being done at the time, so it's more of a generational thing than a "kiddie" thing. However, the artwork did indeed carry almost a Rescue Heroes vibe to it, story notwithstanding. It's like comparing "Lost Cities of Gold" to "The Smurfs", drastically different art styles.

 

Wow, didn't realize my "kiddie" description would cause much uproar. Highly stylized might be a more apt description then? In any case, it wasn't an art style that most TF fans were used to, and that's what probably causes a lot of dismissal of the series despite the strong storytelling, much in the same way Batman : Brave and the Bold was dismissed by fans used to the Dini/Timm-verse Batman we've gotten for almost two decades.