So, I'm finding it hard to keep up with the topic in the "News" section, so here's a new topic that I would like to keep shorter and less fanaticle if possible.

First off, let me give my view on the recently released image of Optimus Prime for the new show.

It's not my cup of tea. HOWEVER, it is early promo art, and all the early promo art in this style of animation looks pretty crappy. Teen Titans promo art looked, and still to this day looks like crap, but the animation is very fluid and nice overall.

So I at least have SOME hope that the actual animation of this show will look better. And honestly I welcome a change of format from the Japanese shows with the 15 second transformation sequences. Those get real annoying real fast.

But what scares me more than the image is the blurb next to the image.

"Hasbro and Cartoon Network will partner on a 2-d animated series, which offers a new twist on the original series with each of the 26 episodes presented as a standalone storyline featuring everyday heroes who do good deeds that triumph over evil."

Now, that to me sounds lame. Again, I am really happy that we won't have to deal with the Japanese trend of a simple story dragged over an ENTIRE season lasting over a year. But to not have an overall story at all seems pretty pointless.

And the everyday hero aspect? Getting a little preachy there don't ya think?

I just really wanted to like this show, because I haven't truly like a Transformers show since the first season of Beast Machines. The only reason I started collecting again was because of Classics and the movie, and I just don't want to fall out of the fandom again, I mean I just got back in.

So pretty much I'm just hoping that this is a bad representation of the art work and a bad representation of the story-telling. I know it's a kids show, before anyone says that, I know and fully realize that. But Beast Wars was a kids show too, so keep that in mind. A kid show doesn't mean it has to be bad, and it doesn't mean it gets to get away with being bad either.

 

From whatever we can infer for the little scraps of information we've gotten so far, I fear this new direction Hasbro is taking with the brand might adversely affect the Transformers franchise as a whole. The things is, there will be alot of new fans including kids jumping onto the Transformers bandwagon after this year's movie, and they will only have the movie to base their opinion of the Transformers brand. The natural thing for hasbro to do is to capitalise on the momentum generated by the new movie and sustain it till the next one. It doesn't need to follow the exact direction the movie is taking, but at least build on the themes set by it.

Now we may not know exactly what kind of show HAsbro is going for, but from that tentative story description given in the promo, it sounds very kiddy, like they are aiming for an age group even lower than before (somewhere between that of the usual main line and their Gobots line) It does not help that the art looks very simplified, a very stark contrast from the movie (i'm not asking bayformer level of complexity, but neither do I think reducing them to what looks like dynamically shaped humans wearing boxes helps either) , and it does not help if the rumours are true that the Transforming will be a simple twirl and you're done kind of approach. Fans (even kid fans) coming in from the movie will come in expecting one thing and if they find it rather kiddy they might lose respect for the franchise which will have a detrimental impact on the brand in the future.

Of course Hasbro might be using this direction to target the younger fans that the movie wasn't aiming for. They want to go for a two-pronged approach with the movies to appeal to the older fans and the cartoons for a younger audience, but this uneven approach might spoil the momentum of the franchise. It would be better to generate a sustainable level of interest between movies for all the different age groups of Transformers fans so that when each movie comes around, there is already a sizeable existing interest in Transformers.

If it manages to achieve a striking balance of sophistication and mass appeal which BW and other cartoons like most of the DC Animated Universe shows have reached, it will defintely appease a wide spectrum of fans. What it needs is an immersive yet easy to follow story coupled with a good level of animation one would come to expect when watching Giant transforming robots to wow both young and old viewers alike.

I hope it doesn't disappoint.

 

i think what weve seen so far sucks, but i remain open minded.

 

If this new style is the future for TFs Hasbro has just lost a TF fan. The only way I can like TFs is through the TF movies unfortunately.
I hope Hasbro will learn there lesson.

I am not one to complain about changes in TF designs but this is appalling

 

I'm sorry that you feel that way. If you're going to give up on being a fan just because you don't like the new look, you can't possibly have been a fan for very long. Transformers - the very essence of - is about change.

I can't name all of the different looks and styles - not only in toys but the animation itself - that we've had to go through. I mean, if "the only way you can like TFs is though the movies"... you're not interested in the toys from G1? Beast Wars? Beast Machines? Armada? Energon? Cybertron? The comics from all of these series?

I do not at all like what I've seen so far, but I'm also well aware that it's a property for children. It's just too bad for me if I don't.

 

Yep, Hope for the BEST, prepare for the WORST!  

 

There is a good chance that the toys won't be based on the new animation models.

 

Well, it's never been that way anyway. The animation models are always based on the toys.  

 

Well...I will keep an open mind on this but I NEED to see the toys!   (I know, I know my priorities are screwed up!)

 

Honestly, this doesn't shock me as much as I thougth it would.

The simplified animation is very much becoming standard for North American made cartoons. The whole Dexter's Lab/Samurai Jack/Powerpuff Girls/Etc thing has made that style very popular, so it's not surprising that they went for that. More detailed animation has basically all shifted over to the 'anime' style, even for the North American stuff.

I suspect they're trying to hit the original Transformers target demographic with this. They don't want US, they want to get our kids into the thing. This is the starter line, the Saturday morning cartoon that they get up and watch in their PJ's with a bowl of Cocoa Puffs. Seriously people, they can't target the line to the WHOLE fanbase, we're just too broad a demographic. So they're splitting it up.

The older fans have the movie franchise. Hasbro wants to move from being a toymaker, to be an entertainment maker, and Transformers is their flagship. Unless this movie bombs (And with all the hype, I don't think that's possible), there will be at least two more. There are also multiple games coming out, spinoff comics, and a continuing toyline.

The 'Classic' style will likely also continue, given we've supported it strongly, as a collector-based line, with Convention and Collectors Club tie-ins.

I wouldn't doom and gloom over this. This series isn't the whole line, it's just another layer. The original show reflected the animation style of the day, and so does this one. Sit your kids down, let them enjoy it, and go fire up your PS3 and destroy Manhattan as Megatron or something in the meantime.  

 

I'm reminded of the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon. The first thing we ever saw from that was a group shot of Superboy and the Legionnaires. It was horrible. The designs looked incredibly bad and stylized past the point of sanity. I planned to watch the show, as I love the Legion, but I wasn't expecting much.

Then I watched the first episode. Once actually animated, the character designs really worked. Everything moved very smoothly and I stopped noticing Saturn Girl's large head, Phantom Girl's huge eyes, or Superman's massive ears. So from this I'm willing to wait for the actual show to debut before I really judge the designs. They might look bad now, but it's too soon to call until we actually see them in motion.

 

The PRIME in that picture is very forshortened and designed to convey movement. I can see where they're coming from, but it really doesn't gel for me.
Yes, I see PRIME, but it's a PRIME that barely conveys the gravitas of the character.

But, as I said in the other thread, I won't dismiss an entire series on the basis of this one image. I found it a distasteful, knee-jerk practice when it happened with regards the movie, so I won't fall into the same trap here.

So to summarise: A poor image in itself ( in my opinion), but hardly grounds to dismiss a series. I'll judge it on writing more than model designs.

 

I wonder what the Japanese market will make of this?

 

While I believe this is exactly what the executives are thinking, I don't believe it's the actual truth. There seemed to be plenty of kids who enjoyed the more serious Transformers series. Beast Wars may not have been a huge hit, but kids watched it and enjoyed it. My one fear is, that by trying to differentiate the two parts of the fandom "you old dudes have the movie, you young-uns got this kiddy cartoon thingy" they'll actually cut the effective market for any given item in half. I think it's possible with a fantasy/sci-fi based property to be magical enough to capture the imagination of children and still reel adults in with a good story. And while we don't know that this cartoon won't have a good story, I have a healthy dose of fear that this series will focus on dumbing things down even further than before in hopes to keep it simple for the children.

The problem with that is, children aren't nearly as simple minded as adults would like to believe. But that's another argument entirely, and something nobody really wants to hear these days.

I'm not going to go into spasms over the one promo image and the little blurb of text we got. I'll say it has potential in every direction. It could be something totally new and exciting, or it could fall apart for me on the first episode. All I've got right now is one badly drawn picture of Prime. For now I'll wait until I've seen at least one in-action shot of the cartoon before I declare it rubbish. However, that promo shot has given me a nice reality check and made me lower my expectations a lot. Not a horrible thing for Hasbro to do at this point. If expectations are lowered, it'll be far easier to pleasantly surprise us later.

 

Well, if they don't like it, they have their super robots and what not. LOL! Somehow I got a gut feeling that this would happen when we first saw the "darken images" with the shadows and all...reminded me of Teen Titians...I just never expected Hasbro to really move in this direction.

Kickback - I think its difficult to compare this with Beast Wars because while some folks may have been initially adverse to TFs transforming to animals, at least the style of the series was CGI - considered a better standard of animation. Hence, there was a stronger likelihood that people will check out the show (Beast Wars).

*Blah! I'm rambling...probably induced by the uncertainty of the new TF series! LOL!

 

I agree. I remain incredibly positive about it, because what we might have lost visually (if you can put it that way, as I personally love a new stylistic look) we will probably make up in storytelling, hopefully ala Samurai Jack and Clone wars. The animation and battles will look slick, and hopefully some better storylines than we've been getting from Japan. I'm overly "opti"mistic about this new look.

 

honestly im sure hasbro is just thinking the whole Clone Wars cartoon thing worked, thers lots of toys, statues etc based on the animation style, so theyre gonna try it with Transformers, that simple.

 

If it's being produced by the Teen Titans/Ben 10 team then I'd rather have a 300 pound woman stand on my ballsack with cleats while singing Shaina Twain.