At the start I had a negative look on Animated like a bunch of others, but then I started watching and got into it. Now I think with it ending we are going to be missing out on so much they could have done. And the one thing that I always think of is will this be the first series that Prime is not the leader? I dont mean with his crew but all Autobots. So I think it blows that things are really starting to get good and it will be cut short. Part 1 will air today and I have been trying not to think about it, but cant help not to  

 

I think it may be ending right when it's hitting it's stride and going from being a good show to a great show.

 

^ THIS.

But in any case, no matter what level it's at now, they're killing it when it doesn't deserve it. Period.

CN never gave it a chance with goofy ass airtimes (8:00p day after Christmas for the pilot, 10:30a Saturdays for the first season, repeats at 6:00a M-F when kids aren't even awake, let alone capable of watching TV what with the school bus coming, and all. And now...8:00? (or is it 8:30?) most kids want to sleep in on the weekends, not get up like the rest of the week.)

Hasbro had too much pull on how stuff played out this season, they didn't release the toys until six months later, they didn't distribute them properly, and now that ROTF is coming down the line and it's guaranteed to make more money, they not only pull the rug out from Animated, but they stomp all over it just to make sure it's out of the way for the movie.

If this new Hasbro/Discovery Channel thing comes to life, and Animated could be shown there, it would at least give it a limping chance to coming back to life. (but then they'd ask for extreme changes and we'd never see Sari again.)

No, Animated was just killed too early, and that's that.

 

D**n CN!

 

I'll be pissed after Animated's gone... Had so much more to show...

 

They can't kill Animated , the show is to good.

 

Almos all people have VCRs nowadays. Or Tivo. So the timing is not an issue, IMHO.

And back when I did not have a VCR, I remember waking up every Saturday/Sunday at 7'o clock to watch Fun Factory on Sky One and have a chance to see Transformers (G1).

Besides, CN was keeping the show up because - let's face it - the cartoon was always meant to be as an advertisment for the toys. As long as Hasbro wanted the toys advertised, they'd pay CN to keep the show on the air. I think it was Hasbro's decision to stop Animated, now that it's the Movie toys that they want to sell. Perhaps when the movie hype is over by this autumn/winter, they'll bring back the show as well as release new toys. Let's face it, they don't want to have two/three lines out there at the same time - kids would have to be picky on what to buy, parents cannot afford to buy both all Movie and all Animated toys as well - same reason Classics/Universe is on hold too.

I think Hasbro learned this lesson from 2007, back then Movie/Classics/Titanium was all out at the same time, there was an overflow of toys and necessarily, many became shelfwarming products.

That's my theory, but Hasbro will no doubt explain thing at Botcon.

 

I think everyone feels this.

 

I gone to miss that them  

 

I don't think it's ending before it really got started since, even as a pretty die hard fan of the show, I can't deny that they pissed away a LOT of time throughout S1 & S2 on quite a few useless and just plain filler episodes. S1 in particular really, really dragged imo.

That said, I do think it's ending just as it finally hit its stride and turned into an absolutely mindblowing series with shockingly great writing, more clever ideas than we could ever count, and a serial continuity that has sucked in many of us the same way prime time shows ala Lost, Heroes, etc. have done. Kids show or not, Animated has gotten extremely deep & complex and I can only imagine where it would have gone if we got a 4th season out of it.

 

I kinda think the slow burn first season didn't help. For a show trying to push toys there were a lot of episodes with either human characters that weren't toys, or episodess with just Optimus and his crew, which were characters that have been in every episode and available right at the beginning of the toyline. I know I was getting bored of just Optimus and his little band after half a dozen episodes. So glad the Elite Guard showed up to give me a bit of a break from them.

I know some TF fans aren't fond of being reminded the TF cartoons are just toy commercials, but for the most part I think Animated started off not showing enough of that commercial pushing of the characters stuff and getting people properly hyped for the line.
Now the show has hit its stride you either can't find the toys of certain characters, or those characters won't even be getting toys because it's all ending.

All well and good using the first series to let us get to know the Autobots and use humans as the generally regular villains so the Decepticons would supposedly be a bigger threat (although the writers seem to be able to make the Decepticons a big enough threat anyway now), but I feel that also meant the show didn't get up to speed as quickly as it could've.

 

I loved the first two seasons but this season(which sadly is the last) blew them away and made them look like crap. It would have been nice for it to continue but its better to end on the good notes than the bad.

 

I agree. It hasn't been allowed to really get it's legs thanks to CN. I still encourage people to go to the CN feedback boards. Someone is listening there. Complain, and go into detail. they are not psychic, if they were they wouldn't be canceling it. We might be able to get the reruns on some decent time and then whoever makes it (i'm convinced Hasbro took it back after Season 2 crapped out) will reconsider the position of it. We are the fans. They will do what we want if we voice out opinions. Remaining silent does nothing. Fight back! good luck

 

I think the second half of Season 2 and all of Season 3 have been great. It's a shame the show is ending so early but all in all its ending before the writing can get stale.

 

Season 3 has been great, and it's sad that it'll be ending. Though at the same time I'm already looking forward to whatever they have planned next. I'm happy enough that it's lasted this long. It cold have been worse, they could have ended it with just the first two seasons. Which would have been an epic fail, imo, as the ending of season two left us with a huge cliffhanger. I think it won't be too hard for them to round off all the major plot points in Animated in the last episode. Like Magnus's state of health, what's going to happen on Earth, that kind of stuff. We've just now seen what exactly happened after the Elita-1 incident, and I personally don't find the mystery behind how Soundwave got repaired or how he got his minions a plot hole. I don't think it's necessary for them to explain it. The important part to it is that he was back, and had some plans for the Autobots. It was bound to end eventually. We'll at least have the rest of the toy line, and possibly even more toys next year when Universe comes back, to look forward to.

 

Season 1= Okay

Season 2 = Better

Season 3 = Closest to perfect TF mythos storytelling.

So, yeah... I hate when I just start really liking a show, it gets the major possibility of getting canned.

 

Im sad to see it go, and i do agree its just hitting its stride, they wasted too many early episodes with pointless fluff and idiotic villians ( Angry Archer Im looking at you) season 3 is when they really got things going and alas it is like all things , the good die young

 

I thought there was ten or so episodes left. I must have miscounted when I looked at the episode list a few months ago. This bugs the hell out of me If we could get at least 10 more episodes to really finish it out I would have felt less jaded. Well I do hope they do the cartoon movies. My whole family loves watching animated and now we are back to lame half ass animated CN shows.

 

"do you feel Animated is ending before it really got started?"

I thought so for awhile, and was kind of mad about it for a bit too, but after looking at how this season has gone - and then reflecting that with the previous season - I can easily say no. This show really squandered any goodwill it had by being gifted with a built-in nerd audience and being on cartoon network with a supporting toyline. Writing was meandering and generally bad, and has been reduced to the most facepalmy fanwank I've seen in a good long bit (Wolverine took a swipe at that title though). It's basically become a parody of Transformers, and now that we're in the final stretch it sorta realized - too late - that oh yeah we're actually really what the TF franchise is now (or at least a huge part) and we better act like it - but sadly they just can't. This season is all over the place, and the story is just, what exactly? What's the endgame plan here by the writers, how long were they going to stretch out Megatron and Megaspreem jumping around the galaxy all Quantum Leap and ish? Committee writing seems to have plagued this show from the jump, and boo to that.

It's weird that it's being dumped so thoroughly, toys and cartoon, and I don't agree with Hasbro's marketing strategy, or their unending lack of faith/blame-shifting about the market not understanding the difference between Animated Optimus and Movie or whatever. Sure, soccer moms are dumb, but in the end kids surely have never had any problem throughout time letting their parents know when they screwed up and what they really wanted. Not to mention, plenty companies have proven they can juggle multiple lines and franchises at the same time, just look at how many concurrent campaigns that like Geiko runs at any given time.

Meh, tl;dr As a big fan of Animated (toys and show) it wasn't as good as it should'a been and I won't really miss it.

 

That was well said.