I definitely think that Animated has the potential to surpass Beast Wars and become generally regarded as THE best cartoon the franchise has ever had.

Just think, we're only 9 episodes in and it's already kicking arse. IMO, BW took about a season and a half to really kick into gear and expand the scope of the storylines with ties to existing TF mythology. Animated is doing that already, taking the good parts of existing mythology and weaving them into a plausible, interesting, fun storyline, happily ignoring the parts of the mythology that are crappy.

Sure, there's quite a few people who don't like the character designs, but when BW came out (currently the 'high-water mark' for many fans), there was just as much fuss over the fact beast modes were involved.

Give it a few seasons, and we'll never look back.

 

Actually, only a little past the half way point of the first season did BW really start the plot and begin generating direct ties to G1. Buy the time the first season was over, it was all serious business.

 

This show is way better than Beast Machines and RID. But I still love Armada, Beast Wars, and G1. No doubt about it, Animated is one of the best shows upon television currently. I was surprised, I didn't thought it would be as good... but I was abseloutely surprised. It's an awesome show.

 

I think a strong arguement can be made that it is better than all the previous series, even its G1 predecessor. I have the entire collection of seasons 1 thru 4 fr G1 and there are so many plot holes and art issues it is not even funny. You see jets and tapes with the same colors, you see badly drawn formers and you see new bots who just show up out of no where. With animated they at least introduce the new ones and even give back stories on some of the weapons and abilities. The only thing that competes is the G1 movie in 86.

 

But Damn!! That Ark twist was awesome! I know it was relying on a past show, but it was risky in that they were playing this show to a bunch of kids and some old fans. In other words, most kids watching were like "huh?" The story also played with temporal mechanics... a geek Star Trek term that only makes it into the bigger sci fi shows, so it was nice to see their story not insult their viewers intelligence by trusting enough to including something so convoluted as temporal mishaps.

 

Best since BW. Much better than G1. Better than BM and RiD. And infinitely better than the Unicron trilogy.

Not as good as BW was, but still a really solid show.

 

You know, I think that's EXACTLY how I'd rank them, although maybe more along the lines of BW=TFA>G1>BM>RID>AEC


Also, Here I am, almost 31 years old, and how freaking cool is it that there's still a Saturday morning cartoon worth getting up for??

Granted, I dig Jane and the Dragon as well, partly because my daughter loves it so. Also, it comes on at 12:30, and I'm usually up by then, so it's not as special as actually crawling out of bed for a cartoon like I do for Animated.

 

I definitely think Animated has the potential to be the best TF show ever but will have difficulty surpassing Beast Wars. I think Beast Wars had a stronger cast of characters, better characterization and more mature writing. We're still early in Animated's run though, so the characterization and maturity could improve over time; we'll see once the storyline really kicks into gear. However, the main weakness of Animated, for me anyways, is how much it relies on G1 homages/ideas/plots. Strip away the G1 rehashes, easter eggs and wankery and there's really not much left to the series. Beast Wars, on the other hand, established itself as a unique, original series on it's own and then brought in the G1 elements (something which, IMO, basically ruined the last season).

Given that, right now I'd rank the TF cartoons as...

BW > BM > Animated > Armada > Energon = G1 = Cybertron

I left out RiD, since I haven't seen it, and TFA could easily pass Beast Machines soon.

 

My favorite cartoons of all time:
1. G1
2. Beast Wars
3. TF: Animated

I love this new show! There were thing about BM, RID, and the Unicron Trilogy I liked, but TAS just feels right in so many ways. It's like G1 reborn. I hope we get a good 4 or 5 seasons or more out of this show, but a full 100 eps would rock!

 

It's the best since... Cybertron...

 

ive watched a few eps of BW AEC but somehow just dont get a 'feeling' of the characters that i do with G1 and.......animated.

im not sure if its the animation techniques but the coarser style in g1 and animated (and its ironic that animated seems coarse in 2008 but it is more polished still than G1) seems to make the whole thing more likable. cybertron for eg is like watching a cut scene from some generic video game. Its interesting that when people are now discussing animated toys/toon they are already saying stuff like 'bulkhead doesnt have arm guns' its like the characters are connecting to the audience (well, vice versa) but that just doesnt hapen for me in anything but G1 and animated.

Its hard to explain but it reminds me of the empathy i always felt when one of those stop motion animated creatures died in a ray harryhausen film, whereas in modern CGI the sense of connection is often not there or at least much weaker.

I really enjoy the fast transformations in animated, those extended literal transformation sequences in cybertron are so staged and, well boring, i like the subtle 'mass shifting' and warping of animated, its just more goofy and thus more fun.

 

Yeah its Great!This is my first post!

 

BW>TFA>RID>AEC>BM>G1

sorry IMO G1 just plain sucked

 

Mine goes G1 > BW > TFA

G1 had some dorky stuff but what doesn't? It's for kids but it had lots of action and great storyline imo. TFA is just weird to me, 1 or 2 decepticons are more powerful then all 5 autobots. Just doesn't make sense to me at all.

 

what's so off about that? The badguys are always stronger, it's what gives the heroes something to triumph over, and makes their victory all the more inspiring.

 

In my opnion...
1.G1
1.TFA
2. BM/BW
Followed by:
Eveything else.

Everything else had it's moments but to me it's all equal.

 

I think its
1. G1
2. BW/BM
3. TFA

I haven't been following TFA since the dinobots came cus I've been bored or busy... can someone fill me in?