Okay, so...cards on the table - I'm not a big fan of the direction the film is going, based on what we've seen so far. However, I'm going to put aside my doubt and dislike in order to suggest the following:

Assume the film does well AND, as a piece of cinema, impresses audiences of all ages. Assume it really breaks the mold and surprises us all.

What if the 2007 film set a precedent for future Transformers cartoons? If so, what type of precedent would "Transformers:Heroes" and additional new TF cartoon shows have to live up to?

 

Probably not much different then X-Men:Evolution had to live up to X-Men or MTV's Spiderman had to live up to Spiderman.

 

One word:

Transtech

 

Didn't Archer state at Botcon that the movie designs were considered seperate and wouldn't influence anything beyond the sequels?

 

Yeah, but that's not a set-in-stone decree. That's probably a tentative position. If the film did FANTASTICALLY well, both as a piece of cinema AND as a box-office moneymaker, I just wonder if we'd see "Transformers: Heroes" and/or other TF cartoons match the design aesthetic or the storytelling style or etc.

 

Hopefully any further cartoons will be a little more adult oriented, and have more involved storylines and a more serious tone.

I haven't seen much of the last two or three cartoon series, but what I did see hit me as very childish and dumbed down to the point that I couldn't watch.

 

Yeah, that's kinda where I was going with this. Like, if the film does WELL, perhaps we'll actually see this - well-written and well-drawn cartoons with a bit more intelligence. If the film kinda putters, I figure "Transformers: Heroes" will be the bailout maneuver for Hasbro and the studio powers-that-be for that series when it begins production.

But the other thing I'm wondering about is the aesthetic. What if the final drafts of the TF designs - again, assume we'll be blown away when the film rolls around with designs we actually like - become so accepted by fans and viewers that they set the standard for Transformers for shows to come?

 

What if they do? Then it'll be BM all over again, and 20 years from now when TFs take a whole new spin in some odd direction no one expected (I dunno, something really out there, like Transformers: Bacteria), people will refer back to now, and how stupid we were to argue about the movie designs. I really don't know how to answer the question, other than it will be accepted and stick around, or it won't.

Heh, transforming bacteria. A story about Unicron's immune system. Could be cool, I guess.

 

Only if they have Eddie Murphy voice Jazz and David Hyde Pierce do Prowl.  

 

Who knows?
The X-Men evolution cartoon is very different (asthetically) to the movies, but also different from the cartoons before it. The cartoon makers could go either way.

It raises an interesting question though; if the cartoon Transformers wouldn't translate well to live-action, would the live-action TFs translate well to cartoons?

 

That'd be more than fine with me.

 

If the movie performs well Hasbro marketing would overrule Aaron Archer on utilising the aesthetic in future I've little doubt.

A prospect that would fill me with dread if I thought that there was any strong chance of this movie performing especially well.

Phazer

 

I know it is a little off center, but if the movie does well (altought personally I doubt it) then we should invest in Hasbro's shares, cause their gonna be profitable.

 

I doubt they'd ever use these types of designs for anything other then a big screen motion picture. These things just don't translate as well into toys as the original asthetic does. Movies and animated series usually don't intermingle well and more often then not need many changes to do well.

To put it bluntly, those shows were intentionally childish and dumbed down, and with good reason. A simple story made it easier for kids to watch. With more kids watching you can sell more toys and products. Just look at pokemon, that show has been repeating the same three stories for the past 7-8 years now. But because it's so simple kids watch and the products sell. On the other end of the spectrum is Beast Machines. When it first came out it was widely disliked. The story was too mature and too complex for most younger kids to follow it, as such the toys sold poorly. Though today many people see it as the best writen TF series, when it first came out it was that same writing that turned many people away.

Having said that, I think the new Hero's show won't share any design elements from the movie other then having highly detailed bots and alt modes. It's also being done by CN iirc, meaning it will have a decent mix of story maturity and child drawing power, much like how the new He-Man cartoon was done. Though I'm guessing the new TF cartoon will have much less weapon spinning.

 

the spider-man movie did AWESOMLY. but the MTV cartoon didn't. so I guess that says a few things.

 

It didn't help that MTV aired many of the episodes out of order, aimed the show at completely the wrong audience, and had a very generic 2D filter over mediocre 3D models.

 

thats why i said. "a few things" instead of saying. "that says a lot. "

 

god i hope not. the movie design looks like shit.

 

If it does that I'll drop the line as easily as I did when The He-Man live action movie came out.

 

Didnt they do a godzilla movie type cartoon?
I think i woke up to it on a saturday once.