Its probably due to human nature. Some people have a tendency to cling to past nostalgia, or just want to remain in a certain comfort zone. While others are more open to change and embrace it. Like you said, the furore when Prime was no longer a flat nosed truck, when Bumblebee was no longer a beetle, or even in ROTF when Sideswipe isn't red. Some are able to accept that times have changed and the producers chose to do things differently and welcome a new perspective. On the other hand, others feel aggrieved that things have strayed from what they were once familiar with, and try to oppose any change. Its like when you see that old cafe that you used to frequent as a kid being torn down. Some will accept that its a fact of modernization, others will try to stop it because they feel they will lose something dear to them. At the end of the day, it all boils down to human nature. Some people can embrace change, others oppose it. Its a unique aspect which makes us all different.
It is a bit weird how when the arguments break out everything becomes either G1 or the movies. Some of the Beast Wars toys could be repainted and fit the movie line of toys or some of the Beast Wars faces look a bit like the faces from the movie. But Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Armada, Energon, Cybertron, and Animated get ignored.
Bay can do what ever he wants because everything he touches turns to gold! Ooopppsss sorry i meant everything he touches explodes! excuse my mistake
Why do you need to make this post? Anyone who brings up the points you bemoan is already beaten into submission. There are actually defenses for what you're attacking, but it's absolutely pointless even beginning with you, since you're not looking for an answer, only to put people down. I also like how you ignore that the movie could be bad in any other way than not being G1, which you say doesn't matter, so in other words you have no standard for what a "disservice" to Transformers would be anyway. I also find it amusing that the mods don't take issue to this pointless post, yet do with others. It's acceptable to drive this point into the ground over and over, but not any point with regards lack of quality in the movies. Shameful.
People ignore that Transformers has had a relatively static aesthetic and that even Beast Wars was the same basic formula applied to Animal parts. They still had the same kind of heads and were big, solid and bulky looking. The G1 cartoon models were blocky because it was a fucking 80s cartoon. Jesus christ. And Animated is worse but since it's NEW it's automatically BETTER. There was a reason Transtech was scrapped, and Beast Machines did more poorly. Personally I loved Transtech's aesthetic, but if it had been released it would only give the movie fanboys more ammunition. There's a difference between a movie made to represent a franchise(and thus should primarily focus on it's most popular iteration) and one of many series in that franchise, of course.
Welcome to the TFW board man, and all it's flawed logic... "TFW 2005: Making you hate Transformers nerds for years and years"
But he's right. G1 was fanon originally, not an official term. G1 is just the Transformers. Everything else is a spin off. Some of the spin offs may be better, like Beast Wars, but G1 is still the Transformers. It has by far the most developed universe(especially given, as pointed out, Beast Wars fleshes it out further), most characters and is what even Hasbro keep coming back to. There's a REASON for the fixation on G1, even if the cartoon was a bit naff(it was still enteraining, which is the argument people use for the movie, so I don't see what the issue is here, both are juvenile but at least the cartoon wasn't all cringe worthy and MTV which it easily could have done being in the 80s). Therefore, a movie called "The Transformers", the name of the original series, should be primarily rooted in the original. At least the Dragonball guys had the sense to subtitle it "Dragonball Evolution". If Transformers had done the same, it would be a bit more believable to defend it as something "new". Also if it is something "new" why are they clinging onto the old? Why not come up with whole new names and characters? Why have Optimus Prime and Bumblebee at all? And if you're going to do that, why not give a G1 adaption a chance first? The movie is still essentially a "corruption" of G1 rather than something new. If it had featured bits from every generation, then it wouldn't be so bad. It would have been quite cool, actually. Animated made some effort to combine G1 and Beast Wars ideas. As it is the movie ONLY took after G1(albeit the retroactive G1 continuity after the Beast era, with sparks, the term "allspark" etc.) so because of that it's going to be judged on that basis. The main 5 names are the same name 5 names of the G1 cartoon, more or less. it follows the basic concept of G1. But from there, it changes things. This is why people judge it as a "corruption" of the original. It is not something entirely new. Transformers is the only fandom that has difficulty with this, thanks to guys like David Willis and Don Murphy feeding crazy logic to them. Every fandom has "whiners" but the TF one is the only with such a culture of "anti-whining". Don't you think maybe Transformers fandom's accelerated problem with drama and flame wars has more to do with this? This is going to get written off as "whining" when I bring up some points that rarely come up in these arguments, whereas the same GEEWUNNER BITCHES gets celebrated despite being driven into the ground. I respect opposing opinions when they're rational and well reasoned, that is not. That is just attempting to forcibly alter someone else's opinion through shame.
but it's not a corruption of G1, by that logic EVERYTHING transformers related is a corruption of it. and it does make subtle homage to other series aswell, just not as blatantly as the G1 references. btw, G1 was called THE TRANSFORMERS, this is just Transformers. i only just noticed this. that's one more argument cut down. EDIT: you do make some good points in the rest of that post
How is it a corruption of G1 if the only thing the two have in common are some of the characters? Hell, if that's true then everything after G1 is a corruption of it.
I believe you're thinking more of a "reimagining" or "alternate reality" scenario than a "spin-off". The latter would have to be a direct offshoot from an existing body of fiction. Take the Batman comics line for instance; titles like Robin, Nightwing or Birds of Prey were spun off from the main Batman titles, but their stories still fit in within the overall Batman continuity. Beast Wars would be a spin-off, as it tells a story that explicitly fits the G1 timeline. Animated would be a reimagining, borrowing characters and concepts from G1 to create its own versions of them, yet at the same time standing on its own. Elseworlds or Ultimate Marvel comes to mind, at least for me. Take existing characters and reimagine them to make them different. Kal-El being adopted by Dr. Thomas Wayne instead of Jonathan Kent, for instance. Or Nick Fury being black. But why should this be a rule set in stone?
If there's one huge difference for the live action movies and G1, the live action movies are only 2 hours and a bit more and G1 went on for 4 SEASONS. Therefore G1 had more time to explore characters and plots, whereas the movies (and the comics) don't have that much time to explore EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER. I'm not saying that people can't share their opinions, but sometimes seeing everyone whine and complain about a little bit of change or there not being enough time for specific characters, it can be very annoying and draining. The question is, which people or what person do you know would be brave enough to make something like live action movies or different animated cartoons when Transformers is cherished so much by the fanbase?
The opening series of G1 - MTME - was like 4 episodes I think. Not including commercials, all 4 series totaled something like 80 mins or so. ROTF I think is a little like 2 hours and 20 mins - 140 mins in total. I am not sure - but I think a large chunk of the first season of G1 could fit into the movie's timeframe. So its a weak argument that you can't have good characterization when you have something like 140 mins to do it. Heck, even the stand-alone 20 min episodes of some cartoons have more characterization than the entire first movie. One thing I think most people agree on is that the TF movie series does not have a good plot, characterization, or dialogue. What it has are awesome explosions and action scenes. To claim it as anything more is grasping at straws. But you are entitled to that opinion.
Anyone remeber Go-Bots? That show was great Point being is that this is yet another opinion thread. Either you respect someone else's opinion or you don't. There really is no point on contention. You can't change someone's mind if they like something and hate something else.
