Several comments in another thread were concurring that the Prime show was better than the Bay movies...so it got me wondering how Prime would have turned out if it had been a live-action TV series.

Thoughts?

 

If it were live action, they'd focus more on the humans. And idk about everyone else, but I like my Transformers show about Transformers...not humans.

 

Personally I don't see any advantage in live action over good quality animation.

 

Nahh. Not for me.

And as endless_abyss said, live action tends to focus more on the humans than the Transformers. I'd just rather not have the humans take over the show. It's called "Transformers" for a reason.

 

Live action means less money on the animation.

 

I have a very strong suspicion that had Orci and Kurtzman not left DOTM, their first season plot - Unicron underneath the Earth, Megatron and Optimus teaming up to stop him - would have been the third Transformers film.

I wish it had. But yes, the first season of PRIME felt rather cinematic in its later episodes (and might have worked as a film). Afterwards it seemed to slip into animated/serial territory.

 

More Raf and Miko you say? Hmm, perhaps there's more to this live action thing than I'm led to believe...

Nah, I can't shake the feeling if Prime had been live action we'd have gotten something along the lines of Power Rangers, with the Transformers existing as heads on a screen until being "space bridged" in for the last few minutes to deal with the episode's problem. Better to remain animated where the characters can better interact.

This I did not know, though it does jive with a rumor I'd heard before TF3 came out that the movie would feature Unicron. Pity, something like that probably would've made me curious enough to see it.

 

I have a feeling that's possible.

Honestly the show is already like the films, and making it live actions get rid of Ernie Hudson, Josh Keaton, Tania Gunadi, Clancy Brown and Markie Post who did amazing voice work as the human characters.

 

^ Yeah, I couldn't let go of the stellar voice actors. Though Ernie Hudson could play Fowler in live action, just with a mustache, and not with a beer belly.

 

It might have actually been even worse.

 

Yeah got to agree it would have been Littlest Hobo with Bumblebee.

 

One word, power rangers

 

Oh my no.

Just no.

The show was already hammy and awkward at times... could you imagine just how much WORSE it could have been in Live Action?

Egh, no thanks.

 

No.
It was fine as a cartoon, but I would need more grit if it were live action.

 

Assuming that the only difference would have been the fact it was made in live-action, and nothing else was changed/altered...Yes, that would have worked. Now, if the project had started with the idea that it was going to be live-action, and then developed from there on out...Absolutely no. Would it be better than the movies? Maybe, but not by a big margin.

That said, it's more than fine as it is.

 

If the story/writing was the same, no, it wouldn't have worked any better in live action than it did as a cartoon.

Transformers Prime is a piece of story-telling and it's quality depends on story direction and writing, not on the format it was chosen to be in.

 

no.

 

How about the opposite question? Would TFP have been better had it gone the traditional animation route?

It would have saved them some money they could have used to make more characters (an oft heard and not unreasonable complaint), and it would have probably meant less of a wait time, or need for clip shows. Of course, looking at the designs in Rescue Bots, I'm not all that sure the models translate well to cel animation. And of course there's the need to keep up with the times. Like it or not CGI is the current trend in animation.

 

No. First it'd be too expensive. Second it would focus less on the bots and more the human actors who would need to be paid for their services.