In DOTM, Sam (Spike in G1) has a new girlfriend named Carly Spencer of the British Embassy. Unlike the original cartoon, Carly is apparently British. Do you think Bayformers is anti-G1?

 

Saying Bayformers is anti-G1 solely because Carly is British might be a little bit of a stretch, no?

 

Yeah... But I have more stuff. Ironhide should be red, Ratchet shouldn't be green, Bumblebee shouldn't lose his voice, Jazz should be a survivor, all the Transformers came to Earth via the Ark, Sentinel Prime shouldn't be a traitor and should be dead already, Optimus Prime should have the Matrix from the start, etc.

Bay forgot about Alpha Trion, Perceptor, and Blaster.

 

The fact her name is Carly seems pro G1. I can't say I've ever heard of another Carly outside of Transformers so it seems lottery-winning odds if the name was randomly chosen and it just happened to match G1.

 

A single character having a different accent =/= anti-G1.

 

Yeah, you're definitely new here. All of your "reasons" are a matter of opinion. It's a different continuity, not a straight up G1 copy.

 

Everything is different lol. Unicron trilogy doesn't follow that. Alligned doesn't follow that. Bay just had a different take in mind.

 

none of this means that Bay is "anti-G1".

If anything it means he has a terrible grasp on effective fanservice because he doesn't understand that simply placing references in a story isn't the same as evoking that reference more directly. Fans won't like Carly simply for being named Carly. They would've liked her if she was a compelling character worthy of being liked and maybe if there were a few points in her make-up that could triangulate to her being more akin to the G1 Carly (she could, for example, still be British, but could've been shown to have a mechanical engineering/MIT background the way G1 Carly did or referenced, or she could've been shown meeting Sam and the Autobots of her own volition and fascination with them.)

Bay's (or rather the script-writers, since this is mostly on them) failure to grasp proper use of fanservice to appeal to G1 fans is more like that one relative you have that knows you like "robot toys" and then gives you a collection of Go-Bots toys for your birthday because as well-meaning as they are, they aren't plugged into your tastes well enough to know you specifically like Transformers, and aren't plugged into the state of that section of pop culture to understand the difference between Transformers and Go-Bots.

It feels like the writers were pointed to TF wiki and told to come back with a bunch of names that might be useful and recognizable. So they researched and pulled the names without caring to look at where they came from. Or, more likely, they were told to get names, so they tasked some intern to do it and that intern did the same thing I outlined just now.

None of this makes Michael Bay or anyone else associated with the movies "anti-G1" It means they were making movies for a different audience. A broader audience. The fact that Transformers and G1 fans were pulled along for the ride and maybe got hooked by the series was probably considered far less important to achieve. I imagine that beyond basic lip service of "we want to treat the property with respect" lines when asked about the feelings of G1/Transformers fans, they likely didn't even care all that much about what they did with the names and characters they chose to use except in service of the very specific story they wanted to tell and whatever places Hasbro may have chosen to put their foot down in terms of depiction of the brand or specific characters.

Quite frankly, the assertion that any of the things pointed out earlier in the thread mean that anyone involved with the films was specifically out to attack, denegrate, defame, or trivialize G1 or other parts of the Transformers mythos is a huuuuuuuge leap in logic. To the point where it's almost laughable to consider with any seriousness.

 

I don't think he's so much 'anti-G1' as he is just ignorant to it and didn't exactly care if the movie adaption(s) were done properly.

I think putting that down to something he did intentionally is a bit of a stretch, if he had a Rian Johnson-esque history of stupid, childish comments and approach to what he's doing then maybe I'd be willing to agree, but as far as I know that's not the case. I believe Bay just has / had a passing, surface-level interest in the franchise and Hasbro didn't seem to take an issue with him poorly adapting their stuff as long as it made money, heh. I think Carly being British is a relatively minor change, she's still fair-skinned and blonde, just... not really as smart or spunky as the cartoon character was.

 

This made me laugh so hard it hurt. Thank you for that.

 

In the Bay movies, Optimus has a flame pattern on his truck mode, while in G1 he doesn't. This obviously means Michael Bay hates G1 and hired a Colombian drug cartel to kidnap Bob Budiansky.

 

This is why Unicron should not be earth, it gives bad influence.

 

Firstly, for general audiences, there's a short list of well-known characters - for the Autobots, there's Optimus, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ironhide and Ratchet, whereas for the Decepticons, there's the Big Four (Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave) and maybe Ravage and Laserbeak. Every generation has its own favourites, of course, but those are the names that appear consistently.

Compare that to Marvel and DC, which have a vast slew of well-remembered characters - even after fifteen years of well-known Transformers content, the average moviegoer can name more members of the Justice League than members of the Autobots. Holy Trinity aside, even the less-prominent members of the Justice League - such as Aquaman, Green Lantern and the Flash - are still incredibly popular.

By contrast, pretty much all of the '85 Decepticons are unknown to general audiences, as are most of the '84 and '85 Autobots - general audiences are not going to be excited about seeing the likes of Dirge.

Secondly, as many other people have said, the films are not supposed to be a straight copy of G1 - also, you kind of miss the core point of adapting something.
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The key to adapting something is, basically, use the general concept/setup and put your own spin on it. That's how the MCU, DCEU and MonsterVerse have rolled, quite successfully. If you go exactly the same and lean too much on your source material, rather than trying to put a unique spin on it, you end up with shit like the 2019 Lion King, which was pretty much a shot-for-shot remake of the original, with only token attempts to do anything new. I would rate all the Bayverse movies - except TLK - above the 2019 Lion King any day of the week.

Adapting things is a tightrope balance of old and new - you have to keep both elements balanced. If you stray too much from the source material or if you lean too much on it, you fall. Getting that balance right is how we've got a slew of amazing adaptations of Marvel, DC, Godzilla, King Kong, Planet of the Apes... the list goes on and on.

 

Do you realize that G1 and the first Movieverse are different universes because one universe has a good cartoon series and feature film from the 1980's, while another is massive billion dollar film franchise from the late 2000's/early 2010's. Both have completed different story telling with characters, pilot, acts, etc.

 

Sums up this thread in a nutshell.

 

The only reason Carly is in DOTM is because Megan Fox was thrown out, and she was made British only because British actress Rosie Huntington got the role.

 

Okay, it seems like we've resolved this one. I have another forum in the link below.

Transformers: The Next Generation

 

You were using this thread for attention, weren't you?