Toonzone.net has a review of the Transformers Season 1 set this is the first review i have seen on the dvd's Toon Zone - Your Source for Toon News!
There has been at least one review already: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...ason-25th-anniversary-edition-dvd-review.html
(sigh....) They left the bumpers in the episodes? Gah. That is so disruptive. Yes, they were part of the broadcast, but they're not part of the episode story. And they get really repetitive. Really wish they'd relocated them together in the bonus features. Oh well, small gripe.
I'm of the opposite opinion. I love bumpers and expect them to be included in all shows when available. It's all about recreating the experience of watching the show, to recapture the feeling you had the first time you watched it. Bumpers (for me) are a big part of that. As well as the open/close and episode recap/preview for multi-parters. OT- "how did such a bad show launch a franchise?" What the reviewer is missing here is that 25 years ago Transformers really was a huge step forward in quality. What did we have up until that time? Not much, Hanna-Barbara and Filmation cartoons. Up till that time cartoons were very 2 dementional in thinking.... more like a stage play than say a movie which plays out more in open space. The only cartoon that predates Transformers in this new dynamic style is GI Joe in '83 with a 5 episode mini-series. Before that the closest things we got were a couple of anime shows in the 70's Battle of the Planets and Starblazers which were also advanced and big hits in their time.We who were kids at the time knew quality when we saw it... and this was the new bench mark.... nearly all action cartoons reached for this level in the 80's proceeding Transformers and GI Joe. And, although generally speaking todays cartoons are better in quality, they do not reach for being cutting edge like GI Joe and Transformers did. I've seen todays possibilities for animation, and general animated cartoons, even though better in quality than Transformers was 25 years ago.... doesn't measure up to the spirit of being the best for it's time. When a show does that, it sticks with you even as time goes by. And, while Transformers Animated is better than G1 S1 Transformers in every way it is kind of a moot point. Not only because it had so much to build on, but also over all quality has imporved, so a basic level of quality is higher than yesterdays cutting edge. Now if a show came along and married together new dynamic characters and cutting edge animation - it would be really something to behold. So show G1 a little respect dude.
I agree nothing brings back more memories than that little jingle before the breaks! And does anyone know are these to be released in stores or do I have to preorder online, cause I am waiting for the matrix box set, and am on the fence about preordering.
Shout says they will eventually hit retail. But, who knows how long it will be. They may wait until the idividual sets are all released, which will be well into next year.
I have to agree about not liking the bumpers being left in place, but it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. I also agree with his assessment of the cartoon in general. It was poorly written, poorly animated and all-around bad, for the most part. If a new TF cartoon had half the problems that G1 did, the fans would rip it to shreds (and did, in the case of Armada), but G1 pretty much entirely gets a pass because of nostalgia...something which can't be expected of an observer outside the fandom. However, I think the reviewer spent a bit too much time belaboring the issues with the show and the review went on too long.
I like the bumpers. It would be cool to have some of the toy commercials that aired then (battlebeasts!) in the extras. Everyone seems to accept as a given in any discussion that G1 was a really bad cartoon. I agree that much better stuff came later, but I don't think G1 was that bad. Yes, the nostalgia factor makes it better, but G1 holds up better than some things. Ever try watching the original He-man? If my kids want to watch Transformers instead of Spongebob (and quite often they do) I'm thrilled. Lets remember that not everything that followed was a drastic improvement. Energon would have been pretty good with a good dub, but I'd rather watch G1 than it or RID.
i like the bumpers, creates a particular atmosphere to the show although interestingly when i saw this originally in the UK the bumpers didnt frame commercials (if im not mistaken) there may have been 1 commercial break per episode? so to my mind the bumpers were more to denote scene changes. can any uk fans confirm that the bumpers didnt frame commercials?
Glad I'm not the only one who hates them. I found them so disruptive when I brought the Rhino season 1 box set back in the day that I immediately turned round and sold it off on ebay! Luckily for me, at that precise time the UK were starting to get some great Transformers complete season box sets through, WITHOUT the bumpers. Like others have said, I don't seem them as part of the episode or experience at all. Of course, if we UKers wanted to "recreate the original experience" of watching these eps, we'd have to hack them up into 4 minute sections, watch them over a week Mon-Fri at about 7.30 in the morning, and have Roland Rat introduce them to us. So, I'm just fine with NOT reproducing the original experience
not all toons are equal, my childghood intro to japanimation was 'battle of the planets' the hideously butchered western version of japans gatchaman (early 1970's onwards) in buying the whole japanese series it has honestly stood teh test of time and eclipses TF's in every respect, sure theres some nostlgia but the show holds up very well in its original incarnation. In fact some of the eps are very intense and could be almost devastating for young viewers back in the day, 'romance destroyed by evil' comes to mind. g1 TF is really a case of so bad its good.
You know, 1984 was a long time ago. It's just not fair to come down on Transformers for it's age. Saying it was a poorly writen and animated show is just not true. In fact it was one of the best of it's time. Now to put things into context here is what the world of animated cartoons offered us back in '84. List comprised of cartoons that started in, or had a new season in '84. Shows near, at, or above the quality level of Transfomers will be in bold. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Adventures of the Get Along Gang All-New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, The Alvin & the Chipmunks Amazing Bunjee Venture, The Best of Scooby Doo, The Biskitts, The Blackstar Bluffers Challenge of the Gobots Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, The Danger Mouse Donkey Kong Dragon's Lair Dungeons and Dragons Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids G.I. Joe Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Honey Honey The Incredible Hulk Inspector Gadget Jetsons Kidd Video The Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show The Littles The Mighty Orbots Monchhichis Mr. T Muppet Babies The New Scooby Doo Mysteries New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show Pac-Man Pole Position Poochie Punky Brewster or It's Punky Brewster The Puppy's Further Adventures Rainbow Brite Saturday Supercade (cartoon block) The Scary Scooby Funnies Smurfs Space Ace Spiderman and His Amazing Friends Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show Transformers Tranzor-Z Turbo Teen Voltron, Defender of the Universe The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle Wolf Rock TV Now, given it's place in history... how good is Transformers?
Oh rubbish. Even one of the most prolific writers of the series didn't think much of it, and it had crap animation most of the time, and appalling animation when we ventured into those episodes animated by AKOM.