I think it is a fantastically made kids' show, and kids generally aren't that picky. They see it as awesome robots doing awesome things.

I recently downloaded it (I don't have Cartoon network) and I honestly wasn't bothered by the lip movement at all. As for lip movement in G1, I don't remember there being that much distinction there at all. especially since many characters who talked alot had no mouths (Grimlock, Prime, Soundwave, Shockwave, Wheeljack, etc).

 

I know it is nitpicking, 'cheapness' in animation is a gut feeling from lots of viewers, and I am wondering if the mouths conciously or subconsiously lended itself to that perception.

I also have a feeling that episode 4+ will have better animation as many series first episode is early/lesser animation than the whole series.

 

Agreed. And from the brief shots in the commercials it gets much better.

Also the VA's should have their roles familiarized by then, and with introductions out of the way the story can also improve.

 

I thought I should re-check one of the handy preview clips after seeing this thread. I'm gonna go with the "better for future dubbing" theory. (didn't bother to go back and check over the show itself on my DVR)

It's pretty obvious to me it's INTENDED to be lip-synced to English, and a lot of the synch is quite good, though they do appear to have a problem with "L" and other less common mouth shapes. It does tend to look a little like 'lipflap' in some scenes, usually ones where:

* The frame-rate appears a bit lower than usual

* fewer 'cels' are used for the mouth shapes, usually in far scenes or action scenes, where more subtle mouth movement would be lost in the action anyway.

ANyway, I believe the lip-sync is always there, though sometimes the nature of the animation (and possible limitations applied for future dub reasons) doesn't make it always apparent.

 

VERY nicely presented right there, nkelsch.

Yes, animes tend to do that all the time with speech (3 mouth shapes), and I've noticed that with Animated as well, but I find it a little inconsistent. There are times in the show where it looks like it's attempting to lip-synch, but can't quite do it right. I attribute this to the show's relatively choppy animation.

 

Uhm, I saw Screamer make some non "open and closed" mouth shapes. A good example is when he says "It's best I continue my search incognito" when he scans one of the military jets.

 

There were other scenes where he did not... But I think that was because they were trying to keep his smirk intact.

It wasn't consistant either way, but they only did OOOO mouth, they didn't do the VVVVV, Puuuuuh, Buuuh Or the Yeeeeee