Ladies and gentlemen, we have seen knockoffs of transformers toys, clothes, and in recent years, even movies. But for those of us who felt Transmorphers was still palatable and entertaining, I present Gladiformers!

YouTube - Gladiformers [Trailer] [BR]


An example of the new Brazilian tradition of animation (which I will henceforth refer to as Brazilianimation) which takes high budget concepts of animated films, usually from Pixar or Dreamworks, and shamelessly rips them off with bargain basement production values, as seen in such examples as The Little Cars and Ratatoing. Gladiformers breaks the ugly mold, but only in that it's based on a live action movie / animated franchise rather than a blockbuster animated feature.

The animation looks like something out of a PS1 cutscene (in fact, I find it reminiscent of the old computer game Shogo by Monolith), and the entirety of the story takes place in an arena that would be well at home in a Quake 2 deathmatch. The animation budget is kept down by using a lot of stationary models while the camera pans around them, usually in painful closeups, while the characters try to converse with eachother. And speaking of the dialogue, wheeeeeeeew is it bad. Makes the StarTV dub of Headmasters look like Shakespeare bad. A lot of meaningless backstory, cliched talk of honor and worthiness and power levels and stuff like that, and more prayers to Godbot than were probably needed. Also, I understand that the names were written in Portuguese, but I don't think anyone here is going to be impressed by Julius Drive, Magnus Tutor, or any of the other characters. The absolutely generic buttrock soundtrack isn't going to be winning people over either.

There's no real transforming in it, the characters remain in their car modes while they wait in their cells to fight, and then immediately "change" to robot mode, a process that resembles the animators assembling the models with only a few parts common to each mode (I don't recall seeing like 18 wheels of various size on the main character, for example). The battles are usually short, and most of the time is taken up by the winners explaining in some inane manner why they need to win, can't win, don't want to fight, etc. and in most of the fights the outcome is decided by some (usually ridiculous) deus ex machina rather than actual robit fisticuffs. Stuff like "Oh no, if I beat you I'll have to fight the robot who built me! Welp, better let you kill me!" or "Oh no, I can't access my auxiliary battery, now my power level can't match yours and I will be felled by what is the mechanical equivalent of having a heart attack in the ring!" In short, it's garbage.

Though I can't post the whole thing here (though I imagine it's probably not hard to find online), here's the description from the back of the case (all errors are theirs, not mine):

"The Centuris Arena is state for the most brutal battles among brave robot gladiators. These are the Gladiformers. The ones who battle to survive in face of supremobots' iron bets.

But when the Prince Julius Drive gets part in the terrible battles. The reality of these cars that transform into robots can change for that. Julius Drive must confront powerful opponents, including his major rival in the principality, the big truck Magnum Tutor. With a lot of incredible and risky plays. The Gladiformers will surprise everyone. BATTLE!"

Also, looks like they're making a new one, and trying to get their money's worth out of those animation models. Also of note is that neither movie has an IMDB page, which should point to its quality.

YouTube - Gladiformers 2 [Trailer] [ENG] [High]

 

In other word, its ******ed and we shouldn't even bother watching it.
And should get Hasbro on their ass.

 

Whether or not Hasbro can put the boots to them is a matter for the courts, but is probably unlikely, as I don't think they've gone after all the other brands of reconfiguring robots other companies have produced over the years.

Whether or not its worth watching, however, it's an excercise in masochism to sit through.