I'll weigh in my 2 cents on the transforming as seen in the cartoon episodes so far. What do others think? I agree with what some others have said that it is nice to have the transforming animations be quick/fast so as to not take away from the rest of what's going on (which Cybertron was definately the antithesis of and really dragged the show way way down from whatever bar we'd want to place that show on in the first place). But I don't necessarily feel this means it has to be a 'flash/whirl' effect in order to achieve this, which (the magical flash or the tazmanian devil spin) I feel also takes away from the Transformers viewing experience, both for the older fan and younger kids who could otherwise relate the briefly-shown transformations to the toys when they get them. G1 had actual transforming animation and yet was very often done quickly, especially when action was going on. Granted the Prime rollcall and 'transform and roll-out' scenes outside their ship were a bit drawn out, but those scenes were heaviest in the early episodes, where they were introducing/marketing all the characters, both their modes, and their transformations (something that can't be done with flash/whirl transformations). In many other scenes the transformations remained being animated in some detail and resemblance to the toys while being smoothly embedded in action scenes, such as Hot Rod's transforming to alt mode w/ Daniel at the start of the '86 movie, or the many scenes of Megatron 'hopping' into Starscream's hands, transforming in about 2 seconds as he jumps from ground to fist. The new movie is a bit far off to compare to the cartoons, but the scenes of them transforming in the movie are really one of its highlights, and the details of the transformations are what make them so. I just watched it for the first time in a while last night and I freeze-frame played the scene where Bumblebee first transforms for Makela and Sam after the Barricade brawl is really neat how it is both very complex and yet resembles the toy, the way his chest transforms while he's still 'laying down' and then he stands himself up through the mechanics of the transformation is really neat and all these elements would be totally lost if he just went 'poof' and was in his other mode.
^ I took a good look through the titles, didn't see anything specific, I was reading something about this the other day though...
Aye there was a thread about this exact topic. Regardless, I can't find it, so I'll pitch in my . I like them. Used appropriately (as they have been), they are cool.
D'oh, here is the other thread, and it is the one I was reading last night (I was tired): http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=162329 Missed it because it is one of those titles that ends in '...' and doesn't say anything about the thread topic in the title, waiting for you to follow the ..., darnit why do people do that? (Topic is "A little disappointed with one thing..."). I thought I'd just read the comments at a random point in a thread with another theme, so made this one...time to shut me down but people it helps others if you put your thread theme in the thread title.
I supported this new thread because the old thread has a bad subject matter. As of my opinion, it is alright as long as the toy figure does its magic perfectly. (and so far most of them are alright)
I don't really mind it. As everyone knows, the Unicron trilogy was just painfully long in the transformation department. I like how Animated has a mix of quick changes and actual transformations, and the toys are very accurate to the show transformations.
