The Ministry of Abnormality
Minsk Looks at TransWarped
Alright, the first three episodes of season 3 of Transformers Animated aired as "TransWarped," one gigantic movie, and I can't keep quiet on the subject! It was jam-packed with Tranformers goodness and really set the scene for a tremendous season to come.
SPOILERS ARE ABOUT TO ABOUND A WHOLE LOT!!!
This thing was absolutely loaded with plots, events and action, so much that beginning to recap it seems so daunting! Right off the bat we're introduced to the two new teams of Autobots and Decepticons duking it out, with the Autobots lead by Rodimus (in a classic nod to Generation 1) to defend the space bridges from the Decepticon forces lead by General of Destruction, Strika (in an incredible nod to Beast Machines of all things).
We move on to the main cast, where it's finally revealed that Sari is a Transformer protoform that appeared out of the blue in Dr. Sumdac's lab and which took organic features from the doctor to become Sari. A good deal of the episode is spent on the fallout of this discovery and Dr. Sumdac trying to fix his relationship with his daughter, who now can't trust him for all the lying he did. Along the way we have an awesome melée between Optimus and the Headmaster.
As the show moves, we discover what will likely be the big background plot for the rest of the season - Optimus' crew now knows that Longarm Prime of the Elite Guard is actually Shockwave, but they've now lost all contact with Cybertron and have to try and fix their comms system to warn the rest of the Autobots about the spy. A series of mishaps during this process results in a giant rock monster from space being teleported in, and this is where we get possibly the biggest twist in the episode. Sari, now eager to show off with her being a robot with powers and all, uses her key to upgrade herself and grow into a teenager, while gaining a ridiculously powerful set of abilities! She takes the monster down effortlessly, but then finds herself unable to control her powers and has to be put down by Ratchet's EMP generator before she blows everyone up.
A separate plot continues with Shockwave and the Elite Guard back on Cybertron. Blurr has also survived season 2's finale and RUNS ACROSS THE GALAXY back to Cybertron to warn about Shockwave. The first person he runs into is... Shockwave in his Longarm guise, who proceeds to honest-to-god MURDER Blurr by CRUSHING HIM BETWEEN SLIDING WALLS!!! But the Elite Guard still knows now that someone's infiltrated their organization, and Shockwave knows that Optimus' crew could compromise him, and tries to do damage control.
This is also a very Ratchet-central episode, as we deal with Ratchet's feelings of inferiority of his medic skills compared to Sari's key, AND we see flashbacks of his relationship with Omega Supreme. This culminates in the episode's finale, where Omega Supreme returns... piloted by Megatron! The Autobots put up a valiant battle, Ratchet appeals to Omega, and Optimus and Megatron square off once again. Ultimately, Starscream takes control of Omega and double-crosses Megatron once more, and the Autobots finally defeat Screamer by planting a device that causes him to teleport randomly and uncontrollably.
MAN, that was a lot of stuff! And I swear I avoided prattling too much as I am usually guilty of doing. So, what was particularly notable in TransWarped?
Well right off the bat, Rodimus' team and Team Chaar were brilliant! Rodimus, re-imagined with a Green Arrow/Hawkeye style archer gimmick, was a refreshingly competent Autobot in a fight, and Hot Shot was all I had been hoping for! On the Decepticon side, Strika also delivered everything I wished for (and more, but more on that later), and Oil Slick just oozed character even with only one line. On less positive notes, on the Autobot side we never even hear from Brawn and Ironhide, and the other four Decepticons are also given little characterization, with Cyclonus and Spittor also not getting spoken lines. They all perform great in the action scene, yeah, but how are they as personalities?
And that raises the big problem with these newcomers: earlier promotions have really pushed these guys, but this action scene in the beginning is really all we get. Team Chaar gets a second scene later, but that's hardly content enough. Ultimately, all this episode does is introduce these characters, and I'll be severely disappointed if they're not developed further. With toys coming for Rodimus and Blackout, though, I doubt Hasbro WON'T promote these guys more - right now I'm just chomping at the bit for more of them.
Sari's transformation is the big thing here, and that's another thing I'm so-and-so on. I don't mind Sari being a robot. I do mind her becoming a teenager, and I am worried about how powerful she is going to be. I have a past with cute kids becoming annoying teens (Digimon comes to mind, with the cute kids from the first series growing up in the second), and I don't want it to be repeated here. And exactly how powerful is Sari going to be now? Did her overloading drain her abilities to a modest level, so she's just a competent fighter? Or will she still be so powerful as to make the Decepticons a complete no-issue? Of course, given their performance in the last two seasons, I know the Animated writers are pros so they probably won't do anything reckless. But I did get worried for a minute that Sari as a character would fall for all the traps I don't like when she powered up.
Okay, the action is great as always. I loved the choreography on the Optimus-Headmaster throwdown and the final battle against OMegatron. The characterization on the old familiars was also top notch, with Megatron being a great chessmaster again and Starscream pulling another patented betrayal.
But one thing which I didn't pay attention to while watching, but which other reviews raised and I have to agree with as great, is how the show got just a bit darker with this episode. Blurr's death is the obvious culprit. From Shockwave's POV that was an obvious thing to do, but from a writing standpoint it seemed an unnecessary death. Blurr had hardly been properly introduced and had a lot of personality to him. To have a character with so much potential be killed so nonchalantly is pretty hardcore, and evokes a lot of strong emotions. I love Shockwave but I definitely want to see him go down after that. And I know that Transformers have survived worse before (Optimus is DISINTEGRATED in Armada and comes back), but in the Animated universe that was a pretty final fate Blurr suffered.
But there's also a definite graying of the morals of the show. People talked before about the Autobots being a bit more questionable, but personally I brushed that off as looking too much into a children's show - I mean, like Bugs Bunny's cartoon violence making him some kind of anti-hero.
But in this episode's flashback, Ultra Magnus - leader of the Autobots - spills out how Omega Supreme is a (IN HIS OWN WORDS, NOT MINE) weapon of mass destruction to unleash on the Decepticons, and how he's purposefully made Omega dumb so the guy wouldn't question all the mayhem he causes. And then we have Optimus - the hero for children to look up to! - actually want to use Sari - the human sidekick for children to relate to! - as a bomb to take OMegatron out. Obviously he doesn't want it to come down to that, but he's not such a pureblood good guy as to find the mere thought reprehensible. It's not like this is meant to be regular in the Animated universe, because Ratchet is mortified with both ideas!
So to me it looks like with TransWarped, the storytelling is only going to get stronger. There's a lot of plotlines left dangling, and a lot of characters to explore, and the plot gained a bit more depth and maturity. Not too much, though! This is still a fun show that I can laugh to and can show to my nephew with a clear conscience. But it's definitely got more layers than it at first looks to have.
A final word on voice acting, as I always like to gush on that. First off, Judd Nelson is back as Rodimus after over 20 years and delivers a strong performance! That's some wonderful fan service! And Strika just got a bit more awesome from her Beast Machines version, because Tara Strong added a "Boris & Natasha" style Russian accent that fit the character perfectly. Tara also gets another prize for her work on Sari - although I'm not thrilled with teen Sari from a storytelling point, the way she changes her tone a bit to make her sound older is a great trick.
The voice acting stinker here is Perceptor, who's voiced by a computer in reference of Stephen Hawking. The reference is clever, I'll give that, but if he's going to be a regular character, that is going to become really annoying to listen to, really fast. Besides, with Perceptor's buddy Wheeljack looking deceptively like Jamie Hyneman of the Mythbusters, I had been hoping Adam and Jamie to guest voice the two! ...alright, an unrealistic expectation, I know. But they could have at least gotten Perceptor's original voice actor, Paul "Colonel Campbell" Eiding. It's not like he hasn't worked with Cartoon Network before, he was a regular on Ben 10 just a while ago!
Wow, that text of my impressions got damn big again. I'm such a putz sometimes, can't say things simply. But I really wanted to gush on TransWarped because Transformers Animated has been consistently wonderful and TransWarped had a few hiccups but ultimately did many things well and promises a whole lot from season 3.
Keep doing good, Animated writers, and BRING ON WASPINATOR, I say!
Cheers,
Minsk
SPOILERS ARE ABOUT TO ABOUND A WHOLE LOT!!!
This thing was absolutely loaded with plots, events and action, so much that beginning to recap it seems so daunting! Right off the bat we're introduced to the two new teams of Autobots and Decepticons duking it out, with the Autobots lead by Rodimus (in a classic nod to Generation 1) to defend the space bridges from the Decepticon forces lead by General of Destruction, Strika (in an incredible nod to Beast Machines of all things).
We move on to the main cast, where it's finally revealed that Sari is a Transformer protoform that appeared out of the blue in Dr. Sumdac's lab and which took organic features from the doctor to become Sari. A good deal of the episode is spent on the fallout of this discovery and Dr. Sumdac trying to fix his relationship with his daughter, who now can't trust him for all the lying he did. Along the way we have an awesome melée between Optimus and the Headmaster.
As the show moves, we discover what will likely be the big background plot for the rest of the season - Optimus' crew now knows that Longarm Prime of the Elite Guard is actually Shockwave, but they've now lost all contact with Cybertron and have to try and fix their comms system to warn the rest of the Autobots about the spy. A series of mishaps during this process results in a giant rock monster from space being teleported in, and this is where we get possibly the biggest twist in the episode. Sari, now eager to show off with her being a robot with powers and all, uses her key to upgrade herself and grow into a teenager, while gaining a ridiculously powerful set of abilities! She takes the monster down effortlessly, but then finds herself unable to control her powers and has to be put down by Ratchet's EMP generator before she blows everyone up.
A separate plot continues with Shockwave and the Elite Guard back on Cybertron. Blurr has also survived season 2's finale and RUNS ACROSS THE GALAXY back to Cybertron to warn about Shockwave. The first person he runs into is... Shockwave in his Longarm guise, who proceeds to honest-to-god MURDER Blurr by CRUSHING HIM BETWEEN SLIDING WALLS!!! But the Elite Guard still knows now that someone's infiltrated their organization, and Shockwave knows that Optimus' crew could compromise him, and tries to do damage control.
This is also a very Ratchet-central episode, as we deal with Ratchet's feelings of inferiority of his medic skills compared to Sari's key, AND we see flashbacks of his relationship with Omega Supreme. This culminates in the episode's finale, where Omega Supreme returns... piloted by Megatron! The Autobots put up a valiant battle, Ratchet appeals to Omega, and Optimus and Megatron square off once again. Ultimately, Starscream takes control of Omega and double-crosses Megatron once more, and the Autobots finally defeat Screamer by planting a device that causes him to teleport randomly and uncontrollably.
MAN, that was a lot of stuff! And I swear I avoided prattling too much as I am usually guilty of doing. So, what was particularly notable in TransWarped?
Well right off the bat, Rodimus' team and Team Chaar were brilliant! Rodimus, re-imagined with a Green Arrow/Hawkeye style archer gimmick, was a refreshingly competent Autobot in a fight, and Hot Shot was all I had been hoping for! On the Decepticon side, Strika also delivered everything I wished for (and more, but more on that later), and Oil Slick just oozed character even with only one line. On less positive notes, on the Autobot side we never even hear from Brawn and Ironhide, and the other four Decepticons are also given little characterization, with Cyclonus and Spittor also not getting spoken lines. They all perform great in the action scene, yeah, but how are they as personalities?
And that raises the big problem with these newcomers: earlier promotions have really pushed these guys, but this action scene in the beginning is really all we get. Team Chaar gets a second scene later, but that's hardly content enough. Ultimately, all this episode does is introduce these characters, and I'll be severely disappointed if they're not developed further. With toys coming for Rodimus and Blackout, though, I doubt Hasbro WON'T promote these guys more - right now I'm just chomping at the bit for more of them.
Sari's transformation is the big thing here, and that's another thing I'm so-and-so on. I don't mind Sari being a robot. I do mind her becoming a teenager, and I am worried about how powerful she is going to be. I have a past with cute kids becoming annoying teens (Digimon comes to mind, with the cute kids from the first series growing up in the second), and I don't want it to be repeated here. And exactly how powerful is Sari going to be now? Did her overloading drain her abilities to a modest level, so she's just a competent fighter? Or will she still be so powerful as to make the Decepticons a complete no-issue? Of course, given their performance in the last two seasons, I know the Animated writers are pros so they probably won't do anything reckless. But I did get worried for a minute that Sari as a character would fall for all the traps I don't like when she powered up.
Okay, the action is great as always. I loved the choreography on the Optimus-Headmaster throwdown and the final battle against OMegatron. The characterization on the old familiars was also top notch, with Megatron being a great chessmaster again and Starscream pulling another patented betrayal.
But one thing which I didn't pay attention to while watching, but which other reviews raised and I have to agree with as great, is how the show got just a bit darker with this episode. Blurr's death is the obvious culprit. From Shockwave's POV that was an obvious thing to do, but from a writing standpoint it seemed an unnecessary death. Blurr had hardly been properly introduced and had a lot of personality to him. To have a character with so much potential be killed so nonchalantly is pretty hardcore, and evokes a lot of strong emotions. I love Shockwave but I definitely want to see him go down after that. And I know that Transformers have survived worse before (Optimus is DISINTEGRATED in Armada and comes back), but in the Animated universe that was a pretty final fate Blurr suffered.
But there's also a definite graying of the morals of the show. People talked before about the Autobots being a bit more questionable, but personally I brushed that off as looking too much into a children's show - I mean, like Bugs Bunny's cartoon violence making him some kind of anti-hero.
But in this episode's flashback, Ultra Magnus - leader of the Autobots - spills out how Omega Supreme is a (IN HIS OWN WORDS, NOT MINE) weapon of mass destruction to unleash on the Decepticons, and how he's purposefully made Omega dumb so the guy wouldn't question all the mayhem he causes. And then we have Optimus - the hero for children to look up to! - actually want to use Sari - the human sidekick for children to relate to! - as a bomb to take OMegatron out. Obviously he doesn't want it to come down to that, but he's not such a pureblood good guy as to find the mere thought reprehensible. It's not like this is meant to be regular in the Animated universe, because Ratchet is mortified with both ideas!
So to me it looks like with TransWarped, the storytelling is only going to get stronger. There's a lot of plotlines left dangling, and a lot of characters to explore, and the plot gained a bit more depth and maturity. Not too much, though! This is still a fun show that I can laugh to and can show to my nephew with a clear conscience. But it's definitely got more layers than it at first looks to have.
A final word on voice acting, as I always like to gush on that. First off, Judd Nelson is back as Rodimus after over 20 years and delivers a strong performance! That's some wonderful fan service! And Strika just got a bit more awesome from her Beast Machines version, because Tara Strong added a "Boris & Natasha" style Russian accent that fit the character perfectly. Tara also gets another prize for her work on Sari - although I'm not thrilled with teen Sari from a storytelling point, the way she changes her tone a bit to make her sound older is a great trick.
The voice acting stinker here is Perceptor, who's voiced by a computer in reference of Stephen Hawking. The reference is clever, I'll give that, but if he's going to be a regular character, that is going to become really annoying to listen to, really fast. Besides, with Perceptor's buddy Wheeljack looking deceptively like Jamie Hyneman of the Mythbusters, I had been hoping Adam and Jamie to guest voice the two! ...alright, an unrealistic expectation, I know. But they could have at least gotten Perceptor's original voice actor, Paul "Colonel Campbell" Eiding. It's not like he hasn't worked with Cartoon Network before, he was a regular on Ben 10 just a while ago!
Wow, that text of my impressions got damn big again. I'm such a putz sometimes, can't say things simply. But I really wanted to gush on TransWarped because Transformers Animated has been consistently wonderful and TransWarped had a few hiccups but ultimately did many things well and promises a whole lot from season 3.
Keep doing good, Animated writers, and BRING ON WASPINATOR, I say!
Cheers,
Minsk
Tags: animated, transformers, transwarped
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