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PrymeStriker wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Delta Magnus wrote:Beast Wars had awesome voice acting and great stories despite the horrible animation,

Only by today's standards. Back then, that animation was considered cutting edge.

I thought and still think Beast Wars' animation incredible. Don't see a lot wrong with it.

Agreed. I can still comfortably watch it today. If anything, I'm more impressed with the animation now than I was as a kid, knowing the technical restraints of the time. I hadn't seen anywhere near the level of complexity in character design and expression in Transformers animation until Prime. Energon and Cybertron look underwhelming in comparison, even 7 years later with (presumably) better graphical rendering capability.

As for all the Animated hate on here... the animation is probably the show's weakest point, but it earns a ton of points with me by making the Decepticons seem like credible threats and not like ineffectual morons. Even guys like Lugnut, the eternally loyal underling, could whip all five of the main cast single handed. The storytelling was also great, though I suspect if you quit after seeing Angry Archer and Professor Princess, you missed the show's finer moments.

You want to know, definitively, why we like Animated? Watch The Thrill of the Hunt, a season 1 episode. Tell me you hate it then.

Yeah, Beast Wars had incredible animation for the time, and is still one of the best Transformers cartoons made so far. But by today's standards, let's face it...Ooh. The later days weren't as bad, but some of the episodes didn't even have the characters casting shadows.

But you are right, for the time it was superb.

Cybertron wasn't bad though. Granted it wasn't on the level of Beast Machines or Prime, but it was certainly better than the abomination that was Energon.

Henry921 wrote:Energon and Cybertron look underwhelming in comparison, even 7 years later with (presumably) better graphical rendering capability.

Although I will give Cybertron points for amazingly accurate toys.

You want to know, definitively, why we like Animated? Watch The Thrill of the Hunt, a season 1 episode. Tell me you hate it then.

The only episode of Animated's first season that I enjoyed. Ahh, memories.

Using "B.O.T." and "Carnage in C-Minor" as examples on why the G1 cartoon forever sucked is like using "The Star Wars Holiday Special" as the primary example as to why the Original Star Wars Trilogy sucked. It shows either an immense ignorance, deep bias, and/or lack of intellectual honesty.

The G1 cartoon was produced at a VERY fast rate. At the time, mind you, the mid-1980s, it was cutting edge in terms of both a Saturday morning/weekday cartoon AND a cutting edge animated movie. And dark... GI Joe and Transformers may seem child-like and error-filled to today's audiences, but they were much darker in tone to most if not all of their contemporary animated series. Not to mention the amount of writers, voice actors, animators from different areas of the world putting something together at a STRICT deadline. Keep in mind, Hanna-Barbara's stiff animation was what dominated the airwaves before series like Transformers and GI Joe came along. And even when I was a kid I thought Hanna-Barbara animation was lame.

You want to bash the G1 series? Take some if its best examples instead of its worst. Most of the 1st season is of good animation quality and good stories. "More Than Meets The Eye" started it all, gave the origin that pretty much all series re-hash to this day, and "The Ultimate Doom" was such a dark storyline with decent animation, that today it is still a standard bearer, even re-hashing part of the story for the live action movie (which I really enjoyed that they did). Most of the 1st season was well-animated, and being the seminal launch of the series, it was highly imaginative and deeply entertaining. Only after a while did it seem apparent that every episode ended with the Decepticons retreating. But...

And as for the Decepticons retreating like scared girls in season 1... did you compare the size of each army? In the 1st season or two, the Autobots badly outnumbered the Decepticons.SO much so that they had to use mindless clones of "Seeker" jets, Reflector, and Insecticons just to make the sides seem even. It was something like 2 or 3 to 1. Just look at the 1st season toy catalog. Later on, they started making the sides equal in size, and the Decepticons didn't always retreat in every episode in such cases. In fact, they didn't always have a big massive battle in each episode.

Most of the second season had respectable animation quality (considering their production schedule), but 23 minute commercials, introducing a character or two per episode. Meanwhile, a large percentage of season 3 suffered from horrid animation errors (AKOM was the end of the series, IMO), but still had quality storylines. Dark Awakening, with better animation, would be a masterpiece. It suffered from AKOM studios. If some of those stories were re-animated with talented studio, they'd be far more respected. Regardless, some of the best and stylistic animation and interesting stories in the history of the series occurred in season 3:

- Dweller in the Depths
- Call of the Primitives
- Webworld
- Nightmare Planet
- Madman's Paradise

The '86 Movie was the break-out of what they could get away with... it SHOCKED and STUNNED the youth of that day to not only see the Decepticons so ruthless and powerful, and some of their favorite characters having horrid death scenes... people are desensitized now... back then, that was extreme. Some parents had fits. Some kids NEVER came back to the series after The Movie. It was dead to them after that... I knew because they were my classmates in school.

It's fine that so many people love the new series. That's great. They aren't all my cup of tea, but Beast Wars and Animated have some strong points, and carry on the torch for new generations of young fans. But to bash G1... I wonder if any of the G1 bashers are older than twenty-something? Because if you lived through that time period, if you are in your mid-to-late thirties and approaching forties... G1 was cutting edge, dark, amazing, and deeply inspiring. I'm an adult collector today because of G1. If it was up to Armada or one of that era of cartoons/toys, I probably wouldn't be one today.

ChrusherComix wrote:The '86 Movie was the break-out of what they could get away with... it SHOCKED and STUNNED the youth of that day to not only see the Decepticons so ruthless and powerful, and some of their favorite characters having horrid death scenes... people are desensitized now... back then, that was extreme. Some parents had fits. Some kids NEVER came back to the series after The Movie. It was dead to them after that... I knew because they were my classmates in school.

It's fine that so many people love the new series. That's great. They aren't all my cup of tea, but Beast Wars and Animated have some strong points, and carry on the torch for new generations of young fans. But to bash G1... I wonder if any of the G1 bashers are older than twenty-something? Because if you lived through that time period, if you are in your mid-to-late thirties and approaching forties... G1 was cutting edge, dark, amazing, and deeply inspiring. I'm an adult collector today because of G1. If it was up to Armada or one of that era of cartoons/toys, I probably wouldn't be one today.

Yes, Yes and Yes.

I was young, but when Prime died, I cried. Real tears. It was unthinkable.

With all of this cutting edge animation and modern storytelling I'm shocked that TFA is the best they could come up with!