by Bumblebee4ever » Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:33 pm
True, I will admit the plots and story lines of many of the G1 cartoons were not written with the most intelligent scenarios in mind. In fact, many of the stories repeated themselves in one way or the other with the Decepticons finding yet another way to turn Earth's resources into raw energon cubes. Okay, it wasn't brilliantly thought out with complete logic in mind but it did encourage thinking. And what it succeeded very well in doing was inspire the imagination and creativity in countless numbers of children who watched the show and collected the toys in ways no other cartoon and toy franchise has accomplished since. Just the fact that we're here discussing this is a testament to that. Also, the animation wasn't always great but it was drawn proportionately and it was amazing the way they took the action figures and brought them to life on screen with characterizations that made sense and offered a multitude of opportunities for conflict and character development. The 3 part pilot episode was nothing short of genius at the time and still relatively holds up today. All the series that followed, Beast Wars, RID, Armada, etc, have, with differing degrees of success, sought to keep to this basic scheme. However, I am frightened for this new series. The animation looks way over stylized in the traditional Cartoon Network, two-dimensional, pop-up book appearance with exaggerated and disproportionate character designs. Has anyone seen Robin in The Teen Titans? Good GOD! What the hell happened to his head??? I'm sorry; it just looks like their trying to borrow from Manga in all the worst ways. Japanese Anime is brilliant. Whatever the hell we've got going on over here is obscene by comparison. I'm not liking how the toy designs are going to be dictated by the animation style instead of visa versa either. It makes the toys look contrived and down right silly. Robots in disguise? You could spot those freaks a mile away! I can only hope they are able to characterize the Transformers well and give them depth of character and personalities we can care about. I was already terribly disappointed in the movie for that. I'm not holding out much hope for this series. What I have seen in cartoons of late does not encourage me. We are condescending to children way too much anymore. I think they are written with the assumption that all kids now have ADHD. I'll give it a chance, but again, the only thing satisfying to me right now is the comic series from IDW. At least somebody gets it.