The Energon Pub

We've known a new series for Transformers is in the works for a while now, and rumours keep coming our way about its intended younger audience. Now, in an interview with KeepMeCurrent.com, producer Jeff Kline has confirmed that the new show is indeed happening, and is, in fact, 'in full-blown production'! Read the whole interview here, or check out the relevant parts below.

Q: Of everything you’ve done, and everything you could do, why comic books?

A: Well, I’ve been almost five years going back and forth between the coasts. I’d like to live here more full-time. But it’s really hard to run a show from 3,000 miles away and, for the time being anyway, it seems like it’s going to be a hard time to get the networks to let me run an animated series out of Portland. I do still have a development deal with Hasbro. I have another “Transformers” series coming; that’s in full-blown production right now. I have a documentary I executive-produced that’s coming out this year, as well as other TV and movie projects, but I’ve been looking for something I can do from here. With comic books, you don’t have to be on a studio lot. It’s a lot of working with freelancers who can be anywhere in the country. It’s a business that’s very used to happening not in person. So, it’s a good business to start from my home in Cape Elizabeth.

Gimme, gimme now.

hoping its a sequel to prime. i miss that show so much

I am ok with it being geared towards Little Kids, keep in mind Transformers Animated was also geared towards little kids. I assume this is what they meant by Geared toward younger kids.

I am ok with that if they do it on par with Transformers Animated. But if this is a Sequel to Prime & they try to take it down a notch I would not be ok with that.

Prime is dark & very diffrent from anything before it. This is why Prime is now my alltime favorite series replacing G1, though G1 still holds a special place in my heart.

I need to know more & see more before I can be judgemental about something that hasnt even had so much as a screenshot on it. The same on AOE, I need more trailers before I can believe these speculated rumors. This is no diffrence than with a videogame such as the upcoming Dragon Age Inquisition or Mass Effect 4 trying to guess on them without even seeing them.

I have no doubt Jeff Kline & company will deliver us a awesome experience I just they do not use many Human Kids in it such as Prime had but go back to Animated being just 1 Kid would work much better such as SARI did which means SUPER, ARTIFICIAL, ROBOTIC, INTELLIGENCE.

I am 32 now, I cant wait for AOE & the new Series, no matter how old I am I will always love my Transformers.

Don't get me wrong, I love TFP more than any other Transformers cartoon, and I would love to see more.

However, something inside of me is hoping it's not a sequel to Prime. They wrapped the story up nicely, and I'd hate for them to pull an Energon (in terms of cartoon quality) and ruin everything that Prime did.

Though, some loose ties left on Prime would be perfect for fleshing out in a sequel. I guess I'm having conflicted emotions about the new series. Regardless, I'm excited.

I'm sure animated was not meant for the older audiences, and it had some great episodes. I'm not too worried until I can judge for myself.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I only have two requests:

1. Cell animation please! Tired of the soulless cgi
2. No movie inspired design again please

Aimed toward kids? No problem

noctorro wrote:I only have two requests:

1. Cell animation please! Tired of the soulless cgi

Soulless CGI.


CGI











Couldn't find a better screencap of that face.





Cell-shade




Everything wrong with Energon

Yeah, why not use CGI when we could have the Unicron Trilogy all-fricken-over again.

2. No movie inspired design again please

Have fun. Since they came out, no Transformers cartoon has neglected inspiration of the movie's models.

God damn do I love the animation in Prime.

Ideally the Prime sequel would look and feel just like Prime did, to really bring across that they're the same.

And the more I think about it, I don't think they're honest about this being more "kid friendly", they said the same crap about Prime and then laughed at us when we believed them.

All I want for the new series is for it to be good. Really good. Consistent, contextual, and no shortcuts.

Even though, admittedly, I did groan when I heard it was going to be for younger audiences, I'm willing to give this a chance.

PrymeStriker wrote:Have fun.

Did you really just put that many images in your post? Cel animation (short for Celluloid animation) is another way of saying "traditional hand-drawn animation". It is not to be confused with Cel-shading, which by the way, can be done FANTASTICALLY if done by the right people, emotionless mouth flaps are a budget thing and have nothing to do with the shading itself.

Also my hopes for this series are set LOW. If being geared towards younger audiences means more toys designed for the mentally challenged chimps, I think I'll pass.

No biggie though. Transformers Generations has been pretty outstanding with a bunch of their designs lately. If Hasbro comes through with a Roadbuster done similarly to Whirl (in that they're based on their old Ovelon Gazzette and Mugen Caliber designs) I think I'll be able to throw in the towel with Transformers altogether. I'll be done, finished.

Vicalliose wrote:No biggie though. Transformers Generations has been pretty outstanding with a bunch of their designs lately. If Hasbro comes through with a Roadbuster done similarly to Whirl (in that they're based on their old Ovelon Gazzette and Mugen Caliber designs) I think I'll be able to throw in the towel with Transformers altogether. I'll be over, finished.

Fixed.

Vicalliose wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:Have fun.

Did you really just put that many images in your post?

It doesn't really matter.

Besides, you'd feel the need to do that when someone comes along and ignorantly states that CGI is soulless.

Cel animation (short for Celluloid animation) is another way of saying "traditional hand-drawn animation". It is not to be confused with Cel-shading, which by the way, can be done FANTASTICALLY if done by the right people,

I've seen some great cel-shaded games, but they've thus far looks rather crappy or bland in a cartoon. Just saying, Transformers hasn't had the best history with cel-shading.

We haven't had the best history with hand-drawn animation either. Armada, many parts of Animated, and (ugh) G1 are prime examples.

Now, if you were to talk flash, such as MLP and Rescue Bots, then we'd have some fun.

Prime's animation is the best animation I've seen period. No other cartoon has done what Prime has done, with that much detail in movement and texture involved in their animation. The team worked their asses off on that show, and deserved those multiple Daytime Emmy Awards for animation.

It's one thing to say you don't like CGI. It's another to say that it downright sucks. You'd appreciate it more if you had to animate that kind of show. With as many frames a second that you have to time in order to make smooth, you'd spend years on it.

Also my hopes for this series are set LOW. If being geared towards younger audiences means more toys designed for the mentally challenged chimps, I think I'll pass.

Animated toyline.

'Nuff said.

If Hasbro comes through with a Roadbuster done similarly to Whirl (in that they're based on their old Ovelon Gazzette and Mugen Caliber designs) I think I'll be able to throw in the towel with Transformers altogether. I'll be done, finished.

If Hasbro does anything like Whirl again, I'll have to burn the toy aisle. That thing is the ugliest **** I've seen this year. Mash'ems look better than him.

PrymeStriker wrote:Prime's animation is the best animation I've seen period. No other cartoon has done what Prime has done, with that much detail in movement and texture involved in their animation. The team worked their asses off on that show, and deserved those multiple Daytime Emmy Awards for animation.

Spotted this comment, and wondering whether you've picked up The Art of Prime. I think you (and others, of course) might enjoy it!

We talked about it with Jim Sorenson, the editor, here: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... son/28982/

Va'al wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:Prime's animation is the best animation I've seen period. No other cartoon has done what Prime has done, with that much detail in movement and texture involved in their animation. The team worked their asses off on that show, and deserved those multiple Daytime Emmy Awards for animation.

Spotted this comment, and wondering whether you've picked up The Art of Prime. I think you (and others, of course) might enjoy it!

We talked about it with Jim Sorenson, the editor, here: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... son/28982/

I went to Barnes & Noble when I first read about that, and unfortunately they did not have it in stock. I've been meaning to take a trip down there again. Thanks for reminding me.

PrymeStriker wrote:I've seen some great cel-shaded games, but they've thus far looks rather crappy or bland in a cartoon.

The Tachikomas in Ghost in the Shell:SAC looked pretty good (best picture I could find)


So did the Zoids in the first two series:

Just saying, Transformers hasn't had the best history with cel-shading.

Have to agree there, even with Cybertron, which was INFINATELY better than Energon, IMHO.

Archanubis wrote:

Just saying, Transformers hasn't had the best history with cel-shading.

Have to agree there, even with Cybertron, which was INFINATELY better than Energon, IMHO.

Go! is probably the best cel-shaded CGI this brand has had.

Though, there's also RobotMasters, which was 100% CGI with no 2D animation blended in: