The Energon Pub

I loved this episode! I liked how Megatron said to them if they succeeded, he would build more of them. Which to me ment Snarl and Slug. I too hope Slag and Swoop learn to talk and transform in an upcoming episode. And I hope Grimlock gets smarter over time. Wouldn't it be interesting to see him evolve? Going from the "Retard" he is now to a true warrior and leader like he is in the G1 or IDW comics.

This show is so great I wanna hug the writers. The only way they could make it better is to introduce more BW characters into the mix. I especially wanna see BA's boyfriend, Silverbolt.

I was loving the episode from the first. The whole opening (them going to the museum, and hearing how powerful but unintelligent dinosaurs are) was one big G1 nod. I was impressed.

I like Grimlock's robot form, too. Though somehow I doubt Swoop and Slag will be getting any lines anytime soon.

Burn wrote:I realise this is a cartoon developed for kids, but do they have to insult the intelligence of children like they do?

I don't see it as insulting, really. I see how some might, but it's Cartoon Network. Whether it's normal, daytime programming or Adult Swim, all of CN is an assault on the senses and taste.

Burn wrote:Professor Sumdac - He can reverse engineer alien technology but he takes an alien robot at his word even though it's clearly obvious Megatron is manipulating him. But Sumdac just buys into every word Megatron tells him.

Optimus and his fellow Autobots have shown him nothing but kindness. Megatron's a master of deception (Decepticon, anyone?) and anyone in that situation could be easily fooled.

Burn wrote:Not even a little suspicious that Megatron doesn't want his Autobot "friends" to know about him?

Again, Megatron is a master of deception. As far as Sumdac knows, this could be a surprise for the Autobots and he wouldn't want to ruin that.

Burn wrote:Not even a little suspicious that Megatron's "adjustments" to the Dinobots is probably what sent them out of control?

Come on ... most kids aren't even that stupid.

Sumdac obviously has some priority issues. He lets Sari run around with alien robots of unknown origin, she has no mother and the Tutorbot has basically raised her. He locks himself in his office and won't even let his daughter in. Someone like that ain't got their head on straight. It's not a matter of stupidity. It's a matter of outright foolishness.

Burn wrote:And oh yay, Grimlock's back to being a retard. No, i'm not being negative because it's Animated, i've just never been a fan of retard Grimlock. Or Grimlock in general for that matter, but his retard incarnation was always pathetic.

For once we agree. I realize that a dinosaur's brain can be as small as the size of a walnut (Stegosaur, I believe??) and that's where the most of the "retarded" thing comes from, but considering they're machines with sparks, it's time to give 'em the intelligence to go with the soul.

Burn wrote:I will conceed though that how it was written certaintly explains their lack of intelligence.

Eh, not a good enough answer. They could do much better than "ME GRIMLOCK SMASH! ME SMASH!"

Burn wrote:And I know people are all excited how this was basically a retelling of how the Dinobots were introduced in the G1 cartoon. But do we need a retelling? What happened to this being a fresh new approach? New stories?

To say it's a retelling would infer that this is tied into G1, which people have fervently fought against the idea of. A fresh take on introduction, that just so happens to be an homage to the original. My guess is th writers have a "Embrace the future, but don't forget the past" kinda mentality.

Burn wrote:This series is still yet to impress me greatly.

I'm sorry you're not enjoying it. I think it has some of the best writing for a TF series in some time. Beast Wars and Animated are the best TF shows, story-wise. None of the others will even come close.

Forward wrote:I was loving the episode from the first. The whole opening (them going to the museum, and hearing how powerful but unintelligent dinosaurs are) was one big G1 nod. I was impressed.

I was also impressed by the fact that they had Jurassic Park nods as well. At one point, I was expecting to hear the JP score start playing in the background.

One of the best episodes of TF: Animated I've seen so far. Now, all I have to do is wait for Jazz's inevitable appearance.

I loved Kaye as Grimlock! It was very BW Megatronish. I really like Kaye's voice, especially when he uses the mannerisms he puts into Beast Megs & Ani Grimlock. Not to keen on his Ani Prime however.

I agree, it was like watching a G1 episode, very nicely done.
I loved the ending as well, not only "Me Grimlock liiiikee" but how Prowl & Bulkhead treated the Dinos.

This episode was just purely awesome! Its so G1 and Beast War at the same time. Why Beast Wars? I see some similarity..

Also, when Prime say that the Dinobots should be destroyed, it reminded me of Transmutate. Optimus Primal decided that she should be destroyed because she was uncontrollable and too dangerous. Same thing with the Dinobot.

In overral, 9.5/10!

this episode could turn many people onto animated, the sense of megatrons imminent revival is quite doomladen. the birth of the dinos is excellent, the music is set perfectly with some pretty intense sections durning battles.

the whole 'me grimlock' thing is going to create a whole new set of fans. Haters must now be outnumbered!!

love it.

Burn wrote:I realise this is a cartoon developed for kids, but do they have to insult the intelligence of children like they do?

Professor Sumdac - He can reverse engineer alien technology but he takes an alien robot at his word even though it's clearly obvious Megatron is manipulating him. But Sumdac just buys into every word Megatron tells him.

This series is still yet to impress me greatly.

an interesting point but in real life there are very intelligent people who believe all sorts of nonsense from supposed 'authorities', sumdac is smart but naive.

im not sure the distinction beteween sumdacs intelligence and inability to see through megs will insult kids intelligence its a common human foible.

Liked the episode, but of course I'm a dinobots fan and they done those characters so far well. Grimlock at moment has the best looking robot mode of the autobots anyway. The ending of the episode makes me hope for axe wielding Prime versus Grimlock and his fire sword battle.

Burn wrote:Professor Sumdac - He can reverse engineer alien technology but he takes an alien robot at his word even though it's clearly obvious Megatron is manipulating him. But Sumdac just buys into every word Megatron tells him.

Not even a little suspicious that Megatron doesn't want his Autobot "friends" to know about him?

Not even a little suspicious that Megatron's "adjustments" to the Dinobots is probably what sent them out of control?

Come on ... most kids aren't even that stupid.

Kids, maybe not. Academics, on the other hand...

The company I work for has an exclusive contract with the universities in the area, so I've spent a fair bit of time talking to students and professors on the phone. And I can say with some very sad certainty that people who may be brilliant in their field of expertise can be utterly naive and clueless outside their little academic bubble. There's a reason why the "ivory tower" stereotype exists, and certainly Sumdac has been consistenly portrayed as being part of that stereotype before this ep.

On top of that, Sumdac has spent the last 50 years hiding an alien robot from everyone (including the authorities) and pretending that all the technology he gained from it was his own idea. And he now thinks that he's been hiding the existence of one of the Autobots' friends from them. *And* he's not even sure if the Autobots will like the idea of him "stealing" their technology.

Anyone who has that much damage to their reputation hanging over their head is going to be sorely tempted to grasp at any excuse/justification to themselves to keep it mum. And while Sumdac seems like a well-meaning fellow so far, he's no lily-white paladin. *And* Megatron is supposed to be charismatic. So I don't have any problem believing Sumdac could be suckered in.

Anyhoo. Only got to watch part of the ep so far, but I wanted to comment on that.

Other thoughts for the time being: Prowl is still awesome... aside from his badass skills, I've always had a soft spot for "surrounded by idiots" characters, and he manages to somehow keep his dignity even when suffering the accidental abuse the others heap on him. Judging from the reactions of my friends, the writers and Jeff Bennett (the voice really sells it) have a pretty universally successful character in Prowl so far.

Megatron is still deliciously creepy as well. Again, the voice work really helps sell the idea, on top of the slimy bastard dialogue. He's shaping up to be the only incarnation of Megatron I've found interesting so far. Looking forward to watching the rest of the ep...

Okay, I got around to watching it.

I really like the way Megatron was portrayed, he's really showing some good skills in deception here (hence he lives up to the Decepticon name).

I've always been a G1 comic fan, hence why I never liked cartoon Grimlock. Comic Grimlock was always portrayed as a transformer version of Wolverine. And the comic Dinobots all had average intelligence (except for Sludge).

Some other thoughts;
We saw a stegosaurus and a sauropod of some describtion in the amusement park. This could potentially foreshade Snarl and Sludge's creation some time in the future (maybe Sumdac creates them to fight Megatron later on?).

Grimlock appears to be learning, this gives me a little bit of hope that he might eventually become more intelligent in the future.

Slag and Swoop don't speak at all, this worries me. I hope that they don't become stupid drone animals that follow Grimlock around.

Sari was barely in it and she wasn't annoying, well, that's a plus.

Sumdac is going to rebuild Megatron at some point in the future. This could also give him the expertise to build Autobots once Megatron shows his true colors. Sari's key could then give them life.

Bulkhead suddenly got very clumsy, eventhough he wasn't really portrayed like this in the other episodes.

Prowl's character was pretty solid, I like how he's the graceful warrior with near perfect skills here. He also shows some good morals and ethics.


All in all, this ep wasn't bad. It had a great nostalgia factor for the G1 cartoon fans. The fights were pretty fun. I'd give it a 7/10.

This episode was pretty much what I expected the series to be - A mixed bag of elements to make me cheer and things to make me wince.

The bad:
- Grossly oversized Dinosaurs
- Mute Swoop and Slag
- Overdone clumsy Bulkhead
- Somewhat forced Allspark key moment

The good:
- Megatron. All of him.
- Grimlock being Grimlock
- Slight influx of ethical debate


Things I noticed:
Megatron seems more and more like a mixture of G1 and Beast Wars, even in the way he speaks. Did anyone else notice that they threw a "Yessss..." in there ?

Car Robots Bad ? I guess Grimlock doesn't like anime.

Speaking of Grimlock, it looks like his new catchphrase is "Me, Grimlock, Like !"

Prowl reminded me a little of Star Trek's Data in the end. There was an episode where the latter had similar second guesses about "mindless machines".

I also can't help but think that they're aiming for something reminiscent of the conclusion to Beast Machines. "Nature.. Gooood" keeps coming up, one way or another.

And finally...
Sari, I usually only give this advice to boys, but.... Please don't stick your thingy into everything that makes it stand up, okay ?

Creature SH wrote:Sari, I usually only give this advice to boys, but.... Please don't stick your thingy into everything that makes it stand up, okay ?

I just had an idea, maybe Animated Grimlock isn't a retard after all!
I mean look at him, he learned to speak all by himself, something the G1 Grimlock needed an upgrade for.
I think he will get smarter and smarter as he gets older.

definitely the best episode so far. The fact that humans played a minor role.

i'm receptive to what they're tryin to do with the show and style and the storytelling is adequate so i'm pleased and tho the drawing and animation style aren't to my tastes i can appreciate the show.

however it leaves me wondering how cool an updated g1 show would be with the original cast of characters, up to scratch animation but with updated storylines. Guess it's every g1 fan's wet dream.

Was I the only one who got excited when Bulkhead mocked Slag by slamming him and saying "excuse me." A nice homage to my favorite line in the g1 movie when the dinos break into the sharkticon pit.

Hound(Bulkhead) only kicked their butts because the Dinobots couldn't transform. Isn't Lockdown suppose to be in the next episode?

frogbat wrote:
i'm receptive to what they're tryin to do with the show and style and the storytelling is adequate so i'm pleased and tho the drawing and animation style aren't to my tastes i can appreciate the show.

however it leaves me wondering how cool an updated g1 show would be with the original cast of characters, up to scratch animation but with updated storylines. Guess it's every g1 fan's wet dream.

fair points. At the very least the animated creators have honestly incorporated lots of what G1 fans want into a contemporary shell, its a great optimise/compromise. G1 has been and gone and still there for viewing, im thinking the changes are well executed and welcome, i dont want a re hash of G1. Lets just say it could have been way worse.

I'll stick my neck out and say that this is gong to be way more influential than the AEC trilogy and the toys are the most interesting the TF have been since their reinvention in BW (which were for the most part fun even if a bit ugly), the animation toys have their haters but i reckon they are very well executed, and i'll stick my neck out further and say that like the original G1 microman and diaclone originated toys the animated toys will become classics, they have been arguably designed by a very talented individual, a true artist.

I loved this episode..... This is coming from a guy who hasnt watched a TF series since the first episode of RID.

Grimlock looked great and I love how he still points out his dominance to others.

Another thing that made this episode great.... not that much influence from children.

I saw most of it but I fell alseep at the end of the episode but I loved what I saw can't wait to see what they do with the constructicons in near future.

iconscons wrote:Was I the only one who got excited when Bulkhead mocked Slag by slamming him and saying "excuse me." A nice homage to my favorite line in the g1 movie when the dinos break into the sharkticon pit.

Haha! You're not alone! A friend pointed it out to me so I had to watch for it the second time. I doubted it was a reference until I actually heard it. He's definately mocking Slag! I'm really loving this series.

OptitronPrime wrote:Hound(Bulkhead) only kicked their butts because the Dinobots couldn't transform. Isn't Lockdown suppose to be in the next episode?

Oh I forgot all about that! Yes the next episode is his.

Me Grimlock, love!

Just downloaded that ep (I'm in Australia = no TF:A) and it was brilliant! Possibly better ..dare I say it.. than the G1 Dinobot introduction episode.

Like the first three episodes, this one had so many references back to G1/BW/RiD which shows awesome kindness/respect for us fans... much more respect than was shown by Bay. Grimlock's voice was a great homage too!

And they actually came up with a believable reason why the Dinobots are kinda slow, rather than G1 Wheeljack being a tool and giving them simple brains because that's what dinosaurs had (see SOS Wheeljack on youtube, funny stuff - here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-aTbHsZJ9g coarse language warning for the sensitive types).

And whoever was complaining about Grimlock breathing fire - he did that in G1 too if I'm not mistaken.

All in all, I thought this episode was a great improvement over last one. Hurrah!

By the way, (slightly off topic) have there been any theories on when Starscream will return?

I assume he's injured on Earth somewhere since the last time I remember seeing him the matrix/allspark did some weird explosion thingy and that was the last we saw of him.

I should look for hints in the episode synopses but I'm too lazy

Although I've always preferred the Dinobots be considered sort of a "Special Forces" type of team than dim-witted comedy relief, it was nice to see the Dinobots return to their roots as a dangerous, if not overly bright, combat machines. I was kinda of disappointed that Swoop and Slag have no dialouge (other than "squaw" and "rawr") but hopefully they'll be shown (and heard) speaking in later episodes. As for Bulkhead defeating the Dinobots a little too easily, as one post mentioned, the Dinobots had yet to learn how to transform, so they did have a distinct disadvantage. They Dinobots also haven't learned how to think strategically yet, and while Bulkhead probably doesn't have that mindset either, he does have the advantage of having a leader who does, and Bulkhead has been shown to be pretty quick on the uptake when it comes to guessing what Optimus is thinking.

I will admit that it does seem these last couple of episodes have seemed to focus primarily on Prowl and his interactions with others (Bumblebee in the previous ep, Bulkhead in this one) as far as character development is concerned. Prime and Ratchet have, thus far, been somewhat pushed to the background at the moment, though we should get some insight on Ratchet in the next installment. Still, it's nice to see that while Prowl can get frustrated with his teammates (Bulkhead's lack of finesse seems to be the culprit here), he is trying to better integrate himself into the team, suggesting he did learn from the events in "Transform and Roll Out." Whether Bulkhead will learn how to throw his weight around more effectively, we'll just have wait for the future episodes.

Megatron is portrayed deliciously and deviously well, in my opinion. I think Corey Burton is doing an excellent job with the character, as are the writers. I don't think we've ever seen this sort of characterization with Megatron before; then again, we've never seen any Megatron in the condition this one is in, either. He has to rely on his wits and a bit of deception until he can throw his weight around again. As for the complaints for Sumdac falling for Megatron's words, as another poster put it, Sumdac's only dealings with Cybertronian lifeforms has been mostly through the Autobots, and those interactions have been mostly positive. His only dealing with the Decepticons has been with Starscream, whom he might consider a mere abberation (Sumdac's also been shown to be rather absent minded and not very observant when it comes to certain situations). It's also likely that when he found Megatron after his crash, all Sumdac found was a head and a hand, with nothing to suggest that Megatron is aligned (or was aligned) with Starscream. Sumdac probably thinks Megatron is just another Autobot, making him the perfect, unwitting patsy for Megatron's plans.

The episode does bring up a few questions. For one thing, I got to wonder if the Autobots are doing anything to contact the Elite Guard on their location. It's unlikely Ultra Magnus or any other 'bot knows where Optimus and his crew have gone (the issue of Prime not "staying put" will undoubtedly come up). Considering they still have possession of the Allspark and they know that there's at least one Decepticon out there looking for it, you think they'd be attempting get a secure line to Cybertron set up; all it looks like they're doing now is running around Detroit catching criminals, cleaning up Sumdac's messes, attending grand opening ceremonies, and babysitting Sari.

Speaking of Sari, I have to wonder if the Autobots will start taking interest in that key of hers. If repairing critically injured 'bots and controling machinery wasn't enough to get their attention, bringing (in their minds) Earth-based robotics to life certainly should! It's obviously gotten Megatron's attention, and that's no doubt going to have its concequences later.