The Energon Pub

So basically yes but no but also yes?

I'm actually happy to hear this. I've lapsed on watching Prime since it's overall pretty boring. I actually don't like this rendition of Optimus. He's very one dimensional and just depressing to watch. He isn't allowed to have fun which I think puts off kids. Animated's Prime was far more interesting since we actually saw character growth and he had more emotion. Don't even get me started on the whole Bumblebee not speaking thing. What a bad idea. He was instantly turned into a minor background character.

Thinking about this topic makes me appreciate Animated more. It balanced kid-friendliness, storytelling, fan service and character development pretty well.

Doc bot wrote:I'm actually happy to hear this. I've lapsed on watching Prime since it's overall pretty boring. I actually don't like this rendition of Optimus. He's very one dimensional and just depressing to watch. He isn't allowed to have fun which I think puts off kids. Animated's Prime was far more interesting since we actually saw character growth and he had more emotion. Don't even get me started on the whole Bumblebee not speaking thing. What a bad idea. He was instantly turned into a minor background character.

Thinking about this topic makes me appreciate Animated more. It balanced kid-friendliness, storytelling, fan service and character development pretty well.

I didn't watch animated so take this with a grain of salt, but.... it sounds like you're complaining that BB and Optimus weren't the stars. Personally, I liked that - one of the only TF series with a focus on OTHER characters. But don't worry: Hasbro's got your back with the BB /Optimus fetish!

son of a bitch, the hope of finally getting a good TF series has been shot down yet again. Well lets just hope Prime gets a personality this time around and the kids arent annoying. Oh & for the love of god lose the bayformer look. But on another note why do we need a kid friendly transformers, isnt that rescue bots job?

No fetishes here. I just get bored with one-dimensional character writing without any growth. Is Prime, or any of the Autobots, really any different now than compared to the 1st episode?

are you ____ing kidding me? .. kids are put off by an "intense" cartoon.. are you serious?

there are enough stupid ass annoying kids shows on the air as it is. i think transformers can be geared more towards early teens rather than children.

i bet this will mean some pretty crappy toys.. and who knows.. in the near future you'll only be able to find transformers toys in the fisher price aisle. maybe generations will have one or two pegs.. but other than that. ..

it'll be sad. here's hoping that the movie line spits out some good toys. i'm sure it will. every movie line so far have had a few really great toys.

IGN: I don’t know if you’ve heard of cynical people on the Internet, but they do exist. You know that some adult fans will say, “Oh, they’re going to make it a total kid thing now. It’s going to just be for kids!” What would you say to that, as far as the balance you’re looking to strike?

Orci: I would say that clever wit always makes it something more adult. I think the look of it, you may find, is more kid-friendly. But we certainly don’t intend to be any less entertaining or any less Transformers. But there is a little bit of truth to that. I won’t deny that also, yes, we’re trying to make sure that younger kids who really love Transformers aren’t put off by its intensity.

^ This is important.

Superwheeljack wrote:If they make anything like animated, I'll have to stop collecting transformers for another 4 years, like in 2006.
Make more violent transformers shows. I don't care about family entertainment, there needs to be more shows like prime, where heads go
I may be messed up, but wars are violent. People get their limbs blown off. Make it realistic.

Aaaaaaaand, this right here is exactly why you're not in the business of making children's shows.

If you admit that you're "messed up", then you admit that your ideas are in the wrong.

omega666 wrote:So these 2 are back and they want to dumb the next series down for kids. Great.

How can they "dumb down" what doesn't even exist yet?

hinomars19 wrote:But that's kinda my point, what wasn't/ isn't kid friendly about Prime?

The extreme violence and oversaturation of arbitrary death?

hinomars19 wrote:Yeah, Transformers is for kids, but there is a difference between how TF is usually handled and 'kiddy' shows like rescue bots, right?

I take it you don't watch Rescue Bots at all, do you?

Simply put, it's too intelligently written to be deemed as "kiddy" as most cartoons that are. Lot more sophisticatedly written than something like Spongebob, at least.

Only reason people hate on it is cuz it deviates from the war aspect. Newsflash, people, you do need a war to have good entertainment.

hinomars19 wrote:So a few are over reacting about something that doesn't exist yet. 'Tis the internet. It happens

Sad, but true.

TK415 wrote:Beast Wars and Animated were both very kid friendly and both enjoyable for Adults.

A LOT of people tend to forget that Beast Wars had a TON of jokey moments and slapstick comedy, as well as a lot of charm and heart to it. Anyone who thinks Beast Wars was nothing but hardcore adultness is fooling themselves.

And Animated, well, it is the living embodiment of the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover."

SlyTF1 wrote:Well, this is going to suck... There will probably be no Decepticon wins whatsoever, and every episode will be just as predictable as every episode in TF Prime.

Says the boy who loves the highly kid-friendly Animated cartoon.

njb902 wrote:The one thing I do wish is for them to ditch the cgi. They could take the money spent on the cgi and give us a bigger cast.

Your wish shall be granted.

Metrosuplex wrote:The new cartoon will aim to capture kids like TMNT has, and I , quite frankly, hope it fails.

Baka! If the new TF cartoon is as any bit as good as the current TMNT cartoon, that would frankly be a godsend to the TF brand. That TMNT cartoon is so good it's universally beloved by Turtles fans of all ages.

chaosmage42 wrote:ok upgrade bad feeling to disturbance in the force. Seriously how can any one look at this and say ok we have good tv show has good rating but you know what we should dumb it down to the level of 1980 complexity and make it a really kiddy show -didn't work for toonami won't work here. I would say lower expectations.

Where in this interview does it say that they want to make the new show like a campy 1980's cartoon?

Metrosuplex wrote:

njb902 wrote:
Kids are their real customers.

I expected you to say something a little better than that!

Why do you say kids are the real customer? Is it because Hasbro told you?

Always have been, always will be. That's just the way it is.

The adult customers just make up a fraction of their consumer market. The majority is made up of either kids or parents buying for their kids.

Metrosuplex wrote:

Doc bot wrote:I'm actually happy to hear this. I've lapsed on watching Prime since it's overall pretty boring. I actually don't like this rendition of Optimus. He's very one dimensional and just depressing to watch. He isn't allowed to have fun which I think puts off kids. Animated's Prime was far more interesting since we actually saw character growth and he had more emotion. Don't even get me started on the whole Bumblebee not speaking thing. What a bad idea. He was instantly turned into a minor background character.

Thinking about this topic makes me appreciate Animated more. It balanced kid-friendliness, storytelling, fan service and character development pretty well.

I didn't watch animated so take this with a grain of salt, but.... it sounds like you're complaining that BB and Optimus weren't the stars. Personally, I liked that - one of the only TF series with a focus on OTHER characters. But don't worry: Hasbro's got your back with the BB /Optimus fetish!

For me, it's not because they weren't the stars, it's that they simply were not interesting for the most part. In Animated, both were very fascinating characters full of so much life and energy, but they weren't the stars either. It was a group effort of Optimus, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet, Prowl, and Sari who were all stars equally.

Megatron Wolf wrote:son of a bitch, the hope of finally getting a good TF series has been shot down yet again. Well lets just hope Prime gets a personality this time around and the kids arent annoying. Oh & for the love of god lose the bayformer look. But on another note why do we need a kid friendly transformers, isnt that rescue bots job?

Silly Wolf, TFs are for kids.

TimothyR wrote:are you ____ing kidding me? .. kids are put off by an "intense" cartoon.. are you serious?

there are enough stupid ass annoying kids shows on the air as it is. i think transformers can be geared more towards early teens rather than children.

i bet this will mean some pretty crappy toys.. and who knows.. in the near future you'll only be able to find transformers toys in the fisher price aisle. maybe generations will have one or two pegs.. but other than that. ..

it'll be sad. here's hoping that the movie line spits out some good toys. i'm sure it will. every movie line so far have had a few really great toys.

*sigh*

It's threads like this that seriously make me wish that Transformers: Prime never existed.

"will be more geared toward a younger audience"

Can you get any more "younger" than TF Prime without it being Rescue bots or Animated ???

How about you just give us G1 using the classics line as the animation models with all new stories ? No more sagas, just a full season of 30 minute adventures that aren't really linked to each other so you can watch them in any order. And screw CG graphics ! Go with regular animation so we can get 50 characters instead of 15.

Rated X wrote:"will be more geared toward a younger audience"

Can you get any more "younger" than TF Prime without it being Rescue bots or Animated ???

Uh, yeah.

TF: Prime was barely kid-friendly.

Rated X wrote:How about you just give us G1 using the classics line as the animation models with all new stories ? No more sagas, just a full season of 30 minute adventures that aren't really linked to each other so you can watch them in any order.

In other words, Spongebob with Transformers.

Rated X wrote:And screw CG graphics ! Go with regular animation so we can get 50 characters instead of 15.

Don't worry, 2D animation is a go.

Rescue Bots was a great show, and proved that you could have a great Transformers show without Decepticons. Now, while it was definitely designed to be kid friendly, it had a lot of great moments and I personally, as an adult, found it entertaining.

Just because it's kid friendly, doesn't mean we can't genuinely enjoy it. I suspect the reason we all love this hobby and this brand is because we are experts at channeling our inner child.

I agree with pretty much all of what Sabrblade said. Your never going to get the adult impact, so just give up on "cartoon" shows and read the comics. They actually DO have substance abuse themes (Spotlight: Blurr, if I remember correctly).

The toys probably will suck if they are too kiddish, like animated, but I'm sure Generations will keep us going. We just got Springer and Blitzwing and they're not in any shows. One's based on comic art and the other is pure fan satisfaction.

I, of all people, want a super brutal, gorey (if on earth), violent transformers series or movie that takes all the good from all the shows, and steps it up into this realistic story during the ongoing (main/initial) war between and .
But its just not going to happen. I HOPE we get something thats as good, story wise as animated, coz even though prime was great in a lot of ways, it still had many episodes that felt too commercialized and hollow in general, and was missing the heart that was in both Beast Wars and Animated.

Okay, to those of you who don't think Prime was a bit more on the dark side of the spectrum... what part of Necroscience didn't you get?

Cliffjumper>Reanimated corps war machine

Skyquake>Reanimated Corpse War Machine. Currently roaming a pocket universe and could very well be trashing your house right now. Or what do YOU think that thumping sound is?

Brakedown>Dead. Possessed by a mostly dead human using his dead body as a suit of armor and life support. Can you say Parasite? Human mechsuit used as LIVING test subject, turned into a slavering monster. Also dead. He died twice people!

I loved Prime, because it was willing to toe the line on life and death from a Cybertronian perspective. Will miss that. But, if we can get an extension of Prime that will do something else, then I'm quite excited by that.

megatronus wrote:Rescue Bots was a great show,

"Is". Season 2 is coming this Winter.

MINDVVIPE wrote:The toys probably will suck if they are too kiddish, like animated, but I'm sure Generations will keep us going.

But... but Animated's toys were fantastic. Supremely show-accurate and loaded with articulation and fun features.

MINDVVIPE wrote:I, of all people, want a super brutal, gorey (if on earth), violent transformers series or movie that takes all the good from all the shows, and steps it up into this realistic story during the ongoing (main/initial) war between and .
But its just not going to happen.

You, Sir, have a good head on your shoulders.

MINDVVIPE wrote:I HOPE we get something thats as good, story wise as animated, coz even though prime was great in a lot of ways, it still had many episodes that felt too commercialized and hollow in general, and was missing the heart that was in both Beast Wars and Animated.

You are right, the toys from Animated were pretty amazing, I should know, I own two of them (Oil Slick and Blackarachnia). But I only own those because I could fit them into my classics/generations/realistic-ey TF universe on my shelves. The others are probably too cartoony for the collector who wants the realistic proportions, and is why I said they sucked from that POV.

Too much intensity? Parents go take their kids to see the live action movies. And with all of the ultra violent and blood soaked video games kids under age eight play these days? I have to ask why?


It's great news to hear that it will be some kind of continuation as well as the same style cartoon. In my opinion what made TF Prime as great as it is was the seriousness throughout many parts of the series. While it will probably be a good show, if this new series turns out to be directed more toward a younger audience as they are saying, there's a good chance that the luster of TF Prime/Beast Hunters will be lost. I DON'T WANT TO SEE THAT HAPPEN!

And besides, isn't Rescue Bots around to satisfy the younger audience? Is it not doing well? I think there are people over 18 who watch that for cryin out loud.

But in the end, if it has a good storyline and great characters and isn't RID , Unicron Trilogy , or Animated stupid , I'm happy.

ILL-Star wrote:Too much intensity? Parents go take their kids to see the live action movies.

And from personal consultation with several of those parents, it was something that they regretting doing.

True story, one father noted to me how, "Just once, I'd like to take my kid to see these movies without having to explain to them what 'masterbating' means."

ILL-Star wrote:And besides, isn't Rescue Bots around to satisfy the younger audience?

Yeah, the Kindergarteners. With TF: Prime targeting teenagers and the movies targeting adults, what is there left for the grade schoolers?

ILL-Star wrote: Is it not doing well? I think there are people over 18 who watch that for cryin out loud.

Oh, well, see, for some bizarre reason, Hasbro isn't releasing season 2 until over a YEAR after season 1 ended, so it kinda seems like Hasbro doesn't really care all that much about it, in spite of its critical praise.

ILL-Star wrote:But in the end, if it has a good storyline and great characters and isn't RID , Unicron Trilogy , or Animated stupid , I'm happy.

RiD was fun, Armada had a bad script, Energon had a bad everything, Cybertron was good, and Animated was superior to Prime.

the next series will be more geared toward a younger audience it is not a reboot and it will take place within the Transformers Prime continuity

That already exists it's called Rescue Bots, for a guy who writes about Transformers he sure doesn't know anything about Transformers.

When the writing is good, "child-friendly" does not have to equal "stupid".

Prime has had some pretty solid writing for most of its run, in my opinion, and I don't recall being disappointed by any episode during the entire run. If they can keep most of the creative team as well as the voice cast, then I don't feel there's anything to worry about.

I don't feel like there's any point forming much of an opinion at this point.

I love PRIME, Beast Wars and Beast Machines. While I initially liked Armada, I now find the whole Unicron trilogy and RiD quite tedious. And try as I might, I've never been able to get into Animated (which I find annoying given how much everyone seems to rate it).

This new series will be whatever it is, and if I don't like it then hopefully I'll be able to do some much needed saving.

Why not go for 3 shows. Rescue Bots for the really young kids, a replacement for Prime for the next age bracket and then something for the older fans that can be darker and intense.

Transformers has the potential to appeal to a wide age range (as we all know) so why not have a proper 45min or hour long show for prime time entertainment?

Ravage XK wrote:Why not go for 3 shows. Rescue Bots for the really young kids, a replacement for Prime for the next age bracket and then something for the older fans that can be darker and intense.

Transformers has the potential to appeal to a wide age range (as we all know) so why not have a proper 45min or hour long show for prime time entertainment?

Somebody could argue that the movies is what Hasbro has for the older fans that like things dark and intense.

Personally I find the movies insulting on a few levels, and I've no shame telling non-Transformers fans that I'll happily watch PRIME over the movies any time of the day.

Sodan-1 wrote:Somebody could argue that the movies is what Hasbro has for the older fans that like things dark and intense.

Personally I find the movies insulting on a few levels, and I've no shame telling non-Transformers fans that I'll happily watch PRIME over the movies any time of the day.

Yes, the films are embarrassing in places. I would also promote Prime over the films to anyone.

leokearon wrote:

the next series will be more geared toward a younger audience it is not a reboot and it will take place within the Transformers Prime continuity

That already exists it's called Rescue Bots, for a guy who writes about Transformers he sure doesn't know anything about Transformers.

I would trust the guy who produces the movies, TF Prime, and Rescue Bots over some random guy who posts comments on a fan site.

leokearon wrote:

the next series will be more geared toward a younger audience it is not a reboot and it will take place within the Transformers Prime continuity

That already exists it's called Rescue Bots, for a guy who writes about Transformers he sure doesn't know anything about Transformers.

There are four age groups to consider here: Little kids, big kids, teenagers, and adults.

Rescue Bots is aimed at the little kids. With Prime having targeted teenagers and the movies adults, what is there that's left for the big kids?

Sabrblade wrote:

Rated X wrote:"will be more geared toward a younger audience"

Can you get any more "younger" than TF Prime without it being Rescue bots or Animated ???

Uh, yeah.

TF: Prime was barely kid-friendly.

Rated X wrote:How about you just give us G1 using the classics line as the animation models with all new stories ? No more sagas, just a full season of 30 minute adventures that aren't really linked to each other so you can watch them in any order.

In other words, Spongebob with Transformers.

Rated X wrote:And screw CG graphics ! Go with regular animation so we can get 50 characters instead of 15.

Don't worry, 2D animation is a go.

TF Prime was very kid oriented in my opinion. I’m old school and don’t judge it by today’s parents standards. If you’re one of those new wave parents who censors everything your kids watch just because it’s not the care bears, then maybe it’s not kid oriented. Society’s changed so much in 30 years, parents these days have ruined the joy of being a kid.

No actually it would make it more like the G1 cartoon. All the cartoons back in the days were like this. GI Joe, He-Man, TMNT, Gargoyles, etc. Every episode doesn’t need to be part of a 3 month saga. It’s not a comic book, it’s a cartoon.

CG graphics cartoons are not all that awesome to me. I didn’t like them in Beast Wars either. It really limits the cartoon especially with characters. CG graphics are great if you are going to drop a 2 hour movie with a 100 million dollar budget. But the cost and time needed outweighs it’s value in a cartoon series in my opinion. Call me 2D if you want, but maybe my lack of interest in CG graphics stems from the fact that I don’t like or care about today’s video games either. Give me NES or Super Nintendo and I’m good. Once again, I’m old school. I don’t need no damn CG graphics. Give me 100 characters in regular animation instead.