skywarp-2 wrote:Let's honest fellow G-1 generation fans, who grew up with the first series, like me. Don't you have that similar giddy Xmas feeling about this movie franchise. With Welker, and Cullen on voice over. I've kinda grown to love the Bayformer universe in addition to my beloved G-1..hard to admit. Took 10yrs.but I'll say it. I love bayformers, and especially movie 1-3 Optimus Prime!
I'm not the right age to have grown up
only on the G1 cartoon, but a couple G2 VHS tapes I got from a friend in my younger years did form a sizeable portion of my childhood Transformers consumption, so I'll chime in here with perhaps a somewhat unique viewpoint.
Looking back on the earlier Transformers movies I do appreciate them for what they are. The first movie especially was, all things considered, a fairly good adaptation of the 'bots we love onto the big screen (at least, now that we've seen where it can get to *COUGHLASTKNIGHTCOUGH*, it's definitely fairly good by comparison). The character designs weren't super-faithful to the old ones but they did look and feel like Transformers, and I'll agree with you that Optimus especially had a pretty great design. (That RoTF Leader Prime is still fantastic, even if the arms are a little janky by my unreasonably-high standards!)
Now here's where it gets interesting, though - my appreciation for the first three movies may well be somewhat steeped in nostalgia on top of any actual quality they may have had. I was eight when the first one came out (It was actually my first above-PG movie ever, I was a somewhat sheltered child
) and it left a real impact on me seeing my favorite 'bots up on the big screen, so naturally I'm going to hold it in high regard just on that childhood experience alone. For the next two, doing the math, I'd have been 10 and 12 - so still within that age bracket to feel nostalgic for them (even only 5 or so years down the line). So I guess, rather than simply calling back to my younger years, having the Bayverse movies be
part of my younger years has given me that (somewhat guilty) appreciation for them that you describe.
(To stay on topic just a little bit: I don't think I need to say much about my thoughts on TLK other than to mention that after we saw it, my friend and I sat in my car for about 45 minutes and just screamed at the universe in general, but I'm still
really liking a lot of the new toys for this line... those I can find anyway
)