Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images

Posted by william-james88 Dec 29, 2020 at 2:02am CST 109,688 views

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Netflix sent us a whole slew of stills from the first two episodes of Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Earthrise. You can click here to be sent to the full gallery or on any image below. We also have a review of the series.

The gallery features screen captures from the first two episodes of Earthrise. Some of the primary characters featured in the stills are newcomers Mercenary Doubledealer, a Quintesson named Deeseeus, and previous Siege characters Optimus Prime, Megatron, Elita-1, Jetfire and others.

The series comes out tomorrow, December 30th, 2020. Be sure to let us know what you think on our forums.

Transformers News: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images

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Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by D-Maximal_Primal Dec 29, 2020

All I gotta say is: they better not have wasted my boy Doubledealer. He might be the only reason I end up watching this

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Seibertron Dec 29, 2020

Apparently the Quintesson's name is spelled "Deeseeus", according to the credits. I was expecting it to be spelled "Decius" or "Deecius" or something different.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Deadput Dec 29, 2020

morganprime wrote:The designs too look like toys is a huge mistake IMO it has always been the other way around. It just looks like a super serious Toy Story movie with the budget and engineering limitations in the toy design translated to the screen is very visually off putting. WFC, Siege and ER have been some of my favorite TF releases of all time but I can pass on these toons easily.

Since this is the latest post on the subject I just want to chime in and say I don't get this opinion, especially as a criticism of Siege.

For years there were criticisms about toys not looking like their cartoon counterparts, now it's "they look too much like toys".

Literally the only problem that exists on the show models is any 5-mm holes or other gaps which I get could be a bit distracting but honestly if just a few of those were filled up no one would be complaining.

Like take Shockwave's shoulder holes for instance here, if these weren't known as 5 mm holes on the toy people would think it just be detailing if noticed at all.

My opinion on TF shows is that the main toyline should be designed first with the show models taking image after them with a couple changes to streamline them such as filling up gaps/holes and articulating the hands/faces.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Seibertron Dec 29, 2020

I agree with Deadput. The fact that the toys have translated so well on screen speaks volumes about the quality of toys that we're getting these days. My biggest complaints about the WFC cartoon characters is the lack of "eye" emotion, exaggerated lips on some (in particular Megatron and Bumblebee), Megatron's eyes being too close together, Bumblebee's head design, and that the face shields don't move when characters like Optimus Prime talk.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Quantum Surge Dec 29, 2020

I never really had an issue with characters not looking like the toys or toys not looking like the characters. What matters is the execution. While not as bad as Energon and Cybertron, WFC Netflix could have really benefitted from making sleeker models rather than copying-pasting the CAD files. Especially considering this was the same studio that did TFP, which kind of hurts that a TV show made 10 years ago looks better than the one we have today (even if you set aside budget differences and episode counts)

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Deadput Dec 29, 2020

Quantum Surge wrote:I never really had an issue with characters not looking like the toys or toys not looking like the characters. What matters is the execution. While not as bad as Energon and Cybertron, WFC Netflix could have really benefitted from making sleeker models rather than copying-pasting the CAD files. Especially considering this was the same studio that did TFP, which kind of hurts that a TV show made 10 years ago looks better than the one we have today (even if you set aside budget differences and episode counts)

You can't just "set aside" the budget, you can only create something as good as budget allows.

Siege is a webseries not a proper tv show it's not even fair to compare the show to Prime. (although Prime at the same time was a show so restricted and brought down by it's budget that Earth looks lifeless and deserted the majority of the time, call me crazy but I think the environments shown in this series looks at least a tad more interesting even if it takes place in a Warzone that should be devoid of life.)

In my opinion besides some execution on the frame rate I think this show actually looks better then Rid-2015 and the Cyberverse cartoon, and I don't mean this as in the "designs" look better or anything, I'm talking about the lighting amongst other effects, with the smaller episode count the show looks pretty good in still images for example.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by D-Maximal_Primal Dec 29, 2020

Deadput wrote:Siege is a webseries not a proper tv show it's not even fair to compare the show

I want to pull this specifically out because of another Netflix original series that has aired and is airing a new season around the same time as the TFs: Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous.

Similar platform as a Netflix original show. Similar setup with seasons of 8 x 22 minute episodes. I would estimate a similar budget, considering both have running toylines with collector and kid oriented materials, and both have a sort of equal footing on live action films and games. difference is, this is the FIRST Jurassic park related TV series ever.

And that show was fantastic! Animation was ace. the characters were for the most part interesting, well designed, and the voice acting was great. Plot was good and the story rode out pretty dang well and made for a great story with lots of good stuff for a 2nd season. And it did this as a standalone while also being a great piece set within the actual events of the film universe.

And it did all of this while both being a "for all ages" series and also having some intense and pretty dark moments to it despite not advertising itself as such. People got eaten in the show. They even showed a kid falling to his "death". They showed a dino blown up and burned/scarred up close and with the painful animal noises that would accompany that.

Camp Cretaceous marketed itself differently than WFC did, but it essentially sort of fit the same bill and was DRASTICALLY better than it. It really says something when we are at the point where I would say, in the approximately last decade of TF TV show fiction, Cyberverse season 3 was the best on-screen fiction and the FIRST EVER Jurassic Park-associated TV show did a far better job in every area than the "adult-oriented huge tv show event" TF WFC show did.

To me, it's like Jurassic Park looked at what things like The Mandalorian were doing right and very well and used that rough sketch to make their own great content, while in TFs we looked at Prime Wars and decided to try it again with a larger visual production budget.

To me, it's obvious something about TFs is wrong when The Mandalorian, Camp Cretaceous, and even the Harley Quinn series are far better and significantly more enjoyable.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by o.supreme Dec 29, 2020

As with all things, that is also a matter of opinion. I found the Camp Cretaceous series to be quite "dumb" in the area of writing, as it seemed to try to play down the intelligence of it's target audience which was obviously children, despite the apparent danger they were often put in. I'm not saying it was totaly awful, but it was closer to the Kong Animated series, also on Netflix for me (which also is not great), in terms of sheer entertainment value then anything else. I mean I know I am not in the majority, but I found Siege far more entertaining than RiD15 or Cyberverse. I have no desire to revisit either of those series, but I have watched Siege a few times (in both English & Japanese), and will occasionally watch again.

I will say CC had better voice direction than Transformers, but that can be said of most animated series. I've heard 2 overall ideas about Siege which seem to ring true. 1. Most of the voice actors seem to be doing their best "Batman" impersonation, and 2. The script was written like a middle-school term paper, double-spaced just to meet the page-length requirement, thus the reason why the dialogue is so slow in its delivery.

Also, I want to preface this with saying Rotten Tomatoes is not the end-all-be-all for authority on whether something is good or not but... currently Siege has a 95% rating while CC has a 75%.

I've spoken often how it seems to be nearly a decade between Transformers series that are really good. The Budget for Prime was insanely expensive, think Clone Wars, (also animated by Polygon). It shares a place along side BW to be the only other TF show to win awards of any kind. Ultimately however, when you have something so great Hasbro thought it was "too expensive", so they pulled the plug on it, and it's been a downward spiral of budget releases ever since. Evidently they went with Boulder Media as it was less expensive to produce oversees, and you don't have to hire "Union" voice talent (which shows). And while The WFC show is not produced by Boulder Media, you can see that Hasbro is giving only a very minimal budget to work with. Thus non-union voice talent again, and, for what its worth, far better visuals than I expected, especially after the Prime Wars fiasco.

Thus far, the only actor to replace a BW character in fiction is Ron Perlman, and. I know fans would have 100% preferred Gary Chalk, but as stand-ins go it could have been far, far worse. I really do like BW, despite being in College when it was on. However I can't wait to see the adult fanbase who's First TF series was BW lose their minds when they see non-union actors portraying their beloved characters in Kingdom. It is going to be interesting.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Deadput Dec 29, 2020

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:
Deadput wrote:Siege is a webseries not a proper tv show it's not even fair to compare the show

I want to pull this specifically out because of another Netflix original series that has aired and is airing a new season around the same time as the TFs: Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous.

Similar platform as a Netflix original show. Similar setup with seasons of 8 x 22 minute episodes. I would estimate a similar budget, considering both have running toylines with collector and kid oriented materials, and both have a sort of equal footing on live action films and games. difference is, this is the FIRST Jurassic park related TV series ever.

Hey

Pst

Just because their both Netflix doesn't mean they had the same budget or resources.

I don't even think Siege is great or anything, I'm just being fair to the show with the limits it has.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote: the "adult-oriented huge tv show event" TF WFC show did.

You mean simply the adult-oriented netflix show since that's all Siege was ever marketed to be, there was nothing huge about it in the first place, if anything made it "big" that would be self afflicted fan hype which usually does nothing but make shows worse for people due to ridiculous expectations.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:To me, it's obvious something about TFs is wrong when The Mandalorian, Camp Cretaceous, and even the Harley Quinn series are far better and significantly more enjoyable.

And Mando has the gigantic Disney budget and care put into it way more then a children's toy marketing show, which is all Transformers mostly is, good fiction in the franchise has always been the exception.

Because as it is pretty much no one in an executive position considers Transformers to be some amazing franchise IP, rightfully so since it hasn't had any noteworthy milestones since the first few movies and maybe TFP's reception early on in the show before it died out.

Anyways no insult to the Jurassic Park show since I haven't watched it but those character designs are pretty damn uncanny (mostly the eyes), but even looking at a trailer for the show the animation only looks ok, not great or anything.

I watched some of Harley Quinn and it was enjoyable but I dropped it since the humor wasn't for me and started to grate on me. (I also despise the direction Harley Quinn as a character overall has been pushed towards meta-wise compared to her inception, much like most super-hero comic book characters they were at their best earlier on then otherwise.)

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by notsoalex Dec 29, 2020

Seibertron wrote:Apparently the Quintesson's name is spelled "Deeseeus", according to the credits. I was expecting it to be spelled "Decius" or "Deecius" or something different.

deeseeus nuts

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Razorbeast88 Dec 29, 2020

Lmao

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Quantum Surge Dec 29, 2020

Notsoalex did the pun before me...darn that Notsoalex

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by The_Cryptid_Person Dec 30, 2020

Just finished watching the show, here are my thoughts I guess...

As mentioned in the review, all the lines are still... so... painfully... slow. Not to mention how similar many of the voices sounded (especially Scorponok, who was either oddly generic or nigh-unintelligible during crucial exposition). The Quintesson faces laughing felt exceedingly half-hearted and stretched out, too. This team desperately needs a new voice director, or at least a new voice direction.

There were also some serious continuity/technical errors caused, IMO, by the painfully low budget for character models - Scorponok, who apparently isn't even a cybertronian, has a

I think the animators just dropped the toy CAD model, pulled its tail out a bit, applied the included stickers as textures and called it a day. :HEADHURTS:

Also, Megatron had his full battle damage and

in all the flashbacks, though his symbol's a bit more justified since the factions predate the war in this continuity.
Obviously there's the heavy reuse of character models, as seen in the trailer, and many new characters seemed to have poorer quality faces (looking at you, Doubledealer!) or textures (hi Galvatron! All I could think when he showed up was how much BETTER the 2d-animation from 30+ years ago looked than the effects used for him. If his presence wasn't spoiled by the trailers the relatively poor visuals would have been completely overshadowed by his surprising presence and unusually nimoy-sounding voice.) than the returning ones. I think only one new character was shown in more than one mode, and Elita, Wheeljack, and Bee still don't transform to hide their non-siege shame.

That all said, I did enjoy seeing the plot twists, cameos (such as they are), easter eggs, and occasionally baffling character reinterpretations. I'd rewatch this sooner than Siege, for sure. The WFC toy designs were a visual feast for me, and the show certainly made me rethink skipping Doubledealer for a few seconds. It certainly showed off the products it chose to place.

Although... Scorponok was criminally underutilized aside from being a set piece, and the more important characters seemed to literally forget he existed during their more important interactions. The baffling pacing and line deliveries robbed his "origin story" of almost all the thematic weight it should have carried, IMO, and there was NO EXPLANATION for the majority of his actions. The start of Episode 5 suffered from the same problems.

If Dinobot had transformed at the end, even if he was a wierd/lower-poly 'bot like Galvatron, that would have made Kingdom SO much more hype-worthy. Yes, I know every BW character will sound like Batman on Xanax. I resigned myself to it months ago.

Huge thanks to anyone who read all this - let me know if you disagree with my sleep-deprived hot takes

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by D-Maximal_Primal Dec 30, 2020

o.supreme wrote:As with all things, that is also a matter of opinion.

Also, I want to preface this with saying Rotten Tomatoes is not the end-all-be-all for authority on whether something is good or not but... currently Siege has a 95% rating while CC has a 75%.

I am aware of the opinion, but I am also speaking for the Jurassic Park fanbase, which in the past 18 months I've become deeper in. when I saw Camp Cretaceous was very pleasing to that fanbase and casuals, I speak as both a casual Jurassic Park fan and as someone who is involved with that franchise and has friends who are in the hierarchy (so to speak) of that fandom, similar in positions to Seibertron of this site.

I don't take Rotten tomatoes seriously at all. I would guess that Megatron killing Magnus and the first 2 episodes of CC being more "day to day" than "main event" would easily account for that difference.

Deadput wrote:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:
Deadput wrote:Siege is a webseries not a proper tv show it's not even fair to compare the show

I want to pull this specifically out because of another Netflix original series that has aired and is airing a new season around the same time as the TFs: Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous.

Similar platform as a Netflix original show. Similar setup with seasons of 8 x 22 minute episodes. I would estimate a similar budget, considering both have running toylines with collector and kid oriented materials, and both have a sort of equal footing on live action films and games. difference is, this is the FIRST Jurassic park related TV series ever.

Hey

Pst

Just because their both Netflix doesn't mean they had the same budget or resources.

I don't even think Siege is great or anything, I'm just being fair to the show with the limits it has.

No one knows the budget, I was merely making that comparison since they both are in similar positions in fan base, toy lines, and filmography. They could be nearly the same, or maybe CC was given a higher budget, but I am saying that it can be a fairly educated guess that their budget is similar.

Deadput wrote:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote: the "adult-oriented huge tv show event" TF WFC show did.

You mean simply the adult-oriented netflix show since that's all Siege was ever marketed to be, there was nothing huge about it in the first place, if anything made it "big" that would be self afflicted fan hype which usually does nothing but make shows worse for people due to ridiculous expectations.

Considering it was "the transformers Netflix experience" finally bringing TFs to a big streaming service and was hyped for a year and a half during its production, I would hardly call this a "sleeper" release. It even made the main Netflix "coming soon" page for a month prior to its release. Let's be clear: this was meant to be a big deal to TF fans, the "main media" for consumption until they figure out what they're doing with the franchise.

Deadput wrote:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:To me, it's obvious something about TFs is wrong when The Mandalorian, Camp Cretaceous, and even the Harley Quinn series are far better and significantly more enjoyable.

And Mando has the gigantic Disney budget and care put into it way more then a children's toy marketing show, which is all Transformers mostly is, good fiction in the franchise has always been the exception.

Because as it is pretty much no one in an executive position considers Transformers to be some amazing franchise IP, rightfully so since it hasn't had any noteworthy milestones since the first few movies and maybe TFP's reception early on in the show before it died out.

Anyways no insult to the Jurassic Park show since I haven't watched it but those character designs are pretty damn uncanny (mostly the eyes), but even looking at a trailer for the show the animation only looks ok, not great or anything.

I watched some of Harley Quinn and it was enjoyable but I dropped it since the humor wasn't for me and started to grate on me. (I also despise the direction Harley Quinn as a character overall has been pushed towards meta-wise compared to her inception, much like most super-hero comic book characters they were at their best earlier on then otherwise.)

Comparing to Mando might not be the best comparison because of budget, but considering Star Wars was in a bad place last year, with TLJ being hugely divisive, Solo bombing, and then ROS being a disappointment to pretty much everyone, Mando kinda had a hard spot because it was the thing that needed to pick that franchise up and give it a win.

TFs desperately need some fictional wins.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by D-Maximal_Primal Dec 30, 2020

Well, I watched episode 6 (I listened to the podcast and got what I need from 1-5)

I can honestly say, disappointment is real. Not that I had any expectation whatsoever.

The final 15 seconds of the show were better than the entirety of Siege and the rest of Earthrise combined. It gave me some small slim hope of a better Kingdom

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Comment by Burn Dec 30, 2020

Good grief ... shouldn't watch this show when you're getting tired, listening to Megatron will completely put you to sleep, only to be jarred awake by a screeching angry Optimus Prime.

Seriously ... angry Prime's voice just becomes someone else entirely.

Did Jetfire sound like Starscream in Siege? Because he sounded like Starscream this time round and it just didn't work.

The pacing was just terrible. From certain characters just monologuing until the cows come home and then things jumping to compensate for the monologuing it was just badly paced.

The constant re-use of character models was a little annoying. Yeah, I get it saves on the budget but it's just annoying.

So much potential, slight improvement over Siege but but in the end it's still a let down.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by william-james88 Dec 30, 2020

FYI, no need for spoiler tags, the show is out for all to see. This is a discussion thread, please discuss to your heart's content

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Quantum Surge Dec 30, 2020

Well, I guess I can say it was neat to see Doubledealer in a TF cartoon for once if you discount Doubleclouder from Masterforce, and to his credit, he didn't seem as somewhat out of character as Impactor.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Sabrblade Dec 30, 2020

Burn wrote:Did Jetfire sound like Starscream in Siege? Because he sounded like Starscream this time round and it just didn't work.

Yep, same sinister voice.

Re: Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Earthrise cartoon promotional images (view post)

Comment by Sabrblade Dec 30, 2020

Where the first season felt like one decent-length movie needlessly stretched out to accommodate the runtime of six TV episodes, this season instead felt like one long full-length TV season needlessly chopped up and condensed down to just six episodes.

It felt so rushed and yet was somehow still a slog to sit through.

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