Brandon Inada's Blog

Cartoon Network has a brand new Transformers cartoon debuting next spring titled, simply, Transformers: Animated. 

As you can see, the Transformers have undergone a bit of a redesign.  

Brightly colored and highly stylized, with a simple, clean look and rounded edges, the new designs are sure to appeal to the show’s target audience, the kids that will make up the next generation of die-hard Transformers fans.  

You might have already guessed, judging from the radically different design aesthetic, the new series is completely unrelated to the blockbuster live-action film released this past summer and features updated versions of fan-favorites Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, et al., in an all new storyline that introduces a whole slew of original characters, human and robot alike. 

Story-wise, the producers of Transformers: Animated have a whole new take on the enduring franchise: the heroic Autobots will fight foes other than the evil Decepticons - humans mostly, in superhero-fashion. 

Right.

As expected, the show already has a fair share of detractors, mostly fans of the original series unhappy with the retooled look of their beloved characters as well as the new direction being taken in terms of the continuing storyline.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I never cared for the look of the Transformers in this summer’s box office giant. 

While the visual effects were stunning from a purely technological standpoint, the designs were too busy, too cluttered; my friends and I were unable to follow the onscreen action easily, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only audience member who had a difficult time distinguishing between one character and the next.  

Now while they may not suit everyone’s fancy, at the very least, the superhero-inspired designs pictured above have some personality to them, and individual characters are easily distinguishable, one from the other.  It’s a kid’s cartoon.  That’s how it should be. 

While I’m glad Megatron and the rest of the Decepticons are going to be spared the usual trouncing from one episode to the next traditionally reserved for cartoon villains, I must say that new villains Nanosec - a human on inline skates who uses a whip to aid the Decepticons - and The Angry Archer – a Robin Hood-themed human villain armed with bows and arrows - do nothing to inspire confidence in the new show’s decision to move away from the Decepticons as the series’ main antagonists.

-

Maybe we’ll see the return of this guy:

THE MECHANIC!

Or how about an episode featuring:

THE CAR WASH OF DOOM!

Tags: Car Wash Of Doom, The Mechanic, Transformers: Animated

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