Firstly, I hope you all had an awesome Christmahanakwanzaka, full of holiday cheer!

I had a great Christmas! Got to relax at home with family (and NOT be at work or school, yaaaay), and received many wonderful gifts. Among them was the huge anthology of Mad Magazine spoofs, and another huge book that delves into the backgrounds of all the major Nicktoons, including Avatar! It's really interesting to see the initial character and concept sketches, plus read about how Avatar came to be.


So, how's about that Transformers Animated, huh? Now that I've seen the opening movie of it, I now have the ability to Pass Judgement. My verdict?

It's...okay. The jury's still out, mostly. I'll have to watch some more of it on Saturdays to get a feel for it. Also, I'm sick of TMNT Fast Forward, so I need a new Saturday morning cartoon. But, based on the episodes I've seen so far, I'll chatter over what I felt worked...and didn't.

WORKED:

~Action scenes were pretty decent. Nothing totally mind blowing, but there were a few spots I winced for characters, or thought, "Smart move!" Overall, I think this series will be pretty decent for fights.

~I love that Starscream's still as dumb as hell, but a much more badass. Like, going in outnumbered five to one? I've never seen Starscream put up such a knock-down, drag-out fight. And doing it with Spongebob as your voice actor? Double points.

~Cree? Nice work voicing Black Arachnia. You make her SEXY, which is mandatory for the She-Spider. Venus is always #1, but you make an AWESOME substitute.

~ I'm not sure how I feel about Megatron's pillow-talk voice, but BOY, is he one tough Mutha'. I can't WAIT till he gets back online again. Also, I like his head design. Go figure.

~ I like that Optimus is a little younger and more inexperienced. Granted, his moments of doubt come at the shittiest times, but I think it makes him more interesting than being Optimus Perfect.

~I did appreciate the Rattrap quote. I just hope they don't make Bumblebee INTO Rattrap.

~Optimus died and resurrected once already. Let's hope that'll get it out of his system for the rest of the series.

~It's not Transformers Energon.


DIDN'T WORK:

~The animation sucks balls. I'm sorry. It does. The designs are so simplistic...they look like CHARACITURES, not the robots themselves. I could forgive this if the animation was good quality; nice, smooth, constant. But it WASN'T. It was choppy and LAZY. The fight scenes were a little better, but if you're going to give me such simple robots, they better move like butter the WHOLE episode. And NONE of that shitty tasmanian devil transformation bullcrap. This is Transformers ANIMATED, I wanna see some animated transforming, damn you! Now, if this was some transformer in the background who we aren't focused on, tasmanian transforming is fine. But Bumblebee was dead center in a huge Leap Of Saving The World, what the SHIT was up with that lazy ass transformation? I'll take regurgitated transformation sequences over that (provided there are no Sailor Scout poses at the end...Jesus...)! And did you see the crowds? Jiggly stick WTF??!! If this is the premier, where I EXPECT to find the animation at its best, that leaves me worried for the rest of the series.

~ David Kaye, I ya, but it might take me a while to get used to Prime sounding like Average Joe with a tin can.

~The humans. ALL of them. Not only are they ugly as sin, they're annoying as hell. But then, when have humans been popular in ANY Transformers series?

~ That Jesus Key needs to GO. Srsly. GTFO.

~ I...I'm WORRIED about the direction of this series. Okay, this Transformers series is in the future. Normally I don't dig the "Let's send 'em to the future LOLOLOL!!!" ploy, but I think it could work for TF. But I'm reading this series will take a...superhero-ish twist. Like, the Autobots are going to be a superhero team. Which kinda defeats the whole point of robots in disguise right? And while the thought of them having HUMAN enemies is totally exciting to me (Could you imagine Transformers pitted up against a Sector Seven ran by a man like Agent Bishop from TMNT 2003? Yikes!), when the villains have names like The Angry Archer (isn't that an Eric Carle book?), I fret.



But BOOTER, you say, how can you bee so snobby and unreasonable? I mean, this IS a kids show! It's not made to please hardcore Transformers fans like you! Why don't you go take a chill pill?

Well, I'm NOT a seven year old, I AM a hardcore TF fan, and of COURSE I'll be worried about a good and loved franchise being dumbed down! I think revamping TF is a great an wonderful idea, but I can't shake some of my reservations about this newest series. The Teen Titan's crew has pulled off some good stuff before, so I have my hopes up.

I guess I'll just have to keep watching.