Transformers Prime

Transformers(1984) is still the best of the Transformers shows, but Transformers: Prime even with its faults is one of the better shows in the franchise since then. Bumblebee does have a rather bland personality this time round, Mikko is annoying(the only character in the show who is) and there is some occasional clunkiness in the dialogue for the human characters(though not as goofy in nature as the worst of the live action trilogy films). The animation however is beautifully rendered, it is smooth with beautiful dark colours and shading and the robots look just great. The music is hauntingly moody, and does help in bringing tension when called for, the action sequences especially are very well scored. The dialogue on the most part is meaningful and intelligent which more than makes up for the occasional clunkiness, while the stories are involving, rich in atmosphere and clearly structured, nothing formulaic or dull at all. The action sequences are well-choreographed, intense and compelling, and the show does a good job in maintaining a balance between story and action without one over-shadowing the other. The characters are well developed- especially so later on- and have distinct and mostly likable personalities, Optimus and Megatron are the most memorable but brownie points also for Knockout, who's very funny, and Jack, the most identifiable of the human characters. And of course the voice acting is superb from all, Jeffrey Coombs, Kevin Michael Richardson, Daran Noris and Steve Blum are very dynamic and Peter Cullen and Frank Welker are without equal as Optimus and Megatron. All in all, a very good show if not as great as Transformers(1984), which is and probably always will be the pinnacle of the franchise. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I find this series to be a great take on the Transformers universe. Both Autobot's and Decepticon's are greatly equal in strength, and it has a more realistic atmosphere with being darker than the previous Universes.

The voice acting is done wonderfully, and it's great to see Peter and Frank in their original roles. Something that G1 never had was the power that this one does. Of course, we know being an 80's cartoon for kids, there were obvious set backs for that reason. Some debate on the fact that Prime isn't a kids show, but I believe with the world today, it suits well for children to realise consequence and death, and it's a bonus for us older fans.

Visually, I think this series has it all. Great designs, and great CGI (for a cartoon). The character development is well portrayed, and, of course, they link back to their original 80's personalities.

Overall, I think it's by far the best series up to date, aside from G1--but that's because it's the ultimate classic.

Transformers returns to the CGI world with TRANSFORMERS: PRIME, the first completely computer animated series since Beast Machines. At first sight, they might bear some resemblance to their live action counterparts and having Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman as writer sure does perpetuate that perception. But free from Michael Bay's creative control, the pair turn in what is easily one of the darker and more coherent story lines in Transformers animation history.

How dark is dark? Well how about having a hero gruesomely murdered within the first five minutes of the show. It is THAT dark. The premise is simple though: The Autobots arrive on Earth in the eternal search for Energon with the Decepticons following behind. Years of peace are suddenly shattered when the Autobot Cliffjumper is abducted and killed. While out to avenge their comrade, The Autobot team consisting of Optimus Prime, Arcee, Ratchet, Bulkhead and Bumblebee discover a clandestine Decepticon plot involving the mysterious "Dark energon" and the return of the dreaded Decepticon leader, Megatron.

With a smaller cast, we get a more focused character driven narrative and more room for development. The entire 26 episode season 1 is split into a few sweeping story arcs balanced with character centered episodes in between. It is a nice balance that few animated series seem to appreciate; shows that the characters are just as important as the story, and not just an excuse to sell toys. The Autobots are a combination of typical superhero team archetypes; fearless leader Optimus, action girl Arcee, gentle giant Bulkhead, and such. But over the course of the season, we get a glimpse into each of their personalities' different layers; a look at the bot within. Incidentally, the Decepticons come across as more interesting than the Autobots thanks to the hidden agendas of not just the compulsive backstabber Starscream, but every other decepticon from Soundwave to Airachnid have their own little moments of depth.

Giving life to these well written characters is an all star voice cast featuring popular voice actors like Steve Blum (Starscream), Jeffery Combs (Rachet) and Daran Norris (Knock out) along with returning fan favorites like Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who reprise their famous roles of Optimus and Megatron. Of particular note is the inclusion of Hollywood stars like Kevin Michael Richardson (Bulkhead), Gina Torres (Airachnid), Adam Baldwin (Breakdown), Clancy Brown (Silas) and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Cliffjumper)!

Of course, like all transformers shows, we have the mandatory human kids caught in the crossfire: Miko Nakadai, Rafael Esquivel and Jack Darby, . Now, human characters have always served the purpose of being an "audience vehicle", allowing the viewer to relate to and see themselves in the place of the human characters. Jack, Miko and Raf clearly represent the show's intended target audience: a smart but likable teen, hyper active fan-girl and little genius nerd boy respectively. But the writing never allows the humans to "steal the screen" from the Transformers themselves (something the live action movies are notorious for).Taking a leaf out of its predecessor "Transformers Animated", the humans in TRANSFORMERS: PRIME become naturally integral to the plot rather than a hindrance or a distraction.

The TRANSFORMERS themselves remain the stars of the show. You can even see it in how much attention to detail the animation studio, Polygon Pictures, pays to the robots. By the way, Polygon pictures is the Japanese CGI studio responsible for the computer generated scenes in works such as "Sky crawlers", as well as the opening cinematics of Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5.

Reflections in shiny surfaces, dirt specks, chipped paint, scrapes and scratches. These ARE mechanical soldiers fighting a constant war, and it shows. Whenever they move, fight or transform you can see gears, pistons and other parts moving too. Design wise, they may take some getting used to at first, but the unique look of these Transformers combine the mechanical realism of the live action movies with the almost human yet inhuman "anatomy" of previous animated series.

It is a look that works. A shame the same cannot be said for the human characters or some of the backgrounds. The humans vary from passable in most scenes to downright clunky looking in others.

Their hair look like plastic clumps at times, their clothing lack any folds; They look only slightly better than the designs in Clone Wars. As for the backgrounds, they are inconsistently rendered with the quality varying from episode to episode.

With dynamic action sequences, complete with breath taking camera angles and even slow motion, TRANSFORMERS: PRIME definitely has all the markings of a high budget production, almost movie-like at times. A rousing score by movie composer Brian Tyler sure helps that impression. A shame that the little slip ups in quality mar what could have been the most beautifully animated CGI series of the past decade.

What we have here in TRANSFORMERS PRIME is a franchise that finally learns from its past missteps and combines the best elements of all previous Transformers show. The superb voice acting and characterisation from Generation 1, The intense action of the animated movie, Focused character driven narratives of Beast Wars, Darker tone and sense of peril from Beast Machines Galactic scale conflicts of the Unicorn trilogy And likable human characters of Transformers: animated. All of this expressed with above average technical competency, barring the occasional inconsistency in quality. True to its name, this is the Transformers brand at its prime. A new milestone that future productions would be hard pressed to top

Firstly I grew up with the Transformers series (namely Armada, Cydertron, BeastMachines (I didn't manage to see Beast Wars),a little of the G1 series and Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001)) and the movies more or less broke my heart .Granted when I was 14, I though that were good, but when did a teenage had a fully formed sense of taste and as a adult,I think of then a a disgrace to the Mythology of the Robots in Disguise!

And then I hit by accident more or less this series and I am "for real?" ,then I watch it and my next take was "Why didn't the films have the quality of this series?". The series had great animation, nice voice cast (Megatron and Optimus amazing) ,the story arc of each character either Cybertronian or Human is handle in a pretty mature way of a kids television series. I am not making fun of you guys (ok , maybe there are girls also, but lets be real 90% of everyone reading this review is surely a male) at times you forget that this is series about robots battling out, which by the way is fantastic when it happens. I have to admit this one is if not the best Transformers series ,then it is easily in the top 3.

This quality at the same time fills me with joy and anger for years before, the feature films could be so good, they had bigger budget and the best technology at the time, but no Micheal Bay and Paramount made them in to the abomination they are today :(. Despite I manage to remind myself that it isn't the technology, the budget or the names in the project that made it great , it is something smaller and yet so significant attention the the characters, a good story and understanding what you can do with both of that.

Over all if you also feel betrayed from the movies or you have kids or both then watch with them these Transformer, 100% certain that you will enjoy it.

Quite admittedly I had never been a Transformers fan until recently. I often tried the original series when I was a kid but I always found it too childish, even as a kid. I preferred G I JOE. The concept of transformers always interested me but I never actually found a cartoon that did justice to the franchise. The movies rekindled my interest but they were far from great. Too much emphasis was given to the human characters to go with other problems. In Transformers: Prime I have finally found something that I had always wished Transformers to be.

The basic mood of this series perfectly suits Transformers. It's serious but has enough humor. It has a dark feel to it which seems to be a missing ingredient of all previous Transformers series.

The picture quality is amazing. The robots look fantastic and the humans look fairly good too. The background quality does vary a bit from episode to episode but even the minimum level is very good. The camera work is excellent.

The writing is generally very good as well although there are times when it feels a little stretched out. The dialog is impressive.

The musical score is excellent and that really helps the mood and tension of any scene. Transformers is meant to be epic. That is exactly what the music reflects. At times the power of the music is such that if you get involved enough it will take you places.

But the true strength of this series is the characters. Every single character has incredible depth and development, and you can really feel that every character is unique. The bad guys are always more interesting but here you'll also come to love the good guys because you'll feel that you really know them and get to ride along in their emotional journey. The writers did not throw cheap characters by the hundreds but instead carefully chose a few and decided to make them complete.

I would go as far as to say that the quality of the show is wasted on young viewers who would probably struggle to realize just how good it is, but enjoy it all the same. This is art, not just entertainment for kids.

If you will ever love Transformers then this is it. Even if you never liked it before give it a try. You might just fall in love with it.