posted
Gee, with character names like "Bobby Bolivia", it's bound to with Oscar gold.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I accidentally changed into a station wagon once. Unfortunately, never a sportscar though. Maybe I should try out for the used car salesman-y guy. But, oh shoot... submissions had to be in by the 12th... crap.
posted
(Sigh)I heard this shit on TrekToday and I couldn't believe it. I mean Jesus, Transformers? God they don't know what to remake anymore. What next? Thundercats?
BTW, did anyone find it funny that the character of Mahfouz is referred to as a "Bedouin Boy"?
Registered: Feb 2005
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: *sob* I fear this is going to slurp shit through a straw.
--Jonah
I think so too. There have only been two transformer series that I could actually get into. The original animated series and Beasties (Beast Wars) The animation style of the new shows is terrible.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Not just the animation style. The characterisation is ass. I know some of those voice actors. They can do just about anything. But the directors are asking them for such insipid, over-the-top performances. *sigh*
Not to mention adopting the current (well, for the last decase or so) anime trend of describing/declaring their special attacks before making them... usually in a badly exaggerated pose against a spiffy backdrop of shtreaking colours. And what the hell is with them having to tell themselves to transform? *facepalm*
Generation 1, Japanese Headmasters, Beast Wars. That's my "watchable" list.
--Jonah ("Saibaturon Senshi -- Durannsufoomu!")
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Hey... a good thundercats movie would be awesome. Watching a sexy, spotted Cheetara going all Matrix on someone... And I'd love to see what they could do with the Sword of Omens.
quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: Not just the animation style. The characterisation is ass. I know some of those voice actors. They can do just about anything. But the directors are asking them for such insipid, over-the-top performances. *sigh*
I agree completely on this one - any of the current shows from "Robots in Disguise" onwards (Armada, Energon, Cybertron) are unwatchable. Okay so it's a cartoon with giant robots in - I'm not going into it expecting Shakespeare - but the dialogue is nonsense. Characters shout at one another, finish off sentences with rubbish...it all comes off as if it's been badly translated. In addition half of the robots sound like they've just been pulled off a beach in California somewhere. Duuuuuuude, it's Megatron! Bogus!
quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: Not to mention adopting the current (well, for the last decase or so) anime trend of describing/declaring their special attacks before making them... usually in a badly exaggerated pose against a spiffy backdrop of shtreaking colours. And what the hell is with them having to tell themselves to transform? *facepalm*
I liked the explanation they gave in Beast Wars for telling themselves to transform with the whole maximise/terrorise bit - activation codes for their onboard computers. Makes sense that the transformation sequence would be automatic and not handled consciously by the Transformers - they would let dedicated systems handle all that, leaving them free to fight. Well at least it helps bridge the gap anyway!
quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: Generation 1, Japanese Headmasters, Beast Wars. That's my "watchable" list.
I would add Beast Machines to that one - okay it did have the occasional anime streaking background, but it was a show that tried some original things and was, IMO, unfairly treated by some fans just for trying to buck expecations a little. Plus the whole Tankor thing was cool.
As for the movie...I hope it's going to be good. You have to go some to top Orson Welles turning into a planet.
-------------------- Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
I haven't seen some of the Transformers series since they first aired, but if we're giving our opinions of them, here come mine...
Generation 1 - Haven't seen most of G1 since I was a kid, and haven't been able to afford any of the DVDs except for the movie. But... It's G1 people. Nothing but good childhood memories here.
Beast Wars - Easily the best Transformers series, hands down. Excellent characterization with the focus on a smaller cast, and Mainframe's excellent visuals still hold up pretty well. And I dare anyone to tell me that "Code of Hero" doesn't rank up amongst the best death scenes ever.
Beast Machines - For me, the problem with this series was not with the writing. I found the premise interesting, and the whole Tankorr arc was pretty good. It was the visuals that really made this Beast Wars' inferior. The Maximals just looked hidious in both beast and bot forms. And they morphed. In fact, I think a lot of us actually took to hoping Megatron would win. And the technoorganic trees? Blech.
Robots in Disguise - I didn't have a whole lot of expectations for this one, and maybe that colored my later memories of this, but I didn't consider it to be the low point of Transformers. Certainly a huge step down from what came before, but worse would come later.
Armada - I had huge expectations for this one; after all, Cartoon Network was collaborating with Japan on this one. Unfortunately, the first half of this series was Transformers doing Pokemon. The second half of the series massively improved, and it got to bordering on decent.
Energon - Started out about as strong as Armada ended. Unfortunately, it took what it had going for it and then promptly threw it out the window. The best example of this was the character of Demolisher. Demolisher was a one-dimensional Decepticon goon in Armada, but started out well in Energon by having him conflicted about rejoining Megatron. What's this? Characterization? We'll fix that! Let's erase his memory and make him one-dimensional again! By the time the series was almost over and Cartoon Network had moved it to a horrid early morning timeslot, I had no desire to watch it whatsoever.
Cybertron - Ugh. It's like they took everything that made Armada so bad in the beginning and made it worse. This is the low point of Transformers to me. I can't even stand to watch an entire episode of it.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
I liked the explosions in Beast Machines, they were pretty neat. Also the evil flying guy, I forget his name. Jet Strike or Jet Dry or something like that, had some amusing comments once in a while.
Anything after that was just BLECH! I hated the way they moved. They were herky-jerky and pieces clipping through each other like a badly designed video game.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Beast Machines just made me ache. Cybertron looked so damn boring. OP spent most of the series contemplating his navel, and came out of it in time to trigger Cybertron's transformation into a techn-organic planet. WTF?
Beast Wars had a lot of cool characters, dialogue, and stories, but the CG left me a little meh.
If you can somehow acquire a copy of the Japanese Headmasters series, I highly recommend it. It was the first thing done after the movie, when G1 had ended here, so it didn't suck. The suckage came later when the Japanese had forgotten what Transformers was all about. And it's more than just another dairobo series.
Headmasters gave us another female Autobot -- Minerva. We got to see that Wheeljack had survived. Rocimus was actually leading, and not being a whiny bitch about how he sucked compared to Optimus...
TF: Victory was also pretty good, but you can see the beginning of what was to follow here.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
OP had a navel in BM? I always thought he looked like the bastard child of E.T. and a gorilla...
The early seasons of BW were pretty shoddy CG wise. But they got a lot better near the end.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Duuuuuuude, it's Megatron! Bogus!
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