Transformers Animated is an American animated television series based on the Transformers toy line. The series debuted on The Cartoon Network on December 26, 2007 and has been shown on NickToons in the UK since March 2008. It is produced by Cartoon Network Studios and animated by Japanese animation studios. Thus far, one 90-minute movie and 39 additional episodes have been released over three seasons.[2] The European Jetix began to air the series on October 11, 2008.
The show's continuity is separate from any other previous Transformers series, despite using footage from the first series (The Transformers) in its first episode as a historical film.
[edit] Synopsis
Five Autobots (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Prowl, and Bulkhead) find the fabled Allspark only to become a part of the long-lasting battle between the Autobots and their enemies, the evil Decepticons. A space battle ends up stranding the Autobots in mid-21st century Detroit where they take on roles akin to that of superheroes, fighting both Decepticons and human supervillains.
The story takes place in Detroit, and the Transfomers' battle is renewed in this future city on Earth. Instead of being known as the Motor City, it has now become the Robot City due to Dr. Isaac Sumdac's non-alien robotic creations. Sari Sumdac, his 8-year-old daughter, is the main human character that the Autobots saved when they landed on Earth.
[edit] Season 1
In the first season, Megatron's disembodied head was revived, and worked with Issac Sumdac, under the guise of an Autobot, to rebuild his body. This usually involved incidents such as the creation of the Dinobots and Soundwave. Finally, the Decepticons Lugnut and Blitzwing manage to revive Megatron with Sari's stolen key. Megatron killed Starscream and fought the Autobots, a battle that ended with Issac Sumdac captured and the AllSpark seemingly destroyed (fragments!)
[edit] Season 2
In the second season, the Autobot Elite Guard (consisting of Ultra Magnus, Sentinel Prime, and Jazz) came to Earth to retrieve the AllSpark, only to learn of its destruction. When they were about to take the earth-bound Autobots back to Cybertron, Starscream was resurrected, and proved to the Elite Guard of the Decepticon activity on the planet, as well as the remaining fragments ofthe AllSpark. Throughout the season, the Autobots continued to retrieve fragments of the AllSpark, and all the while meeting new friends and foes. Meanwhile, the Decepticons continued to construct a Space Bridge to reach Cybertron, and by the end of the season, completed it. The ensuing battle resulted in Megatron and Starscream's head imobile in space, and the loss of Autobots Blurr and Omega Supreme (who was revealed to be the Autobot ship). Meanwhile, Sari discovers she does not have any proof that she is Sumdac's daughter or even if she exists, so she was evicted from Sumdac Tower and ended up living with the Autobots. At the end of the season, Sari eventually discovers she isn't just a human, but a robot.
[edit] Season 3
In the third season, Decepticons are battling the Autobots for control of Space Bridges everywhere, hoping to join in Megatron's planned invasion from last season. Megatron and Starscream are soon freed from the depths of space and manage to take control of Omega Supreme. It is meanwile revealed that Sari is a techno-organic being created from Issac Sumdac's DNA and a protoform ("basic frame" of a Cybertronian), but only after Sari drains the Key of its powers when she upgrades herself into a teenage body. Megatron and Starscream come to Earth and attempt to kill the Autobots, only to end up on an endless random warping cycle.
Issac Sumdac and Bulkhead continued to work on a Space Bridge, whilst the fugitive Wasp comes to Earth for revenge on Bumblebee. Wasp escapes, and Shockwave is revealed to be a spy to the whole of Cybertron. Shockwave escapes with Ultra Magnus' hammer, and leaves behind a mortally wounded Ultra Magnus. Sentinel Prime, who had come to Earth to catch Wasp, returns to Cybertron with the captured Lugnut, Blitzwing, Swindle, and two Starscream clones, but Lugnut and Swindle escape, and Lugnut finds Megatron, Starscream, and Omega Supreme. Shockwave brings them Arcee (who contains Omega's activation codes), and soon three clones of Omega Supreme are created, in Lugnut's likeness. The final battle results in the deaths of Prowl and Starscream, and Megatron is captured and brought to Cybertron by the Autobots, who are hailed as heroes upon arrival.
[edit] Characters
The main transformers are Optimus Prime, Prowl, Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, Blitzwing, and Lugnut. The Optimus Prime of this series is much younger than previous incarnations. Professor Isaac Sumdac, Sari Sumdac, and Captain Fanzone are the humans or (as the Autobots call them) "organics".[3]
[edit] Locations
- Detroit: The Autobots and Decepticons end up here, and the battle of good against evil is renewed in this future city on Earth.
- Sumdac Tower: The largest tower in Detroit where Isaac Sumdac designs and tests his robot creations, which was also the resting place of Megatron's severed head before he was revived. Its appearance is that of a giant spark plug.
- Abandoned Automobile Plant: The current headquarters of the Autobots as it was unused property of Sumdac's.
- Fossil Fuels: The city's oil refinery, its logo is homeage to Sludge.
- Dinobot Island: Small isolated island in middle of Lake Erie where the Dinobots are living. It is also the location of Meltdown's laboratory.
- Carbon Mines: The site far from Detroit where Megatron's body ended up. During Season 2, Megatron uses it as his base of operation because the carbon protects him and his forces from detection. The Mines are later destroyed during the "A Bridge Too Close" 2-parter.
- The Autobot Ship: The Autobots' ship, crippled by the Decepticon's attack and crash-landed in Lake Erie. Its main computer system has a female-voiced persona known as Teletraan I, which is the same name of the Autobot computer system in Generation 1 (G1). When Blitzwing and Lugnut arrived on Earth to search for Megatron and the Allspark, Ratchet and Sari used its (previously deactivated) weapon systems to battle the Decepticons. In part two of "Megatron Rising", the ship flew again, only to be shot down and crash into the crater mountainside of Dinobot Island (similar to the crash of the Autobot ship in G1). The emergency shuttle stored inside the ship was destroyed by Starscream in the episode "A Fistful of Energon". In "A Bridge Too Close" Pt. 2, it was revealed to be the vehicle form of Omega Supreme.
- The Decepticons' Warship: Megatron's flagship, which dwarfs The Autobot Ship in size and carried the stolen protoforms. On the verge of destruction, it was abandoned by all of the Decepticons except Starscream. He managed to survive and pilot its remains for fifty years until he eventually homed in on the Allspark on Earth. The ship later crash-landed on the moon. It still remained there, acting as Starscream's base of operations and holding his decoy army, until Megatron had parts of it torn down to build his Omega Supreme clones.
- Lockdown's Ship: A ship that is outfitted with hologram projectors to disguise it, and very powerful scanners. Lockdown travels the galaxy in this ship, and he stores many of his hunting trophies on board.
- The Cybertron Elite Guard's Ship: Similar to the ship of Optimus Prime's crew, only larger and light blue in color, Ultra Magnus and his team landed with this ship in Detroit. As of "Mission Accomplished", the ship and its crew has returned to space again to aid the other Autobots across the galaxy.
- Cybertron: home planet of the Transformers. It is usually seen in flashbacks. The planet made its first ever live appearance in the episode "Transwarped".
- The Metroplex: The Autobots' central headquarters on Cybertron, and the chambers to The Autobot High Council.
- Fortress Maximus: The Elite Guard's base on Cybertron.
[edit] Production
The series is animated by Japanese animation studios MOOK DLE, The Answer Studio (the Japanese studio that animated Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!), and Studio 4°C.
Formerly known by the working title Transformers: Heroes, its new simplified title was designed to specifically distinguish it from the live-action film released in July 2007, months before the first episode aired.[2] The series is distributed internationally by Entertainment Rights. [4]
The show's supervising director is Matt Youngberg (Teen Titans, The Batman) [5], with Cartoon Network vice-president Sam Register as executive producer and Vincent Aniceto as line producer. Additionally, Beast Machines writer Marty Isenberg returned as the head writer for this series.[citation needed] Art director/lead character designer Derrick Wyatt (Teen Titans, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Legion of Super Heroes) created the “brand new look” that this series introduces.
The first episode was due to be screened in full on November 3–4, 2007 at the NTFA Mini-Con, a Transformers convention in Arlöv, Sweden, but US toymaker Hasbro pulled their approval of the screening of the full episode. The episode had to be cut down to the first 11 minutes.[6][7]
After the series's normal run began in January 2008, the first two seasons were aired nearly back-to-back, creating nearly a year-long delay in between the second and third seasons. The long-awaited final season finally premiered in both the United States and Canada on March 14, 2009 with a 90-minute (three episode) special. After a lack of communication and much speculation, it was officially announced at BotCon 2009 that the series was over, at least in a televised format.
David Kaye, who voiced Megatron during Beast Wars, Beast Machines and the Unicron Trilogy, now voices Optimus Prime, Grimlock, Lugnut, Highbrow, Cliffjumper, Warpath, the human Sparkplug, and the News and Security Bots.[8] Kaye said that most of the characters outside the core cast (Prime, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Prowl, Ratchet) will be single-episode cameo appearances.
Corey Burton, who voiced Shockwave and Spike Witwicky from the original series, reprises them along with providing the voice of Ratchet, Megatron, Ironhide and Cyrus "The Colossus" Rhodes in this show.[9]
Tom Kenny voices Starscream, Scrapper, Waspinator, Jetfire, Skywarp, Sunstorm, Thundercracker, the Liar Starscream, Rattletrap, Professor Isaac Sumdac, Tutor Bot, the Burger Bot robot, and an unnamed commercial announcer and cop.[10]
Tara Strong voices a girl named Sari Sumdac, one of the supporting human characters, as well as Red Alert, Strika, Slipstream, Teletraan I, Mayor Edsel's Aide, Daniel, Carly, Slo-Mo, and the Receptionist Bot.[11]
Jeff Glen Bennett as Prowl, Ultra Magnus, Soundwave, Mixmaster, Grandus, Captain Fanzone, Angry Archer, and the Condiment Bot[12]
Other cast members and guest stars include:
- Susan Blu as Arcee, Flareup[13]
- Townsend Coleman as Sentinel Prime, Tracks and the News Bot[14]
- Bill Fagerbakke as Bulkhead, Hotshot, and Master Disaster[15]
- Lance Henriksen as Lockdown[16]
- Phil LaMarr as Jazz, Oil Slick, Omega Supreme and Jetstorm[17]
- John Mariano as Dirt Boss[18]
- John Moschitta, Jr. as Blurr[19]
- Judd Nelson as Rodimus[20]
- Alexander Polinsky as Henry Masterson/Headmaster
- Brian Posehn as Nino Sexton/Nanosec
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Omega Supreme (Season 2)[21]
- Bumper Robinson as Bumblebee, Blitzwing, Blackout, Porter C. Powell, and a computer voice, news anchor, and worker[22]
- Kath Soucie as Professor Princess and Trisha
- Peter Stormare as Prometheus Black/Meltdown
- Cree Summer as Blackarachnia/Elita-1[23]
- George Takei as Yoketron[24]
- Fred Willard as Swindle[25]
- "Weird Al" Yankovic as Wreck-Gar and a Sumdac employee[26]
Susan Blu and John Moschitta, Jr. played previous incarnations of their characters in The Transformers: The Movie and Seasons 3-4 of the original TV series. Judd Nelson played the incarnation of his character in The Transformers: The Movie. "Weird Al" Yankovic supplied the song "Dare to Be Stupid" for the soundtrack of The The Transformers: The Movie, which played during the scene where the original Wreck-Gar was introduced.
[edit] Home Video Releases
[edit] North America
The North American releases feature full-screen video and stereo sound in both English and Spanish.
- Transform and Roll Out (DVD, June 22, 2008)
- A single DVD containing the feature-length premiere "Transform and Roll Out".
- Also includes the first two unaired shorts, "Career Day" and "Evel Knievel Jump".
- A Target exclusive version came with a second disc containing the follow-up episode "Home Is Where the Spark Is".
- Season One (DVD, August 19 2008)
- A Two-disc set containing the complete first season, from "Home Is Where the Spark Is" to "Megatron Rising Part II".
- Also includes a season 2 "sneak peek" photo gallery.
- Season Two (DVD, Jan 6 2009)
- A Two-disc set containing the entirety of season 2, from "The Elite Guard" to "A Bridge to Close Part II", with audio commentary on selected episodes.
- Also includes the shorts "Starscream Heckles Megatron" and "Explosive Punch" and a photo gallery.
[edit] United Kingdom
Whereas in North America the series was released in complete seasons, the UK instead got several single-disc "volumes" containing four episodes each, also featuring full-screen video, but with audio and subtitles in English and German.
- Transform and Roll Out (DVD, August 4, 2008)
- Contains the feature-length premiere "Transform and Roll Out" and the shorts "Career Day" and "Evel Knievel Jump".
- Volume One: Blast from the Past (DVD, October 20, 2008)
- Contains the episodes "Home Is Where the Spark Is" through to "The Thrill of the Hunt".
- Volume Two: Lost and Found (DVD, June 15, 2009)
- Details yet to be announced.
- Volume Three: Megatron Rising (DVD, June 15, 2009)
- Details yet to be announced.
- Volume Four: Mission Accomplished (DVD, June 15, 2009)
- Details yet to be announced.
[edit] Video game
This is the first Transformers Animated game. Released for the Nintendo DS platform in October 2008.
[edit] Channels
[edit] References
[edit] External links
|
Cartoon Network |
|
| Original Series |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CN Real Live-action Series
|
|
|
|
Upcoming shows
|
|
|
|
| Co-Productions |
|
European
co-productions
|
|
|
|
North American
co-productions
|
|
|
|
| Regions |
|
|
| Made-for-TV films |
|
|
| Games |
|
|
| See also |
|
|
|
Studio 4°C |
|
| Feature Films |
|
|
| Television Series |
|
|
| Original Video Animations |
|
|
| Animated Segments |
|
|
| Video Games |
|
|
| People |
|
|
