Own the rights?
18 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :- "Autobots, transform and roll out!", 4 August 2000 Author: Figaro-8 (greyfigaro@hotmail.com) from Columbia, SC
Ah, what a gem this was and still is! Sixteen years later, this series still has not lost its sparkle. This is due to the obvious care that was put into this production. Kudos to the animators for successfully animating a slew of WAY cool transforming robots (which, I am sure, is not very easy to do). Kudos to one of the best voice casts ever assembled for a production for bringing the characters wonderfully to life. (The cast list reads like a miniature "Who's Who" among voice artists.) Special thanks must go to Frank Welker, who brought Megatron (among other characters) wonderfully to life. And then, of course, there was the Autobot leader who became so beloved by kids everywhere that he rose to the status of genuine icon for many a child: OPTIMUS PRIME. Now, I liked "Beast Wars" and thought that Gary Chalk was good as Optimus Primal, but the one TRUE voice of the REAL Optimus Prime will ALWAYS belong to Peter Cullen. They could not have gotten (nor will ever get) a person so perfect for the role as him. He brought both gentle warmth and fearless commanding to Prime, and those traits are what made him last, in my opinion. Here's hoping the series will continue to do the same.
26 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :- Roll for it!! Again and again! and again and again and again, 19 August 2002 Author: Will Lau from Canada
Transformers is the greatest cartoon show ever made. The toys were outstanding. It makes the cartoons of today look like trash. The first seasons of Tranformers were the pinnacle of childrens entertainment, with supercool characters and awesome well built toys. Even the toys make the toys of today look like garbage. The toys hand a lot of die-casted parts. The cartoon had a good straight-forward plot. Everything went well until the movie where they killed all the best autobots and subsequently killed the transformers, afterwards the show was never the same and the toys started becoming all cheap plastic with simple designs. But the glorydays overshadow the dark. Transformers will forever be immortalized in the hearts of millions.10/10
8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :- Adult oriented as well as child oriented, 6 November 2000 Author: davideo-2 from United Kingdom
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsGolly gosh,is Transformers really nearly 20 years old?This timeless celebration of colourful good machines versus bad machines is a piece of genius.I was channelsurfing today,and saw this on one of the channels.It was an episode I remember called The Revenge Of Bruticus.That holds your attention as well now as it did when you were a young kid.In fact,strangely enough,it almost seems better caught up in the pretentiousness of adult life.I would be very happy if they made a big hollywood blockbuster movie adaptation of the series,even though this would contradict my movie laws no end.Maybe the heartless marketing moguls at hollywood should leave this old classic alone,and let it stand the test of time in it's current posistion.*****
15 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :- car-robots, 17 February 2004 Author: IrockGswift (IrockGswift@aol.com) from east orange, new jersey
This is one of the most popular cartoons of the 80s. It was original and not follow the trend of Hanna-Barbera's copycat mysteries/adventure cartoons a decade earlier. Automobiles that become robot fighting machines,producers couldn't be more creative then that. It was all action which us kids grow into after watching Superfriends or Spiderman and the amazing friends. I remember collecting some of the action figures then giving them away after they became out-dated. Though still a classic and one of the best cartoons of that generation.
7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :- Cartoon classic, 18 October 2005 Author: movieman_kev from United States
Along with "G.I. Joe", this was my one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. It deals with Optimus Prime and his Autobots in their never-ending battle with the evil Decepticons. Yes, the show was a commercial for the unending line of toys, trading cards, and other merchandise, but it was the best commercial EVER in my mind. The adventures were thrilling and I couldn't wait to watch it every day. The show was greatness personified until after the movie. Everything that came afterwords only tainted the memory more and more. Armada being the pinnacle of ass. However watching anything before the movie still remains pure gold and instantly takes me back to my wonderful childhood in the glorious '80's.My Grade: A
11 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :- The best cartoon of the eighties!, 3 July 2000 Author: Op_Prime from Ardmore, PA
Cartoons like Voltron and Thundercats are good by their standards, but Transformers blows them all away. Like it's follow ups, Beast Wars & Beast Machines, this show was designed to sell toys. But Transformers and the future series are much better them some people say. The reason the show ended in the first place is because sales for the toys dropped a lot, so the show was cancelled along with the comics. It's the classic good versus evil show. All the characters are great, especially Optimus Prime. Transformers is a number 1 show.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Smart Children's Series that hooked this former 8 and 9 year old, 30 December 2001 Author: Bats_Breath from Phoenix, AZ
Maybey I shouldn't even call this a children's series, because the show was written on a more adult level. One of the reasons for Transformers success was that while it was written for kids and had plenty of corny dialogue, for the most part the series was written on a 13 year old's level. Other '80s cartoons like He-Man, She-Ra, Voltron and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were written on a 6-8 year old's level. It makes a big difference for a shows longevity.Those of us that grew up with Transformers can STILL watch the show into adulthood, while it's harder to watch a show like He-Man when you're all grown up. The '90s had the same mistakes, making the Power Rangers written on a even lower level, probably that of a 4 or 5 year old. But the Transformers having a 13 year old's mentality is what made this show a success. It had well developed characters(for this genre anyway), interesting story arcs, humour and great dialogue.Even now at 26, I thoroughly enjoy Transformers. Heh, I was 8 years old when the toy line came out(before the TV show) and 9 years old when the show premiered in 1984. I watched this series all through elementary school from 4th-6th grade. This series was completely aimed at people my age and/or around my age. It wasn't until the MOVIE came out in 1986 and I was 11 years old that I realized that I was one of "the older fans". I felt the need to mention that, because I realize that many of the Transformers fans are about five or six years younger then me. Not that much of an age difference now I know, but back then it was a big difference. I was born in '75, and during the theater showing of the MOVIE('86), there were indeed plenty of kids my age(10, 11, 12, 13 and even 14) and/or around my age(7, 8, 9) in the theater, but the auditorium was loaded with 3, 4 and 5 year olds who missed the series original run, but were there for the MOVIE. Lots of kids that were born in the '80s most likely missed the shows original run(or ability to truly enjoy them) because they were like 1, 2, 3 or 4 years old when the TV series came out. However they were old enough to see the MOVIE in 1986 because they were then 4, 5, 6 years old......but these guys missed out on the great discussions an 8, 9 and 10 year old can have on the toys(which came out first), well written stories, humour and finely developed characters of Transformers. There are advantages to being one of the "older Transformer fans". :)
8 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :- Loved it when I was a kid, but not without its flaws., 8 July 2005 Author: Aaron1375 from Alabama
Transformers, for me were the coolest toys as you could actually do something with them, hey they transformed. The cartoon was a very good compliment to said toys. It followed the story of the Autobots who were good and the Decepticons who were well not good. They raged most of their battles on earth and the show was at its best during the first season and parts of the second season. The ones that occurred after the movie were pretty good, but then I thought the headmaster and target master miniseries that would mark the end of the Transformers generation one was very weak as it was nothing but one big toy commercial and featured many Transformers that were never introduced before playing a rather large role. My favorite episodes usually involved the Decepticons called Constructicons. Six robots that formed the super robot Devastater. They were my favorite toys as a kid and I actually still have them. The show was not without other problems than just the weak ending. A lot of problems stem from problems with the plot and origins of some of the robots. Apparently, they didn't think a kid could remember how a robot was introduced so they created a new origin. Such as Devastator. Clearly introduced in season one as being created on earth they would in a later episode show them having been on Cybertron and they were good guys no less. Also, it was clearly shown you could make a new transformer on earth, but in later episodes it was shown you had to use a special device to infuse them with personality. Still, the problems were not enough to steer me away from this cool cartoon.
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- My favorite cartoon ever, 4 July 2004 Author: phoenix2rachelsummers from Florida, USA
Words can't even express how passionate I am about "Transformers." The recent DVD releases have let me revisit the entire series, and it's been one of the happiest experiences of my life. I wasn't entirely surprised how clearly I remembered individual bits of certain episodes (rare character appearances, etc.) as I watched them, even though I hadn't seen them in 15 or 20 years.The following are my season-by-season impressions:Season One - In the cold light of retrospect, this is the one that holds up the least well. There are too few characters (or the same ones are spotlighted too often,) the action is generally tame compared to later seasons, and the stories are too campy and repetitive. The one standout episode is the last one, "Heavy Metal War." My guess is that they weren't sure if it would be back next year, and decided to pull out all the stops.Season Two - My sentimental favorite, because it had the best characters (my favorite Autobot was Tracks, my favorite Decepticon was Starscream - yes, he'd been around since Season One, but he was spotlighted more in Season Two,) but the quality level is so uneven it can be frustrating. The first few episodes are basically a continuation of season one, as no new characters are introduced yet, but these include two of the series crown jewels, "Atlantis, Arise" and "The Insecticon Syndrome." Once the new characters started rolling out (pun intended) the episode-to-episode quality still fluctuated, but there were still plenty of keepers.Season Three - Very underrated in my opinion. Yes, it's a shame that a lot of the best characters were either killed off or re-invented in the movie (which I didn't like - it had no story) and that their replacements were a pretty boring bunch (except for Cyclonus.) But the quality of the writing was much more consistent (the five-part season opener, "The Five Faces of Darkness," was everything the movie could have been,) some familiar characters really blossomed (Grimlock was so cool,) and the show had a darker tone and more action, changes which sat well with me (most of my favorites of the earlier episodes were along those lines.)"Rebirth" - The three-part series closer. Too much like an average Season Two episode. The DVD has an excellent interview with writer David Wise, who genially explains why it didn't turn out as well as it could have.My dream come true would be if there were a brand-new series with the Gen 1 characters. I just hope they don't start until I've broken into the industry, so I can write for it.
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye., 27 January 2003 Author: Weyoun_4 from Cuba
One of the best cartoons to come out in the 80's along with G.I. Joe and Visionaries.This story is about two waring Robot factions, The Autobots (the good guys) lead by Optimus Prime, and The Decepticons (the evil nasty pieces of work) lead by the maniacal Megatron.The show starts off with the Autobots leaving their home planet of Cybertron to find a new source of energy to win the war, having depleted their own planet of energy they set off in their space craft (known in the comics and the Beast Wars TV Series as The Ark) to find new sources of energy to help win the war and replenish there own planets energy supplies, but unknown to them The Decepticons already new about their plan and set off to follow them in their own space craft, The Decepticons ambush The Autobots in space and board there ship but the ship is caught in the magnetic pull of earths atmosphere and the ark crashes into a volcano and lies dormant for 4 million years, before an eruption re-activates the ships computer (teletraan I) which rebuilds and reactivates The Transformers giving them Human vehicles designs and the war starts all over again.
Add another comment
