Who payed the critics

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

After watching the series all the way through, I can say without a doubt that it isn't as bad as a lot of people say it is. Out of all of the different generations and shows, this is sort of the black sheep. First, while most transformers shows simply focus on the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, this series is more like a superhero show, with a few episodes not featuring a single decepticon. Though the decepticons are by far the most reoccurring villains. Second, Optimus Prime is no longer the wise and experienced supreme leader of the autobots, that honor now belongs to Ultra Magnus. Instead he's a much younger Prime who was kicked out of cybertrons elite guard and put in charge of a repair ship. Third, The animation. The animation, more specifically the character designs, seem to be what most people have a problem with. They were created Derrick J. Wyatt, who's also did the original Teen Titans show. A lot of People Hate how this show looks, though since I grew up watching Teen Titans this art style doesn't bother me. Granted the series isn't perfect, The animation is sub par at points, the writing is a bit too by the numbers at points, the ending feels rushed as the show was on the verge of being canceled, and there are a few loose ends. But if you can look past this, the series is incredibly fun and the most unique transformers show barring maybe Beast Wars.

Im not to old to appreciate the modern graphics and I'l always be a big fan of G1. But I feel the show needs some justice done on how good it is.Its original in its own way but keeps to its G1 roots.I have to admit the first 3 shows didn't sell me on it, I found it a bit childish especially the infamous death scene of yet 'another' optimus prime near death scene.However the episode which sold me on it was the seventh episode "Thrill of the Hunt" with it being dramatic and having great tragedy, and helping to add back story to not one but two well known G1 character's it had more of an adult theme to it but still gave the feel of a message like G1.I've not yet seen all of the episodes but no matter how bad the episodes seem I know that they can produce an episode fit to be called "Transformers" and will continue to watch the entire season and the next.However when you watch it you must not judge it by only G1 and look at it with a clean plate.Id recommend it for children of any age with its humour and active plot line, while some episode would require an older audience to appreciate the scenes shown, its fit for all age groups.

*For anyone who might not know, G1 refers to the original 1984-1986 transformers cartoon series.I'm very glad I checked out this show. From the first moments it is very apparent that Transformers Animated is created by fans of G1 transformers, i was glued to the screen for the first eight episodes, and i'm eagerly waiting for more. In fact this show is so good compared to anything since G1, it should be called Transformers Resurrection! Let me tell you about some of the many good things: It feels right! and is obviously made by fans of G1 transformers and other 80s cartoons. It's entertaining from start to finish. The story has so far been good as it takes so much influence from G1, although it's a new story. The other transformers series after G1 has not been able too keep my attention for more than two minutes.The cartoony style is nice, I love it but fans of a more "serious" style might not like it. The color schemes and the design of the bots are right. All of the robots (even the new ones) have one or more apparent and popular forefathers in G1. e.g. Ratchet = Ratchet with Kup's personality (old grumpy war hero). Prowl is obviously inspired by Kickback. Bulkhead reminds strongly of Hound etc. Optimus Prime here is a less whining version of Rodimus Prime (which in my humble opinion makes for more interesting character development than the original "Ronald Reagan" Optimus Prime).The voices sounds very G1, and some of the voices are brilliant. Megatron's voice is convincing and starscream sounds like he used to do. He has got his screechy voice (and is plotting against megatron too). Ratchet's Kup voice is cool. One nice thing is that they have the original transformation sound and even starscreams lasers sound a lot like before.It's great they built on the idea that the autobots are repair-bots, "ordinary people" who has to fight the decepticons, who are big and scary war-machines. It makes the autobots look even more heroic fighting a superior enemy.One great thing is that the Decepticons are both humorous and wicked evil. (Maybe they got that idea from the excellent 2002 Masters of the Universe cartoon). They also fight amongst each other. I can't stop laughing when thinking of blitzwing talking with a German accent. (He's actually got three faces/voices). A funny Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation, a generally crazy voice and one talking in a superior manner like Michael Schumacher.One thing the creators have to be praised about is apparently using Blot as basis for the character Lugnut. That truly shows some in depth understanding about G1 transformers! Me and my pals used to laugh at Blot's idiotic design as kids, some sort of big space-gorilla with cowboy boots!? Haha.The annoying little girl is luckily not very annoying at all. She slightly reminds of the little girl in inspector gadget.The music is also really nice except for the part "in DiSgUiSE!" in the intro, where the lead singer fails terribly in hitting the right note. Unbelievable someone would let that kind of blunder through! There are some not so great things about the show too that should be mentioned: The animation is pretty jerky (as always) and the quality varies quite much from scene to scene and episode to episode. There are too many cartoon "styles" mixed together. The robots look modern though paying homage to their old designs. Some human characters look like they're from inspector gadget although some statist human characters look like they're from MASK, and kids look like some sort of mix between the modern retro 50s look and manga. What a mess! Still it somehow manages to come out balanced and 80s looking enough not to ruin the whole thing.Bumblebee dances a very thin line on being annoying, as in too "hip" and too "cool". However most of the time he's likable.Worst thing to me is that they keep hiding the transformations and when they do show them it usually looks bad. Like they're too hard to draw properly. Sometimes it even looks like they're shapeshifting instead of transforming, and that looks terrible.Overall however Transformers Animated has so many good elements, it comes out as highly enjoyable. I think most people growing up with G1 would enjoy this. To me it was the first truly enjoyable transformers -anything- since G1.

I'll start off by saying I've been an active Transformers fan for years, not someone who watched G1 as a kid and then forgot about TFs until the recent live-action movie came out (In fact, I actually hated the movie, as both a Transformers fan and a fan of movies in general). I'm 22 years old, so I was just a couple of years too late to catch G1 when it first aired (although I now own every episode), and although I had seen a couple of episodes of G1 when it reran as G2, I really became a fan of the franchise with Beast Wars. Since then, I've watched at least some of every TF show, Japanese ones included. Beast Wars (especially the second and third seasons) is my favorite show to date, not because it was the first one I watched, but because the story lines, character development, and voice acting achieved a level of depth, emotion and overall quality which has been unmatched in TF cartoons before or since.With that being said, I was a bit skeptical going into this show. The last few shows left a lot to be desired, and the odd designs for this one were a bit of a departure from traditional Transformers. Still, I did my best to approach this show with an open mind (after all, many people initially dismissed my favorite TF series because of the changes it made to the franchise), and I was pleasantly surprised. The designs, while a bit jarring at first, are something you'll get used to surprisingly fast. The pacing is nice and the voice acting is the best it's been in years (due largely to this being made for American audiences rather than dubbed over from Japanese), especially Starscream. Since Chris Latta's death, nobody has really been able to fill the role well (though considering his excellent work as Cobra Commander in the '90s I've long said that Scott McNeil would do a fine job), until now. Tom Kenney totally nails the Starscream voice, and it's really a shame that the character hasn't been seen since the pilot (though I have little doubt he'll show up again eventually). The script quality varies a bit from episode to episode, but even at its worst it's better than anything we've seen since the Beast era.As good as the show is, it's not without its flaws. The biggest flaw at the moment (keep in mind, it's still fairly early in the show's run) is the villains. Transformers has always been about two warring factions, Autobot vs. Decepticon (or, in the Beast-era, Maximal vs. Predacon/Vehicon). In this show, the Autobots have yet to face more than one 'con at a time (even when the Decepticon ship came in the pilot, Megatron was the only one they actually fought face to face), and half the time their enemy is human. Granted, Megatron is often pulling the strings of whatever enemy they may be facing, but so far the Transformer presence on the villains' side has been severely lacking, which is a shame since the episodes where they fight a Cybertronian enemy (be it a Decepticon or the Dinobots) are clearly the strongest of the bunch. No matter what powers a human enemy may possess, it's sort of hard to make him seem like a significant threat to five giant robots. Hopefully once the Decepticons arrive in force (preferably sooner rather than later), this issue will be remedied. The other major issue with the show is the tone, which skews a bit too much toward the kiddy side. Granted, this is a show intended for kids, and it's certainly no kiddier than the last few shows, but honestly, it's still a valid complaint. The people making this show are clearly aware that adult fans watch the show as well (as evidenced by all the G1 references), and could easily make it a bit more mature without alienating the kids (ie Beast Wars).In conclusion, I encourage you to give this show a chance if you are at all interested, and keep an open mind; you may be pleasantly surprised. Granted, it's not be the best Transformers show ever, but it's far from the worst.