I have watched about 75% of the first DVD of Series 2 Disk 1. It is quite interesting to see that the style of Cartoon changed pretty quickly from the early episodes. It was almost like they had stop motion animation to start with very static scenes and then they moved to a new more fluid style. It is funny that sometimes they get the perspective and proportion really, really wrong.
Pretty good so far. I thought I had most of the Transformers on VHS, however, the majority of episodes were new and interesting which is nice. It would be really good to get Series 1 to get the 'Arrival from Cybertron' episode. Trip down memory lane is not too ruined by the purchase which is great!
I must've overlooked the perspective / proportion issues when I was a kid, as I think a lot of us did at the time. Still, I wouldn't like to try animating some of those transformations. They obviously got tons more money somewhere along the lines: did they do the first few as a pilot type thing on a shoestring budget, perhaps?
You can almost see their thought process when watching it. Some scenes from the episode last night had such simple line and block colour drawings it was amazing. Others had obviously been drawn as still images with a 'Ken Burns' effect on them which were amazingly detailed.
Also yesterday debuted what I would call a classic Transformers sound track. You know, one version for the baddies, one for the good guys. . . . was cool to see it unfold. Maybe I should have bought season 1 first. Damn the fact they only had the first DVD.
What a jip! On Amazon the whole series (1-4) is £72! wtf?!
Transformers DVD website shows a short and pleasant history of the Transformers series. I think there seems to be a lot to discover here, I only owned about 20 episodes (season 2 is about 46!) and I remember the shock when Octimus Prime died in 'The Movie'. . . . I thought that was the end of the film and was quite upset as I recall!
However, me being single... I am very, very tempted, but I don't think I can justify the £72.
Weird how the artwork varies so much within the episodes. Most cartoons go for a pretty consistent approach, except for that Lord of the Rings one where they change styles at random.
Nearly finished this one now. Only Two episodes left! Since Christmas Day though I now have series 1, 3 and 4 to watch! Only the original Transformers Animated Movie left to collect now and then I have the complete package. Might try and get that one over the next couple of days as it has an amazing sound track and cast of voices.
I really like Transformers and Series 2 demonstrates what can happen when something is too successful. The writing, animation and style of the series really started to suffer near the end. That is probably the issue with any series that runs for over 40 episodes. The re-use of animated sequences and rampant addition of robots such as 'The Protectors', 'The Aerialbots', 'The Stunticons' and 'The Combaticons' were really starting to annoy me a bit. The problem with the new robots were the cheap animation in their transformations, they just did not have the same class as the earlier ones. I have just started with Series 1 and it shows up the end of Series 2 by being massively better.
Overall as a series it gets , loosing a star for its weaker ending.
Some episodes get though such as The Key to Vector Sigma and Dinobot Island.
, loosing a star for its weaker ending.
though such as The Key to Vector Sigma and Dinobot Island.