Director: Manabu Ono
Studio: Paramount Studios
Release Date: July 22, 2008

To call myself a fan of the Transformers would be given too much weight to the term ‘fan’. Born in the late’70’s and a child of the 80’s, I, like many, was a Hasbro kid, which means I was a kid who was still young enough to make the transition from being a Kenner Kid who graduated to Yo Joe! and Roll Out!. The availability of variety, via the net of media actually reduces saturation, or rather concentration that a child can be exposed to. Consider this, as child of that era played with his Tranformers toy, went inside and watched the cartoon, and then opened up the Marvel comic and many did the same with G.I. Joe; indeed none of my peers that I can remember were not aware of the Transformers as it was a much less specialized market which is why I am still amazed at when looking back that the quality of G1 Transformers cartoon still holds up amazingly well and unlike its Joe counterpart, the Transformers cartoon was actually superior to the comic, so there is some legacy involved.

Let me admit that outside of accidentally watching some episodes of Beast Wars - a couple of which were rather clever, but overall was a tarnish I could have done without - my viewing history of Transformers doesn’t go much beyond the animated film which I still have memories of being so damn cool, as picture this: with everything on the line, Optimus doesn’t bring an army with him to turn the tide of a battle on earth: he brought the Dinobots! That aside, what we are talking about here is Transformers Cybertron: The Ultimate Collection DVD set, and I think my viewing experience will proves to be something that could parallel many others my age in regards to personal viewing pleasure and that of a parent looking at something for a child of today.

First, this - for a new viewer- essentially is a reboot or retelling of the story of the Transformers and one can buy and view this collection and know nothing that has occurred prior to, or perhaps - which most likely is the case - have only the movie (live-action) as a reference and looking for a hybrid/adaptation cartoon for the kids to enjoy. There are the familiar figures of characters like Optimus Prime and Megatron, as well as Starscream who seem for the most part very familiar in demeanor surrounded by facsimiles of previous characters and a dose of new characters as we explore different worlds. The basic gist is that the Transformer’s home planet of Cyberton is in danger of being destroyed by a Black Hole effect that was created with the destruction of Unicron which causes the Transformers to take refuge on Earth and to take up the guises of earth-vehicles (sort of ) to blend in as they look for a way to save their home, which is presented by an ancient Transformer, Vector Prime, who tells them of the need to find the lost Cyber Planet Keys, items or rather artifacts, of ancient power that were part of a past Space Bridge project of their ancestors that if found could stop the aforementioned Black Hole. The show is essentially different quests, be it on earth, or other planets to find these keys by both the Decepticons and Autobots preserving the continuous theme in Transformers that while enemies they are both fighting for, and in fact love their home, a dynamic that always made the Decepticons and particularly Megatron just a bit different from many animated villains, a facet highlighted by instances of team-ups between Prime and Megatron in different adaptations against common causes (the Insecticons come to mind).

As a fan of Generation 1 Transformers, when you start watching this set it is hard not to feel disconcerted , and admittedly you enter the experience ready to condemn and call the effort blasphemous, and getting through the first few episodes was a chore mostly because of the choice of having the Transformers themselves done in CGI while everything else is standard animation and simply getting your head wrapped around that this is no longer your Transformers. What helps this set is the sheer amount of material; there are a lot of episodes and thus Transformers Cybertron starts, albeit it slowly, creating its own space. This is four seasons of material, fifty-plus episodes, and the farther I got along, the more and more I felt myself allowing the series…truthfully I want to say exist but more appropriately to legitimately hold my attention. The use of CGI starts to morph from oddity tom something you convince yourself actually highlights the intrusion or contrast of the presence of giant alien robots in the setting we are familiar with, and you actually start wondering where it’s all going knowing that there is such a body of material ahead of you. To (partially) offset a monotony to the adventures, you do explore plenty of environments, be it different locales on earth: deserts, Atlantis, etc as well as different worlds in search for the cyber keys, from places dubbed Speed World and Jungle Planet and more than a healthy dose of naming that deal with greek mythology from Hyperborea (which also means something to SF/F heads) , Ogygia, and even a Stranger in a Strange Land reference.

The presence of three human children (Lori, Bud, and Coby) who aid the Autobots add the element of connectivity and to kids and simulated interaction, as they aptly play the role of the human contact. Their role is sometimes forced, and often begs the questions of how they explain their presence in these events around regular life (because they are young kids), but serves a role and to the shows credit you see an attempt to every now and then offer a glimpse of their families to attempt to answer these questions on some level and to act as an offering to wondering adults. They also serve as the ‘and now you know” element in the show which is rather heavy-handed throughout for me, but I would view as a plus to me in the presence of young kids that we already hadn’t lost to pseudo-angst, thought it is not exclusive to them as the Autobots frequently take moments to point out a moral. If anything truly could be labeled as a continued annoyance, it is the tendency for every time a weapon is used ,the Autobot of Decepticon has to announce it and its name, usually after Transforming (which also tends to be announced) and certainly worst of all, the use of the cyber keys to ‘power-up’ Transformers that always force us to watch (several times an episodes) a Transformer essentially calling upon the power of Greyskull, all of which are cut scenes that amount to take any fluidity away from the what would otherwise would and should be the coolest parts of an episode. It kind of goes against the lesson of Macross, that while could be accused of being overly dramatic at times (what I would call awesome) when it’s time to battle you got to let loose and let it be fluid - in this regard Transformer Cybertron gets in its own way and actually instances of action turn out to be great times to leave the room to refill a drink. There are odd allowances one has to get over that have to be overlooked for even kids to enjoy the series, and that is that Optimus Prime, who in all incarnations is supposed to be the greatest of leaders of a technologically advanced race of beings comes off as tactful and intelligent as an average child and thus what you have is a show that continually battles itself as it has a story to tell but can never maximize that story by having to be i aware that six year olds are watching it, and what you don’t want is a show that is so caught in the middle that you have young children asking how is Optimus not noticeably more knowledgeable than the human kids in the show (not to mention themselves) - and I realize this is supposed to be empowering and to cement a place for the kids in the show who act like avatars for kids watching, but the presence of humans featured in just about all forms of Transformers have always in my view been a detraction excluding maybe Spike, who just because of age allowed for much of what occurs with trio in this series to be more of a non-factor. With further thought, however, you realize this is not so much different from previous shows as the Autobots have always been just ‘dumb enough’ to not in fact be evil, and the Decepticon, for all the examples that show Megatron as being a badass always are just quick enough to call a retreat to not win.

Among the amount of sizeable product mentioned in this set you will find no special features. A fan of such extras in specific movies, I’m not at all sure what could have been included that could have proven interesting to me, which may indeed be the fault in itself.

The obvious violence that would be implied between combative factions of warring giant robots aside, Transformers Cybertron turns out to be collection that I can’t deny would be an awfully nice little show for very young children, that eventually becomes more than bearable to parents - though completely unwatchable by unsheltered teens - having to watch to with them and at a nice price point as this is a rather immense volume of work that represents - I think - real value in terms of hours-per-dollar. This is billed as a loose sequel to previous shows, Transformers Armada and Transformers Energon but if I hadn’t read that elsewhere, I would have never known, as this DVD set functions extremely well on its own and as noted earlier, is for all intents and purposes is its own mythos. One that I can appreciate equally for existing as being separate from the true Golden Age of both Autobots and Decepticons, represented by my Transformers - where Walther p38’s and microcassette players are still cool.

View/Post Comments

Buy it now at Amazon!

Related Entries

Topics: Animation, Manabu Ono, Paramount Studios, Transformers, Transformers Cybertron: The Ultimate Collection